Mother of the Bride and Groom Clothing Help - a chat with Josie from The Little Shop on Glenferrie Hill
A glance over the search logs recently showed a great number of visitors to Good Tidings are looking for help finding a Mother of the Bride or Mother of the Groom outfit for an upcoming wedding. To add to the existing Good Tidings articles helping Mothers' of Brides and Grooms choose an appropriate outfit (read here ) and popular special occasion clothing labels (read here ), Good Tidings went straight to a very knowledge source to answer some outstanding questions. The women at The Little Shop on Glenferrie Hill were happy to help. Owner Josie Koukousas answered some of the popular questions floating around from unsure Mothers of the Bride and Groom.
A little history of the woman's wear boutique: The Little Shop on Glenferrie Hill has been helping dress women in special occasion wear for nearly 40 years. The store also sells a wide range of day dresses and daywear and a huge range of spring race wear. The shop caters for women of sizes 8 to 24. Although for many years the shop offered in-house tailoring, their dressmaker retired in mid-2009. Since that change the ladies at The Little Shop now happily pin outfits for customer's own dressmaker to make the alterations after purchase. The shop regularly updates their stock with new and classic styles from local and international designers. The Little Shop is the store's own label, making three piece and two piece suits, and also dresses.
Q. Is there a difference between Mother of the Bride outfits and Mother of the Groom clothing?
A. No
.
Both mothers are important and deserve the same amount of fuss and congratulations. "Without the mothers there would be no bride and groom" so they are both special to the day and should dress accordingly. They should wear a special outfit they like. There is no tradition or specific dress code for one mother over the other. Josie did say it is common for the mothers to discuss what they are both wearing to ensure they don't clash, or wear the same outfit. However wearing the same outfit is not unheard or, with the women admitting they have actually dressed both mothers in the same outfits, even down to the same hat, for a wedding.
Q. Should the Mother of the Bride/Groom wear a hat?
A. It will depend on the wedding. There is no rlue on when or where to wear a hat. If a hat is to be worn it is more commonly worn to a day wedding, a fascinator is more popular for a night wedding. All women agreed it is not common for either mother to wear a hat to a wedding anymore. Little Shop on the Hill does sell hats that match several outfits so you can have a play with hats for your outfit. The hats were more regularly sold during race season than for weddings.
Q. Can a Mother of the Bride/Groom wear pants?
A. Yes. Again the women of The Little Shop all felt that the decision of what to wear - be it a suit and pants, a skirt or a dress - was up to the mother of the bride/groom, her style, the wishes of the bride and the style of the wedding. The ladies regularly help women find the outfit to suit the wedding, rather than to suit some tired expectations of what a Mother of the Bride/Groom should look like. The ladies of The Little Shop had several stories of clients that definitely did not choose outfits that would have appeared in 1950s wedding magazines, but all Mothers of the Bride/Groom left very happy with their choices.
Q. What should a Mother of the Bride/Groom wear to a beach wedding?
A. Floaty and soft were two popular words to describe the recommended outfits for beach weddings. The ladies recommend chiffon as a light and floaty fabric that will keep the mother of the bride/groom cool for the wedding. Again, the woman's style and the wedding theme is also important to take in to account. The Little Shop on Glenferrie Hill has many soft, floaty three piece outfits as well as light dresses with chiffon wraps depending on the formal setting for the beach wedding. You can read more about The Little Shop on Glenferrie Hill's recommendations for spring and summer weddings can be found in their newsletter (read it here ).
Q. Is there a current popular dress label
A. Yes , Nueva, a Canadian label. Also popular currently from their collection is new styles from Sydney labels Armen and B.J.C, also Imoda, Deep Blue and Miss Josephine.
A bit more advice from the ladies of Glenferrie Hill:
There is no traditional "look" for a Mother of the Bride/Groom, and there is no difference between how either mother should dress. Upper most in a Mother of the Bride/Groom's mind when choosing a dress for the special day is for her to find an outfit that makes her feel beautiful, gorgeous and happy.
Also, it is common for the mothers to discuss outfits so they don't clash on the day, or wear the same outfit, (however as the case above shows, sometimes they wear the same outfit for a very coordinated look.)
The Little Shop on Glenferrie Hill is open six days a week, 9am – 5pm.
Selling Mother of the Bride and Groom outfits, special occasion wear, bride's dresses, formal wear, evening wear, day wear and race day wear. They also sell matching bags, hats and accessories. The dresses, blouses, suit size ranges from 8 through to 24.
Visit The Little Shop on Glenferrie Hill website here...
533 - 537 Glenferrie Rd, Hawthorn (cnr Riversdale Rd and Glenferrie Rd). Phone Number: 03 9818 4766.
And to make shopping easier for the mothers, on the other side of Glenferrie Rd, across the intersection is a menswear store selling suits off the rack and made-to-measure suits for the Father of the Bride/Groom.
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