The dress three women crossed the marquee to ask me about
At 62, I found a dress for a wedding that covers my arms and still turns heads
Six things the Kenza gets right that occasion dresses get wrong, from a woman who is not a fashion writer.
Caroline Richards · Customer · Nottinghamshire · 5 min read
Let me be plain about who is talking. I am Caroline, I am 62, I live in Nottinghamshire, and I have stood in more changing rooms than I can count, hunting for something to wear to a wedding that did not make me feel either mumsy or mutton. So this is not a review. It is a woman who had all but given up on occasion dresses, saying she was wrong.
The one I am writing about is called the Kenza, from Nottingham Boutique, a small boutique that has been quietly dressing women our age for a few years now. I wore it to my niece's wedding in the summer, and three different women asked me about it before the speeches were done. When the boutique asked if they could put my letter up for others to read, I said yes, on the condition I could be completely honest in it.
A long embroidered gown, at my age, for a summer wedding. I know. I thought I would either drown in it or look like the mother of the bride in all the wrong ways. Then I put it on, and it covered the bits I wanted covered and skimmed the rest. Read on.
Here is what a lifetime of weddings taught me. Occasion dresses for women our age come in two piles. The matronly pile, the boxy jacket-and-shell sets in dusky mauve that add ten years and a matching handbag. And the too-young pile, the strapless and the tight and the bare-armed things that are lovely on somebody thirty years younger and leave the rest of us tugging and covering up all afternoon. I had decided there was simply nothing in between that was made for me.
Matronly and safe, or bare and uncomfortable. Those were the two piles at every wedding, and neither of them was me.
The Kenza is the first occasion dress I have owned that is neither, and having worn it to a wedding and felt right in it all day, I can tell you it comes down to six things.
The morning it arrived. I hung it up and could hardly believe the price on the tag.
THE SLEEVES COVER THE ARMS, AND LOOK LOVELY DOING IT
The sleeves are a soft flutter of embroidered mesh that covers the tops of the arms without a jacket, a bolero or a wrap you spend the whole day rearranging. They are delicate rather than dowdy, so my arms are covered and I still feel dressed up rather than covered up. For a summer do, that one thing changes everything.
Soft embroidered sleeves that cover the arms, no bolero required.
The sleeves cover the tops of my arms and look beautiful doing it. No cardigan, no wrap, no fuss.
Christine B., West BridgfordTHE EMBROIDERY MAKES IT LOOK FAR DEARER THAN IT IS
The whole dress is embroidered with little gold and green flowers over a soft mesh, and it catches the light in a way that looks properly expensive. Every person who asked me about it guessed a price three or four times what I actually paid, and I have not corrected a single one of them.
Gold and green embroidery over soft mesh. It looks like it cost a fortune.
Everyone assumed it was designer. The embroidery is gorgeous and looks worth far more than it was.
Margaret E., SouthwellTHE WRAP V-NECK AND WAIST GIVE YOU A SHAPE
It wraps into a soft V at the neck and nips in at the waist with a sash, then falls away long and loose. So there is a proper waist and a proper shape, but the skirt skims over everything below rather than clinging. Flattering, and without holding my breath through the wedding breakfast.
The waist gives me a shape and the skirt skims everything else. I felt elegant and I could still breathe.
Dorothy S., BeestonIT FLOWS, SO YOU CAN ACTUALLY ENJOY THE DAY
It is light and it pulls straight on, no fighting a zip, no boning digging into your ribs. I sat through a long lunch, stood for the photographs and had a dance in the evening, and the dress moved with me the whole time instead of fighting me. I forgot I was dressed up, in the very best way.
Light, easy to get on, and comfortable from the ceremony to the dance floor. I never once fidgeted.
Pauline H., ArnoldIT IS ELEGANT, NOT MATRONLY
It is a soft sage green, grown-up and pretty rather than the dusky mauve I have been offered at every occasion since I turned fifty. It is elegant and age-appropriate without being the least bit frumpy, which is a needle in a haystack and I know it.
Grown-up and elegant without being frumpy. The sage green is beautiful and so easy to wear.
Eileen T., NewarkIT SEES YOU THROUGH A WHOLE SEASON OF DOS
I have worn it to the wedding, and it is already earmarked for a christening and a rather grand birthday lunch. With the right shoes it does an evening, with flats and a cardigan it does a garden party. It comes in sizes from a small to a 3XL, and for what it costs you could almost buy a dress for each occasion, though you will not need to.
On the wardrobe door, ready for the next do in the diary.
I have worn it to two weddings and a christening already. One dress for the whole summer of dos.
Maureen C., BinghamThe Kenza, against the occasion dresses you have been trying on
You can spend two hundred pounds on a wedding outfit and still feel wrong in it. I know, I have the receipts. Here is the difference, laid out plainly.
Matronly, or far too young
Bare arms, so a jacket on all day
Stiff, boned and uncomfortable
Dusky mauve that adds ten years
Dear, and still not quite right
Elegant and grown-up, never frumpy
Embroidered sleeves that cover the arms
Light and flowing, pulls straight on
A soft, pretty sage green
Looks far dearer than it is
About the price
The Kenza is £34.95 at the moment. It was £70.00.
I will pass on what the boutique told me, which is that they are clearing the summer stock as the season turns, and once it has gone it is gone until next year. Their words, not mine. What I can tell you from my side is that half price is usually where I start asking what is wrong with a thing, and I have found nothing wrong with this one.
And I do not trust perfect scores, so I read the reviews before I ordered. Just over three hundred of them, sitting at 4.2 stars, which sounded like real women rather than robots, so I read on. The same six things I have just walked you through come up in them, over and over, in other women's words.
By the window the morning of the wedding, and still I could not believe the price.
If you have a wedding, a christening or a do of any kind in the diary, and you have made the same weary peace with matronly or bare that I had, this is the dress I would put in your hands myself, while your size is still there. Stop dithering and go and have a look.
Caroline
KENZA | EMBROIDERED FLORAL MAXI DRESS
- Soft embroidered mesh sleeves that cover the arms
- Gold and green floral embroidery that looks expensive
- Wrap V-neck and sash waist for a flattering shape
- Light and flowing, pulls straight on, no zip
- A grown-up, elegant sage green
- UK sizes S to 3XL
- Free UK delivery and 30 day returns
Summer stock clearing now — the middle sizes tend to go first.