Dressing the Mothers of the Bride and Groom — Not a Problem

Dressing the Mothers of the Bride and Groom — Not a Problem

The mothers of the bride and groom have the most demanding dressing challenge of anyone at a wedding. They need to look wonderful — but not more wonderful than the bride. They need to be appropriately dressed — but not dowdy or so appropriately that they disappear into the background. They need to be comfortable enough to last from the early morning preparations to the last dance. And they need to look good not just in the photographs they know are being taken, but in the ones they don't — from behind, at an angle, caught mid-conversation, walking up the aisle with everyone watching.

That last requirement is the one no one mentions and everyone feels. Most occasion dressing is designed for the front view. The neckline, the bodice, the skirt — all of it conceived for the moment of arrival, the posed photograph, the face-on encounter. Turn around, and the picture is frequently rather less considered. An ugly zip. A stretched panel seam. An expanse of fabric that does nothing in particular. The back view is all too often an afterthought.

An EdNerat coat is not an afterthought from any angle. We consider the backs of our coats as much as we do the fronts. Our A-line, Cocoon, Trapeze and Hourglass coats have specific shaping at the back to ensure drape and structure where it's needed. Shape is created by the cut, not the wearer. The drape and the fall of the fabric do the hard work so the wearer doesn't have to. There are no bad angles. There is no moment when the coat stops performing.

There is also the question of fit. The mothers of the bride and groom are, statistically, the people at the wedding for whom standard sizing is least likely to work. They are older. Their shapes have changed in the ways that shapes do over time. They may have fuller busts or wider hips, a gentle bump at the waist. They may have spent years making do with approximate fits because the alternative — bespoke tailoring — felt like too much trouble or too much expense for everyday life. A wedding is not everyday life. It is the occasion on which fit matters most and is most often got wrong.

At EdNerat we make occasionwear coats for exactly these women. We cut many of our patterns twice — once for a smaller cup size, once for a fuller one — because we know that a coat that fits beautifully across the shoulders and chest makes everything else look better. We offer fully bespoke sizing as a matter of course, adjusting every measurement until the coat fits the woman rather than the other way around. And we offer a toile service — a calico fitting copy of any coat, shipped to you at home — so that you can be certain of the fit before anything is cut in cloth.

They don't want to steal the thunder. They don't want to wear the same thing as any other guest. They don't want to spend the day worrying about whether they look good or whether they are comfortable or whether the photographs will be kind. They want to walk into the room, know they look wonderful, and get on with the rather more important business of the day.

An EdNerat coat does all of that. From every angle.