GUYS do we think this dress is formal enough for a grad ball, or not? i find overly formal dresses really boring..

i've only just found out i'm going to chris's grad ball on the 1st of july, but i've been looking at dresses all week cos i'm going to a wedding at the end f july anywayy. i thought this would do for both but my mum's making me DOUBT

YEAH EXACTLY i reckon i could make it more dressy, i have killer heels which basically outshine everything else anyway

yes yes ok i think you should wear itttt

I am about the last person you'd want to ask for fashion advice...but I can totally see this looking terrific on you.

BLAHHH i'm so rubbish at formal stuff. this is the kind of thing i'd wear going out dancing or whatevs, and i'm pretty reluctant to get something i'll only wear twice. hmmmmmmm

Also, a tophat and a parasol.

Maybe just have Chris wear one of those fake-tux tee shirts. You'll look fantastic by comparison.

OOF okay no the second dress is not particularly MORE formal than the first, and its not nearly as cute :C :C :C

honestly i think with fancy shoes and a nice bracelet or something, the first dress would look fantastico!

I agree with Celisse 100%. I like the black-and-white dress more visually, and the second dress isn't really more formal-looking.

(Repeating previous disclaimer: I am an idiot and should not be trusted at any cost.)

if someone questions it just respond by saying "OH I'M JUST BEING KIRSTY!"

So, like, I'm looking at the link for the second dress and my flaming ass homo co-worker walks by (this is not an insult - he totally is a flaming ass homo) and he's all, like, "Is that a dress?"

"...Yeah>"

Throws hands up, walks away while rolling eyes. "Okaaaaaaay."

Whatever. Like a straight dude can't look at dresses online in the middle of the workday without being weird.

Well, he certainly thinks he's fun.

A blazer with the first dress might do the trick

Looking through TopShop's dress selection, none of them are particularly formal. There were a few, but when i clicked through and saw them on the mannequin, they were WAY too short. Eeks!

http://www.topshop.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?beginIndex=20&viewAllFlag=false&catalogId=19551&storeId=12556&categoryId=151405&parent_category_rn=42344&productId=1217629&langId=-1

I think that's definitely weddingish. But not a very exciting dress. It could probably be worn to the grad ball thing too, with a sweater/jacket/something.

ALTHOUGH I'm really not the best person to be making these kinds of statements. I don't dress fancily very often. But I'm really bored right now.

I think you could wear the first one you posted though, the black&white. It is really cute and rewearable. Maybe for the wedding wear some colored accessories or somethinnnng, to make it more...festive?/summery.

Given the parameters you want, I kind of like this one: http://tinyurl.com/l8k74e

Guess it depends what colour you want to go with your heels, of course.

moose elaine: argh, i know! everything's super short right now, definitely. and yeah, topshop only really turns out fancy dresses in the winter for christmas parties and stuff, i would've thought it'd have more potential for summer events but not this year, it seems.

I tried :D

you DID, -j, and i love that you did! thank you to eeveryone for your help so far.

ahhh jubles i was hoping you'd weigh in! yeah, i think if i can find the miss selfridge one in the shop it might be a winner, it'd probably be the easiest to accessorise with as well. i wanna go and check all of these out NOW but i must wait til saturday.

also, river island is disgusting, i thought it might have got better since the last time i checked but NO

(also purple one is my favourite so far for sure-- i really, really like the stripey one but i think the others you could dress up a bit more)

BUT IT'S SO CUUUTE.

i dunno- i feel i can at least speak for the wedding aspect and say that i could wear any of them to that, because a. i'm not going to all of it and b. i worked at weddings and functions for 2 years and i'd say only very occasionally did younger girls wear anything more formal than that. the grad ball is more of a mystery, but i think all but the first could work for that depending on accessories.