New Look Party Dresses, and How to Pick One Under £30
New Look has been doing the same thing since Tom Singh opened the first shop in Taunton in 1969 on a £5,000 loan from his parents: turn the racks over faster...
New Look has been doing the same thing since Tom Singh opened the first shop in Taunton in 1969 on a £5,000 loan from his parents: turn the racks over faster than anyone else and keep the price low enough that nobody agonises. In December that is either exactly what you want or a trap, depending on how you shop it.
Here is the number that should shape your approach. Of the occasion dresses New Look currently has in stock with us, seven in ten are under £30 and the middle of the range sits around £23. That is not a sale. That is the price.
“At £23 the only real question is whether you will get a second night out of it.”
The colours actually in stock
What the New Look occasion rail is weighted towards this season.
Black
#111111
Dark burgundy
#5C1A2B
Dark green
#1F3B2C
Chocolate
#4A3227
Mink
#B9A597
What New Look is good at in party season
Satin, overwhelmingly. Two thirds of the occasion dresses here are satin of some kind, and the cowl-neck strappy midi is the shape New Look keeps coming back to. It is selling essentially one dress in about nine colours, and that is not a criticism. It is a good dress, it suits most people, and cutting it in a bias slip is the cheapest way to make inexpensive fabric hang like something dearer.
Velvet and sequins are the smaller, louder end. Charlie Colville put both on Country & Town House's party dress round-up, with velvet framed as the way to add texture to an otherwise flat outfit, which is exactly right for a plain black dress you have worn to death. New Look carries both, and at this price you can own a sequin dress without needing it to justify itself for five years. That is the correct way to buy a sequin dress.
Shop it by fabric, not by occasion
Occasion labels are useless at this price because the same dress will do a work party, a birthday and New Year. Fabric is the filter that actually tells you something. Satin for anything with a dress code, velvet when the room is going to be cold, sequins for the night you want to be looked at.
One thing worth flagging, because it cuts against the trend coverage. Country & Town House calls red the colour of the season, and it is everywhere in the editorial round-ups. New Look's occasion rail is not really playing along: what is actually deep in stock here is black, dark burgundy, dark green and chocolate. If your heart is set on a red dress you may be looking at a different brand, and the burgundy is the nearest thing this range does to it.
What to check before you add to basket
Cheap satin shows everything
A bias-cut satin midi at this price clings to whatever is underneath it. Seamless underwear or a slip underneath, every time. It is the single thing that decides whether the dress looks £23 or looks like it cost three times that.
Check the sequin dress is lined
The good ones have a lining so the sequin backing never touches you. The photo will not tell you, so read the description. An unlined sequin dress is a very long evening.
Petite, tall and curve are separate listings
New Look splits its ranges instead of just extending the size run, so the same dress often exists in a petite or tall cut under its own listing. Search the style name before you settle for a hem in the wrong place.
Sort the shoes at the same time
A satin midi lives or dies on the gap between hem and shoe. Heel or boot is a decision to make while you are buying the dress, not at half seven on the night.
The same brief, across other brands
Oasis, Warehouse, Wallis and Yumi are all fishing in the same water at similar money, and one or two of them cut a better sleeve. The whole point of shopping this way is that you can see them side by side instead of opening four tabs.
One practical thing about party ranges generally: they are built to a date rather than to a season. The sequin and velvet end is at its fullest now and gets replaced by spring stock rather than restocked, so a dress you are still thinking about in December is a dress you are probably not getting.