Cost of evening dress?

Another vote for EBay here. I have 3 in my wardrobe bought for around £20 each. Worn infrequently so will not have to be replaced for years.

Not quite what you have asked for, but have you considered wearing good black trousers with evening tops? For the price of one posh frock you could get at least two nice evening tops and dress them up with pretty jewellery. A friend goes on lots of cruises and she says it cuts down on the packing and she can ring the changes. Just a idea.

I've just been looking at the Wallis petite range for my works do. They have some lovely dresses reduced in the black Friday sale.

Oh Abbeygran good that you know you’ll have a few occasions to wear it. I think the suggestions here have been good - TKMaxx, eBay, charity shops. Some evening dresses can be quite long - some shops (?Next, Wallis) do Petite ranges. You could get a fairly plain one colour dress, then several accessories to ring the changes, especially for the cruise - glitzy shawls, jewellery, etc.
Good luck!

Im 5.4, size 16. I’m on the pale side with strawberry blonde shoulder length hair. I have DH’s works do at Christmas and a cruise in the new year, so I could wear the same dress twice - if HRH Catherine can do it, so can the rest of us?!

Try tkmaxx!

I got a black evening dress in Debenhams January sale. I wore it to the formal evening on the cruise DH and I had in the summer.
Some of these dresses are reasonably priced. I have a full length lace dress bought from them a while ago.

You may well have a designer outlet or better yet, a 2nd hand clothes shop, selling pre worn designer clothes. Ours has excellent once worn 'formal' dresses and outfits.

I ve never bought or worn a ball gown but my friend is delighted with a black velvet one she just bought at a charity shop Well worth a try

Abbeygran - how much do you want to pay? How tall / what size are you (roughly)? Style of dress? Will you wear it again? Try to sell it later?

Try looking online. I bought two for a cruise. One cost £145 which was more than I wanted to pay. The other in the sale £39. I prefer the cheaper one, feel more elegant.

Debenhams! My girls get many of their ball/prom dresses there. As well as the usual suspects such as Phase Eight, they have their own brands, too.

Thanks Grans, some great ideas there, I’d not thought I’d Debenhams or eBay!

Believe it or not the " Chanel " clothes on ebay have some fab ones---designer ones for less than the £200 quoted above. I very often look on there for bargains.

Kaleidoscope online.

Have you tried Debenhams? I really like shopping there.

Try your local charity shop. It is where all the once worn evening dresses end up.

I particularly recommend charity shops in wealthy areas. I do classes in a wealthy suburb of Oxford and I have seen the most wonderful evening dresses there. Much better than even the pretty good clothes in the charity shops in my local town.

Charity shops often have them.

Sorry just reread OP and you have tried Next. Have you looked on line?

Ebay, ebay, ebay. I have 3 super evening dresses. Each cost about £20. Just be careful and discerning.

I was in the same boat last year. Managed to borrow one off a friend.
Charity shops are worth a try too!

Next have lots of evening/cocktail dresses at reasonable prices.