Work clothes - Help!

[cheekymonkeythe5th]

I have been offered a new job, to start in a week.

It's the first job since my pregnancy, I just tried on all my work clothes and they look AWFUL - I'm about a stone bigger, and the tummy especially is round and sticks out so that I look like still quite pregnant. The clothes look ridiculous (I'm not exaggerating, there is no way I can wear them).

Can anyone help with recommendations for where to go for new ones?

I don't have a huge budget for this either. I need at least 4/5 different things to wear. The dress code is smart casual, office attire, not a full suit but maybe a jacket.

To give an indication of my sizing, I'm 5' 3'', and have an hourglass figure - an added complication is I have big H cup boobs with a 28" torso as well as short legs. I like dresses/skirts to come to my knee and be a bit conservative, and I'd rather look smart than draw attention. Some shops (Zara for example) seem to make things for taller/thinner people, and some others (Next) tend to look a bit old and frumpy on me (I'm mid-30s but look younger).

I hate shopping too.

Any ideas? - apart from crash dieting...

esprit is not styled for curvy women IMO.

amarmal I'm surprised you say that, as I've verrrryyyyy hourglass (size 10-14 depending on the item, with a 12" difference between waist/hips) and it's one of the few shops where I consistantly find things to suit me!
Brands like Zara tend to be cut for straight up-and-down shapes and I've never found anything to fit me in there at all, but Esprit is my go-to for almost everything. The store layout is also much easier to navigate, IME.

Uniqlo is great for merino knits, I have one jumper and planning to but 2 more. The round neck sits well on me (e-booobs) because its very fine knit. I also have a grey wool wrap skirt that I wear a lot and a silk shirt. The shirt is lovely but I haven't found a single shirt in the 20+ years of having boobs that sits right, and its no different. I am a size 10/small in uniqlo. I saw some nice slinky camis in red herring yesterday that I must look at more closely because I think they would be better under shirts than the vests I have currently.

I can't do high waisted at all, it just looks like a shelf for my boobs.