What is the dress equivalent of jeans? Looking for some understated everyday ones that I can just put on and forget about like with jeans. Needs to have some sort of sleeves and a defined waist, no low necklines, hemlines just below the knee (midi?) that mean I don't have to keep either tugging them down or hoiking them up. Nothing skintight or voluminous. No loud prints or sweaty manmade fibres. Something I can just put on and rush across town to do the school/nursery run in while feeling nice but practical.
Seasalt are very nearly right (really well made, good lengths, usually have decent necklines, some kind of defined waist and and some kind of sleeve) but I find them typically a bit droopy in the cut (maybe better on a taller, straighter figure than mine) and the prints are sometimes a bit twee for my taste. Fat Face have better prints but are often a bit too mini, too maxi, too fussy (the dreaded puffed sleeves etc), or too polyester! Is there a slightly less droopy but equally practical and well-made equivalent to Seasalt? I had a lovely, really pretty but understated knee length tea dress from Monsoon a few years ago (cotton, subtle non-twee sprig floral print, short sleeves, button-up shirt front, defined waist) but it's wearing out and I could really do with a replacement.