I know it's only January, but I would like to make a nomination for the first SCHOOL RUN DRESS of the year

[squeaver]

I bought it today in The Gap. It is their Liberty print dress. It has cap sleeves, a round neck and sits just above the knee.

I cannot find a bloody link anywhere to show you.

I'm going to give it a couple of nights out with black opaques and high patents and a little cardi. Then convert it into daywear in the Summer.

Hurrah!

Really Mrs SB - that's exactly what my life is like

janeite - yes I think that's the one. It's got a nice lining too. I am planning to get a lot of wear out of it!

So if I splurge on the dress, I'll immediately become the loveliness that is Fiona Bruce? In that case, the dress suddenly seems a bargain!

No no no, from what I understand is the school run dress is not glam at all. the original quest was to find one that was just like a surf dress - really a throw on.

Has this kicked off yet?

One to bundle over your head, then you ruffle/smooth your hair depending on style slick on some gloss and waft out the door

Nigella's domestic goddessness; Fiona Bruce's unthreatening braininess; Claudia Schiffer's body...

That is it boys.
SO when you have had sunbathing or "playing in sand" shorts on and an ill judged vest top, you dont show your acres of quivering flsh to an unsuspecting public.

this kind of thing

yes yes it is absolutely not about dressing up to do the school run.

Or this

I think it's supposed to look casually thrown-on but glamorous at the same time IYSWIM.

That Billabong dress is fine if you are 25, a toned size 8 with an all over sun tan and pert norks and it is two weeks before the beginning of the summer holidays...

In January????????????? When you are 40+?????

Oh yes squeaver.
No frills, no length, a dress you could equally wear over a bikini/costume to the beach.

Quite like the secoond one Wizard. A bargain too.

Not everyone here is 40 plus, speak for yourself!

casually-thrown-on-but-glamorous is a great look if you can achieve it but it takes a lot of work

Today I have on a grey silk dress, navy cardigan, casual-but-elegant black suede fur-lined biker boots, a big necklace, and had a black deconstructed wool coat and hat/scarf/gloves. A look that took (frankly) a lot of shopping and thought to achieve....

But we're not talking about January, Anna. I just wanted to be Mrs Smug chops with a very very early contender.

In a parallel universe I write letters to The Times about cuckoos.

Do you think I'm letting the side down then - I do the school run in work trousers with aged-ten-years-on-mdf-hooks-vintage-fleece for October to March and the rest of the time it's work trousers and cardigan-thats-smarter-than-the-one-I-wear-for-gardening. If I have a day off it's the trousers-that-weren't-maternity-wear-but-gave-enough-to-see-me-through and the cardigand-that-I-DO-wear-for-gardening......

Your dress is fine squeaver (and I might just pop to Gap on Champs-Elysées this w/e to check it out ). My comments were about explaining the concept of the school run dress to the uninitiated .

Northerlurker - do you perhaps think that makeover time has arrived?

Oh, I'm not saying that I can achieve it Anna! Just that that's the idea...

You look divine. I can see you from here.

BonsoirAnna have you been drinking?

????????????????