Promoted - please help style me!

[pushmepullyou]

I've just been promoted at work in to a senior management role, which I suppose means I will have to look a bit more like a grown up!

I have absolutely no clue how to achieve this . I currently wear sweater dresses eg from Oasis with leggings and boots, but that's not really going to work as the weather warms up.

It isn't helped by the fact that my skin is quite sensitive and I can't wear wool or tights very often. I also have a toddler and live 10 miles from the nearest dry cleaners so could do with being fairly low maintenance.

I am mid 30s, size 10-12, 5'4 with a blonde bob.

Please help! The only thing I am sure of is that I don't want the Next-type office look of polyester trousers and shirt/blouse. Oh, and I don't/can't iron!

Is there any hope for me at all?

congratulations !

I'm hopeless with clothes, I'm afraid, but I'm sure somebody helpful will be along soon.

bumping...

How do you feel about something like this?

Congratulations on the promotion btw. What field do you work in?

Thanks . It's very exciting but I will be managing a team I'm currently part of so need a bit of a confidence injection!

I work in a very conservative professional environment and for years messed around with mix and match tops and bottoms, most of which weren't sleek enough, before I worked out that the shift dress was my friend.

I used to invest in fairly plain but nice dresses from Hobbs and LK Bennett and then wear nice cardigans and accessories with them for a bit of variety. I know that they are expensive, but you can get them for reasonably decent prices in the sale and they wear really well. Mine were definitely good value for money even though I felt very extravagant buying them in the first place.

Things like this dress are such a good canvas.

Now I know that this barely meets your criteria because (a) these dresses are largely dry clean and (b) you'd need to be able to wear tights but it was soooo easy getting dressed in the morning. Are there no tights you could wear? Sorry, this is probably really unhelpful!

Could you leave your dresses in the office and get changed there? Lots of people in my office do that, if for example they cycle to work.

Ooops, annoying Hobbs website won't show the one I meant, but there are a few to choose from on there - eg the Fitted Ivy Dress and the Glebe Dress.

These tights don't contain nylon - would that help?

I quite like that tethersend, though perhaps a bit more ruffled round the neck than I am used to.

I work, or indeed am now a director of an environmental consultancy. I'm an ecologist by training so am naturally inclined towards scruffiness!

Thanks for the link StepfordWeeblee. I am keener on dresses than trousers and was thinking that shift dresses or similar might be the way to go. Dry cleaning and tights are a bit of an issue. I can get away with them occassionally but probably not every day.

What sort of cardigan would you wear with them? I never seem to get them quite right and end up lookin like my gran!

Ooh they might be worth a try. I can wear the John Lewis velvet ones, but think I would be better with cotton ones.

The Hoobs website looks really good. I've never shopped there before, but might go and have a look tomorrow.

My favourite work cardie was short, neat and fitted. Generally nice fine fabrics, nothing chunky. You can use them to inject a bit of colour too. Things like the essential crew neck cardie and the short cardie on this page are good.

Honestly, Hobbs and LKB are crammed full of stuff for managers/professionals. Even if you don't want to pay their prices it is worth a trip for ideas.

Oooh and smart dress + high heels = power!

Thanks so much . That's me shopping browsing for ideas tomorrow!

Was goign to say dresses too.

They do have issue with the dry clean only, so I have one gorgeous dry clean only one from Austin Reed (in the sale) and this one which is machine washable and fantastic. I have recommended it here before. It's really good and looks much more expensive than it is. It's a good place to start to test out the dress thing.

M&S have some other nice dresses but it is worth going in to see them in the flesh (apart from mine, which I guarantee you is great ) as some are a bit boxy/mumsy in RL. Machine washable and cheap is worth a lot though compared to Hobbs/LK Bennett prices (though I have a couple of things in Hobbs I secretly would love to have)

Having said that, I'm struggling a bit with what to do when it gets too warm for tights myself as I don't have great legs (shape okay but they are beyond pale into marbled effect and I have very dark hair so get very quick attractive stubble look). So not sure what to do about that for myself. If your legs are half decent, we're almost into weather where you could manage without tights if you really can't wear them?

Ah, workwear - my favourite topic!

Congratulations on the promotion. I think a smarter wardrobe is a very good way to go if you're managing a team you used to be part of. I really like dressing more smartly for work these days.

If your'e interested to see, this is the Austin Reed dress which is gorgeous (more purple-y in RL) but sold out in your size.

There's not much left in the sale online but it was sold out online when I bought it from the shop so it's worth a visit to the store if you have one locally (while you're looking Hobbs and LKB too). They have quite a few in the sale which might be interesting but the one I have is wool and getting a bit warm.

I'm toying with the idea of pencil skirts too but then as Stepford said, you have to decide what to wear on top.

Cardis - I have a few (from M&S and Monsoon but not new) which are round neck, very cropped (sit on or just below waist and i would have more cropped if I could) and neat. In bright jewel colours. As it's getting warmer, now I'm also wearing dress with shirt underneath (originally was wearing tailored suit-style shirts but now more thin-material blouse-y type things, problem is I think I need a collar to look right so it's a struggle to find them in the lighter fabrics)

Maybe something like this as cardi in spring? Bit longer than I normally wear but lots of colour choice.

yy Hobbs is the working woman's friend, I lived in Hobbs when I was full time.
Also try jigsaw for more casual but smartish things for dress down days/fridays.
Zara also sometimes has nice office stuff. You can't go wrong with M&S cardis.
Congrats!

This is a bargain

Pah, wrote a long and grateful reply and the computer ate it!

Thank you for the congratulations and the suggestions. I particularly like the Jisaw website - loads of clothes that would be great for the office supplemented with eg Hobbs for client meetings.

My legs aren't bad shapewise, but I do suffer a bit from the dreaded mottling, particularly when it's cold, so needs to be a bit warmer before I share them with the rest of the world!

Although I definitely like the idea of dresses best I might go for a few seperates as well, just for the machine washable tops options - better with yoghurty fingers.

It is the potential mumsyness that has put me off M&S tbh. I have a Whistles trouser suit and suit dress that I got for public inquiry work a couple of years ago and I love both, they're smart but a bit unusual, which is good.

The environment sector isn't known for its sense of style - tends to be either jeans, fleece and gortex, or a kind of asexual black polyester workwear, so I'm keen to avoid both of these. Up until now I've managed by going for a slightly surfy outdoors, but that's not going to work any more (tbh am too old really anyway).

I want to go shopping now now now!!!