Right. Help me look more grown up

[mippy]

I lurk here, despite not having a single child to my name, as this board is fab. Anyway.

i'm 28 and I want to get out of the wearing T-shirts and jeans to work thing. I like day dresses, but many are too smart for a casual office. I've recently had my hair (bright red) bobbed, which looks much better, but now I feel like I want to update my style too.

Right now, I like striped knitwear, bright coats, vintage-inspired clothing (especially dresses - I love Vivien of Holloway), cardis, cord skirts, merino V-necks and have been trying to get good quality bits and pieces here and there. Yet I'm still looking horribly scruffy.

I am:
5ft 10 with long legs
about a 16, depending on the shop (i will fit Topshop tops but not their jeans; I am sometimes a 14 in Monsoon)
have trouble getting jeans/trousers to actually fit me
like A-line/full skirts
hourglass shape with 36FF boobs (which rules out blouses, shirts, many cuts of dress)
I do not wear heels, though occasionally wedges - I have size 9 feet and am dyspraxic, they just don't mix
very pale and red haired

I do not:
want to look like an old lady though.

you're the same age as me and I work in a fairly small office too - although jeans are banned. We have very different body shapes but I'll tell you the sort of things I wear to work.

For starters - if I want to dress up I will - I don't car if I look too posh, if I feel good then who cares :-D

I tend to wear lots of accessories - I find that helps me feel more dressed. I always wear braclets / earings to match my outfits and in the winter scalves too.

smart dresses can be dressed down with leggings, flat shoes and cardigans so dig out your posh frocks and dress them down.

I've been wearing a mixture of:-
tea dresses with leggings and either flats heals or knee high boots
leggings with tunic type tops or long shirts
maxi dresses with cardigans and denim jacket
chinos rolled up with heals and vest top / shirt

HTH!

Ah, see, I've only learned how good leggings are recently, if only because everything in Topshop is really really short these days.