Your work wardrobe – sorted!

Since returning to work after maternity leave, I’ve become that person who has a ‘work wardrobe’. Previously, I’ve just bought clothes I like and worn them on the days I fancied (“Today is definitely a dress and boots day,” I’d wake up thinking, regardless of whether it was a Tuesday or a Sunday.) But now? I’ll be damned if I’m allowing my nice apricot drape jacket get covered in baby snot, or my floral kimono to become misshapen from being tugged on constantly by a little hand.

Although now I have a new worry – how should I be dressing for the office now that I’m making the effort to buy smarter ‘work clothes’? The thought of buying anything from the office-wear collection in Next makes me feel a bit queasy, but I’m realistic about my inability to pull off cocktail-dress-in-the-office-chic.

Polly Vernon has some good tips in her Grazia column:

1. Dress with women colleagues in mind. Make impressing/intimidating/bedazzling/charming the girls your end game. Life’s too short to second guess a male response to any outfit.
2. A sharp blazer is the answer to lots of your problems. Good blazers are as cool and chic as they are eternally appropriate.
3. Wear excellent shoes. Make your feet the focus of your desire to self-express, to rage against the corporate machine.
4. To hell with skirt-suits. Unless you’re cabin crew, that’s a matching two-piece too far in the name of professional advancement.

So with that in mind, I’m going to buy this slimline tux jacket from Topshop and these two-tone court shoes from River Island.

The next issue to deal with is navigating your way around the high street stores, working out what suits you. With sizing being so different from shop to shop, I think it’s fair to say that this is the number one most-hated aspect of shopping. (How many pairs of jeans does one woman have to try on – feeling fat/ugly/out of proportion along the way – before finding the pair that she wants to buy?)

Stylist Lisa Talbot (www.lisatalbot.co.uk) says, ‘Please ignore the size labels and go for the cut of the clothes to suit your body shape. If you wear a size too small, the garment will be tight fitting and will actually make you look a size bigger than you are. If you wear a size too big, the garment will drown you, your body shape will be lost and you will, again, look a size bigger than you actually are.’ Rather amazingly, Lisa has compiled a list for Not another mummy blog? of how the biggest high street stores cut their clothes, to give us a helping hand:

Oasis – Cuts as per their sizing labels
Karen Millen – Cuts with corsetry so you may need to go up a size
Ted Baker – Cuts on the small side in some garments, so you may need to go up a size
French Connection – Cuts as per their sizing labels in most cases but also cuts on the small side in some garments, so you may need to go up a size
Warehouse – Cuts as per their sizing labels
Top Shop – Cuts as per their sizing labels in most cases but also cuts on the small side in some garments, so you may need to go up a size
H & M – Cuts as per their sizing labels, some garments this season have come up on the big side so you may need to go down
Zara – Renowned for cutting on the small side in their trousers but not in most tops
River Island – Cuts as per their sizing labels
M & S – In most cases I feel they cut either as per their sizing labels but they do also cut on the larger side
Monsoon – Cuts as per their sizing labels, some garments this season have come up on the big side so you may need to go down
Wallis – Cuts in the larger side so you may well need to go down a size
Phase 8 and Fenwright Manson – Cuts as per their sizing labels
Ralf Lauren – Cuts on the small side in some garments, so you may need to go up a size
LK Bennet – Cuts on the small side in some garments, so you may need to go up a size
Primark – Cuts as per their sizing labels in most cases but also cuts on the small side in some garments, so you may need to go up a size
Jaegar – Cuts as per their sizing labels, some garments this season have come up on the big side so you may need to go down
Hobbs – Cuts as per their sizing labels
Whistles – Cuts as per their sizing labels in most cases but also cuts on the small side in some garments, so you may need to go up a size
Dorothy Perkins – Cuts as per their sizing labels