Dress It Up This Spring!

Whether you are dressing for the office, the cocktail hour, the Sunday brunch, the Mediterranean cruise, the graduation or the backyard barbecue – dropping a dress is the easiest and most fashionable solution! It’s once and done…as simple as that!

I can’t tell you how often I hear working women say, “My favorite office uniform is a dress, as it requires very little planning.” So true, and a perfectly minimalist way of dressing. The recipe is as basic as underwear, hosiery or not, a dress, a pair of shoes and some accessories – drop the mic – you are dressed!

The pros are many, let’s list a few.

  1. It’s only one hanger in your jammed closet.
  2. It’s only one item to get dry cleaned (as opposed to a pant/blouse/jacket combo).
  3. You can swap up the look by swapping jackets, sweaters, jewelry or scarves. The red dress you wore last week is unrecognizable when you wear it next week.
  4. You can choose styles that flatter and accentuate your body or that disguise and diminish your body.
  5. You can choose to be a solid girl and accessorize with patterns or you can be a pattern girl and accessorize with solids.
  6. You can choose your preferred sleeve length. Sleeveless and then top with a cardigan or a blazer, short sleeve and simply adorn with some arm candy, or long sleeve and keep it as simple as that.

Now if we have pros, we must have cons.

  1. The biggest con that I hear about is that women hate heels, any heels. They want to hide their ugly mugglies (aka their comfy shoes) under a nice pair of pants. Guess what girlfriend – the shoes are fixable. You don’t have to spend your life in pants because you have bunions, fallen arches or heel aversions (pun intended). There are comfortable shoes out there for any issue you can conjure up. Don’t believe me? Check out this Zappos link and look how long the list of choices/refinements are along the left column! Also ladies, not all dresses require a heel! There are plenty of stylish sassy flats and block heel shoes out there to carry the look. Just try to keep the toes a bit pointy to keep the look current and sophisticated.
  2. Women feel that dresses are remembered. (And how is that a bad thing?) Again, the answer to that is to ‘style’ them differently every time you wear them. The jumpstart for that plan is to purchase other items to go with the dress the same time that you buy the dress! What a concept. Shop for a jacket and a sweater as a layering option while you have the dress on so you can be sure they complement each other. Pick up two different color palette scarves and necklaces for the future look-changes while you have the dress in your hands. Then as soon as you introduce the dress to the old friends in your closet, peruse through and see if you see any other styling opportunities.
  3. Lastly the hosiery thing is an issue. Get over it! Got great gams, go without hosiery. Got not so great gams, don the stockings! Stockings have come a long way baby. They are soft, silky, come in a gazillion colors, styles and price points and they finish the look in an elegant and classy way. Just don’t wear them with open toe shoes – ever!


Now let’s get your dress on! Need more dress ideas? Join me on April 1st at Lord & Taylor Burlington, MA. Lord & Taylor has always been about the dress and nationwide Lord & Taylor is dedicated to assembling the best collection of dresses in all categories: day to night, formal, cocktail party, office, wedding guests and more. I am the featured stylist for this event at Lord & Taylor Burlington with festivities including fashion presentations and in-store specials. During this interactive style session I will show you how to style the same dress for different occasions. See the latest trends in accessories, shoes and handbags. That’s not all! Visit the Lancome pop up shop for a cosmetic makeover!

Tweet me to let me know you are joining us @DoreenDove.
Let’s dress up and force the Spring colors into New England!

Can’t make it? Join me on April 5th for the Executive Image Styling Workshop
Register here – https://doreendove.com/executive-image-registration/

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