I love shirtdresses. They’re feminine and professional looking and, unlike a tailored shirt with a pair of pants, a shirtdress looks finished without a lot of effort. In today’s wear to work post I want to highlight the easy shirtdress for work.
Solving the fit issues that come with shirtdresses
Nothing can kill the professionalism that comes with wearing a shirtdress quicker than gaping buttons. These issues are not unlike the gaping issues that come with button down shirts and, thankfully, the solutions are similar. You can read my tips on gaping button down shirts here. There are quite a few workarounds, including wearing a cami underneath a shirtdress, fashion tape, tailoring and hidden snaps.
How to style a shirtdress
So you own or want to buy a shirtdress. While this style is so simple and professional looking, taking it a step further with accessorizing can not only make the outfit pop but enable you to use the dress as a base while changing up how it is finished. This will guarantee more mileage from one dress. Here are three shirtdresses with some uncomplicated finishes to give you some inspiration.
Outfit #1
Not only does the zipper front of this MICHAEL Michael Kors shirtdress eliminate the button gaping problem but being in a neutral brown shade the accessorizing options are limitless. Truly, you can treat this brown dress like a black one and do anything you want with it. And if you don’t like brown the dress also comes in black and navy. One of my clients owns this dress for work and love to travel with it.
To finish this look I used a coral beaded necklace from Bauble Bar to fill in the neck, added simple gold stud earrings and taupe kitten heel pumps by Nine West.
Outfit #2
Next, using this Tory Burch shirtdress in a fine gray herringbone I treated the fabric like a solid gray and warmed up the look using a pair of cognac boots, a printed scarf, Style & Co. beaded bracelet and silver earrings from Stella & Dot. The beauty of a shirtdress is it is seasonless. A dress like this could easily be worn now with summer shoes and brought into fall and winter with tights and boots. Plus this style has sleeve tabs for a crisp roll when wearing it in warmer weather.
Outfit #3
Lastly, this mod printed shirtdress from Boden. Even a bold print like this can be accessorized in interesting ways. Taking the fine pink pinstripe from the print, I added these pink heeled Mary Jane shoes for a splash of excitement and kept it simple with teal stud earrings from Anthropologie that work perfectly with the print of the dress.
Shop for shirtdresses
If you love a shirdress for work as much as I do, check out these other styles from around the web.
