Business formal dress and formal work dress styles

For a business formal dress, start with the sheath. Ours come in black and in powder pink, cut straight and fitted, with a round neckline and sleeves that stop at three-quarter length, and they’re the styles we’d put on for a meeting that matters.

Sheaths and turtlenecks for a nine o’clock meeting

The black sheath midi goes with a blazer and low-heeled pumps, and it’s worn all year. Your wrists show below the sleeve, so a watch or a thin bracelet is all the jewelry it needs. At six you take the blazer off. Add earrings and it’s ready for a restaurant. The powder pink sheath looks soft next to grey, milk white and graphite. A white or grey blazer and pumps make it a formal work dress, and pearl earrings take it to a family lunch.

Size a sheath by your hips, because a business formal dress that pulls at the seat looks wrong in any meeting room. If your bust and hips fall into different sizes, take the larger one for the hips so the skirt won’t strain as you stride down a hallway.

Turtlenecks are the other half of this page. A black midi with a high collar covers your neck and arms and stays slim through the body, and it fits a business meeting as well as a night at the theater. In rib knit there’s a black turtleneck midi you’d wear with a blazer and loafers. The emerald rib turtleneck likes a thin belt at the waist and loafers too. Skip the necklace with all of them. The collar’s already there.

Warm angora for a cold office, velvet for the dinner after

Some offices are never warm enough in January. The milk white angora midi with a turtleneck collar is soft, warm even in a badly heated room, and it’s fine under a beige blazer with pumps. The white angora turtleneck in knee length has a looser cut, and a long vest over it works at the office.

Velvet comes in when the day ends with a dinner with partners. The blue velvet midi with a boat neck ends around mid-calf, and you’ll wear it with a jacket at work and without it later. On that shade of blue, pick silver or pearls over gold. Our red velvet midi with a tie belt is another business formal dress for an evening event, festive but still reserved thanks to long sleeves and a modest V.

Prefer shorter? A rib mini with a turtleneck works at the office with opaque tights and a blazer. Every style on this page comes in XS through XL, with our L close to a UK 14. For softer office rules, see the business casual page.