Work wear wonderings... Beauty Care

The fear of being dressed inappropriately for the office is really not something I'm even remotely familiar with. The fear of being dressed inappropriately for the weather, now, is a different story altogether: I am only just shy of checking Moore's Almanac before I put a toe outside the front door of a morning. I wouldn't be on nodding terms with dress, frock, or skirt-wearing either, which is probably why I rarely need wonder about how appropriate my attire is for a work situation. I likes trousers, I do, especially jeans. That's actually ok for this office because although I'm in Finance, I'm in Finance in a company whose main business is being Creative (although not in accounting, she hastily added!). It might be that fact that there are lots of people floating around in seriously arty farty, hippy-ish, dressed down gear - the sort of thing that I would wear to Electric Picnic, actually - but this particular Finance department is just not a suited-and-booted sort of place. So the jeans are grand.

However, that means that I tend not to make a huge effort with what I wear to work. Jeans + 3/4 sleeve slash neck Mango/Zara top is about the height of it, or jeans + vest top + little cardi if I'm going all out. Sure, I'll have a lovely face of make-up and probably a rake of sparkly jewellery on too, but the clothes themselves are always a bit same-y. The experience of feeling wholly inadequate at that Evint a few weeks back, coupled with marvelling at the great outfits other people manage to put together (as seen while people-watching daily from the bus and captured brilliantly on the likes of Dublin Streets and Fashion Filosofy) has spurred me on to attempt to break out of my comfort zone/rut a bit.

To that end, I've recently bought:
- several pairs of opaque, colouredy tights (black, grey, brown, bright purple and even brighter green from Topshop, navy from Oasis)
- three pairs of fishnets (plain black and plain nude from Topshop, ones with a seam up the back of them and a bows at the back of the ankles from River Island)
- a pair of navy Irregular Choice shoes with a flower decoration on the vamp
- two Chupi frocks (both are about 2"-above-knee length, one is empire line and has a navy deep v-neck crossover top and a shimmery ivory skirt with a sparse navy and coral sort of paisley-ish print and a wee gold ribbon tie between the two. The other is a white scoop neck affair with kind of abstract green floral print and a big green ribbon to cinch in the waist)
- a navy fine knit billowing sleeve shrug from Warehouse
- a khaki green knitted dress from Oasis with a sweetheart neckline and pouff-y sleeves
- a grey pseudo-dress from Warehouse (looks like a fitted t-shirt dress from the front but er not from the back!) with flat-cap bronzey studs embellished across the chest
- a black jersey bubble dress from Topshop
- a teal shirt dress from Topshop
- a pair of patent red shoe boots from Faith (they're not quite as orthapedic-looking in real life, but I'm still not sure about them, possible bring backs!)

Okaaaay, that's quite a bit of stuff. Eek.

Anywho, today I'm wearing the black bubble dress with black tights, tan leather knee high boots with brogue detailing and a 9cm heel, and a cream/oatmeal coloured 3/4 sleeve shrug that is covered in those opaque shimmery sequins that pick up the colours of whatever's around them. It looks pretty good, I think, but the bottom of the dress is about 2" above the top of my knee and it looks like there's a lot of leg between the top of the boots and the bottom of the dress. Oh, and when I look down I can see quite a bit more of the curve of my boobs than I'm used to - as someone who lives in jeans and generally keeps her chest covered, I feel that I may as well be buck nekkid. So, for probably the first time ever, I spent this morning worrying that I'm dressed inapproriately for the workplace - and then I went to the canteen for lunch and saw a girl wearing a total bumflap of a skirt and a top from which her assets were threatening to spill completely with one false move. Compared to that, sure, I'm dressed like an über-conservative nun!

Now, what to wear tomorrow...