According to recent research while our male colleagues are still often expected to wear three piece suits to work, women can wear skirts and dresses in the summer. Sounds good in principle, but it makes it more difficult for women to decide what to wear.

Films and TV

Don’t pay too much attention to what women wear to work in films and television. They often show too much flesh. Take Samantha in Sex and the City for example.

Dress accordingly

When deciding what to wear take the following factors into account:

-Where you work. An insurance or lawyer’s office is a lot more formal than a PR or a magazine office.

-Learn from your female colleagues. Pay attention to how they dress, especially your boss.

-Adapt your clothing according your client. If your client dresses formally then you should too. It is better to dress too formally then too casually.

Work is not a beach

Whatever you do don’t look like you are about to hit the beach instead of your desk. Let your poor male colleagues concentrate on their work and don’t expose too much flesh. Avoid:

• Tank tops
• Spaghetti straps
• Backless dresses or tops
• Deep cut necklines
• Mini skirts
• See through material
• Flip flops

When Esther and I were in the changing room, I thought this dress looked great but Esther thought she was showing too much cleavage. She wouldn’t feel comfortable wearing this dress without something underneath it.

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Short skirts can look skanky or tarty if worn in the wrong way. The first step is of course to discover if short skirts suit you. The rule of thumb: if you are proud of your legs why hide them? Shorter skirts are more appropriate for casual or night wear but can be worn to work if combined in a certain way.

Work
Avoid looking like you got your job by means other than your intelligence and experience and avoid wearing mini skirts to the office. Shorter shirts that are mid-thigh length can look professional when worn with thick or opaque tights/pantyhose instead of thin tights or bare legs. Flat shoes or boots also dress down short skirts. Tight tops should be avoided in combination with short skirts if you have large breasts. Skimpy tops baring lots of flesh should be avoided at all costs in the work place.

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Whatever you do don’t look like this!

Tight clothes are sexy but make sure no one can see the outline/indentation of your underwear through them. Your body type also determines how much you can get away with. If you’re skinny like Mischa Barton you can wear as many tight items as you want. If you have curves like Scarlet Johansson just wear one item that is tight at a time. Unless however you’re going out and want to look sexy but don’t then combine tight with skimpy. If you’re bigger than Scarlet Johansson you should wear more tailored items instead of tight clothes. These show off you curves not your fat rolls. To summarize:

Skinny = You can wear tight clothing no probs
Curvy daytime = Max one tight item of clothing
Curvy evening = Tight but not skimpy
Curvy + = Tailored clothing

It’s nice to look a bit sexy but you don’t want to end up looking like a skank or tart. I am always looking for the border between looking nice and a bit sexy and looking like a tart or skank. I’ll be looking further into this phenomenon and asking your opinions. Here are some things to watch out for:

Tightness of clothing
Skirt length
Heel height
Openness of shoes
Cleavage
How curvey you are
Age

What do you think is sexy and what do you think is skanky? Send us your comments.