How to fashionably (and painlessly) ease back into workwear

The Prelude:

The dress code had been bikinis, cover-ups, flip-flops and running clothes. My make-up bag hadn’t been opened and I had forgotten how to use a hair dryer. That was until the obnoxious sound of my alarm went off and reminded me that I wasn’t on vacation anymore and today was the first day back to…you know, that 4-letter word…

It is the same story every year.

I start with struggling to find the pant leg hole and then have to coordinate putting my leg into the hole. Once that has been done, the worst part comes: pulling up the pants. As they stick to every part of my leg it seems that they are just in much denial as I am. Once on, it feels like wearing a straitjacket- a straitjacket that accentuates all the wrong areas.

At this point I feel like giving up on getting dressed, but can’t as I need to find a matching top. One that isn’t too casual or fancy, slutty or conservative. My brain goes into overdrive as I stare at my closet hoping that the perfect shirt will just fall off the hanger and onto my body. As life would have it this obviously doesn’t happen and I end up trying on 5 different shirts before settling on something oversized (to make up for the tight pants). By the time I’m dressed I just want to hide under my blanket and pretend that this was all a nightmare and that I am still on holiday. Unfortunately, to this day that trick hasn’t worked.

The Point:

This year, I thought that I would try to find a solution that would make the fashion transition from vacation to daily life less like a ‘slap in the face’ and more like not having dessert (sucks but not the end of the world).

One key part of the solution: A knee-midi length dress.

I am not talking about a Herve Leger bodycon dress that will make you regret every food and drink decision you made over the vacation. I am also not talking about the spaghetti strapped D&G printed dress with large pieces of fruits. I am talking about the chic-dress that says “its back to business” while still giving you the feeling that summer isn’t over just yet. That sounds complicated, I know. No worries though, as I have collected a few of my favourite ‘first week of back to work’ dresses AND put together 5 tips to help that vacation brain of yours get back into the swing of things.