Mail Bag: Red Halter Dress at Work?

You're so good at dressing down dresses! I just never think of them as anything but evening wear - I need to get over that pronto!

Do you have any tips for this red halter dress I just ordered from Banana Republic?

I'm afraid the cut and color make it too risqué for work or day, but I may not be thinking out of the box.

Karla

That is a beautiful dress! While the color and fabric are certainly business casual appropriate, the halter neck can be problematic. In my experience, halter necks are just too casual for an office. If you can cover the halter straps, though, this would be a great work dress.

Any number of cover-ups would look great. I’d try a cropped jacket or cardigan over the dress. With the dress’ high, fitted waist, you could try anything from a swing jacket to a fitted blazer. The waistline would look great dressed up with a belt, either over or under your cover-up.

For a classic color combination, try topping the dress with black, white, or khaki. Don’t be afraid to experiment, though. Hot pink or army green are fun color choices. In fact, I’d pair this with just about anything but primary purple (too “red hat society”).

I had a halter neck dress that I wore to work a few times (before I gave it to charity). Here are a couple of examples of how I wore it:



In the second pic, I wrapped the halter neck ties around my neck an extra time and left the ends dangling like a scarf.
(I also wore it a few times with a black shrug as a cover up. That was before I began my whatiwore2day blog, though.)

Have fun with this gorgeous dress! Even if you decide it’s too risqué for work, give it a weekend daytime outing. It’s too spectacular to save for evening.