Congrats. I like the direction you've taken your search in better. The Brook's Brothers is nice.

Congratulations! No need to crawl back either. We will take you when we can get you! This capsule is waaaay out of my area of expertise but I really love both JCrew dresses. Hope they work out!

Congratuations - you seem to love some pattern so I'm not sure you shouldn't choose something with pattern in it, I would just pay attention to how "busy" the pattern might read in photos, etc. I didn't catch if this was a daytime or evening event but if it's evening, then maybe something more formal is in order. Have you tried Peruvian Connection? It's a wildcard, but they do have some nice things.

I have that second David Meister dress that Suz linked to...it is great because you can dress it up or down as much as you want. It looks great with a blazer and tights/boots to be more businessy, but is pretty enough to wear with shear hose and heels as evening wear. And it's fully lined and very flattering with the slight gathering. Highly recommend!

Congratulations on the award!

Sarah, great to see you here and congratulations on this honor and award! You know, Diana has some great links there and I, too, was thinking of color blocking as it offers a nice illusion to elongate and lengthen when the colors are properly placed. I also really like the sheath-style dress from J. Crew among a few others.

Have fun and enjoy!

Sarah, that is such great news, congratulations! Good for you for getting started looking early. Simple, appropriate dresses are a HEWI, for me anyway. You've got some great suggestions here and I look forward to seeing what you turn up.

Hi Sarah, congratulations on the honor!

Looks like you got some great ideas here. When I read your first post, I thought of one high-profile female scientist, Elaine Fuchs, who is often wearing stylish dresses. I think the first time I saw her give a lecture, she was wearing a dark red shirtdress in some sort of a dressy fabrication, slightly below the knee, which looked great.

This outfit is either a dress or a skirt+cardigan, I am not sure.

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J Crew has wonderful dresses in their Super 120s wool

https://www.jcrew.com/womens_c...../24155.jsp

Thank you all for your kind words and helpful suggestions! I've got several dresses on the way now, from both JCrew and Banana Republic, and I'm sure it's just the beginning my order-return-order-some-more adventure. I'll definitely be keeping you posted.

You are the best!

I am obsessed with this Angie pick dress:
http://shop.nordstrom.com/s/he.....n=shopping

http://www.zara.com/us/en/new-.....68330.html
http://www.zara.com/us/en/woma.....68328.html
I'm including these Zara dresses because I had very good luck with another Zara sheath.