Not necessarily this exact same dress, I’m just putting this up as an example of the type of formal/work dress I’m referring to. How would you wear it modestly (cover up the arms and legs too) and elegantly?
I have several casual bodycon dresses that go down to your thighs and I find those more modest than tshirts for some reason. But I always wear a loose, long cardigan on top to cover up all the erm curves so I guess that is the main reason why I feel comfortable wearing them casually. But I'm confused as to how one would wear a formal dress of this kind. Wouldn't cardigan and leggings look too casual? A jacket would probably make it look like evening wear and jeans would just look odd with it.
I don’t think you can keep it formal and modest because keeping it formal requires not covering up the dress. You would have to wear tights and shoes (not boots). A waist length jacket would cover up the arms.. I’d probably go for boucle for day wear or something like this: Therapy Textured jacket Black - House of Fraser
What stoppit said, I love pencil dresses and Mad-men style dresses, but it's very hard to wear with hijab cos it just doesn't look great with hijab. These kinda dresses look best when fitted and it's also awkward trying to wear with trousers :(
Go for shift dresses maybe or long blouses which you can wear with cardigans?
Midi dresses with fuller skirts. They come below the knee and you can wear them with opaque black tights and a blazer or a smart jacket. Personally, I find a bit of lower leg in tights far less immodest than clothing that is tight/fitted on the body.
I bought 2 body hugging dresses like these recently, I was gonna wear them with a long cardigan that could cover up to at least my ass and semi-opaque tights but I felt really self conscious, cos I don't usually wear tights, so I returned them.