Washable Workwear Wednesday: Utility Pocket Midi Shirtdress

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I love a shirtdress for early spring, and this one might just take you all the way through summer.

This version comes in a universally flattering midi length and sports a self-tie belt and relaxed dropped shoulders. The flat patch pockets, sharp point collar, and shirttail hem evoke your favorite dress shirt, but without the formality.

For now, add a trench or longline cardigan and tall boots; for later, lose the layers and add some low-heeled sandals.

Banana Republic Factory’s Utility Pocket Midi Shirtdress is on sale for $59.49 and available in “barely beige” or “red parrot.” It comes in sizes XXS–XXL (most sizes still available) and petite sizes as well.

Looking for other washable workwear? See all of our recent recommendations for washable clothes for work, or check out our roundup of the best brands for washable workwear.

Sales of note for 2/14/25 (Happy Valentine’s Day!):

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

  • Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
  • Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase — and extra 60% off sale
  • Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + 15% off (readers love their suiting as well as their silky shirts like this one)
  • Boden – 15% off new season styles
  • Eloquii – 300+ styles $25 and up
  • J.Crew – 40% of your purchase – prices as marked
  • J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site and storewide + extra 50% off clearance
  • Rothy’s – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – Flash sale ending soon – markdowns starting from $15, extra 70% off all other markdowns (final sale)

And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interestworking mom questions asked by the commenters!

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Does anyone have experience with the Optum Specialty Pharmacy for fertility injectables?

Does 12 months seem super early to switch to one (2.5 hour) nap a day? Both my twins, who don’t normally nap together, seem to prefer this as of three days ago. It’s funny how different every kid is. Virtually nothing that worked for my oldest works for these twins and it’s a funny exercise in humility.

So annoyed with NYC getting rid of indoor school mask mandates. I actually support the optional outdoor masking change, but could we maybe wait three weeks and get data and see if it impacts community cases?!?

Also, there are OTHER THINGS they could have brought back before ditching masks entirely. Like field trips! 1 million kids haven’t had a field trip in two years, maybe let’s try that first instead.

We’ve got one grandparent on chemo and an out of state grandparent on immunosuppresents and I was really hoping we’d keep masks until after spring break.

Hm, I must have put a banned word in my first post, trying again:

Do you let your kids wrestle each other? I don’t have a problem with this in theory – my sons both really like playing this way, and it helps them get their energy out in a non-destructive way – but I’ve gotten complaints from the K teacher that kiddo can’t keep his hands to himself. We do talk about how school has different rule than home, but maybe it’s the having-different-rules part that is confusing.

Y’all, I posted a vent a couple weeks back about how frustrated I was with senior management and their various shenanigans. I redoubled my advocacy efforts and can finally claim a small victory. I just learned that one of my staff is going to get the promotion she so richly deserves, and that this one opened management’s eyes to the business need for us to recognize performance.

For those of you with more than one kid, especially boys…. what’s your philosophy on physical play? My sons (5 and 9) love wrestling each other. I don’t have a problem with that on the face of it, as long as both are happy and they’re playing vs trying to hurt each other, but I’ve gotten feedback from the kindergartener’s teacher that he’s having trouble keeping his hands to himself at school. In a perfect world, he’d understand that school rules are different than home rules, and brothers are different than classmates. He can get all his wiggles and grappling out at home, but needs to have self control and not touch people at school. But maybe two different rule sets are developmentally inappropriate for a 5 year old and I need to shut this down at home, too? (The energy has to go SOMEWHERE, though! It’s a closed system! Maybe I should sign him up for jiu jitsu.)

I have two things I want to gut check with this group about my kindergartener. First, my spouse flagged that the kid’s handwriting has gotten worse since entering kindergarten and I agree. Like, numbers and letter they could write a year ago now are now illegible. We think that basically, the teacher is letting kid rush through practice and so the kid takes full advantage of this. Second, my mom asked me if the kid loves kindergarten. The honest answer is no. The kid tolerates it, but is pretty meh on it. This is a kid who loves to read and learn new things normally, but school doesn’t seem to have kindled their love of learning further. Is this a problem? The school is top ranked, by far the best one we can get the kid into and the teacher is experienced. So I’m worried that switching schools would just make things worse. I guess I’m wondering if I should be really concerned about this. This year the kid is in a half day program, but next year is full day.

I recently moved into my first house (after decades of apartment living) and am trying to become committed to keeping things tidy! I am level 10 messy by nature, and unfortunately so is my husband.

Looking for everyone’s best tips on organizing, cleaning schedules, purging routines etc. I will take any advice you have. Even if it’s just “hire an organization service to come regularly.”

i feel so badly. i wrote down the wrong time for my twins’ parent teacher conference and the teacher had to call us and we showed up late on Zoom. i’m usually so organized and on top of things, i hate showing up as the disorganized parent

DD fell earlier in the week and hurt her elbow. Initial x-ray didn’t show a fracture but they asked us to follow up with an ortho – and made an appointment with a nurse practitioner for later in the week. I didn’t realize it was with an NP – is this something that you’d normally see an NP for? How do you all think about seeing doctors vs NPs? Curious from those in the medical field too!

I think if you get an NP with lots of experience that’s obviously great – my main concern is its harder to get feedback from former patients or see reviews of the NP versus the doctors in the office and I like to do a little due diligence.

Shirley Hughes passed away at age 94. We have loads of the books and the audiobooks, and if you haven’t encountered them before, they are so innocent and lovely. Well worth a read. The children in them are cheeky but kind, really quite, unassuming stories.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60584090

You guys, I had a pregnancy dream last night and it shook me to the core. I am in my early 40s and DH got snipped after our youngest was born. Although the odds of getting pregnant are very low, a pregnancy would be a crisis at this point in my life, both physically and emotionally. Funny how that works. It’s a crisis when you’re young, then you spend years planning and preparing and hoping to get pregnant and then you raise the tiny humans, and suddenly the idea of an unplanned pregnancy is a crisis again. Ha. For whatever reason, there is a small baby boom happening in my circle, and while I am very happy for my friends, it confirms that I am so done. I didn’t dislike the baby years, but I definitely don’t want to go back. Just had to get that off my chest.

I have to post it here because I don’t think anyone else will appreciate it in real life – I got FORTY FIVE EGGS from my egg retrieval yesterday. I’m 37 with a raging case of PCOS, so that’s clearly why. Egg production is not my issue – I have a very angry uterus, it would seem. However, it’s a great place to re-start this round after a very scary ectopic situation in November, with my then last embryo at my old clinic.

TBD how many embryos we get when the Hunger Games of testing wraps, but I’m actually… excited? Last retrieval, 18 months ago at my old clinic, which is known for being conservative, only yielded 16, which is still strong by all measures but I’m doing an excited dance over here. I’m still in a boatload of discomfort but hopefully it will all be worth it.

it’s the worst. i was so nauseous with my twins. and it was so hard when i wasn’t out yet at work. i fortunately had an office near the bathroom, so i could tell if someone else was in there before going in. and in the interim i would literally pinch myself to prevent myself from vomiting all over before i could make it to the bathroom. the only thing that helped me at all was grazing all day, so i carried around a gallon size ziplock bag of cheerios (again, not the easiest to hide, but somehow i managed)

Can I just whine about morning sickness for a minute? I’m 9 weeks, and after a slight lull the nausea is back with a vengeance. I’m trying to sip ginger tea and keep down the diclectin I took. Of course my boss doesn’t know yet so I’m trying to be somewhat productive at work. I literally just started this job (got pregnant two weeks later) and feel really bad having to tell them I need to leave in early October. And I’m seriously in awe of all of you ladies who did this without working from home – I’ve managed to drag myself from my bed to my desk while still wearing pjs on the bottom. The thought of getting dressed, taking the subway and sitting in my office… shudder.