I’ve been a little bit obsessed with sleeveless coat dresses after seeing large-busted superhero Simone Missick wearing hers at an event in 2016.

Back in 2014, I’d tried to make something similar work with a sleeveless blazer that I ultimately returned because it wasn’t me, but when I saw this dress on fellow busty Missick, I wanted to try again. Ironically, Miriam Baker had already created the perfect double-breasted sleeveless coat dress for full-busted women, but it never registered with me until I visited her studio in January. Included in the past season samples that Miriam had hung up for me to try was this dress that she had customized for a customer who had returned it.

Even before I looked in the mirror, it was love. The Italian fabric is a blend of wool, poly, viscose and stretch. It feels substantial and smooth. In the past I’ve suggested to Miriam that she cares more about fabric quality than her customers do, but when I draped this dress over my body, I was thankful for her pickiness. It’s also fully lined. The lapel is a perfect balance to a large bust–neither too large nor too small–and there are giant pockets that can even fit a tablet. The buttons are impressive, too, and you’ll see why in a photo below.

Miriam generously sold this dress to me for a fraction of its original price, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect because I had three occasions coming up for which I had “nothing to wear”:

  1. a business meeting with someone ultra-stylish,
  2. a Fashion Week party for a website launch, and
  3. our 10th wedding anniversary.

Here’s how I ultimately wore it to the business meeting.

Later in the day, I swapped out the emeraldy necklace for this red one.

Miriam had styled it with a sheer bodysuit, and I can appreciate the choice after seeing how the look veers “heavy” with my long-sleeved opaque top. I really liked it with this Spanx sheer polka dot body suit (affiliate link), but it did nothing to mask my cleavage, which is why I’m super excited about the Cleo Sophia crop top bra that Leah told you about on Wednesday.

Besides something sheer, a contrasting sleeve also helps lighten the look. Here it is with my favorite striped-shirt-and-red-necklace combo. I love how this dress sharpens a casual outfit when worn as a vest.

It can also be worn as a vest over another dress, which is what I tried with this Loft sweater dress, although I’m thinking a less bulky dress would be a better base.

Here you can see what I love about the buttons. A lot of times you’ll only have one interior button to secure the “wrap” look, but Miriam uses an entire column. The fabric external buttons are also a beautiful touch.

For the Fashion Week party where I needed to be on brand with my own shirts, I wore it this way.

Basically, I keep finding more and more ways to wear it! I combined my party look with my casual vest look for Curve on Monday.
And I came up with this look with leggings while I was doing my selfie-shoot for today’s post.

Finally, it was perfect for our tenth anniversary night out. Besides liking cleavage, which this dress offers plenty of, my husband also likes the corporate look, so I knew he was going to love it. I wore my navy Ewa Michalek bra to blend in with the black, and it didn’t show beneath my armhole at all.

This is my trial run with the shoes. I ultimately choose a lighter shade of nylons and added the pearls.

How would YOU style this dress?