Back zip and I live alone. How do people manage this?

The classic fix is a long ribbon or a bootlace tied to the zip pull. Bring it up over your shoulder, hold it in front of you, and walk the zip up by pulling forward and down rather than trying to reach behind your own back. It feels ridiculous and it works, and it is what most people who dress alone are actually doing. A proper long zip pull that lives on the garment is the tidier permanent version.

Get the garment sitting properly before you start the zip. Half the struggle is that the piece is not seated on your shoulders yet, so the two sides of the zip do not line up and you are fighting the fit rather than the fastening. Settle everything first, then zip.

I hook the ribbon over a door handle and step forward slowly. Sounds mad, works brilliantly, and it means the pull is coming straight up rather than at an angle.

The door handle version is exactly the kind of undignified practical thing I was hoping to hear. Trying that tonight.

Longer term, buy for the life you have. If you dress alone most of the time, front zips and step-in pieces are worth prioritising when you are choosing. There is no rule that says the back zip version is the real one, and plenty of makers will do a front fastening if you ask. I have exactly one back-zip piece and it only comes out on nights when someone else is around.

One warning. Whatever method you use, keep the fabric away from the teeth as it closes. Latex catching in a zip is a genuinely common way to ruin a piece, and it happens most when you are pulling hard at an awkward angle with no line of sight. Slow, and run a finger along the closing line as you go.

On the caught-in-the-zip problem Sib raises, the other half of the answer is to shine the area first. A polished surface slides past the teeth instead of being drawn into them, and it also means you can see what is happening rather than working blind against a matte surface in a dim bedroom.