Our daily TPS reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
We like this simple cotton/wool stretch skirt, on sale from Brooks Brothers. It’s a very classic A-line with a modest cut, and we think it would look great with a cardigan or a slightly feminine blouse. We like that the skirt is fully lined, and impressed that the skirt’s fabric is woven by Loro Piana. Was $188, now $94 (sizes 2-14 still left) at Brooks Brothers. Cotton/Wool Stretch Skirt
If you’ve recently seen a great work piece you’d like to recommend to the readers, please e-mail editor@corporette.com with “TPS” in the subject line. Unless you ask otherwise, we’ll refer to you by your first initial.
(L-2)
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Our daily TPS reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
We are loving this silk charmeuse herringbone dress from Brooks Brothers which, we think, shows how a shirt dress can be uber classic, feminine, and graceful. (As opposed to oh so many dresses out there right now that look like a man’s shirt with a belt slopped around it.) That print — that silk — that sash! (Although, we must admit, we are not digging the tights — are those brown?) It’s on sale at Brooks Brothers for $147; was $368 — available in lucky sizes 10, 12, and 14. Silk Charmeuse Herringbone Print Shirt Dress
If you’ve recently seen a great work piece you’d like to recommend to the readers, please e-mail editor@corporette.com with “TPS” in the subject line. Unless you ask otherwise, we’ll refer to you by your first initial.
(L-2)
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Reader L writes to us, wondering:
Can you do an article about how to wear brooches / pins? They always look so nice on Michelle Obama. I bought two of them and have no idea if they are work-appropriate or what to do with them…
Personally, we love brooches. (Pictured above: Nonogram Pin, available at Brooks Brothers for $29.60 (was $148).) Back around 2003 it was all the rage to wear 2-4 of them (at least, it always seemed like that’s what Stacey and Clinton were advising folks to do); now, thanks to Michelle Obama, they’ve regained popularity. We’re not sure they ever went “out of style” completely, though—in other words, if you like the way they look and Michelle Obama stops wearing them for some reason, you can still wear them.
There are lots of ways to wear brooches, obviously. On the lapel of your jacket or blazer is the most obvious place — this works best with more delicate-looking
brooches, but can be done with larger brooches as well. We’ve seen Michelle wear them as ways to keep a cardigan closed; we’d advise going with a fairly muted, large brooch (the one above is a bit fancy, but would work well for this purpose) and positioning it in the middle of your abdomen — well below your breasts. We’re a big fan of wearing a large, colorful brooch with a solid-colored turtleneck or scoopneck; wear the brooch not on your chest but in the region between your clavicle and shoulder. Finally, for work, we’d also include the brooch-as-hair accessory — if you’re doing a low ponytail or a half-up do: try pinning the brooch in your hair so it anchors to the elastic — it’ll just look like a really lovely barrette.
The more shiny/sparkly a brooch is, the less appropriate it is to work (at least, for our $.02). We’d wear these kinds of brooches to dinner parties and black-tie dinners, though; pinned to the dress at the waist (either centered or at the side), or pinned to the shoulder/clavicle region. If you have two matching brooches you like, you can try to pin them to your dress at the shoulder–we’re thinking of some old scene in a Claudette Colbert or perhaps Katharine Hepburn movie where the heroine wears a sleeveless, Grecian-type drapey dress and does this.
In general, keep in mind that the brooch — worn for work — should bring attention to your face; not your chest or your outfit.
Readers, any opinions on brooches?
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Our daily TPS reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
Today’s TPS was suggested (independently) by readers LPC and N: this lovely classic, non-iron, fitted shirt from Brooks Brothers. There are quite a few on sale at the moment in the “clearance” section and in stores — and with the free shipping if you order $200 worth of stuff (through 9/2), you can’t go wrong. Reader N noted that she plans to wear her charcoal and white striped shirt (like the one pictured) with her tan suit — an outfit that sounds great to us. (If you go for a French cuff shirt, we recommend investing in some actual cuff links — they’re far easier to use than the knots that come with the shirt.) The shirt was $89.50; now on sale for $35. Non-Iron Fitted Bold Textured Stripe French Cuff Dress Shirt
If you’ve recently seen a great work piece you’d like to recommend to the readers, please e-mail editor@corporette.com with “TPS” in the subject line. Unless you ask otherwise, we’ll refer to you by your first initial.
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Today’s reader mail is all about scarves… (Pictured: Tonal Hydrangea Silk Scarf, on sale at Brooks Brothers for $95.20 (was $238).)
I’ve got two silk scarves I bought because I fell in love with them, and one black tie. I never wear them, because I’ve no idea how one is supposed to wear it! Besides, can a woman in her early 20s even pull off that look without looking like an in-flight attendant? If yes, are they supposed to go on the neck under the shirt (I’ve seen that look a few times), over the shirt and under its collar? Does one knot them or just let them hang down, if one knots them – does it matter how?
We used to work with a woman who always wore the most beautiful Hermes scarves — her wardrobe was primarily black, white, and gray, and the scarves were a rich addition of colors and patterns. She had one that had elements of a beautiful, almost hot pink, and it was incredibly flattering on her, particularly so close to her face — but because it was just a scarf, and amidst other colors, no one ever would have said that the scarf was too pink or girly or feminine. We asked her about her scarves once, and she confided to us that she wore them because she found tags at the nape of her neck to be itchy. Her scarves absolutely worked for her — and although she was at a senior level, we think the fact that they worked had more to do with her body type: tall and slender. (Specifically, she would wear them with a collared jacket and collar-less sweater or tee, worn between her jacket’s collar and her tee’s collar — they were unknotted and, while we think they were generally square scarves, she wore them folded into an oblong shape.)
Our own body type is the opposite — petite and curvy — and we’ve had trouble making scarves work for us, although we’ve fallen in love with (and bought) far too many. (In fact, the last time we can remember wearing one was when we wore a DvF dress and realized too late that it was WAY too low cut for the office — we tried to tuck the scarf into the neckline of the dress — faux blouse! — and wound up annoyed at how much we had to readjust throughout the day.) Readers, we’d love to hear from you — do you wear scarves? If so, how?
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Our daily TPS reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
Reader C wrote in to alert us to the great steals in the Brooks Brothers’ clearance section. Beautiful scarves, wraps and jewelry — including this lovely chunky necklace. Ten rows of resin beads means it’s a statement piece, without being too flashy. And the price is one of those why-can’t-they-all-be-like this prices: was $328, now $65. 17.5″ Toursade Necklace
If you’ve recently seen a great work piece you’d like to recommend to the readers, please e-mail editor@corporette.com with “TPS” in the subject line.
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For busy working women, the suit is often the easiest outfit to throw on in the morning. In general, this feature is not about interview suits, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional.
We’re loving the fit, comfort, and summer breath-ability for this week’s suit, from Brooks Brothers. We wish it came in black as well as the powder blue, but we still think the powder blue is a classic, wearable color for a casual day at the office leading into an outdoorsy summer event. We’d wear a white tee-shirt or blouse beneath it, accessorize with good jewelry, and wear businesslike leather pumps and a structured bag. The jacket (Supima® Cotton Oxford Cropped Jacket) is $248, and the pants (Supima® Cotton Oxford Pants) are $148.
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Last week, we were surprised to see comments saying that a t-shirt is not appropriate to be worn beneath a suit, and we thought, a) perhaps we’re talking about different things, or b) perhaps we’re terribly wrong. So we thought we’d explore.
For our $.02: Agreed, agreed, you can’t wear a Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert shirt beneath a suit, nor can you wear the kind of v-neck from the Gap that you would paint a garage in. And of course, a silk or cashmere sweater or button-down shirt is preferable. But, we would say that a “dressy” cotton t-shirt like the ones we linked to that day, or very classic tees in a thick cotton or machine-washable fabric (e.g., a crewneck without a ribbed neckline), are totally acceptable to wear beneath a suit, particularly in a solid color like white. Our reasoning here is that we’ve just never studied another woman’s clothing that closely beneath her suit. Is it too tight? Too sheer? Too old-school rayon shell-like? If it isn’t any of those things and the suit looks good, the top generally fades into the background. It’s there to provide the woman with an option to take off her jacket if she needs to, but — as we’ve said before — we generally think you should keep the jacket on if you’re roaming the halls or going to meetings. In addition to being acceptable, there’s a benefit — if it’s machine-washable, it makes a working woman’s life that much easier.
But enough of our two cents — what do you guys think?
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Our daily TPS reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices. We begin the week in splurge mode, with our most expensive suggestions, and wind our way to Friday, where a less expensive item of clothing might be just what you need to make it to the weekend.
We really like these super 110s wool trousers from Brooks Brothers — the way they lay, the spacing of the pinstripes, the Bemberg lining — they just strike us as a beautiful, comfortable, and professional pair of trousers that will last for years. We particularly like the discount — they were $238, now $95 (but with the automatic discount they come down to $80). Pinstripe Trousers
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