Suit of the Week: Theory
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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 for women, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional. Also: we just updated our big roundup for the best women's suits of 2025!
I love this suit from Theory — but I'm curious for your thoughts on the trouser length, as styled here.
First, the suit: This is part of their Good Wool collection, and the blazer is available in sizes 00-16. I personally lurve the “dark iris” color, pictured here, and would suggest wearing it like a navy or olive if you want it to have a neutral feel… but you could also have fun with it and wear a print blouse with lots of purples, or go the other way with contrasting colors like reds, hot pinks, and oranges. Love.
The blazer comes in four other colors in the good wool, and they also have 3 colors available in a “sleek flannel,” which is fantastic if you're looking for a suit for cold weather. (I tend to think of their Good Wool as seasonless, but flannel wool — which has a brushed, cozy quality — as being best for winter.)
There are a number of matching pieces, including a cute vest with wrapped details, and THREE cuts of pants: flared, straight, and the cropped ankle pant, Treeca. There's also a dress (that's unfortunately really short, at least on the model) and a second blazer (Carissa).
Now, a minor note: I think the picture above is showing it with the straight pants — how do we feel about the hemming? I myself wish it were just a few inches longer so it brushes the very top of her foot… what are your thoughts?
(Here's our last discussion on trouser lengths for women…)
Sales of note for 8/21/25:
- Ann Taylor – $20 sale types (select styles), 25% off tops and sweaters, and extra 50% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 10% off new womenswear styles with code
- Dermstore – 20% off the Anniversary Edit
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off all sale
- J.Crew – Up to 50% off late summer styles, plus extra 50% off all sale styles
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything and extra 15% off $100+
- M.M.LaFleur – Up to 70% off new markdowns – try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off.
- Neiman Marcus – Last call designer sale! Spend $200, get a $50 gift card (up to $2000+ spend with $500 gift card)
- Nordstrom – 9,800+ new women's markdowns
- Rothy's – Ooh: limited edition T-strap flats / Mary Janes
- Spanx – End of summer sale
- Talbots – 25% off your regular price purchase, also, end-of-season clearance
- Tuckernuck – Sample sale, prices up to 70% off! (Including lots of this bestselling work dress marked to under $75)
Does anyone have advice for obsessive comparison? I feel so ashamed of this. But my husband has a friend who I relentlessly compare myself to. His dad is a billionaire or close to it, he is extremely successful himself and has a tech startup with 10 million in revenue (making his net worth probably close to 20 million and probably going to be way more than that) and he seems so self-controlled. For years when I met him, he used to say things that I found incredibly off-puting – almost only talking about gardening, degrading comments about women, very problematic jokes, or just seeming like a teenage boy. However, I think the last year or so he’s started really trying to control how he presents, and seems sooo fawning and charming and attentive and nice. He used to ignore his girlfriend when we were in the same room to flirt with me, even though I tried to be distant, but is now way more respectful and presents as a stand-up guy. I feel like before I clung to “it’s okay he’s richer and more successful than me, because he is cringey and a generally bad guy.” But now when I see him he is so polite and so nice-seeming (we only interact at parties on a surface level) and it makes me feel like he’s just better than me in every way. It triggers me to feel like I am not doing enough, no matter how hard I work I will never be as successful and so therefore my success is always shabby, etc etc. Has anyone had a fixation like this that made you feel terrible about yourself? How did you overcome it if so?
Honest answer — it sounds like you miss the attention, a bit, and maybe are uncomfortable with that feeling? Like, you enjoyed knowing that some uber rich dude was flirting with you, and now that he’s not as much, you miss it? I mean, I’m human – I love my husband dearly, but if a billionaire was shamelessly flirting with me, I imagine I’d engage in some self-indulgent fantasy about what life as a billionaire’s wife would be like. It will help the feeling go away more if you are honest with yourself about what you are feeling (formerly secretly flattered, now a little self-conscious it’s gone).
Clarifying that you don’t sound like you are describing an obsessive “comparison” with another person, you sound like you are nursing the loss of someone rich and powerful crushing on you and maybe it’s making you feel a little self-conscious about yourself.
Bottom line: there will always be somebody who is better than you. “Comparison is the thief of joy” is a cliche because it’s true. The only cure is to be thankful for who you are and what you have.
I agree. I remind myself that it doesn’t help to compare inside to someone’s outside. In other words, you never know what internal misery someone might be experiencing even if the presentation of their life is shiny and bright.
I’m never a fan of presuming that a perfect exterior means there’s some deep dark internal struggle. Some people really do just have it all. That’s okay. Run your own race and be glad the possibility exists.
+1 If you need to imagine somebody else is secretly miserable to feel good about your own self, you still have a lot of work to do.
Agree with this. There will always be somebody who really is better off than you, and that’s perfectly okay.
Yeah, I don’t like this. I prefer just thinking that I am proud to have gotten to where I am particularly given I wasn’t born on third base, and didn’t have awesome parental role models.
I get what you’re saying. Well unless your father is also a billionaire, you started at different places. Even if your family was well educated, decently well off etc – that’s not billionaire.
I try to think that no one’s life is as perfect as it looks from the outside, and that there are trade offs to everything. Also, life just isn’t fair. And fixating on that will just make you unhappy. Allowing for the fact that things just aren’t fair has let me give myself a lot more grace.
In this particular case, as you describe it, it does seem like you’re a little disappointed that you don’t have a moral high ground anymore. But more broadly, the only way to manage jealousy/comparison is to practice gratitude. And it is a practice, with some days being easier than others. You have to treat it like exercise — practice acknowleding your achievements, joys, and luck every day, even when it feels cheesy. It works, bit by by.
When I feel bad about my lot in life, I ask myself if I would put my name in a bin with the name of everyone else on earth and trade with whoever was picked. Am I willing to gamble it will be better? Nope.
This is such a great way to look at life. Thank you for this.
Same – if everyone’s problems were in a pile I would grab my own back so fast.
I’ve also framed it to myself as, “I can replace the thing I am self conscious about with the best verison of it – but then I have to give up something that is special and unique about me that I love.” and I wouldn’t do it.
If it makes you feel better he’s just putting on an act and certainly hasn’t developed any sort of moral character.
this x1000. He’s probably successful enough that someone sent his ass to executive coaching or something.
but remember this guy started way past 3rd base — if his father is as rich as you say then that’s a huge reason why he made it this far. assholes win, way too often. look at DJT.
Yes, these were my thoughts.
OP – you know what he is behind that facade. No $ in the world can change that.
I don’t know but my life got so much better when I stopped trying to check how I measured up against others. My mom, whom I love, had this thing when I was growing up where everyone around her had a little fault she could remind herself of. Someone who had more money than her was showing off and tacky. Someone who dressed better was too vain. Ect. And my mind worked like that too until i decided it didn’t have to. And I just got to be an eyes-on-my-own-paper-running-my-own-race-kind of person. And other people can be beautiful or successful or smart and it takes nothing away from me to admire that without thinking of myself at all. It’s a heck of a mindset shift and it works.
Did you post complaining about this guy some time ago? If so, then it seems like obsessive comparison and more like obsessing about the person. You need to be honest and self aware about what is really going on here.
*seems less like obsessive comparison
Yes, unless it’s a shockingly similar situation, you have posted about this person before. It seems less like comparison and more about a strange mixture of attraction/repulsion. I would pretty strongly limit my time with him and try very hard to redirect any thoughts too.
THEEEEEAAARRRRAAAPPPPYYYY
I went to a prestigious college filled with smart, ambitious people who were also good looking and personable. We joked that in high school you could at least tell yourself the jerks won’t go anywhere in life, but a jerk on our college campus was going to be super successful. At a certain point you need to accept that bad people can have great lives.
But even when he was a creep why did you care that someone else is more successful than you? There’s always going to be someone with more money in their bank account. How does that take away from your own life? Do you feel like he looks down on you or is this competition one-sided?
He isn’t successful
“Has anyone had a fixation like this that made you feel terrible about yourself?”
HE’s not making you feel terrible about yourself. There’s something about yourself that you dislike or feel terrible about, and for some reason, his personality or wealth causes that place in you to react. Find out what that place is, and work on that.
Can someone please help me navigate travel insurance? Traveling to a hurricane zone in a few weeks. I just want to know if the insurance we have will cover if a hurricane is coming for the island. The resort is offering to let us purchase insurance but no one can tell me what’s covered.
I also have Chase Sapphire Reserve which seems to cover the trip so maybe supplemental insurance isn’t necessary? Or is it? I never buy this coverage but given the time of year and cost, we’re considering it. Why is this so hard?!
Anyone have stories of canceling a trip because your destination is in the path of a hurricane? What happened?
If you have a premium credit card like the Sapphire Reserve, you’re generally better off with the free credit card insurance & a practice of booking refundable hotels (where possible) and traveling on airlines where you could use credit from a canceled trip quite easily (I avoid booking with European and Asian carriers for this reason, even though they’re often nicer and cheaper than the Big 3 US carriers). Official “travel insurance” is expensive and typically has ton of carve-outs, including force majeure like hurricanes.
Thanks for this. We have Chase Sapphire Preserve but downloaded their policy from inside of my account portal and it looks to be pretty dang solid. The resort we’re headed to also has a hurricane specific policy. No one can apparently give me the fine print of the carveouts so I didn’t feel confident that we’d be protected without seeing it in writing. But I think that + Chase we’re just going to have to accept it’s enough and a third-party source isn’t going to be worth it.
Does the policy cover cancelling for any reason? Does your credit card? I’ve personally only purchased travel insurance when transport back from the location in case of an accident would be astronomical (like the other side of the world). But the policy should say what it covers under natural disasters.
In general, I don’t think the insurance companies activate anyway unless the place is directly being impacted. A cruise ship will probably just divert around a storm so the insurance policy may not go into effect.
We “self insure” by flying only major US carriers that give full credit for future travel, and only book with properties that have similar policies or have small nonrefundable deposits. The problem is of course if you’re just going to have a miserable rough and wet stay but it’s not actually in any danger, you can bail on the whole thing and rebook it for spring. Travel insurance that actually covers that type of thing is so expensive that we never find it worth it. Like, eating a deposit is typically less expensive.
Semi-thread jack: is there insurance that covers the cost of getting on the next flight if an airline cancels your flight? My friends and I are getting burned left and right with airlines cancelling half-full flights 😒 and then saying they can only rebook us 48 hours later on their next available flight, which loses a ton of vacation time and messes up travel plans. You can take the refund, but rebooking on the next flight is so expensive (eg, I paid $1900 for a flight to Europe several months in advance and then rebooked at $2600 when the original was cancelled to only lose one, rather than two, vaca days there). Whats the move here, other than advocating for travelers rights laws?
If it’s a flight into or out of the EU, they have some pretty strict passenger compensation laws. You should be able to get significant compensation for a fully canceled flight.
For other flights, I think you just fight with the airline but it’s rare to get your out of pocket costs fully reimbursed unless you have high level status.
Yes, there are policies that will pay the difference if your flight is canceled and you have to pay more for another flight. But typically they don’t kick in until the delay is more than a certain number of hours.
IMO the shoes aren’t current. I think the length would look fine with pointy-toe flats or loafers or the strapped flats (great for my duck feet).
I may be in the minority on this, but Theory suits are absolutely crap quality and not worth buying.
This is a bit of an extreme comment, so maybe you should expound a bit more.
I mean Theory isn’t Target brand, and even the Target brand suit has been useful in a pinch for several posters on this site.
I do agree that Theory is not a brand that suits most body types.
The stuff they make directly for the factory stores or other discount stores, absolutely. The stuff that gets sold at the fancy department stores for full price, still good quality. The new sustainable line – it’s held up well, but I just don’t like the feel.
I used to buy Theory suits (usually from Nordstrom) and they were excellent quality for the price. Much better than Ann Taylor/J Crew; not as good as Gucci/Armani. Perhaps your experience is post covid?
Askamanager has a nice post today of good things that came out of going to office happy hours. It’s good to promote these stories
Especially there, where everybody is allergic to social interaction.
the moms site is still not working properly!
agree! I’ve been trying to respond all day on different browsers with no luck.
+1. I can’t expand any of the responses or reply.
Ditto, I could expand comments and reply on Chrome but not Safari earlier and now can’t on either platform.
Argh – not sure why we’ve been having so many problems with Cloudflare on CMoms. My tech guy is looking at it… thank you guys for your patience!
Yup, in the morning I could expand replies, upvote and comment if I went to a private browser tab. But now it doesn’t work at all!
took an at home covid test, outside of box has expiration of 6/20/25, inside of box liquid has expiration of 10/14/25…which is it?
I don’t think it matters either way. It should be fine.
To be more clear, the expiration dates aren’t really real.
Agree 1000% on this
Yeah the expiration dates aren’t that sensitive. I wouldn’t use a test with an expiry date of 2022, but a couple of months shouldn’t matter at all. fwiw my parents got immediate positives on tests that had allegedly expired years ago, when they had Covid last month (later confirmed with current tests, not a false positive.)
i tested positive at a doctor’s office last Thurday, but this home test was negative. I still don’t feel 100%, but it’s also allergy season here so it’s hard to tell if it is still covid symptoms or something else.
eh, I used a test that purportedly expired in 2022 the last time I was suspicious, and it turned up positive, so this is a question that doesn’t need answering IMHO.
I’ve had a very old test not work, but it was obvious that it wasn’t working – I didn’t even get a control line. I wouldn’t worry about this scenario at all.
I’m not a fan of the Tuckernuck “Jackie” dress. I see at least 5 women shivering in it at every conference.
I think it’s so cute but I don’t have the body type for it.
So cute on the right person, but this would make me look like an absurd overgrown toddler. And I’d be cold because how do you wear a jacket with this?
I mean it’s very expensive for polyester and I would never pay that but it looks perfectly fine.
i don’t like things that are so distinctive that you can name them (or that it’s possible it’s a 300 tuckernuck but also possibly a 40 knock off) but objectively speaking i think it’s an attractive dress, i like that jackie o vibe.
Just googled it and it’s a cute dress, but yeah it being so common people know it is a turn off.
Do any of the knockoffs make it longer?
haha – I didn’t know this dress by name but after googling it, I have also seen several women wearing it where I work. I agree that it’s cute, but hard to pair with something to go over it so doesn’t work well for southern AC.
That is perfectly dreadful.
Really random question: can anyone recommend any online bellydancing workout videos or apps? I did it a little bit when I was pregnant and really liked it, and I seem to hate all other core work so I thought maybe I’d give it a try.