Suit of the Week: McQueen
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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 2026!
This suit looks great. The wool check gets more interesting the closer you look — there are a number of small white nubs that almost look like polka dots. The double breasted blazer looks sleek, and the pants are a classic cut.
The blazer is $3300 at NET-A-PORTER, and the matching pants are $1400.
Sales of note for 4/24:
- Ann Taylor – Friends of Ann Event, 30% off your purchase PLUS $50 off $100! Readers love this popover blouse, and their suiting is also in the sale.
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Brooklinen – 25% off sitewide — we have and love these sateen sheets
- Evereve – Now through Sunday: up to 70% off! Markdowns include Alex Mill, Michael Stars, Sanctuary, Rails, Xirena, and Z-Supply
- Express – $39+ Summer Styles
- J.Crew – Friends & Family Event, 30% off your purchase! Good deals on blazers and boots
- J.Crew Factory – 40% off everything, extra 50% off clearance, and extra 20% off $125+
- Lands' End – 50% off full price styles and 60% off all clearance and sale – lots of ponte dresses come down under $25, and this packable raincoat in gingham is too cute
- Loft – Friends & Family event, 40% off entire purchase + extra 15% off + free shipping
- M.M.LaFleur – This weekend only, save 25% on dresses. Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off.
- Nordstrom – 1500+ new women's markdowns
- Sephora – Up to 50% off hair deals today only – includes Shark Beauty tools! (See our recent discussion on how to upgrade the Revlon brush.)
- Talbots – Friends & Family event, 30% off entire purchase – today only, free shipping, no minimum
- TOCCIN – Use code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off!
- Vivrelle – Looking to own less stuff but still try trends? Use code CORPORETTE for a free month, and borrow high-end designer clothes and bags!
Those of you who have found a job in the last year or so, what is your job and how did you get it? e.g., Personal connection, Client referral, LinkedIn, Indeed, Recruiter, etc.
sample size of 3 acquaintances – all through personal network letting them know of an opening and passing resume along. (Legal field)
I just applied on my large company’s website. I may have searched linked in to find the job.
i saw it on linked in but it was posted by a former colleague
Linkedin; cold applied
Caveat that the job I got was 1 of ~500 cold apps I did, so obviously the odds weren’t great. But I also applied to the smaller number of jobs I knew the team at/had a referral for; and none of those panned out.
Indeed, no personal connection. My field is writing/communications.
Heard about the post from a network connection and public posting, I think I got it because I’m objectively qualified and network connections emailed the hiring manager.
Currently in-house counsel. A former client from my private practice days asked me to join their company.
This was 18 months ago, but: in-house legal counsel (contracting), through a personal connection.
a recruiter found me on LinkedIn
Indeed, no personal connection. Lucky enough to see it same day it was posted – it was taken down after 3 days because of how many applications came in. I’m a software developer. I’m on day 3 of the job and so far no red flags.
I am increasingly unhappy with the look of my face. I went to the hairdresser yesterday and was sort of horrified to look at myself in the mirrors; dark eye circles despite copious amounts of concealer, forehead wrinkles, deep lines between my mouth and nose. I’m 46 and have always been pretty low-maintenance – make up yes, but I don’t like getting hair treatments or nail services or anything like that, and the only anti-aging I’ve done is retinol creams. But I’m ready to do … something.
My regular dermatologist has an affiliated medi-spa. Do I just make an appointment there and agree to whatever they suggest that I can afford? I just have no idea what to do here.
Aw! This happens to me every few years, also mid-40s. Honestly, I just play with my face–do some face yoga, give it a nicer and more intentional moisturizing session, maybe do an ice-rinse or two to shock the face. Also prioritize getting 10-15 minutes of sun on your face every morning–it’s a huge difference maker. With some extra vitamin D and colostrum (if that’s your thing.)
This made me laugh. All of it. And not one of these was recommended by my dermatologist, who is excellent.
I’m not unhappy with my face. At least these are free things for her to start with before she starts spending lots of money.
Botox is the answer
I would try a red light mask and the NuFace device first.
Yes, go to derm/med spa and see what they recommend, but avoid filler. Some botox and maybe some regular facials should help you feel better about your appearance.
As you age, using too much concealer or makeup actually makes you look older (much older). Also, depending on the lighting at your hair salon, you might not look nearly as old in other venues. (I would expect them to have flattering light, but you never know). I follow the makeup artist Selena on tiktok and she has lots of videos about makeup after 40. Do whatever procedures you feel you need, but definitely get a pro makeup consultation from someone who works with people your age.
This is so true. You need to change your makeup as you get older and use less of it! I see so many older women who use even more makeup as they age thinking it will cover up aging and it only looks worse. I have toned down my make up routine starting in my late 40s and now at 60 I only use a tinted moisturizer, mascara, blush and lip products.
I’ve heard they pile on the makeup because they can’t see well anymore.
Yes this is true to.
So it is very important to have good lighting in your bathroom or wherever you do you make-up, with a high resolution mirror. And ideally, someone you trust to give you feedback.
Yes, start with Botox or Dysport and get your hair cut and colored. If you keep on not doing anything it’s just going to get worse.
“Worse.”
It’s also going to get worse if you do everything! I promise.
This^
I wouldn’t use a hairdresser’s mirror to judge how your skin look. They have work lights at the most unflattering angles to you. I don’t think I’ve ever liked my makeup in that light, but feel wholly normal 5 minutes later out of the bright backlight.
Yeah I’ve seen on social media that just about everyone hates how they look in the salon chair.
Your choice of nickname tells me that you should be kinder to yourself. That is one think. Second is that no one looks good at the salon, that black cape creates more shadows, the lighting is meant to help someone work (!), and your hair is all slicked back. There is no evidence that red light, something called Ziip, drinking collagen, face yoga helps. I recommend Mrs Derm and Ellen Gendler for socials to follow. Their basic recommendations are pretty cheap, generic Retin-A is like $12 a tube and Euro sunscreen is a little pricier than US, but it is also like $20 per bottle for drugstore brands. Talk to your derm’s office about a cosmetic appointment. But first decide what is really bothering you before you go in there. I do generic Retin-A, vitamin C ($24 bottle), Euro sunscreen (about $20 bottle) and the Coleman compound ($124 for about 3 months worth), my whole skincare routine is less than $100 a month and I like my face now more at 40 than I did at 37 when I started this routine. I don’t feel I need Botox yet. There is a lot of snake oil out there. I’m saving my $$$ for if and when I want surgery.
“copious amounts of concealer” can make everything worse. Have you tried color correcting instead? I like Bobbi Brown’s – it’s kind of the OG – but lots of brands make them now. You can apply less if you correct the color.
In terms of treatments, I’ve used laser (vbeam) and IPL (BBL, which is not brazilian but t lift) every once in a while to remove discoloration (IPL) and redness (vbeam.)
The best treatments that are non invasive are religious use of sunscreen – a daily full 1/4 tsp for the entire face, not including neck – and an effective retinoid you can tolerate using daily. I use tretinoin, but I had to work up to it. Over the counter retinoids can work in the long run, but products like retinol have to be converted to retoinoic acid in your skin layers, which can take 6 months. I just went for a low dose of the real stuff, tretinoin, and worked my way up to the strenght I’m using now.
I wrote you a long comment that disappeared.
1) use color corrector rather than piling on the concealer. It works so much better and you can use less.
2) sunscreen every single day, 1/4 tsp for you face only (not including neck)
3) tretinoin
4) non ablative laser and IPL for redness and discoloration
based on this morning thread – do you think you married the right person?
The second time, yes, absolutely. But hoo boy did I have to take a Mulligan on the first one!
Yes to the second time! I highly recommend NOT marrying your first serious boyfriend from college.
I met my current (second) husband as a fully grown adult, and he was one too, and by then we really knew who we were. My first and I did not, and we matured into very different people over the course of our marriage.
Yes. I have no idea how I got so lucky. 22 year old me somehow picked the same guy 40 year old me is head over heels in love with.
NOPE.
yes. married the first guy I ever dated, A+/five-star/10 of 10 decision 20 years later.
I don’t believe in “the one” and I think if I hadn’t married DH, I would have probably found someone else I would have also been very happy with (better in some ways, worse in others probably) but I don’t know that I could have done any better on net.
All of this, except I was 26! No idea how I lucked into this guy.
Same, I met him in college and we got married in our mid 20s. We grew into adults together and we have always been a great team. Could there be someone out there that would have been an equally good compliment? Sure. But I think we are great together and would do it all over again exactly the same.
We do joke that we would never have matched on the apps and wouldn’t even match on the apps today.
Yes 100%. Our marriage is not super passionate right now but he’s an amazing father and partner in parenting and life, and my best friend and I can’t imagine not being married to him.
Yes. We’ve had our issues but overall I’m very grateful that I have someone I can trust and rely on.
Yes, but I was almost 30 when I met him.
+1. Dated a bit and learned a few lessons, then married the right one.
there w is no right person!! there are definitely wrong people but no one person.
I didn’t read the question as implying there’s only one match for everyone, but rather “did you make the right choice marrying the person you did?”
This isn’t honestly how I feel. For me it was this one or no one.
Yes. We met first year of high school and have lived through a lot together.
100%. The more I read here the luckier I feel, tbh.
hard to say but I’m happy. we have a very roommate-like marriage but we laugh a lot together and he’s still one of the people i want to talk to the most.
Idk. He’s fine. I have complaints; some pretty serious complaints that I’m sure would have the internet telling me to get a divorce.
But also, I married late in life and I dated A LOT before picking this one. This is hands down the best relationship I’ve ever been in. Unfortunately that’s not saying much. I feel like I dated every man in the world and this was the best I could do. Maybe they’re all frogs, you just have to pick which warts you can live with.
On balance, being with him makes my life easier than it would be without him. As long as that remains true, I have no interest in leaving.
I don’t think so. I was too young and insecure when I got married. We make things work, but knowing what I know now, I would do things differently.
Sounds like my mother. I’m sorry.
Yes. I feel incredibly lucky! I feel very supported, loved and cared for. We are currently in the “parenting two toddlers stage” and it’s tough, but we get through and are able to laugh along the way.
I did. Being with him has truly made me a better person. We’ve had our differences and compromises but I think that I really got the person who made my life and me a better version than I had hoped to be.
My awful JR was supposed to be laid off this week, my executive just excitedly told me they found money to keep my JR. I’m heart broken, he’s so useless it’s actually more efficient to do everything myself (I didn’t hire him, he was a bait and switch transfer from a different department because they didn’t want to go through the effort of firing him). All my previous wonderful JRs have been rightly promoted, and it just seems like I’m going to be stuck with this lemon for life. One of my colleagues has had a lemon JR for EIGHT years, and it seems like my future is going to be similar.
Why don’t you tell your executive and replace your lemon already?
Firing the lemon would take about 6 months, and it’s considered a failure so they typically only fire people for like illegal activities, being dumb as a doorknob typically isn’t a high enough bar for firing. My executive is also unfortunately a good dude so he would feel guilty transferring the lemon and sticking some other team with him.
What’s a JR?
Junior i think
Does anyone else use a Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund for donations?
I was pretty shocked this week to get an email from Fidelity stating that they were denying my recent donation to Southern Poverty Law Center, pointing to their recent targeting via Justice Department’s specious lawsuit. Well that is why I was giving money right now – to fight this ridiculous partisan smear campaign. So I am stunned to see that Fidelity wants to start wading into partisan waters by withholding my money from a 401c3 organization that I have donated to in the past using this same account. The email included a customer service email address to use if we had questions, but that email bounced back. So I called and gave them my feedback – which was not well received. They just re-read the email back to me.
Has anyone else had this issue if they tried to donate to SPLC this week from their Charitable Fund? Does anyone use a Charitable Gift Fund at Vanguard? I recently moved all my $ to Fidelity, but maybe it’s time to go back to Vanguard.
It’s literally not your money. I also don’t like this, but that is the catch with a DAF. I’m not enough of an expert to know whether their decision is reasonable, based on their legal risks, but they get to make that decision, and it most cases it would be a good one, it’s just less clear when the charges are politically targeted. My understanding is that Vanguard is doing the same.
Just to add, I think complaining about it is a good idea because this is probably just a standard policy that makes sense most of the time, but not in the age of a wannabe dictator and we don’t need to capitulate to his whims. But it is a downside of a DAF. You’ve already given your money away and no longer have full control.
Thanks, I appreciate your thoughts.
What would their legal risks be, if the organization has not lost their non profit status and is still a registered 401c3 organization?
Yeah, there was a NYT article (gift link).
Vanguard is also blocking donations to SPLC.
NYT just published an article on this an hour ago.
I know childbirth is a wondrous thing and all that, but when announcing your child’s arrival on FB where all your relatives from ages 10 to 100 will read your post, is it entirely necessary to include that Junior arrived via a “beautifully healing VBAC?” Because someone – your cousin, me – will then be asked to explain by our confused and curious mutual relatives, and discussing your hoo-ha was never, ever on my list of life to-dos. “Mom and baby are doing well” is info enough; details can be saved for those who ask. Pleeease.
Totally agree. Is she also MAHA or something, trying to make a political statement?
My friend nearly died during a VBAC right after the birth. Five kids would have been motherless if not for an emergency hysterectomy, and she still might not have made it. My adult daughter, who is not crunchy at all, declares that VBACs are “very safe”. I don’t know why some women can’t accept that C-sections are healthy and life saving when needed, and think that they’re entitled to a vaginal birth or VBAC. Btw vaginal births can also be traumatizing.
It’s part of the legacy of unnecessary C-sections pressured on patients explicitly for the convenience of scheduling in advance (along with a lot of other very well founded breaches of trust). People pendulum swing.
Let’s not forget, they also push c sections to keep things “nice and tight” for the husband. Particularly true in Brazil.
Oof can we please not make this about women being “entitled”? What women are “entitled” to is personalized healthcare.
It’s frustrating to feel like doctors aren’t treating YOU; they’re not considering your individual risk factors, they’re certainly not trying to educate you about the risks and benefits of different treatment options, they’re just making decisions for you based on statistics that aren’t even complete and sometimes are not based on the most current information. And when you ask for an explanation, or when you find a more recent study with updated and more complete numbers than what they’re telling you, they look at you like you sprouted another head. I’m a lawyer, not a doctor, but I shouldn’t have to put on my advocate hat to get to some semblance of informed consent — and even then, it’s met with blank stares and idks.
I’ve worked in medical malpractice, and I would NEVER EVER have a VBAC nor would I recommend one to anyone. Many doctors won’t offer them at all because the bad outcomes are so extreme.
“Ask her”
“It’s a type of childbirth”
“I bet Google knows”
“It means she had a c-section last time but didn’t have one this time”
Use whatever script best fits the person asking. No hoo-ha mention needed.
If I had a VBAC I think I’d want to shout it from the rooftops. My (undermedicated) c-section was traumatic. I don’t ever want to go through that again, to the point that I don’t think I’ll have another child. It’s encouraging to hear that some women are able to have successful VBACs (even though I would be ineligible).
ugh TMI. The whole world does not need to hear your birth journey.
Prudish take, tbh. “They didn’t have to have another c-section and baby came the traditional way” is a perfectly fine explanation. It’s obviously really meaningful to her and she wanted to share, you’re the one making it weird.
I find your paraphrase to be incredibly judgmental-sounding.
This entire thread is incredibly judgmental sounding, including the OP’s post.
Ha. A lot of women become much less private about these things after giving birth. I definitely did, for a while. I think it was a combination of other women telling me all about their pregnancies and births, having a bunch of strangers in and out of the delivery room, the nurses checking on me and the lactation consultants coming in and out for the next few days, and the constant nursing that made me just give up on a cover after half a day. Plus, the exhaustion. There’s just no sense of privacy left.
Seriously, by the time I’d given birth in front of a room full of medical personnel (there were complications) and had been constantly nursing my baby for a week, I really did not care.
Ugh, yuck no thanks. I also associate this sort of stuff with the worst folks
Methinks you’re clutching your pearls too much. I’m not sure I announced that all three of my births were vaginal, but everyone asked pretty much immediately. Give a new mom a break.
Is it still a thing to cold-email people in your industry to network?
I was recently laid off. I work in teapots and just moved from a state where teapots are huge to a state where it’s kinda not a thing. There are a couple teapot people in the whole state here, and I just stumbled across one of them online. I’m mid 40s and I’ve got 10 years’ experience in teapots. Do people my age reach out to professionals and ask… to meet for coffee? To take a look at my resume and keep me in mind for anything? Via LinkedIn or corporate email? Feeling flummoxed. Thank you.
Yes – coffee or a virtual chat. Ask for advice.
Not meet for coffee. I’m 45 and someone cold emailed me with a genuine interest in my area locally I’d at minimum reply to an email, maybe ask for a resume, or if they had a specific ask I’d do a call if I thought I could help. YMMV but good luck!
Lots of drama today on our NextDoor group. Apparently, Goodwill is the devil because things cost money there. Another place just like it is the devil because they no longer take donations of random stuff in trash bags. I’ve volunteered at one type of these places and rent isn’t free and sorting through and paying to get trash hauled away (because a lot of what is donated is actually trash or is so soiled or old as to be not salable at any price) is expensive and/or needs labor that they can’t pay for or don’t have volunteers for. This is how we treat the helpers in 2026.
Goodwill is a charity that raises money for job training and resources. It’s not just a store. It’s kind of infuriating that people don’t understand that charities need money to serve their mission.