Wednesday’s Workwear Report: Elbow-Sleeve Cardigan
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
I love the shape of this short-sleeved cardigan from Nordstrom’s in-house line. The slightly-puffed, elbow-length sleeves make it feel just a touch more special than your typical back-of-the-chair sweater. I would wear this olive green color with just about everything in my wardrobe this summer, but I think it would look especially lovely with the brown Modern Citizen dress we posted yesterday.
The sweater is $129 at Nordstrom and comes in sizes XXS-XXL. It also comes in black and “pink wisp.”
Sales of note for 5/1:
- Ann Taylor – Friends of Ann Event, 40% off your purchase PLUS $50 off $200! Readers love this popover blouse, and their suiting is also in the sale.
- Boden – 15% off new styles with code
- Brooklinen – 25% off sitewide (ends 5/1) — we have and love these sateen sheets
- Evereve – All tops on sale
- Express – $39+ Summer Styles
- Hatch – $15 off one of our favorite alarm clocks with code LETMOMSLEEP15
- J.Crew – Up to 30% off wear-now styles
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything, and extra 60% off clearance
- Lands' End – 40% off sitewide – lots of ponte dresses come down under $25, and this packable raincoat in gingham is too cute
- Loft – 60% off florals and 50% off your purchase
- M.M.LaFleur – End of season sale. Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off.
- Nordstrom – 1500+ new women's markdowns
- Sephora – Hair deals daily – today 5/1 up to 50% off dae, Verb, PATTERN by Tracee Ellis Ross, and BaBylissPro products
- Talbots – 40% off one item and 30% off your entire purchase
- 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!
I went to buy this cardigan and there is no Small option in any of the colors, very odd.
Small is always the first size to sell out in any item. Same with size 7.5 shoes. You’d think manufacturers would catch on and make more of the most popular sizes.
What services does everyone use to send Mother’s Day flowers? Am I going to have trouble finding options for delivery this weekend given how close it is?
I call a local florist
I like Bouqs, have always had a good experience with them.
I use the local florist 1 mile away from my mom. They have an online order form. Its easy, I support a small woman owned business, I don’t care enough to research more.
Costco!
same. Support a local small business and it makes your mom’s local downtown stronger.
I use “From you flowers” online + a promo code for free shipping and then always select “florist designed bouquet” — they outsource to a local place and usually they look good!
I know multiple florists. Always call the florist you are going to use directly. If you use some online site, they take a big cut, and it’s stressful for the florist to try to make something that looks decent in terms of what you paid.
Whether you can still get a delivery slot depends on market but check – and you might be able to get something like Friday delivery?
Also, as another option (and much cheaper!) I’ve sometimes just used instacart (combined with a text to my dad to go grab them and put them in a vase. Getting a new vase from a florist is just more clutter for my parents rather than a nice gift)
Another thing I learned from knowing a lot of florists: they’re happy to take the vase back!
I haven’t worked in office since before Covid. Back then, my work uniform was a sheath dress and blazer. I understand this is no longer the current style.
I’m about to start a hybrid role as director of legal operations for a firm of about 120 attorneys. I’ll be meeting in person a lot with the partners and firm exec committee.
I don’t want to buy new clothes until I see what others wear and can be guided by that. However, I’ll need some outfits for the initial week or two. Will I look hopelessly out of touch if I wear my 2019 sheath dress and blazer uniform?
FWIW I’m a 36 year old mom of 3, 5’2, size 00. I know pants are the style but I have really never been successful finding work pants that strike the right balance between not overwhelming me and not being skin tight.
what were people wearing when you interviewed? That should give you a clue as to overall level of formality around the office.
your old dresses sound in general fine to wear as you get to know the style. Depending on what the focus of your job is (is it inter-partner relations and possibly more stodgy, or is it being in charge of things like modernizing firm tech and so you want to look ‘current’ for better or for worse) you can then adjust accordingly.
I think what you have is appropriate for the role you describe. Also, everyone dresses a bit off the first few weeks in a new job. It’s expected.
For whatever it’s worth, I’m wearing a sheath dress and blazer today, and I think it’s fine. To be fair, there are no other female attorneys in my office (in-house counsel) and really only a handful of women in my company that I would consider peers in terms of being close to both my age and rank, so I don’t really feel like there’s much to worry about and just wear what I find comfortable, but I think you should be good enough.
I think your approach is perfectly fine. Sheath dresses and blazers may not be super current, but they are certainly professional and not going to put anyone off. I like the combo and as a fellow size 0, 5’2″ woman in my 30s, it just works better on my body than the blouse and pants combos that are more in right now. Super elegant on everyone else, frump city on me.
Exactly. A sleek, minimalistic silhouette works better on a petite frame. More pieces + more fabric + more closures + collars = a big mess on a small person.
If you have any jardigans or boyfriend style cardigans those will bring the formality level of your sheaths down a notch, as well will flats or block heels.
That sounds fine, especially for the first week! It’s a normal work outfit.
I wore something similar to a conference recently and felt perfectly in place
I think that sheath dress plus blazer is a standard boring lawyer outfit that was fine in 2019 and fine today. It’s never going to be high fashion. But it’s appropriate, professional, for forgetable in a good way. I’d wear it for the first week or two and, unless the clothes are terribly out of place or you enjoy clothing and shopping, I’d keep wearing those clothes. I
In those conversations lately about husbands and marrying the right person, one word of caution I would give – think very, very carefully before marrying someone with persistent depression, no matter how good their other qualities. It’s like living life on hard mode, even when things should be easy. I’ve never understood how other women in this position have managed to not get too dragged down by it. Maybe it’s me and I’m not working on the right things, but it’s damn hard to not get suffocated by his heavy blanket.
I’m this person and my husband is a saint. He tells me that he knows it’s harder for me than it is for him. We all have burdens we elect to take on. Nothing is easy.
I was also this person, for the first 16 years of my marriage. I know it was hard on him and I apologized over and over (part of my depression was feeling like I was failing at everything), but I am so glad he stuck with me until I got an accurate diagnosis and things got so much better.
+1 – I have persistent anxiety/depression but am very high functioning. I struggled intensely with a live-in boyfriend who delegated all of his executive function to me when he was in a bad episode. Leaving that relationship was the best thing for both of us – it gave me space to recover and it forced him to get help. I could easily see how we’d have become horribly codependent/resentful if we were married.
+1 – best thing I did for myself was leaving that guy
Is this specific to depression vs. other chronic illnesses because it’s manifesting in saying negative things vs. just being really fatigued and slow? Or is it more that his own difficulty doing things makes everything really hard as a team?
OP here and unlike many with depression, he actually does get a lot of things done – his executive functioning maybe wasn’t the strongest to start, but he can take care of himself. It’s more like letting every setback, no matter how minor, trigger a whole existential dread meltdown about the state of the world/economy/his health/you name it. It’s very frustrating to live with sometimes – can’t we just let a minor issue with the insurance company be that, and not an excuse to find the negative in every last thing around us? It’s glass half empty ALL the time, sucking the joy out of the room.
I thank the poster who blames me for being self-interested – that felt so nice to hear. I appreciate your kind words! But in reality, it’s very hard when you’re a sensitive person with a lot of natural empathy who struggles seeing loved ones struggle.
I’d like to think that talk therapy could eventually help with how much he wants to talk about this (or at least who he vents to!), but I know depression is hard.
And maybe it wouldn’t help! I’m aghast in retrospect how much I talked about my health when I had an undiagnosed condition. I honestly think it was a symptom, like a compulsive cry for help? It went away the day that I started treatment even though I didn’t even believe the diagnosis was right or that the treatment would work (thankfully I was wrong).
I hope someday something helps him with the dread and the meltdowns and the glass half empty! I’m glad he’s still functioning even if he’s struggling.
Some people are naturally selfless and are happy to do this heavy lifting for someone they otherwise love, and some people are more self-interested, and cannot. This isn’t a diss, we’re just wired differently.
I don’t think this is true. I think women are socialized to be accommodating and especially useless men very specifically target women who have been conditioned to fill this role, because the men want to take advantage of them.
I guess this is “a take.”
How is that not a diss? That’s such a cruel thing to say to someone who is struggling. Wow.
You seem to be taking it personally, but you know perfectly well that people are different in many ways. We each have different strengths.
Don’t try to justify yourself. You wanted to be mean first thing in the morning and you were.
Get a grip. My spouse and I are similar to the ways you reference—no one is trying to “be mean.” Some people just aren’t made to bear this in another person—it bleeds them dry. Some people are very capable of taking this on and want to. Not everyone can be strong for every possible scenario.
Or some people are very empathic and absorb the depression.
My SM feeds keep sending me stories about how a neighborhood in Seattle has worked to limit medical helicopter flights into a children’s hospital. I live by (like within a quarter mile and under the flight path) a similar hospital in a a larger city and I cannot imagine morally objecting to flights (but I actually don’t find them bothersome at night or during the day when I WFH). Am I missing something here? The daytime ambulances are more frequent but it’s city living — during the day there are yard crews, so it’s never quiet for long.
Most people are sh!tty. They all just have different thresholds of sh!ttiness.
Agree.
I assume they’re objecting on the basis of noise, not the exorbitant prices these air ambulances charge and how it bankrupts families? I work in a space tangential to this and I am disgusted by how these helicopter companies skirt regulations and price controls, and sometimes the patient doesn’t even make it but the family is on the hook for an insane bill that insurance won’t cover.
Most people are judgment proof, so IMO surviving family can just ignore. And it provides training to keep the helicopters running, so I don’t feel bad. They recover costs when they can, but we know you can’t get something out of nothing.
wealthy NIMBYs gonna NIMBY.
+1
Although also, if you’re seeing stuff on social media feeds that pushes your annoyed/outraged button, remember that the poster’s incentives are not “communicate a well balanced variety of news”.
I truly do not believe that story. I just don’t. It smacks of social media frenzy. As far as I can tell, there is no actual evidence that connects the neighborhood to the decision other than the fact that some people on the hospital’s board live in the neighborhood.
It is crying out for real investigative journalism, because I am confident whatever the story is is much more complex than the inflammatory social media reels make it seem. And if it is that, then investigative journalism will establish that.
But overall? This is the sort of social media content that should make you suspicious and want better sourcing.
If I were the hospital, I’d realize that I maybe need communications and accurate reporting to have people not lose faith in the system. I’m sure the plaintiffs lawyers out there will pick up on this the next time a tragedy happens and people sue (even if wasn’t a factor, it just looks so bad). A lie, repeated enough, becomes true.
The hospital spokesperson is quoted in many of these stories, e.g. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/seattle-children-wants-revisit-policy-021255124.html
It seemed that some neighbors were worried about using the helipad to ferry doctors and supplies, so totally misunderstanding how that service even works.
I just did a brief internet search because I’ve also seen this social media post and felt it seemed clickbaity and overdramatized. As expected there’s more to the story but I’ve not seen anything in my brief search that makes it seem like the residents’ concerns are actually quite legitimate. It seems like this dispute has been going on for decades. The community and hospital reached some type of agreement to limit flights back in the 90s. There’s obviously a lot more backstory that I don’t have time or inclination to look into, and for that reason, actual investigative journalism would be the only thing I’d give credence to (and/or -dare to dream – primary source documents, appropriately contextualized.)
I failed to find the actual conditional use permit online, but here’s some contextualization: https://blog.historylink.org/wp-content/themes/Hope%20on%20the%20Hill%20final.pdf
I’ve been thinking the same thing. Everything that I’ve seen just has someone hearing something from a neighbor they don’t like. I hope a journalist takes a real look into it. For the record, if it is true, I agree it’s awful (and personally, I’ve lived near hospitals multiple times over the course of about 25 years and have never been bothered by helicopter or ambulance noise, it becomes background extremely quickly), but I would like to know for sure.
I haven’t seen anyone debate the original 1992 agreement. This journalist was more specific than “some neighbor”
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle-childrens-laurelhurst-noise-concerns-burdens-lifesaving-care/281-6137dafc-308c-4cbe-9722-dc1a0ef6b4c2
Is no one worried that they’d get sued over this? Hospital people usually care greatly about that. Even if it’s not true, this sounds incendiary and not beyond the pale of how NIMBY rich people work.
My in-laws lived 2 blocks from a hospital (temporarily, while building a house) and the helicopter noise was very annoying, especially in the very early morning. However, they never thought to complain to the hospital! Obviously the helicopter flights are necessary, they’re too expensive to do frivolously. If people are seriously bothered they should move.
my dad was medically transported to a seattle hospital (Harborview fwiw) from another state. However, the hospital does not own the helicopter landing pad, and so patients have to be transferred to an ambulance from the medevac and then driven to the hospital (like 3 min max). His room overlooked the helicopter pad and multiple nurses commented on the situation with medical flights and helicopters. I don’t know about the children’s hospital but it could be a similar situation.
Don’t hospitals usually have helipads on their roof? I’ve never seen one without one (two in my city; one in prior city). I know that when EMS gets a patient, they often have to meet the helicopter at a safe landing zone, but I can’t imagine that “flying to the hospital” doesn’t equate to “landing at the hospital” if not ON the hospital. Especially if that hospital has a helipad.
I lived in a neighborhood of Oakland where a police chopper would often circle for an hour or more, and it definitely did bother me. But the yahoo article linked below mentions around three urgent heli transports per week to the hospital, which really doesn’t seem like a burden.
+1 our city has the police / media choppers circling to the point where I pull them up on Flight Radar so I know who to be annoyed at. The police one is known as “Snoopy.”
I’ve lived both under hospital flightpaths and in an area where police/media choppers circled, and the hospital noise was waaay less annoying. It would go and it would be over, there wouldn’t be constant circling.
I have several nurse and EMT friends. My sense is that if someone is urgent enough to go by helicopter, they should always be urgent enough to land at the hospital.
I don’t get the outrage over three flights a week. I live about 1.5 miles from a major hospital center with multiple helipads and trauma centers. Every time I hear one, I say a prayer and move on.
I’m having to go to the office more and need help refining my look. I asked about virtual stylists here recently and didn’t get many responses. We don’t have Nordstrom etc. where I live. I’m in house and don’t have a lot of role models, but the few female leaders wear lots of colorful blazers and nondescript pants. I prefer fine knits and neutrals, and when I need to be really formal lean toward suiting in slightly non traditional colors or fabrics (dark green, herringbone, etc). I thought I was doing okay but noticed when I was in recently wearing a sweater set and slim pants all the admin were wearing outfits similar to mine. I am up for a promotion and need to step it up. Any recommendations?
I follow Queen Letizia of Spain on insta and her outfits seem to be the most like mine of any public figure (in my dreams, Queen Maxima, but I’m more of a quiet black visuals person for workwear). Very Law & Order vibe ( if it were set in Madrid).
is your issue finding comfortable blazers in neutral colors? Because I think you answered your own question a bit — soft sweaters aren’t sending the message you want.
I found that sizing up in blazers / jackets was what I was missing. Not going to stretchy fabrics, but getting the right size in a structured piece.
Help finding a gift?
I’m working with an amazing veterinarian who is going above and beyond to set up personalized plans for my dog who has both medical and behavioral needs. She’s about to go on maternity leave with her first baby but I’ll see her one more time before she’s out. Can you suggest an appropriate gift to thank her and/or celebrate the new baby? I don’t know her beyond the animal hospital, and don’t know anything about the baby’s sex or other details. I don’t want give cash or a gift card. Maybe something in the $50-$75 range? Bay Area, if it matters.
I’ve been racking my brain, but I’m also busy preparing for my dogs’s procedure and would love some help. Thank you!
You don’t know much, so IMO this is when a gift card (maybe to something generic like Door Dash or Target (there will always be a need for more diapers, wipes, detergent)) is perfect.