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 2026!
This “warm pink” suit from Theory looks perfect for a heatwave: both pieces are in the brand's Good Linen (a blend of linen, viscose and elastane, promising stretch & breathability), and the shrunken three-button blazer is one of their best sellers right now.
The pants are marked down to $171 from $285, but the blazer is full price at $465.
Psst: the special deal of the day in the NAS is for perfumes — I'm tempted by a number of them!
Sales of note for 7/19:
- Nordstrom – The Anniversary Sale has started! Here's our big roundup of the best workwear, as well as everything we've selected thus far. Don't forget to check to see if their daily beauty deal is a good one for you – e.g., 7/23 Lancome; 7/24 YSL; 7/29 up to 40% off select lip products; 7/31 Bobbi Brown; 8/1 Jo Malone
- Ann Taylor – Semi-annual sale, 60% off sale and 40% off everything — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Banana Republic – Summer sale up to 60% off sale styles + extra 20% off
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns
- J.Crew – 50% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 60% off clearance
- Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lululemon – Summer sale!
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added)
- M.M.LaFleur – 25% off jardigans (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the rack, extra 25% off clearance! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work dresses from Calvin Klein, Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – Red Door Sale! Prices start at $15
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
what is the best one week liquid fast to jump start a weight loss? like one of those delivery services? is there such a thing? like slim fast for grown ups?
Do you have really lousy health insurance, or why are you planning to DIY and not use your health benefits here?
There are no health benefits that help for this. Lots of water, low carb, no sugar, no eating after 5=the old school way. Otherwise look into GLP-1s.
My health benefits cover a conversation with my usual doctor about going on a liquid diet, as well as a consultation with a dietitian if my doctor refers me. There’s also a weight loss program I can opt into since my insurer doesn’t want to cover GLP1s, though I haven’t looked into it. I wouldn’t jump start any weight loss regimen without so much as a single conversation with primary care about it.
Your suggestion doesn’t seem to be a liquid fast at all, so it’s not what OP asked about. Physicians prescribe liquid diets for bowel rest in various conditions, so they may know which products are safe and reliable. They also know our health history, so they can steer us away from formulations that wouldn’t be right for us. And some products are regulated as dietary supplements rather than as food, so it can be a buyer beware product category.
She said to jump start a weight loss. Most people are not going to see a doctor about that. For very obvious reasons: no one will see you that quickly, the conversations are usually painful and dumb, and doctors don’t know a lot about nutrition except the extremely outdated advice of “eat lean meats and limit your dairy.”
Honestly OP, consult the internet for this.
I’m sorry your doctors are dumb? Get the referral to a dietitian if you want someone who knows a lot about nutrition. Bariatrics is a whole medical specialty. If you’re not overweight enough for bariatrics, there are still some labs a lot of doctors will order (weight loss with a normal A1C is a different ball game from weight loss with a high A1C, right?).
No reputable physician or dietician is going to advise on a crash diet.
Why would anyone do this? You will absolutely put the weight back on the moment you start eating again. It’s 2026; you don’t have to live this way. Get a GLP-1. They are miracle drugs.
Re: the GLP-1 advice. Keep in mind they don’t work for everyone. I used semaglutide (compounded) for 3-4 months and lost zero pounds. I told my online provider and they switched me to tirzepatide. I lost about 15 pounds and have been stalled for several months, even though I switched to the Lilly version! Now pondering whether to ask for higher dose (at higher cost), because it sure doesn’t seem worth it to spend $400 month and be six lbs or so up from my lowest weight on the compounded stuff. Yes, I eat high protein and lift heavy. Just am not sure maintaining a 15 lb loss is worth $5K/year.
I agree that fasting can be counterproductive for weight loss, but people do sometimes fast for all kinds of reasons. A relevant healthcare provider can weigh in on pros and cons. And if you’re dead set against GLP1s, it’s not like it’s the only thing they have to offer!
Just don’t get some social media weight loss meal replacement formula that’s about to be recalled for containing unlisted stimulants.
I do water fasting for autophagy benefits—mostly because I’m terrified of dementia.
Physicians and dietitians advise on fasting and liquid diets all of the time. I’ve gotten advice for managing my health during religious fasts before. They didn’t just lecture me about not doing religious fasts! My husband saw a dietitian about how to manage a liquid diet. Dietitians do know their stuff.
They might advise against a crash diet if the evidence is that whatever OP is considering is not an effective approach to weight loss, and she’s made it clear that rapid weight loss is her goal. But if they’re right, then they may have better advice anyway? If she’s determined, they can still make sure it’s a reputable product and that there’s maximal harm reduction.
But why leave your whole healthcare team out of your healthcare decisions?
I have not used it, but Grace at The Stripe recommends Kroma Wellness and has talked about doing the reset a few times, and has a 15% off code ‘GRACEA15’.
Seriously? Did we time travel back to 1992 here?
Yes, this place is depressing sometimes. But as we know, the unhealthy waif look is back. Sadly.
Yeah, liquid diets can be medically necessary, but not as self-directed crash weight loss strategies. I hope OP reassesses this plan.
Some of us have to do a week liquid just as part of colonoscopy prep, so I don’t think of it as that big of a deal. I don’t really think it leads to any real weight loss either though! Liquid calories are still calories.
Water and electrolytes.
Talk with a dietitian–actual nutritional training. They can recommend and then follow through with longer-term goals. I worked with someone like this. I did a week or two of a powdered meal replacement to support gut health. Then we focused on improving protein and better nutrition. Even on a “normal” diet, she recommends doing the liquid fasting for a few days to a week every few months. It was really helpful. I had sought her out after gaining a ton of weight following colon cancer surgery. There really is a lot more to diet and weight gain than calories in and calories out. I lost about 35 pounds that way without even focusing much on exercise. I think a big part for me was that I was having frequent diarrhea and that had made me crave all things salty. Once the gut was better, it was easier to make healthier choices and I also wasn’t as inflamed. I’m now on a GLP and have lost another 25 lbs or so. It’s not a replacement for healthy eating. So I’m glad I had the foundation education already. FWIW, my insurance covered my virtual visits with the dietician just due to the desire for weight loss (nothing to do with the cancer). It was really convenient. I can’t say enough good things.
Looking for advice. Lawyer, private practice. I recently moved floors and am now sitting near a group of first year associates. Many cry weekly and everyone is extremely stressed. I genuinely don’t recall that type of stress as a first year. We’re known as a ‘lifestyle’ firm, our billable requirement is (literally) hundreds of hours less than most firms our size in our market. I have started asking a few questions and it seems the themes are: 1) being a first year sucks because they’re realizing school doesn’t teach them how to do anything, they expected to know answers and they don’t, 2) working with different clients and partners is really challenging and everyone has different expectations, 3) they don’t have control over what clients want or when, and they don’t know how to prioritize yet, and 4) hearing the first year is tough and time makes it better/experience helps doesn’t make them feel better.
I don’t think this is unusual. I’ve talked to our firm’s associate development group and they are thinking about having the next monthly coffee on the stress/phases of being an associate – especially focused on the stresses 1st and 2nd year associates face. The first years have started talking to me more, even though I don’t work much with them, and the committee wants me there. I know one hour long coffee is not going to solve anything. But I’d like to offer any kindness, support, wisdom to help them through this stressful period. And I recognize I either didn’t have it that bad or just straight up don’t remember it. I still have stresses today, my job has stress – but not to the point of tears or keeping me up at night. I’m not sure I know how to help but I’d like to try. Any suggestions for what to say, offer, how to support? Any suggestions or reality checks for me?
Is this a smaller firm? They are often lacking in training and support for new attorneys, and more seasoned attorneys can be a wildly mixed bag in terms of management, training skills, and reasonableness of expectations. A one hour coffee isn’t going to change the types of issues you’ve listed, and trying to normalize a working environment that lacks adequate structural support won’t help either. Is there a mentorship program that pairs them with mid levels or younger senior associates? Items 1-3 are all things that can be directly addressed with some training and guidance, and a person closer to their level is often a good resource.
I’m not a lawyer, but work with interns. Can you talk with them about how your prioritizing competing work and how to communicate that to whoever is giving them the work? To me, in the list you provided, that’s where I see the biggest impact could be. I’m sure that everyone thinks their thing is the most urgent, but helping them come up with a system to actually figure that out or how to have the conversation with whoever is assigning work.
+1, this and also best practices for handling follow-up questions. I remember the stress of wanting to re-approach the senior associate or partner with questions – because I’d reached the point where I needed direction on next steps – but had zero idea whether they were ‘dumb’ or not.
Yes to this. As a new lawyer, most of the general “for all new lawyers” advice that came to me was on the theme of, “try to figure it out yourself/bring me a solution not a problem,” and *for me* that was wrong. Whatever baked in stuff I brought to being a lawyer was already pretty problem-solving oriented, and so when I tried to apply that advice, I was afraid of asking any questions and ended up doing work on my own, inefficiently, and wrong.
They may also need advice on how to use the various administrative resources your firm has. I didn’t have a good idea of what I could or should ask our –processing department to do for me, or my secretary, or our paralegals. New lawyers don’t know what kinds of skills and expectations those folks have, or what’s appropriate for them do (like from a professional responsibility standpoint). The best thing there might be to have 2 or 3 associates each talk about how they work with those colleagues, since people have different styles and preferences, and I think it might be easiest to grasp by example.
They need actionable strategies to manage these concerns, to the extent they can be managed. If they’re not comforted by hearing that it gets better with time, it’s probably because they just don’t see a path for improvement, which suggests they don’t feel like they have any tools in their toolbox to work on these things.
-what substantive resources are available? (Do they know how to search for briefs or memos or discovery requests or whatever written by others in your firm? Precedent banks? Practical law? Law library?) If there’s no structured introduction to any of these things, they actually might not know. Seems obvious to us, but it may not be to them.
-Coaching on how to reach out to partners to prioritize tasks
-Do they realize that paralegals/assistance can be incredible resources for figuring out what specific partners want, and know how to respectfully request that assistance?
-Do they have someone they can go to with run of the mill questions?
20+ years ago, I was in the same boat as the first years that you’re describing – except it didn’t improve for any of the six years that I was at a law firm. I had absolutely horrible sleep and anxiety, I cried in my office regularly, and I developed an auto-immune disease that can be brought on by stress. The solution for me was to get a different job, which I did and I’ve been very happy ever since. The anxiety and depression, which I’d never experienced before or since, melted away after I left. Law firm associate was simply the wrong job for me.
Any recs for New Buffalo, MI + surrounding areas? We plan to go there for the day soon.
The Stray Dog.
Seconding Stray Dog.
It’s not fancy, but the “Legendary” cheeseburgers and crinkle fries at Redamak’s also hit the spot!
We like Journeyman and Froehlichs in Three Oaks (Froelichs’ chocolate cake is to die for, and they have a nice restaurant now too). I also like the Sawyer Garden Center to stock up on bougie foodstuffs and really soft warm socks, but if you’re only there for a day, I probably wouldn’t make it a destination.
It is summer and my body cannot handle either gravity or salt. Going on a walk pumps blood into my swelling hands and gravity dumps it into my feet. Any salty food does the same with retained fluid. Why is this? I can eat and stand and walk just fine the other three seasons. Blood pressure is normal; no medical conditions; kidneys are good. I’m just eating dainty lady foods and keeping my feet elevated.
Could just be age, but things that have helped my mom (who experiences similar symptoms) and that I found helpful when pregnant during the summer: more water. More than that. So much water. You will pee so much for the first couple weeks of consuming so much water, but then your body figures it out. Also some electrolytes – magnesium and potassium pills were easiest for me, but stuff like tofu and spinach and bananas certainly don’t hurt. When walking for an extended period, elevate your hands. Whenever I spent a lot of time walking, I had a backpack and I would hold on to the straps to give me somewhere to put my hands. Also, regular exercise really does help. Every day from 15 minutes was better than 3x a week for an hour on the swelling/circulation front. And compression socks if you’re sitting all day.
I agree about water, compression, magnesium, and high potassium foods, and movement.
Sugar is even worse for me than salt so I find I have to be aware of both.
Up your hydration level by a billion percent and wear compression socks.
Screaming into the void that I really wish rage-quitting or just ghosting a project would actually hurt the company and not just me.
I don’t know if I have any more polite, collaborative, professional responses left in me at this point.
Out of the list of 10+ women I suggested, the only response is to suggest Matt, David, Brian, Chadwick, Chris, Nate, and Michael might be a better fit, even though we already have Mike, Bryan, John, Jeremy, and Trevor on the list?
Out of all the dates I gave you for this big project to conclude, you need to suggest a date that’s too soon to actually do all the tasks, or too late to actually have any impact?
I told you we have a time limit, but you insist we need to add two more things. Nope, we cannot accommodate those two things, but sure, let’s argue about it for 20 minutes and 15 messages.
I need to shut my laptop before I throw it across the room.
I’m so sorry, that must be so frustrating. I very much understand the impulse to light everything on fire but unfortunately the people who need to feel the pain never do.
Chicago ‘rettes – I need your help. My 15 year old kid is going to need to get from University of Chicago to Chicago O’Hare during afternoon rush hour. I heard that that is a complete nightmare. I’m think about having him take an Uber to a Blue Line stop and taking a subway for the rest of the way (he has one carry-on bag and a backpack). Does that make sense or will it take longer because of all of the stops? Is there a particular stop on the Blue line that you would recommend (i.e., it’s not that sketchy)? It looks like the UIC stop may be reasonable? Any advice or suggestions are appreciated.
no experience with the UIC stop, but any of the stops in the Loop (google suggests that of these, Jackson may be closest for him) should be fine.
Everywhere will be reasonably ok during afternoon rush hour. If he’s getting on a bus at the University of Chicago, transferring to the Blue line at Jackson, and then getting off at O’Hare he’ll be just fine. Blue line is in general more reliable – like, it will take a long time but (usually) it’s a predictable long time, whereas traffic could be fine or could be houuuuurs.
The Clark and Lake stop. Avoid Jackson- too many shenanigans in that underground tunnel.