Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Extra-High-Waisted Stevie Straight Pants
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
I think Old Navy is one of the best options for inexpensive work pants these days. Not only do they have a wide selection of cuts and colors, but the size range absolutely can’t be beat. This pair of straight-leg pants has some stretch to it, but it also has a pintuck that gives it a slightly more polished look than your typical yoga pant.
I would pair these with a short-sleeved sweater and some loafers for the rest of the summer and add a sweater blazer when the weather gets a little chillier.
The pants are on sale for $25 at Old Navy and come in sizes XS-4X in regular, tall, and petite inseams.
Sales of note for 8/10:
- Ann Mashburn – Seasonal sale, up to 50% off – we just included them in our updated Top 10 Brands for Comfortable Heels!
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase, $99 dresses, and extra 60% off clearance — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Anthropologie – Extra 40% off sale!
- Bare Minerals – Free shipping over $50! Love their Love thir OG Mineral Veil setting powder
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns (new lines added)
- J.Crew – Up to 30% off
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off sitewide
- J.McLaughlin – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lilysilk – Anniversary sale, save up to 70%
- Madewell – Up to 30% off
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added, exclusively online)
- M.M.LaFleur – End of season sale! (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clearance, new markdowns up to 75% off! 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
- Saks Fifth Avenue – Up to $500 off your purchase! Great selection of Veronica Beard, L'Agence, Vince, and more.
- Talbots – Semi-annual red door sale, 50-60% off all markdowns, and free shipping on 150+.
- Theory – End of season sale is on! Love all the colors their best-selling sweater tee comes in, and some colors are on sale.
I really wish pants didn’t have to all be high waisted, or god forbid extra high waisted. I hate when pants are on my stomach – I just want them to be on my hip bones. But super low waisted wasn’t good for my body type either. Just give us mid rise! Or options.
For example, on Old Navy right now the rise options are High, Extra High, or Mid. For work pants + Mid rise, all the pants are wide legged. I’m always on the hunt for mid rise straight pants.
There are tons of high rise pants in every type of leg, so its not just that wide legs are in style or something.
I know, Old Navy has been killing me for years now. I can’t stand it that everything has to be high waisted or extra high waisted. Gap and Athleta are almost as bad. It’s really annoying, since those were some of my favorite places to find decent pants in petite sizes at reasonable prices, especially since I WFH so athleisure is fine most of the time.
People with preferences like yours are the reason I’m hoarding all the high rise pants I can afford! The fastest way for me to hate my body is to see it in low rise and mid rise pants 😂
I mean you don’t have to hoard, they have been the main rise sold for years.
I disagree, I’m the one of the high rise haters who posted above complaining Old Navy, but there were literally several years in a row that they didn’t have a single pair of non-high rise pants. Other stores weren’t quite as bad, but I didn’t buy pants for several years because it was so hard to find pants that were comfortable for me and I had enough clothes that I wasn’t completely desperate. I’m old enough to know that eventually the fashion pendulum will swing back the other way, but that’s also bad. Extreme rises aren’t that comfortable or flattering on most people and people’s bodies vary enough that giving people some choice is a good thing.
In my DNGAF midlife era, I have come to the conclusion that anything extreme is not it for my stylistic preferences, nor my body type. I look and feel best in classic cuts. I’m tired of fighting it. And I’m REALLY tired of the style pendulum swinging wildly all the time.
Same here, high is the most flattering and I loathe mid and low rises.
The solution is for a store like Old Navy that is anyways selling every possible version of every pant to have a little variety. Like one mid rise straight pant. It’s not pitching rise preferences against each other.
Yes, the reality is that all these rises are relative to our figures. (Midrise is high rise on me since my waist is so short!) So people need options.
Same. High-waisted pants literally give me stomachaches if I’m sitting for any amount of time. And yes, they fit. There is plenty of give … when I’m standing.
Yeah I realized its really not the size or fit. It’s the pressure on my stomach. Equally fitted pants that lie on my hip bones and not just soft stomach are much more comfortable.
Yes, that’s the frustrating thing! If I size up, they are sloppy all over and don’t look right. Wearing my actual size means that I have a stomachache by 10 a.m.
Me too. It’s a choice between buying pants that are so big they won’t stay up when standing and walking or buying the correct size and them being so painful I have to have them fully unzipped when sitting. Mid rise pants in the same size are fine, just really hard to find right now.
In larger sizes I also don’t like that the pant legs themselves get bigger (as makes sense!) and it doesn’t look good.
My problem with most high-waisted pants is that the high waist falls down to my natural waist, making the crotch drop partway down my thighs and the butt sag. High waists only work well for me in tailored pants that are actually fitted through the waist and hip.
I never hear others complain about this but I can’t be the only one!
RIP the Gap Perfect Fit pants.
These pants are a great workhorse. The fabric is thicker than you’d expect from Old Navy with a nice amount of stretch. They are totally secret pajamas.
Ahh that’s great to know!
How does modern citizen fit and is it for short people? I’m looking at a dress that runs SML and wanting the waist and bust to hit at the right parts on me.
Can anyone report on whether Pact’s basics are worth it? I’m right in the middle of two different sizes, which gives me pause. I just want some basic fall tees, preferably in a ribbed fabric that doesn’t cling.
Can anyone recommend a gift card for my niece who recently moved to San Francisco? Mid-twenties, lives with several roommates. She’s a foodie, is into yoga, and she’s on a tight budget. I’d love to support a local business instead of a big chain like Starbucks or Sephora. Thanks!
Adding: budget is $75-$100.
Rainbow Grocery is a local coop that sells gift cards online.
And they’re hard to get to depending on where you live. OP, I’d just Venmo her some cash. It’s going to be easier to use.
Any idea where she lives in SF? Bi Rite is a personal fave and one of the local fancy grocery stores; $75 or $100 would be a solid gift card there, but if she’s way far away from any location, maybe not a great choice.
Any idea where she practices? A few months of Classpass?
She’s on a tight budget – just send her a venmo or cash with the note that she should spend it on whatever she wants. Don’t make a project to use the money.
This. SF is also not a gift card kinda town. It’s a tap pay, use your phone place, so just load up her Venmo.
Crossposting from the moms site:
Another question/complaint about school apps. My husband and I have a shared email account that routes to both our inboxes and has been a gamechanger for handling life admin, including school- and childcare-related communications. We used the account to make a single, shared login for the school communication app (ParentSquare, in case it matters). My kids’ school is now saying we need to have two separate emails and two separate accounts for the app. I’m annoyed by this, as it defeats the effort to streamline and will inevitably result in direct messages from teachers going to just one of us, plus The Who’s-on-first game of figuring out whether the other one filled out the forms that were uploaded, etc. I also don’t want the school to use my personal email address rather than our shared household one for kid-related purposes.
My sense is that this requirement is for privacy/safety concerns if parents are or become separated. I’m inclined to say nope, we use this single account for child-related items, and if it’s not possible to associate a single email with two different parents, we’ll just share the login for one. Is that unduly antagonistic? I’m not trying to be a PITA, I’m just annoyed that this is one of four platforms the (screen-free, Montessori) school is using and that our effort to simplify is an issue.
I think schools don’t have a right to make this requirement of you. If you can get away with it, stand your ground.
Yes. I would just… ignore the ask. It sounds like maybe they’re a private school, so sure, they can require anything they want. But if it’s a mass email “all parents must have their own logins”, shrug.
if you have to, can you set up a second shared email account that also routes to both of you? The school doesn’t need to know how that email gets forwarded.
I’m with you on this. Your solution works for you, and they need the pushback that they’re being too inflexible with this policy.
I was like this in K and by first grade, I just decided to ignore what I could, figuring that their bandwidth was limited and this would not be a “real problem” once school got going.
Now I have a kid in 11th and we got dumped back into this at a new school that made two accounts, one for each parent, so now we have two new e-mail addresses with google/gmail logins to keep on top of that were announced to us, unwanted. And they’ve already started to use P1’s address, even though they created a P2 address. Back as the default parent. UGH!
We operate with one account for everything and just sort of ignore any push back. We have three kids across different schools and I also don’t even sign up for most of the specialty accounts. Critical information still seems to find us and I don’t really care if I miss another dress in a super hero shirt day.
Does anyone have advice about identifying suitable assisted living facilities for an aging relative? We have finally arrived at the moment when they have accepted this is the right move, and now they want it to happen immediately. I have no idea where to start. Their.preference is- suddenly- to move to Georgia, where I am, but they may need to stay in Virginia to take advantage of financial assistance. We are starting from scratch and I just need to identify suitable facilities in suitable locations. Is there a website? A ratings organization?
We are not in a place where hiring a geriatric care coordinator (a recommendation I see here often and heed in other situations) is an option.
Google assisted living near you and go visit.
You may find some useful information here from the Georgia Office of the Attorney General: https://consumer.georgia.gov/long-term-care . Virginia likely has something similar.
You are sure they need assisted living (21 meals cookies a week, often no kitchen in apartment, help with meds) vs independent living (10 meals a week, apartments have full kitchens, help with ADLs or meds is limited; they do their own laundry)? That’s a good place to start. Also: where is there a waitlist?
If they are at the assisted living level, it may make sense to move closer to you.
Also: get a dumpster for the house and start purging.
The waitlist to get admitted into good places like this can be considerable. The time to do this is right now so you can get in line.
I’m definitely not an expert, but having observed another family member from a distance: consider a facility that offers a spectrum of care – independent living, assisted living and memory care under one roof. That way if their condition deteriorates further with age you only have to “move them” once. They might move rooms or wings of the facility itself, but it’s all under one roof.
Not quite there yet, but I have heard from several people that A Place for Mom is surprisingly helpful. They take a commission from the facility, so it does not cost you (or the relative) OOP.
If Columbus works for you and your relative, look at Spring Harbor – they were pretty good for my relatives (although my info is several years out of date).
In general, take tours – you’ll at least get a sense of what places are like. For example, one place claimed to have a memory care unit, but it was in the basement and looked straight out of a 1950s psych ward. Another place had on-demand sandwich options if a resident didn’t like the lunch or dinner options.
taking suggestions for as minimally cringy as possible team building/ getting to know you activities (like to be in a conference room, not to go bowling). Thinking 2 or 3 formal activities and then 2-3 just fun games or fillers to get people talking. Small budget (meaning i can buy markets or a few jenga sets but nothing big). would take specific requests or resources…. thanks
Lego creative play ice breakers (google and you should get options). A colleague did them at an event and it was weirdly fun.
Oh yeah, as an adult I am still fascinated by Legos.
This. Pretty much every building challenge has been well received, and leads to so many memories.
I like having people organize themselves into a map. For example, organize themselves in a room based on where they live a city (if they’re all in the same city), where they grew up, where their favorite “third place” is, etc. You can have people move around over time, you can allow people to talk for the first or second map and then not talk for the later ones. All kinds of ways to make it more interesting.
I do this with my soccer teams on the first day of practice—make them line up by date of birth or first name. I think i stole this from southwest boarding—so many strangers talking to each other trying to organize.
I recently heard of someone using “what’s your go-to coffee order” as an icebreaker, which I liked a lot – fun to see who’s crazy with the venti vanilla latte with 3 pumps of this or 10 pumps of that, plus it gives you clues as to what people like if you ever want to surprise someone with a coffee as a thank-you.
I went to college with milk crates and enough clothes to last from August to winter. I had parents with two station wagons my freshman year drop-off and both parents and a sibling along to help. My roommate and I rented a small refrigerator and we bought a carpet remnant selling them at move-in.
My friends with kids are moving them into dorms this week and I feel bad for the girl moms, especially the ones I know who are neither rich nor crafty. For boys, it’s the same as it always was, no? The girl dorms are like RushTok.
TBH, if they can keep it cute until finals are over, my hat would be off to them. One thing I don’t do under time stress is housekeeping. Therapeutic purge in between last final & last beer hurrah after each semester.
YMMV. My dorm room was never cleaner than when there was an assignment I didn’t want to work on. We called it ‘productive procrastination.’
I’m looking for a nylon tote organizer/insert, probably in a custom size. I see lots of options on Etsy. Any specific seller recommendations?
I bought a sensible small SUV and am losing it to the teen who learned to drive on it and finally, FINALLY has a parking spot as a high school senior. It’s fine — it’s got good safety equipment and is in great shape. I’m happy to get my life back.
But I need a ride. Everything in fact looks like a RAV these days (except a 2026 RAV, which looks like a CRV). I’m thinking of just buying a fun 10K car of the sort I would have wanted as a teen but could never get (VW Cabrio, some random older car but with a stick shift, etc.). I’m just not excited about anything else (and new cars are so much money). I have a 3 mile commute, on city streets (no highways or fast speeds), and a nasty parking garage situation at work.
Husband thinks I’m crazy but where I grew up, everyone had kind of beater cars just to go to the trains station lot and back, which this seems similar to.
What kind of your car does your husband think you should get? Is his plan to drive you to/from work? Your plan sounds extremely appropriate and fun for you–go get your fun 10K car!
I’d like to not have my phone in the bedroom, but the catch is emergency alerts. I live in CA and we regularly get wildfire alerts and occasionally earthquake alerts (the latter are very time-sensitive – a few seconds of warning to duck and cover). I’m more concerned about wildfires because of where we live and the horror stories from friends and family in recent years – too many horrific experiences of emergent nighttime evacuations. If I put my phone somewhere else entirely, I might miss alerts or if I still hear them, they’ll be blaring for the 30 seconds it would take me to get out of bed and go find the phone in the dark. That seems like it might make false alarms even more disruptive to sleep since I can’t silence them as quickly as I do when it’s on my bedside table.
Has anyone else figured out a good solution to this? I’m thinking maybe leave the phone in the bedside table drawer (mostly closed) and get an alarm clock so I’m at least not touching my phone first thing every morning to silence the alarm. Then I could still hear necessary alerts but it would be more out of sight, if not out of reach. Thoughts?