Thursday’s Workwear Report: Koen Mid-Rise Pant
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
I recently asked a friend (in-house counsel for a large bank) what she’s wearing to work these days, and her immediate response was mid-rise, pull-on pants from prAna.
With the caveat that they might not quite hit the mark if your office skews more toward the “business” side of business casual, I think they’d be great for a job where folks are embracing more of an athleisure look. (I happen to work somewhere where all the men are wearing these ABC trousers from Lululemon, so I think they would fit in nicely!) She said she’s been pairing them with blazers and sweaters and they make her long commute very comfortable.
The pants are $98 at prAna and come in XS-XXL with short, regular, and tall inseams. They also come in seven other colors, with one on sale.
Sales of note for 9/4 (Happy Labor Day — see our big roundup!)
- Nordstrom – End of season clearance, up to 50% off
- Anine Bing – Archive sale, up to 70% off select styles, online only
- Ann Taylor – 30% off you purchase, including new arrivals – $50 off when you spend $200. Readers love this easycare blouse and this blazer that makes a great separate.
- Anthropologie – 40% off sale! The reader favorite wide leg pants are on sale for as low as $86, including the pants I posted last week!
- Athleta – Up to 60% off + extra 30% off sale; readers love these pants
- AYR – Archive sale, up to 60% off
- Boden – 20% off everything – readers love these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
- CVS – Epic beauty sale, $10 off when you spend $30 (Walmart is having its “Beauty Event” as well right now!)
- Design Within Reach – the semiannual sale, 25% off everything! (readers love the Herman Miller Aeron and Sayl!)
- The Fold – 20% off, limited time only
- J.Crew – 40% off your purchase
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off all stores and sitewide, PLUS extra 20% off orders over $125
- J.McLaughlin – Extra 40% off sale (ending soon)
- Lilysilk – Anniversary sale, save up to 70% (ending soon)
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added, exclusively online)
- M.M.LaFleur – Labor Day Sale Event, save sitewide! (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Thru September 7: 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
- Sarah Flint – 20% off sitewide
- Talbots – Ends 9/4: 25-40% off wear-now styles
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
- Veronica Beard – Extra 20% off sale styles with code
Wwyd – I’m getting emails with updates on someone’s surgery recovery. No idea who this person is. I’m 80% sure it isn’t just a married name I don’t know. Just ignore?
I have a common name which is also in my email address. I get piles of mail intended for other people with the same name. I ignore almost all of them. The one time I remember actually writing back to clear things up was because it was an email from a school informing me that my child was planning to spend the night there, and I wanted the real mom to know.
Maybe I should clear things up more, but it often confuses people, and sometimes people are rude or accusatory about it. So I just let it go now. If people actually know each other or need something from each other, they should ordinarily have a way to get in touch besides email to sort things out.
If they seem like bulk emails going out to a large group, I might just ignore, but if it seems like it’s someone sending them to you specifically or just a few family members (ie. it’s more likely to really matter that the intended recipient gets them), I’d send back a quick “I think you have the wrong email”
It’s a 30 second thing you can do that might help another person, and has very little cost to you (maybe they send you back a rude email? okay, so you block it and ignore going forward) – I want to be the kind of person who helps others when I can.
If it seems a real mix-up and not a phishing attempt, I would send a quick, kind note that they have the wrong recipient. And even if it seems like overkill, I would block the sender so you don’t have to deal with any further mistaken messages or weirdness from them.
It would be kind to try and resolve the issue. There’s a shocking lack of attention to detail these days and things often meant for me are sent to a very similar email address. The owner of the similar email address forwards me things and we have a good relationship, he’s a gem.
I would probably reply with a “I think this is misdirected” response, and then block if more kept coming through. This happened to me with an afterschool program in another state, and while I attempted to alert the provider at least twice (… kind of important that they’re communicating with the kid’s actual parent about upcoming events!), they kept sending to my same address so I just blocked the sender.
Maybe they look different in real life, but on the model these pants are squarely athleisure and in no way, shape, or form appropriate for a business casual office. I rarely yuck someone else’s yum, but from the online pictures only, this is a hard no for me. I don’t think they’re the equivalent of the ABC pants for men.
I agree. I am all for work pants that are super comfortable, but these don’t hit the mark for me. They look much too casual and I can’t imagine how you could pair them with a blazer as mentioned.
I’ve seen these pants in person. No way I’d wear them to work. And I’m currently wearing Athleta Endless pants for a no-meeting day, so I’m clearly willing to bend the rules a bit!
Agreed. They look like what I call house pants. And (IMO) unattractive ones at that.
Agreed! They are ugly, IMO.
While I agree with you, this is what people wear to work in San Francisco. It’s not my taste or style, but it is a thing you see in many offices and still explains the reactions you see here to different work options.
They look like the demi panel maternity pants I had from Old Navy.
Maybe they look okay with a long shirt that covers the waist band? At first glance they seem even more casual than the Athleta pants
Any tips for getting over small marital conflicts more quickly when you don’t feel heard or that the situation was resolved? I don’t want to be this person holding a grudge but the resentment builds, even if I know my husband isn’t being malicious. He’s more the type to just silently move on but I need the more explicit “ok, I will try harder to do that” or whatever it is. It also upsets me if I use direct language to express a specific need (“I need more regular help with ___”) and he just nods or otherwise acknowledges that I spoke with actually using words. Then I feel like I’m prying a real response out of him and for some reason that particularly is very triggering.
Our household is normally pretty chill and low-conflict but this dynamic needs some work. It’s come up more since kids – we’re both more stressed with more to do.
I can see how that’s frustrating, but the real test is whether things change after you have the conversation. If they do, I could probably let this go, even though I’d find it annoying. If he’s just nodding along and changing nothing, that would be a bigger problem.
Agree. My first instinct is you are trying to control how people respond. But the real question is whether things are actually getting across in a meaningful way.
For me this has two aspects: learning to communicate better with my husband – we have both worked on that, in terms of talking in a way that’s productive and not defensive. The other is work I have done in therapy to let go of resentment – I realized it was eating me up and unproductive. My therapist has helped me channel that energy into what I want to have happen and finding peace with how things are now.
Can you talk to him about your communication styles and tell him what you need from him in terms of a verbal response?
I think you need to sit down with him in a moment of calm, away from any of these small conflicts, and express what you need in clear terms. Explain what you need, why it is important to you, and clearly state the ask. Invite him to voice any needs he might be holding on to as well.
You have $5000 dollars to update a room in your home. Describe the room. What will you do?
I can’t wait to swap out the wallpaper in my bedroom to something moody and dark.
Is it from Trump? 😂
We’re actually renovating the whole house now. The family room is going to need the most as far as decorating – upholstering the matching sofas alone will be $3k. ($1k in fabric, $2k in labor.) Then the curtains (huge room with walls of windows) will easily be $2k, if not more.
Buy one crappy couch and one small lamp with how current prices are trending. $5K isn’t enough for a whole room refresh unless you cruise estate sales (which we do!). If I didn’t have family antiques, I don’t know what I would do. I feel like I’m drowning in costs.
Yeah, I’m redoing my living room right now and am not going crazy and have antiques but the budget is more like 20k.
With the cost of labor these days, that would mostly cover repainting our large main bedroom (including higher end paint), re-hanging all the heavy art, and adding in a nicer mirror. My second pick would be new roman shades and repainting (plus baseboard repairs) in our kids toy room. Painting would also force me to patch the holes in the walls and put up slightly more neutral decor.
What do you get with high end paint?
I need to paint a bit more than I prefer but it’s a result of living with clumsy humans and a giant dog.
You get better colors and depth of color. I’ve used Farrow & Ball and their color matched Benjamin Moore versions and there’s nothing like the F&B. It just looks more layered and richer. I hire painters so I can’t speak to the ease of use but I hear it’s easier to work with.
F&B is a pain to work with but it’s water based, truly has no smell/VOCs, and with multiple asthma/allergy/MCAS having people in our house it’s the one thing I won’t compromise on. Even the ‘clean’ benjamin moore still has a smell that gives me a migraine, I can sleep in a room that’s been painted with Farrow & Ball that day with no issues.
Yeah, we used Lick in one room that we DIY’d and had a colour match / professional paint for the other room, and the branded paint looked so much better even with amateur painting.
I’m doing this right now. Son’s room, small with sky high Victorian ceilings. Most of the money will be spent getting the walls to a paintable state (oil paint over lime plaster, why….). But we’ve also refinished the original floors, and will add a picture rail, and paint a forest-y green.
I would buy interior shutters for my living room, formal dining room, and family room. The kind that used to be called “plantation shutters,” with wide slats. White composite wood.
I know that abs are made I. The kitchen, but is that just if you are under 40? My weight is pretty stable and I eat well, but I’ve acquired a tummy and have gone up two sizes with no real weight gain (this weight from 2020; 5 pounds lighter before and 2 sizes smaller). I’m walking and playing tennis or going to the Y when I can. I could go up another size but I’m sick of buying clothes and having things tighten in the mid-section. And going up another size when it’s just a tummy focused issue will mean that dresses won’t fit because I’m still flat chested and things would go from roomy to comical in terms of fit. What do I need to do?
How old are you? The changing shape with menopause is real.
Consider shapewear; a lot of it targets this exact issue of clothes not fitting well unless we’re smoothed out in the middle.
Know how your metabolic health is doing. Weight distribution towards the middle can mean that insulin is running high, which you can do something about (whether that’s a diet change or just taking metformin, either of which could have other benefits for health and aging).
Consider the possibility that it’s fibroids just since they’re so common and can give people a “fibroid belly.”
It might be a medical problem. A friend had something similar and it was a huge (non cancerous) ovarian tumour. She thought she was inexplicably getting fat, but was basically back to normal size once it was surgically removed.
Are you looking for body composition advice or fashion advice? I’m asking because it changes my advice.
Question for parents of high school upperclassmen: how are your college savings invested? I have our 529 funds in a Vanguard mutual fund that has had about 7% annual returns and am wondering if I should take out at least some and put in a CD. The account took a good size dip last year with the first wave of Trump tariffs but did eventually recover.