Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Long-Sleeve Sheath Dress
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
A long-sleeved sheath is an easy option for mornings when you need to look pulled-together but don’t have the capacity to think about a full outfit. This dress from Maggy London comes in a really pretty blue that looks a little more exciting that the typical black/gray/navy but won’t look out of place in a formal setting.
Add some great shoes and jewelry and you’re all set to go.
The dress is $49.97 at Nordstrom Rack and comes in sizes 0-18.
Sales of note for 9/11:
- Nordstrom – End of season clearance, up to 50% off
- Ann Taylor – 30% off your purchase + extra 15% off when you spend $200
- Anthropologie – Extra 50% off sale! The reader favorite wide leg pants come down crazy low in some colors/fabrics, but they're down to lucky sizes
- Athleta – 30% off select styles (including my favorite sweatshirts as well as these reader favorite pants) + extra 30% off sale
- AYR – Archive sale, up to 60% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles – readers love these dresses, and their double-layer line of tees
- CVS – Epic beauty sale, $10 off when you spend $30
- Design Within Reach – the semiannual sale, 25% off everything! (readers love the Herman Miller Aeron and Sayl!)
- J.Crew – Up to 40% off select styles
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off all stores, plus an extra 10% off when you buy a pair of jeans
- 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 – Extra 40% off select clearance
- Talbots – Buy one get 50% off everything
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
I had an amazing dress from them back before COVID. IDK what the fabric quality is like now. Any guesses?
Thinner and cheaper fabric. I don’t buy them as I would need to wear full shapewear because every lump/wrinkle/underwear line shows through.
I need some nicer casual pants that are not linen and need to show due to going up a size or two. I tried Kut from the Kloth back in the skinny Jean era. I saw some ads for colored denim and noted that they have both short and long lengths and want to try them again. I am 5-4, with a stomach and thighs layered over a pear shape. Maybe a 10 unless they don’t allow for seat room, so maybe a 12? A 10 at Talbots was all sorts of huge in the stomach (really not expecting that) and I couldn’t get anything in the store to work. Finally, is this brand actually stocked in stores so I could try on many variants at once? Last time I got from ordering from Nordstrom.
This is pretty much my exact size and situation this year. I got a lot of mileage out of any of the curvy fits. Funny enough curvy fit jeans from American Eagle. Curvy fit pants from Ann Taylor – although I had to get a size 12, not 10.
I’m a similar shape and also wear the curvy fit pants from Ann Taylor and weirdly had success with American Eagle for jeans. The problem was finding a pair that didn’t have weird distressing or holes (hate that we’re back in the ’90s pre-roughed up jeans era because I’m convinced someone at Abercrombie back in the day had a bet going on how much they could get people to pay for jeans with holes already in them). I can usually find one cut at J.Crew that works, as well, though they seem to change their styles more frequently than Ann Taylor so I’m never sure which one until I try them all on.
I tend to carry weight in my stomach and Kut from the Kloth works well for me. They have plenty of styles that aren’t skinny.
fwiw, fits labeled curvy are almost always wrong for me – give too much at the hips and not enough at the waist.
Kut runs huge. I have to size down one or even two sizes depending on the style. Evereve and some independent boutiques carry it in store.
I agree. I’m usually a 10 or 30 in jeans and typically take an 8 or 29 in Kut.
I like Loft curvy fit pants.
Another thing I have tried as my gut outpaces my rise is petite sizes. Like, maybe I need an 8 for my waist, but then the rise is too high. Sometimes a petite 8 will work. But I’m barely 5’4”, so petite lengths are generally okay (and I like cropped pants).
Anyone have a recommendation for a bookshelf that’s cheap and VERY easy to assemble? this is for a basement storage room so I really don’t care about aesthetics at all, just want to minimize how much time and money I have to spend on this .
IKEA Billy is your friend.
Agreed. Don’t put too much weight on it but otherwise fine.
This
This.
+1
IKEA is the gold standard for instructions, and they have the assembly instructions available online on the product pages, so if you’re in doubt, you can check before you buy.
If it’s for a basement and you want to put random things on it, get one of those wire storage racks (searching for that term will bring up the product I mean). They are super easy to put together and should be cheap.
If you want even cheaper, I have an Ikea Laiva that’s been going strong.
If you aren’t 100% sure what you want to store on it; any “cube storage” unit works for books, or bins, or whatever. At Ikea, those are Kallax, but if you want to do this without an Ikea trip, target or Walmart will always have a similar thing, and I’m sure amazon prime has at least one variant deliverable tomorrow.
I have 3 arched metal bookcases from Nathan James in my basement. They were orders of magnitude easier to assemble than anything from IKEA.
Are you putting books or other stuff on it? If it is other stuff, go to home depot. The Husky shelves are easy to assemble and you can weigh those down.
First world problem I need help spending down a $700 wellness and delegation stipend given to us because we are in a busy season. I get it monthly between now and December.
It can go towards self-care like gym membership and massage (but not workout clothes) or “delegating” towards a busy time like house cleaners, meal service and laundry service (but not groceries). It can’t go to normal childcare but if a late night sitter is needed because of work (but I won’t be able to pre-plan for that). I have a family gym membership already and I can manage my house on my own so feels like a waste to spend the money on a cleaner.
Should I get a mobile stationary bike or walking pad or gym bench? I have weights already and don’t have space for a treadmill. Is meal service truly worth it? I am a vegetarian so not sure which are best for that.
I think I am having difficulty to full spend 700 a month but I want to use the benefit. Help me with this good problem to have.
Do you have an active hobby it could go toward? (A girl at my barn is using her wellness stipend for a new helmet and some riding lessons, which I thought was genious)
I’d definitely get a gym bench, I use mine for pretty much every workout. If you don’t have them, TRX straps are also very versatile.
I’d prioritize a cleaner and a monthly massage. Think of hiring a cleaner as buying your time back – you CAN clean it yourself but you can also hire someone and use that time to workout/run errands/see friends/etc. Alternately – can you use it for a laundry service? Dropping off all my sheets/towels and picking them up clean and folded in a day sounds like a dream.
Can you buy gift cards with it? I’d use the December stipend for gift cards to local massage places or to buy gear for anyone on your list who plays a sport.
Massages, acupuncture, spa days. Medical spa if allowed. Specially made shoes to fit your feet (if you can spread the coat over 2 or more months. Gym bag that is stylish enough for non gym use. Bike and helmet to ride outside on bike paths (again would require more than one month, but perhaps the bike store can phase payments). Personal trainer or yoga instructor at your home.
I have so many ideas.
This is an interesting problem to have! (I’m curious about your industry, I’ve not heard of a stipend that large before.)
It may feel wasteful to spend on a cleaner, but the point here is to buy back your time, so would it help to reframe that way? Or hire someone to do deep cleaning of things you’ve been putting off? I can clean my house, but the mental benefit of walking into a clean house every other week is huge for my well-being.
Can you hire a personal assistant for a certain number of hours? Given the season, I’d love to outsource some of the holiday-related demands – gift shopping, wrapping, addressing holiday cards, creating meal plans/ingredient lists for holiday meals etc. if you do any of those.
If not, I’d look into a meal service or a personal chef for some meals. If your family is okay with leftovers, look for options that you can get at least two meals out of. Or could you just use it to doordash dinner until you’ve used up the $700?
+1 for cleaners. Even if you can clean on your own, there’s something about having the time back (and they always do a better job than I can!)
Oooh so fun! Things that actually feel like they either give me back time or boost my wellbeing: takeout dinners, cleaning service, fall yard clean-up, gym classes (pilates in studio or peloton at home), massages, fresh flower delivery. I haven’t personally done personal training sessions but since you mention you already belong to a gym, I imagine that would fit in this category for me if I did it.
Things that aren’t worth it for me: meal delivery service (we’ve tried multiple times and it’s a no for me), laundry service,
With that amount of money, I’d personally do a spa afternoon once a month getting ~2-3 services (~$500) and then would spend the remainder on either a cleaning service or takeout. Part of what’s guiding that decision is that it would reduces the mental load for me if I booked all 3 spa days in one go, had just that one timeblock a month to plan around (vs. like a weekly training session), and just have it pre-standing vs. having to re-decide and estimate costs of different options to get to the right amount every month. I would be a little wary about starting something you don’t want to pay for yourself for the next 9 months like a cleaning service or a peloton membership because that could make January feel like a real downer if you wind up liking it a lot.
I’d totally use some of it on an oura or one of those bracelets.
Can you use the stipend to pay for your existing gym membership, and then use what you usually pay for the membership for whatever the heck you want?
My office has one of these and a popular choice for women is using it for haircare – whether expensive highlights, Drybar, etc – or cosmetic treatments like Botox.
I would stock up on all my yearly vitamins and supplements if those are allowed then I would get meal delivery from the pricey place that’s just heat and eat.
The gym bench would be nice if you already have and use weights!
What about some sessions with a professional organizer? A friend just had someone come in to do her pantry and garage and now I’m tempted to do the same.
I had something similar in the past (through health insurance) and I bought air purifiers, ski lift tickets, and a red light face mask.
Also, last year I got a deep clean of my house right before Thanksgiving and biweekly cleans in December and it made my holiday season SO much easier.
Similar benefit although not as generous – most people pay for stuff an annual basis (e.g., pay your gym membership for the whole year, buy multiple months of classes) to consume the benefit. If you haven’t already pre-paid, I might see if your gym can front load the next six months of fees.
Other ideas, for November – pay for a pre-thanksgiving deep clean, same for the December holidays. Think, not having to stress about cleaning before guests come and all the baseboards get cleaned.
I’ve been WFH for a while and have gotten out of the habit of wearing any “hard pants” other than jeans. I hold weight in my hips/stomach anyways so it makes it hard to find pants, and back when I wore business formal to work I wore a lot of dresses.
Anyways, I love the Jayne pants from Ann Taylor. They are very comfortable, they hit at the right place. The material is very soft. They look good. The website says they run a little small and maybe they do – I’m an 8/10 right now and I’m wearing a 10.
So if you hate pants and are looking for pants I’d give this a try
Ah they’re considered “mid rise trousers”. The exact cut I’m always on the hunt for. Makes sense. I bought these pants a while ago but I’m wearing them for the first time today.
Does anyone have a hybrid job where you commute long distance to the office for 1 week per month? I am currently remote but considering a job that would require this type of arrangement. It would be a five hour flight each way and 5 nights in a hotel room at headquarters. I’d love to hear your pros and cons if you have a similar arrangement.