Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Short Puff-Sleeve Sweater
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
This was one of my favorite purchases from the Nordstrom Annual Sale this summer, and now it’s available at an even steeper markdown. This short-sleeved sweater is super soft, not too warm, and the perfect length for a long-torsoed person who struggles to find non-cropped sweater options.
I bought the cocoa color this summer, and at this price I will probably add both the navy and black to my collection.
The sweater is $19.60 at Nordstrom, marked down from $49, and comes in sizes XXS-XL. I would say that it runs a bit large, so if you’re in between sizes, size down.
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!
Help me understand: if you are assaulted on a college campus (or off-campus event or housing), how are young women taught to go somewhere other than that city’s police and immediately to a hospital for a SANE exam and related healthcare needs they have? This is not for your RA or your school. When you are a victim, these people may not be in your corner or are undertrained peers who can’t really help you.
I don’t understand why a college involves itself at all here. Like why are there college trials/punishments? It should go straight to the police and the college should have absolutely zero role here.
Two possibilities.
1) What happened wasn’t illegal but still did not meet the standards of conduct that the college requires of its students. It is totally okay for a college to have higher standards for behavior than what is illegal and to enforce them with college specific consequences (like getting expelled).
2) What happened was illegal, but the college has lower standards than the law, and wants to protect its students from legal accountability and consequences.
I think a college kids itself that it can be a decider and investigator when it has duties to both parties. It cannot advocate both sides and investigate and decide. There is civil court and criminal court. A felony is a felony. A tort is still a tort. College shouldn’t make a difference.
Colleges have to enforce codes of conduct beyond civil and criminal anyway. Or are you really suggesting they take “cheating on an exam” to court?
If it veers on criminal they should butt out. Also codes of conduct are dumb.
Cheating on an exam isn’t a crime. Or a tort. It likely violates a contract with the school (like an honor pledge), so the school can exercise options but it had better be clear in the facts (not just “AI flagged this for cheating”) or it should expect to be sued. And the school should also be aware of promises it makes to students, like treating them fairly and not arbitrarily. Lawsuits are expensive to schools even when they win.
I wouldn’t want to attend or graduate from a college that had no higher standards for its community than whatever keeps you out of trouble with the law. Aren’t higher standards than the law completely normal in many professions? What are we going to college for anyway? And there are a lot of codes of conduct that make sense to me (it’s not illegal for a TA to ask out a student in their own class, but it’s not hard to see why it’s a problem).
Substances are part of the history here. There are dry campuses where they just don’t want students drinking even if they are 21. You may think that is dumb, but then we come around to the situation where drinking is allowed on campus, but underage drinking is still illegal, and everybody goes to the same parties. So then there’s a strong incentive to handle things on campus and protect the students from consequences of underage drinking.
With assault cases, even when people go to the police, the campus has to sort things out on campus to some extent (do the two parties keep attending the same small class that they’re both enrolled in week to week, etc.).
States authorize organizations to govern licenses in their professions (e.g., being a nurse or a lawyer or doctor). So there may be some state actor / due process concerns there. Religions govern credentials for clerics (but in some, if you are called to preach, you start preaching).
If you go to Liberty or Messiah, they have a contract of sorts with students and definitely have formal contracts with employees. In my city, a brewery is a valued small business and sponsors 5Ks and PTAs; at my nephew’s college, he (a student) couldn’t wear a t-shirt with a brewery on it. I know that Trappist monks brew beer, so I think that God maybe confused by some of his children, but humans are imperfect. Colleges are even more so.
Anyway my take is that it’s the second reason. The college is trying to protect the accused from any consequences, protect its own reputation as a safe place, and will throw any number of victims under the bus in the process. The Hunting Ground documentary is worth watching.
IDK that colleges are protecting the accused so much as just hoping it will all go away quietly and not affect their yield rate.
The way the stats work out, it’s typically just a small number of people who are responsible for many, many assaults each. But if those people face consequences, parents become massively paranoid that their son will be accused of something if he attends that school. Basically parents seem to care more about their sons than their daughters.
speaking as a college professor… there are several reasons, not all internally consistent:
– underage students have been drinking and are afraid they will get in trouble (this is a big one)
– police departments are often hostile to, or skeptical of, victims
– students believe the campus authorities are less intimidating (consider campus police v. real police, especially in a major urban area)
– getting a r*pe kit at a hospital can be very traumatic for survivors
– the police are not always good actors, and the criminal justice system can gaslight and traumatize survivors. students may perceive the college to be more sympathetic and kind to them (rightly or wrongly)
– in addition, campus policies (which have to do with title IX compliance, at heart), often have a lower standard of proof than a legal case. technically an assault is usually BOTH a crime AND a conduct violation.
the recent cases in the media are horrible! but this is a lot of what
These are all very valid, but I just think ultimately whatever is in place for dealing with cheating on exams (councils etc) isn’t sufficient for an assault case
totally! although also these are usually difference administrative processes — cheating and other academic misconduct are usually some kind of council of students and sometimes faculty and staff (often called some version of an honor council); there’s a different body for adjudicating Title IX violations (which is what sexual assault is counted as, yes this is also problematic in its own way). This body is usually staff and sometimes faculty as well; not typically students. Usually things like straight alcohol or nonsexual conduct violations are handled by staff in student life.
also, every school I’ve taught at has told students that they can pursue both the college process AND the legal process (and, because of mandatory reporting, the college may pursue its process even against the wishes of the victim). But what message the school says it’s giving, and what message is received, can of course vary. The general advice to “call the campus police first” is supposed to be so the campus authorities can help you deal with the real police and hospital if you go that route; obviously, this can play out in multiple ways as well.
I think calling both the college and actual police is probably the way to go. I wouldn’t trust a college to fully run a legal process, and there have been so many examples of it not going well. But yeah they could catch code of conduct violations that fall below actually breaking a law
I think a college is kidding itself that it can do better than civil authorities. It will never be a neutral arbiter. It has every motivation to sweep things under the rug.
A rape exam is traumatic but do you really want PID to go untreated? It is crisis healthcare and we out to support girls and women. They can pause and exit the process as they are comfortable but they deserve to start it. Think for a moment: this is not that different than going to a gynecologist after a rape. A pelvic exam should happen if indicated either way. A man raped would get care. Or a child. Why not a woman?
I get all of this, but these are not good enough reasons. Either take it to the real authorities or don’t, but the idea of alternative justice is foolish and it should be illegal for colleges to enable it.
I think you’re not acknowledging the statistical reality. For every woman who gets raped, there are surely dozens who experience everyday harassment or gender discrimination at colleges. The university has a legal obligation to offer training, resources and staffing for all these cases, even though they can handle some better than others. So they send out general comms and training to familiarize students with these options.
Also it’s wild to me that in 2026, you seem to not relate at all to someone not trusting the police.
Is this in reference to a news story? I didn’t see anything in the Times. Just curious!
College anxiety poster.
I think anytime you are tempted to respond like this to someone’s good faith question, you should put your phone down and walk away.
Cornell
There are recent Cornell and LSU cases in the news — it’s probably those.
Cornell: https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/cornell-university-lawsuit-fraternity-rape-allegations/. (especially egregious punishment by the school — write an essay)
LSU: https://www.wafb.com/2026/09/24/exclusive-lsu-student-says-university-failed-her-after-title-ix-finding-alleged-sexual-assault/
A lot of colleges are state or city government creatures, so state action in the process is already often there. So they are bound by a lot more laws that IMO their employees are not properly trained on.
Work on a college campus, and I concur. As a supervisor, I’m required to go through a yearly training, and I’m always crossing my fingers that I never have to use it. It’s complicated, and if you don’t deal with these issues all the time, good luck to you and hope you don’t misstep.
A friend is a GC for a university where the undergrads are awash in alcohol as a badge of honor. I wouldn’t want that job in a million years.
Being a GC for a university would be an incredibly difficult and thankless job.
I think the police are often not advocates for the student, especially minority students. I went to college in the Boston area and our school was very very clear we were to avoid the Boston PD as much as possible. Based on my one interaction with them where the one Black kid was roughed up when our car was pulled over, I think the school was right. More generally, I always thought campus police forces were much more forgiving of things like underage drinking like local police so racial issues aside was always taught to call them first if someone got too intoxicated at a party. For something like SA it seems more appropriate to involve local PD, but I would still have started with campus PD. They can work in tandem.
In my big city, underage drinking isn’t seen as a little-p problem and they are swamped with big-P Problems. Campus police can be awesome, like helping a stressed out student who finds a car with a flat tire or dead battery or patrolling for safety so kids can walk home from the library safely. Or emergencies like a parent has a heart attack moving into a dorm or someone needs an Epipen or CPR.
Some people are in between functioning adults and kids who need a mom, especially when they are drunk for the first few times.
Police are supposed to advocate for the facts, not people. Either you want to prosecute a crime committed against you or you don’t. It stinks, but if you don’t go the real route, you don’t have rights to the fake route. College justice is a total farce of a concept.
I have worn my hair in a side part for over 20 years. I’m a millennial who works with a lot of Gen Z, so I see mostly middle parts. I think a middle part makes me look like a serene renaissance Madonna or a creepy child from a horror movie. Is this just because of what I’m used to seeing, or do middle parts just not work on some people? What makes a side or a middle part work better on someone?
Bone structure and proportions. A middle part makes my nose look like Mr. Potato Head’s. If you want to switch it up without going Middle Part, try some side parts that are closer to center but still lopsided – even .5 to 1″ off center for me is a dramatically better overall look.
Agree with this. A middle part highlights any lack of symmetry or prominent features more than a side part.
I feel like my nose and features are too prominent/not symmetrical for a true middle part to be flattering, but I have come around to seeing that a slightly offset middle part looks better than the deep millennial side part I have rocked for years.
I think it’s just part of the look!
I’m the opposite – I’ve always been middle part! I’m so glad its in style. I just like it when things look proportional and feel that it frames my face nicely. Maybe it works because my hair isn’t totally straight like a horror movie child
My hair isn’t totally straight either but I do wear it pulled back most of the time. I guess I’m afraid the middle part is kind of severe? I’ve been called a child of the corn before lol.
Emily Dickinson is in the house these days.
I like to think that my side part makes me look like Veronica Lake :)
Keep the side part if it looks good on you. Middle part does my nose no favors, I don’t care what the kids are doing.
I should really give a middle part a shot. My mom bullied me about it looking bad when I tried it as a kid so I just never tried again.
My hair strongly prefers to part itself on the side and no amount of Gen Z judgement will convince it otherwise. If I try to part in the middle, one half lies flat and the other poofs up two inches higher.
Flying to Denver and will have Sunday to myself. Flight lands at 12 and staying near the Children’s Hospital. Any recommendations for things to do and places to eat? I love nature and hiking so gorgeous views and/or good food, not necessarily in the same place. No diet restrictions. I won’t need a car for the rest of the week, but open to getting one for Sunday if needed. Thanks!
It’s at a high altitude, so that could impact hiking. Where are you coming from?
+1, we are at sea level and if we try to exercise at our normal level on Day 1 of a Rockies trip, our bodies quickly remind us they’re not at normal capacity.
Boulder might be a good place to look up some light hiking- you’re not at peak Rockies altitudes but you can get great views of them.
I didn’t even think of that! Coming from Connecticut
What did everyone think of the top 100 list of best TV shows now that it’s finalized? So many good ones!
They recognized some less popular stuff like reservation dogs which I was pleased with but overall it was kind of pedestrian? Kind of seemed like they just picked based on popularity rather than artistic integrity, acting, writing etc.
I called it that Veep would be top comedy! The top 20 was pretty much what I expected, especially after the rest of the list was released.
Overall I thought it was a good list but a bit repetitive in some weird ways. Do we really need both Tony Bourdain shows or two Nathan Fielder vehicles? I would have removed the repetition to feature some new things.
I rolled my eyes at 2 Bourdain shows like 5 numbers apart. I don’t even think of them as different shows?
I also think Office UK is better than Office US, but I am highly biased towards British humor and making 12 great episodes rather than 250 episodes of varying quality and I HATE sentimentality or “twee”-ness. Veep, 30 Rock, and Arrested Development (first 3 seasons) are my GOATs of comedy, and I love The Thick of It, which I can’t believe made the list!
Question for lawyers. What happens if someone wipes their phone after a serious incident involving the death of someone in their care, but they haven’t yet been charged with any crime? If, over a year later, a criminal investigation begins, a search warrant is issued for the phone communications and metadata, but the contents have already been wiped, can the person be charged with obstruction of justice? Can the data typically be recovered from the cell phone company after that?
This question is too heavy and involved for this forum and you should ask a lawyer you’ve retained. Not kidding.
This is easy. Probably yes, a person can be charged. IDK if that is a felony or misdemeanor and what sort of proof problem you have. But the police get and execute search warrants. In lawsuits, parties can issue subpoenas. IMO very different things.
The phone company’s records are the phone company’s records. The ISP’s records are the ISP’s records. Wiping your phone is just wiping your phone.
Are you talking about Mystic? Did their phones get wiped?
The 2016 Subaru Forester DH and I share was recently totaled. We need a new car, but disagree on what to buy.
After considering various compact SUVs:
– I want to buy a brand new 2026 Forester Hybrid. We both like almost everything about the car, but my husband really hates the large iPad style touchscreen. He especially dislikes that some of the climate controls can only be accessed through the screen. We think we could negotiate the price down to $32,700 before taxes and fees.
– DH wants to buy a used Forester, primarily to avoid the large touchscreen on the current models. Certified pre-owned options near us start at $25K for something like a 2023 non-hybrid with 50K miles. I’m reluctant to pay these types of prices for a used non-hybrid when I can get the new hybrid model for around $7K more.
We also considered a Toyota Rav4 or Honda CR-V Hybrid. Used versions of these models seem like an even worse value than Subaru. We liked the CR-V test drive, but I’m reluctant to buy due to reports of head gasket problems and being a common target for thieves (we park in a driveway in a major metro area; no garage). The new Rav4 has waiting lists in our area and is at the very top of our budget.
How should we resolve this? My brain is fried from car research and we’ve maxed out the car rental coverage provided by insurance. Should we just lease a car and reassess the options in 3 years? Buy a used Forester and trade it in once Subaru goes back to physical climate controls (possibly in 2028 or 2029)?
Check out the Hyundai Tucson. It’s not perfect on the touchscreen issue but it’s a lot better than the models that you named and we’ve been very happy with the hybrid. It has excellent ratings and it was widely available in our area when we bought in 2025, whereas the others were not. We paid about $45k.
My 2012 Subaru was a total lemon. I will never buy another Subaru. Toyotas only.
That said, if your heart is set on a Subaru I would definitely go with the new hybrid. I am with your husband re. climate controls on the touchscreen, but it’s pretty much unavoidable at this point. We just bought a RAV4. It does have physical temperature controls, and the fan control is permanently visible at the bottom of the screen and not too difficult or distracting to use. Supposedly the 2026 Hyundai Santa Fe has its climate controls permanently visible at the bottom of the screen too.
2025 CRV and neighbors have two prior versions with no complaints (+5 year and +10 years older than mine). IMO newer CRVs have the perfect amount of knobs. I have the hybrid and would buy a second for when my kids start driving.
I’m usually Japanese cars or bust but ended up with a 2026 Chevy Trax and I’m very happy with it.
I’m with your husband, I hate hate HATE touch screen for the fan/AC and would buy used for that reason.
+1. When I bought my car a couple years ago that was non-negotiable. Aside from being annoying it’s a major safety hazard.
Why does Nike still exist? It seems to be such a garbage company. Allyson Felix, Kara Goucher, but it gets worse:
https://people.com/nike-youth-nonprofit-accused-trying-to-cover-up-teen-athletes-rape-at-elite-program-12135021
Hate to break it to you but basically all corporations are garbage. Nike is just less good at hiding it.
bc their shoes are by far the best fit for my feet, personally, after trying 6-7 brands.
ISO liquid soap that is not so drying. Any recs? My knuckles are getting dry and it’s only September!