Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Long-Sleeve Button-Front Top
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
The Old Navy x Altuzarra collaboration has a lot of fun fall pieces. I’ve got my eye on this sweater for weekend wear and this long-sleeved blouse for the office. I love to have an interesting collar poking out from crewnecks or cardigans. It comes in white and black, both perfect for layering this fall.
The blouse is $39.99 at Old Navy and comes in sizes XS-4X.
Sales of note for 9/25:
- Boden – Up to 50% off sale + extra 15% off (I'm trying to figure out which color(s) of this sweater I should order…)
- Ann Taylor – 25% off the weekend collection and extra 50% off sale section
- Anthropologie – Extra 50% off sale!
- Athleta – Lots marked down to 40% off; with an Athleta card you get an extra 20% off.
- AYR – Archive sale, up to 60% off
- CVS – Epic beauty sale
- J.Crew – Fall styles start at $39
- J.Crew Factory – 40% off new arrivals, extra 20% off orders $125+
- Nordstrom – over 9800 new markdowns
- 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 – 40% off one item, 30% off everything else
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
Looking for recommendations in Berlin:
We are going for 3 days as a side trip this December before Christmas.
Daytime touristing?
Recommended Holiday markets?
Where to stay ? Bitte? Or?
We loved Prenzlauer Berg for a convenient hotel location. We stayed in a hostel at the time so no current recs. The Stasi Museum is really good if you are interested in political history and if not, there is no better city than Berlin for strolling and taking in the scene. Also loved the Berlin Philharmoniker – got cheap day-of tickets.
Following with great interest. Vielen Dank!
The Boros Bunker was a really cool experience. Art museum in an old bunker that was a nightclub and a fruit warehouse in the middle. You need to make reservations ahead of time
I loved staying in Mitte, but would also have been very happy in Prenzlauer Berg. Outside of the classics (and I really loved the big city museums that you no doubt know about already), my favorite smaller museums were the Otto Weidt Workshop for the Blind in Haus Schwarzenberg in Mitte, which is an ever-changing street art draw with a fascinating history, and the Kathe Kollwitz Museum in Charlottenburg.
We have a walkout basement, fully furnished, etc. Over the past month, I’ve noticed that it doesn’t smell fresh. It’s been thoroughly cleaned, it gets vacuumed regularly, and I’ve opened up windows to air it out. All help temporarily, and then it smells stale again a day or two later. I cannot figure it out, and it’s driving me crazy. Is my perimenopausal sense of smell is on overdrive (very possible)? We had a VERY rainy September, and my other thought was that since it’s permanently damp outdoors and not drying out, we’re getting the effects of that. The sump pump was replaced in the spring, and I feel confident that water isn’t getting in. Any ideas?
I would run a dehumidifier for a few days and see if that helps. We have to run one continually in the basement in our humid climate.
+1 – it sounds like a damp issue, as well as possible mold if the smell is ‘musty’.
Crack under the carpet allowing moisture up from below?
Leak behind a wall that you can’t see, whether from outdoors or indoor plumbing gradually growing mold?
Dead animal in the wall?
I am convinced there is a dead animal in my car but haven’t located it yet. Bleh.
It does sound like you might have damp/mold somewhere.
Run the AC colder.
What kind of flooring is down there? Could you have moisture coming up through the cement under whatever flooring you have? Depending on the temperatures in your area, could it be the lack of consistently running AC keeping things dry down there? Maybe you need a dehumidifier when the AC is not running
We have a walk out basement but run a dehumidifier regularly in three seasons of the year.
A dehumidifier may be all you need, but you really should check behind and under the finishings on your below-grade walls and floors to make sure something nasty isn’t happening where you can’t see it.
How do you do this?
I’m not super knowledgeable about designer handbags, but I’m thinking about buying a Mulberry bag. I have a trip to London planned, is it smarter to wait to buy the bag when I’m in London or would there be no/minimal price difference?
No advice but I bought a Bayswater in the spring and it’s ** chef kiss **
You should be able to view the UK website at https://www.mulberry.com/gb/
You would probably save a little buying in the UK but not much. For example: the classic Bayswater bag in black grain leather is £1,195 which is probably about $1,585. In the US, the same bag is retailing for $1,595 + tax. So basically, you save whatever your local sales tax rate is in your state, but possibly lose that savings if you declare the purchase upon returning to the US (especially important if you have global entry). Not worth it to me.
I wanted to say thanks to all the NYC ‘Rettes who’ve given me invaluable tips over the years. The one I remember include: Where to have a business lunch near 30 Rock, whether Orchard Street Corsets is still open, and where to obtain black and white cookies for a Florida relative. (The winner on that one was Russ & Daughters, via Goldbelly.)
You’re wonderful and I hope you have lovely fall weather for your weekend!
What was the 30 Rock lunch rec out of curiosity? I’m always looking for lunch spots in that area.
Explain to me the dangers/downside of social media like I’m a 13 year old straight A student who is generally extremely responsible and trustworthy.
What kind of social media? Different arguments for the “make your friends jealous” ones where you post photos and the algorithm/silo forms primarily about media consumption. And of course the fractured attention. Then there’s the “sneaky ways to chat” ones like Spotify, Roblox, discord.
I remember chatting online with friends a ton as a thirteen year old back in the old days on mIRC. I’m sure we stressed out the adults and the channel mods just by being around! Now a lot of discord servers feel just the same as back then, and I’m just as grateful for good mods now that I’m not one of the teens.
Skews your sense of reality by presenting you with more and more brain rot that destroys your attention span and leaves you craving dopamine hits. It also sucks you further and further into dissatisfaction by showing you all sorts of things you didn’t know you wanted and convincing you they are necessary to your happiness and well-being.
This is the primary purpose for not wanting my current 9 year old anywhere near it until she’s beyond 13 years old.
It’s the same reasons I hate it: it’s addictive, it forces comparison and therefore steals joy, it replaces actively participating in life. As I say to my kiddo, I’d rather you experience fun and happy things and not watch other people experience fun and happy things on a small screen. That little statement seems to resonate with her.
Also on my list, but admittedly not the top reason, is the fear of predators, scams, etc. If smart adults I know can fall for scams of all shapes and sizes, a 13 year old is going to be particularly vulnerable.
The fun and happy things part is so important. It’s not just “because it’s scary and bad” – it’s because life off screens is better. It just is. Show your kids what the real world can offer.
This was not even remotely my experience of life off screens vs. the real world when I was thirteen. The world on screens was so much richer and bigger. What was so great about school or the suburbs exactly?
Predators of all ages. People who will not just let you use a thing without trying to ruin it by stalking you, using your own information against you, harassing you. This could be a stranger who found a way in, an acquaintance, or even a close friend.
Best case scenario the kid knows how to shut it down. The worst case scenario they get in over their head, can’t find a way out, and won’t confide in a responsible adult who can help them.
Also sometimes kids just behave badly, use inappropriate language, and that can stick to them.
For me it was seeing friends get together without me. Also seeing everyone else’s highlight reel and comparing with my real life.
Replaces genuine fun with cheap dopamine hits, encourages rumination, replaces activity with sedentary “activity,” promotes anxiety and depression, opens the door for exploitation (and you’re kidding yourself if you think an “extremely responsible” kid isn’t easy prey – sometimes they’re more eager to please and they’re just as likely to fall for a clever scam), creates an addiction, and takes away from family time. Good enough for you?
+ surveillance
I can’t because it’s conventional wisdom I don’t agree with.
It’s a cigarette for your brain.
One thing that doesn’t get talked about enough is the negative side of social media for everyone else the individual child/teen interacts with: less time socializing with those around them, more fighting over limits and restrictions, one kid isolating themselves on individual devices at rare events like family gatherings, more challenges in school that require more time from the parents to resolve, and more. Call me judgmental, but I absolutely hate it when we’re at family Thanksgiving or another family event and the cousins my kid was excited to play with are in another world on their own devices. It’s a net negative for the whole gathering. Then you add in the adults – the parents are doomscrolling TikTok and memes and the Boomer grandparents are sharing bizarre videos from Facebook that no one cares about. If anything, actually, the Boomers are the most addicted of all now and they seem to have the least awareness of what’s real or fake.
1990s: you find out on Monday that there was a party of the weekend and you were not invited
2026: you get to watch all the snaps from your friends at the party so you get a live blog of what you are missing
1990s: You are chatting with an online friend who may or may not be a real person or an adult male.
2026: you are chatting with an online friend who turns out to be an adult male and they are having instacart and door dash deliver inappropriate stuff to your house because they figure out where you live.
1990s: your creepy gym teacher talks to you after class
2026: your creepy gym teacher finds you online and starts following your social media and location because you didn’t adjust your settings properly and starts showing up where you are but never frequently enough or close enough to count as stalking so now you never want to go to the mall or movies with your friend.
1990s: log on to a desktop through a slow internet connect to chat
2026: group chat is in your pocket all the time except when you are asleep feeding you short reels that the algorithm has designed to mess with your attention span.
I’ll add:
1990s: You see your friends at school and when you’re hanging out and they’re skinnier than you, which makes you feel bad when you’re next to them.
2026: You see your skinny friends online 24/7 posing and looking hot with all the boys in your class following them. The filtering and airbrushing makes them look perfect.
This looks like a sleep shirt from the eighteenth century. I’m also reminded of that scene from Fair Play when the guy tells his girlfriend people don’t take her seriously because she dresses like a cupcake.
It’s the Puffy Shirt for me.
It’s Jerry’s pirate shirt.
I need to deploy this line to some folks in my life.