Thursday’s Workwear Report: Cross-Front Flutter-Sleeve Dress
This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
This dress from Eloquii is going to be a lot of look if it falls into the wrong hands, but I think it would look absolutely gorgeous on the right person. I would be thrilled to see it on someone with a warm-toned, deep complexion. (Hello, Deep Autumns!)
If you want to make it a bit more formal, I would add a charcoal gray or navy blue blazer, but I think this is something that probably looks best standing on its own.
The dress is on sale for $56.69 (marked down from $62.99) and comes in sizes 14W-28W.
Sales of note for 5/26:
- Nordstrom – The Half-Yearly Sale has started! See our roundup here. Good deals on Veronica Beard, Vince, Reiss (esp. coats), as well as Wit & Wisdom and NYDJ
- Ann Taylor – 25% off + 30% off sale items
- Aurate – 25% off with code (ends 5/26)
- Bare Necessities – Up to 40% off, including tons of bra-sized swimwear (also, 10 panties for $10)
- Boden – 15% off new women's wear styles with code
- Express – Mega Sale, 40% off everything!
- J.Crew – 40% off your purchase and 50% off swim
- J.Crew Factory – Extra 70% off clearance + 50-70% off everything else
- Loft – 50% off one item
- Mango – 30% off everything, and free shipping with $260+
- M.M.LaFleur – Memorial Day Sale, up to 70% off this weekend only! (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off)
- M.Gemi – Memorial Day sale, prices up to 60% off
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the Rack! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work basics from Calvin Klein and dresses from Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – $29.50 sunny must-haves
- Theory – 25% off sitewide (see our notes here)
How much do location factors like weather and landscape play into your satisfaction with where you live? Did it influence your decision on where to live? Did anyone choose a beautiful location over everything else and regret it?
I live in a city with great food, arts, and culture, but it arguably has a real lack of natural beauty. Spent a long weekend in a beautiful, bucolic part of the country and I’m amazed at how restorative it felt. Of course now I’m seeing my city’s flaws in a more enhanced way.
I moved from the west coast to the east coast after college to get away from the smog and to live somewhere with real winter. After we married, my husband and I moved to Virginia partly because he was tired of the cold and snow. I despise the climate and scenery here–hot and muggy in the summer, mosquitoes everywhere for half of the year, winter is chilly and bleak with not enough snow for winter sports, no real mountains. But we aren’t leaving because of COL and other lifestyle reasons.
I read a great thread yesterday about how Faulkner etc would not exist in a climate of winter and reasonable humidity levels. People aren’t crazy like they are in humidity, pre-A/C at least.
Yes but this has changed over time. When I was in my late 20s, early 30s, I valued walkability, accessibility to jobs, restaurants, etc over access to nature. Now in my early 40s we moved because I wanted more green space for both me and my kids. I LOVE our location and the natural beauty and don’t regret it for a second but of course the trade off is a longer commute.
It’s a big factor for me. I couldn’t live somewhere that gets super muggy and hot and/or is also notably ugly. I live in the Bay Area and would live in Idaho if not for the politics and poor job scene. From the Bay Area, we can do day and weekend trips to Tahoe, Yosemite, Lassen, Carmel, and literally dozen of other famously beautiful places.
After 42 years in New England, planning on moving with my family to St. Petersburg, Florida. I’ve realized that about 90% of my moods is weather and can’t deal with only being happy from May-October. St. Pete is somewhat of a progressive/queer-friendly bubble in Florida and I’m excited to only see snow on my own terms from now on.
I look at a screen all week. What can I get to in 2-3 hours on a weekend or up to 8 on a long weekend?
My brother has a ton of sinus issues, my kid has severe grass allergies – I feel like moving could solve a lot of these problems. I think my kid is destined for a city when he’s older.
We live around a lot of national beauty (national park very close) and it’s meh to me although I enjoy driving past it on the way home from the store. We moved for family. I miss the city.
There’s certainly no guarantee that living next to something famously beautiful means that you will benefit from it. I had family who lived in an amazing ski town who spent every single powder day watching TV!
I’ve moved a lot and lived in multiple places people vacation in, as well as ugly cities and cities with a lot of easily accessible natural beauty. The only place that I moved solely for a job despite misgivings about the weather and the landscape was the one place I couldn’t stand and ended up leaving after a few years. Life is so much better when you live somewhere with natural beauty and at least tolerable weather, whatever that means for you (I currently live somewhere frigid for a good portion of the year, but that’s vastly preferable to heat and humidity for me).
I grew up on the east coast and lived in various cities on the east coast until age 30. Now i live in TX bc of DH’s job. I detest the weather 6 months of the year, but I like our life here (minus the politics), maybe bc we have 2 kids, but our life here is just so much easier than it would be any of the other places we could realistically live due to work. We commute 15-20 min to work, all of our kids extra curriculars, errands, etc is all like 5-10 minutes away and we are in a big city so still have access to good restaurants, museums (though I’m a self proclaimed snob who spent too much time living in nyc and dc to really be impressed by museums elsewhere), we are 25 min from the closest airport. But a terrible place to live for good day trips and it’s ugly. Places that are good to live are not necessarily great to visit and visa versa.
Northern Virginia here—I have only ever moved places for work. I can’t afford to live in a place for beauty and culture.
This. Would love to live in many lovely places and the math only works if I marry well or get a Dickens-type benefactor.
I live in a pretty part of the Bay Area with fantastic weather and have absolutely gorgeous nature within an hour’s drive. I really appreciate all that, but community factors like walkability, nice neighbors, institutions like the farmers’ market, and excellent libraries, are all more important to my day-to-day happiness.
There are some less-developed areas within a few hours’ drive that are even prettier, but I wouldn’t want to move there. I like being close to whatever healthcare my family or I might need, having quick access to a range of retail (at competitive prices!), especially grocery stores, lots of educational and extracurricular opportunities for my kids, and a bigger community so that I can find people whose company I enjoy.
In California, the fire risk is also higher in the less-developed areas I have in mind. I wouldn’t want to add to the difficulty in fighting fires by building a house/adding to housing demand in the wildland-urban interface without any real need to be there. I also have no desire to try to source and pay for insurance in higher fire risk areas.
We had a hell of a time getting fire insurance recently. The property is in a developed suburb near open space right on the border between high and moderate risk official zones. To us, the most important factors were layout-related for our own safety (multiple escape routes, wide streets) but there is certainly increased overall risk of a fire touching the property.
I live in Austin and find parts of it beautiful–for example, we live in the hills, and it’s situated on water–but I tend to forget about that in my day to day when all I’m doing is commuting over the bridge. I do not generally find central Texas landscape pretty – I think it’s rocky, brown, and has too many cedar trees. I appreciate our weather. I don’t actively want to live somewhere significantly colder, although I would if life took us there. I was a young law student when I found myself in Austin, so I was not thinking about life long-term when I chose to move here, but I do think I stay because I am, overall, content. As an adult with kids and a big job, at this point, I prioritize commute living as close to downtown as I can afford while still being in a pretty area with good schools. I would never in a million years buy a house outside town to have more natural beauty if it meant I was spending an hour+ driving when I could be with my family.
I left NJ for ME because I am happier living in northern New England (I’ve lived in VT, NH, and ME over the years). The scenery has a lot to do with that, but I also hate heat and humidity, so I’m much happier when I can be outside all year. I lived in the southern midwest for 8 years and could only handle being outside from Nov-May. It really did a number on my mental health.
The thing that’s most important to me is not needing a car. My city is ugly(ish), but I feel like I reap daily benefits from living in a “15-minute city.” I can’t afford pretty, good climate, and walkable so I picked which one mattered the most. If I want pretty I go on vacation, but talking to locals in various pretty places has also made me realize it’s not always all it’s cracked up to be.
I have always lived near the Great Lakes. Whenever we return from a vacation elsewhere, I am struck by how much natural beauty surrounds us in our home state. It is easily accessible. We have cities large enough to fulfill our needs nearby. We have four true seasons. We do not get hurricanes and are not in earthquake territory. Our geography means tornadoes tend to stay smaller. Blizzards are real but we are well equipped to ride them out. COL is manageable and our jobs are secure.
Travel is great and it is very satisfying to come home to a place that has so much going for it.
I live where people don’t think there is natural beauty but we all just stare at screens in gray offices in soul-less office parks. I took a walk on the greenway and just the nature available to me is so delightful now that it doesn’t get dark at 4.
Another Great Lakes person here, and I agree! I get to live in a medium sized city, in a walkable neighborhood with surprisingly good restaurants and arts nearby, less than a half mile from a beautiful shoreline. Also a 1-2 hour drive from forests with hiking and inland lakes. I love to travel to bigger cities and different nature, but I feel very lucky to live where I do.
Which city?
Milwaukee
Absolutely agree, and I’m one of the people who has also lived in coastal CA and beautiful small towns in New England. The Midwest does lack mountains and oceans, but there’s water everywhere, and I can live in a major city with decent COL and still have access to nature within minutes, which is a pretty reasonable balance.
Not much? I used to live in the Bay Area which is one of the most objectively beautiful parts of the country but the culture there is so workaholic it felt like we had no time or energy to enjoy it. Now I live in an objectively blah part of the Midwest but have lots of time and money to travel and see beautiful places and am much happier. I do hope to retire to New England eventually for both the weather (I hate hot weather) and natural beauty, but also other factors like cost of living and politics.
I love to visit NYC because I get to enjoy what makes it great. When I was there, I was too poor or too busy to do any of that.
i don’t know where you live of course but most cities have some natural beauty not too far out? like i’m in NYC, you can get plenty of hiking/ biking within an hour? Could you be more intentional about just getting out there? i know it’s easier said than done….
We split our time between San Francisco and Sonoma, two gorgeous places IMHO and we do it precisely because it’s a gorgeous place to live. I feel like I’m on vacation every day.
Do you all use self belts? Or add a more belty belt to dresses like this?
The ties are integral to the style of this dress–it would look off with a different belt, partly because the wrap element would be missing and partly because the belt would need to be worn so far above the natural waist.
i think this particular belt is attached to the dress but generally yes i think a real belt looks more expensive than the tie the dress comes from.
I actively avoid dresses that need belts. They look dumb on my shape.
I think a belty belt looks more expensive, but I also think self belts (especially if they’re wider) look better on me personally (they maintain one long visual line but add shape, where belty belts chop me up)
I have one dress that has an attached self belt and it is a royal pain to keep it looking tidy since it pulls oddly and likes to roll into a scrunched up rope instead of the wide obi-style tie like in the photo here. Separate leather belts are much less fuss for me.
I clicked on a bad link from an email on my phone. I closed the browser window quickly and didn’t enter any information. It did seem to log me out of all my various accounts used in the browser (newspapers, shopping sites, etc.).
I’ve deleted the browser history, cleared the cache, looked for any unusual apps, connected devices, etc. My iOS is up to date. I’ve done all the things the internet recommends but I still feel paranoid.
How do I know I don’t have vulnerabilities? Is it safe to log back into sites on my phone via browser? Has this happened to anyone and what steps should I take? Is a malware service useful?
Kat, there is a Choice Hotels auto-play add with audio overriding my mute setting.
I feel like this is a torts law issue spotting exercise, but my neighbors big teen sons have a moving company (but it’s just those two and a friend, no company). They are too young to rent a truck, so IDK which parent owns or leases it. I would bet that no one that’s thought through workmen’s comp insurance or self-employment taxes or anything. It will probably be fine. But OMG as a person who got a lot of extra insurance and did everything on the books when we had a very PT driving nanny, I feel like this could go very wrong. Like fall on stairs or crash on the interstate wrong, wrong with two commas wrong.
yup. people keep posting on my local moms and dads group offering their high school students up to drive kids this summer. I want to call them and tell them this is not a good idea… have they updated their insurance policy?
Not your circus, and I think it’s nice to see kids working and being entrepreneurial. Also, how do you know any of this? I don’t share my insurance situation with neighbors.