Splurge Monday’s Workwear Report: Diane Printed Wide-Leg Pants
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
I fully recognize that these Carolina Herrera pants may fall into the “Ladies Who Lunch” style of dressing, but it doesn’t make me love them any less. The print is gorgeous, the cut is perfect, and if I had four figures to drop casually on a pair of trousers, they would be in my closet immediately.
For the office, I’d try them with a silk blouse or a crisp navy blazer if the coordinating cardigan felt like a little too much look.
The pants are $1,490 at Bloomingdale’s and come in sizes 2-10.
Sales of note for 8/14:
- Ann Mashburn – Seasonal sale, up to 50% off – we just included them in our updated Top 10 Brands for Comfortable Heels!
- Ann Taylor – 25% off all suiting! Also, extra 60% off clearance — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Anthropologie – Extra 40% off sale!
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns (new lines added)
- J.Crew – Up to 30% off
- J.Crew Factory – 40-60% off sitewide, extra 60% off clearance
- J.McLaughlin – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lilysilk – Anniversary sale, save up to 70%
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added, exclusively online)
- M.M.LaFleur – 20% off pants (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clearance, new markdowns up to 75% off! 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
- Saks Fifth Avenue – Take 25% off one item (ends Mon)! Great selection of Veronica Beard, L'Agence, Vince, and more.
- Talbots – End of season clearance, 60% off all markdowns. $24.99 pants and jeans
- Theory – End of season sale is on! Love all the colors their best-selling sweater tee comes in, and some colors are on sale.
- Tory Burch – Private sale, ends 8/19!
good morning! I am travelling to Niagara Falls this autumn to visit a family member in school there. I know to stay in the Canadian side, and I’m comfortable walking and using the buses. I’m interested in recommendations for hotels and if anyone has used the transfer services between the Buffalo airport and the Canadian side. (I heard the border crossing is easier there rather than at the Toronto airport. I am a US citizen.) Thanks!
what the heck is the inseam on these pants? I think I could make an entire pair of shorts out of the amount I’d need to hem off.
I love these pants. I cannot afford them.
Question for the hive: I think of myself as an especially lazy person. I just drag my feet on absolutely everything. I’m good about exercising and daily routines but stuff like cleaning out a drawer I will literally never do. I don’t think it’s adhd so much as I just get zero sense of accomplishment or happiness from completing most tasks. Case in point I hadn’t gotten my car washed in forever and it was on my to do list and I finally did it and….meh. It’s clean now. It was still an annoying chore and there are still a million more. I ask here because people were talking about procrastinating by tidying and good grief I have never done that. Is it possible it’s because I get zero dopamine from it? Is there a way to change that?
Getting no dopamine from accomplishment isn’t normal. There are three types of ADHD which most people don’t realize: inattentive (space case, often what women have and self manage), hyperactive-impulsive (disruptive little boys), and combined (both).
I’m similar. It may take me literally years to get a piece of art framed and hung, whereas I have an aunt who will do that kind of thing the first hour she thinks of it. In my case, I think I’m protective of my free time to relax. It’s gotta be reallyyyy important to eat into the only time I get to read or exercise each day between work, childcare, and long-distance elder care.
Also, I absolutely hate a staycation – when I’m off work, the last thing I want to do is chores, even if I have stored up a long list. I’ve had a few unwilling staycations in the past few years and wanted to climb up the wall after 2 hours. I get very little vacation time, so I think the same dynamic I mentioned above is coming into play.
To me, the word staycation always meant you still do fun things (going to the lake, local museums, shows, boardgames, backyard BBQs), you just don’t travel anywhere. Not staying home and doing chores.
This is not the point of your post, but a “staycation” is not for chores! Stay just means that you are in your own home rather than a far-flung location, but it’s supposed to still be a vacation, just without going anywhere. Take a daytrip, go to a museum or amusement park, get a massage, eat at a cafe and read a book or try a new restaurant, etc. Treat it like a vacation but save on hotels and airfare by vacationing within range to sleep in your own bed.
People who feel a sense of obligation to have a clean house before they are allowed to vacation are people who hate staycations because something tells them they can’t do five days in a row of fun stuff unless they earn it by completing things on their to-do list. But, if that doesn’t describe you then a staycation is amazing! There is so much to do without having to drop $$$ on airfare and airbnb.
I should add that I’m a person who values cleanliness and organization, but apparently not enough to endure the drudgery of cleaning and organizing. It would be nice if I could make myself do this stuff.
Can you reserve a dopamine activity as a reward for after you completed a not-so-fun task?
Good idea! Any suggestions? I have to work to get time with friends and exercise into my schedule so I don’t want to ration those or mess with my schedule too much.
I’m lazy, too. Except I will absolutely skip the gym but dump a drawer on the floor to organize it. But that drawer organizing does give me a dopamine rush and exercise never will (and I say this as a former athlete and current volunteer sports coach.)
Someone needs to invent 1-800-VIRGOS4U. Some of us can’t get to the gym because we are always trying to treat our living spaces as giant Tetris games.
YES 😂
I am the same way, and I have accepted some journeys are not for me. I live in a city and pay way too much for my parking spot in a parking garage so my car gets so dirty. I also don’t have access to a hose, nor are there car washes near me. So, I have a dirty car. Such is life. I’m certainly not driving out of my way and paying $15 just to have a clean car.
I think I’m just worn out. Eldest daughter, long-time single/living alone, managing up at work for an incompetent and borderline verbally abusive supervisor. If someone wants to come organize a drawer for me, great. But that’s just not on my list.
I have a vibrant social life, and am very active in lots of hobbies. I can’t balance thhose + the demanding job + “baseline adulting” + AND CARING about stuff like car washes or drawer clean outs. Something’s gotta give and the thing that brings nothing to me (fun, rest, baseline competence, salary) is gonna be what gets cut out.
I used to feel bad about this (soemtimes I still do), like I’m flawed or less put together because of it. But, I’m trying to stop caring. Because the people with more “finished” lives don’t have the active personal and/or professional life I do.
Agreed with all of this. Also, cars just get dirty again (and quickly).
idk, we’re all wired differently. I feel that way about exercise. I do it because I should, but people who describe feeling super energized about their day or a runner’s high? Zero experience with that.
At least for me, this mostly comes down to the things I care about, I don’t care about whether my car is spotless in general, but when for some reason it gets dirty in a way that makes it hard to see out the windows or it gets super salty in the winter, then I have no problem getting motivated to clean it. Forget all the dopamine bs, I just care about maintaining my car’s function. Same for keeping my house maintained and clean and organized, which makes it easier for me to function in it. If it will ultimately make my life better or easier enough to be worth the cost and effort then I do it, and if not I probably won’t, which seems efficient, not lazy.
I love these! Have neither the budget nor the lifestyle for them… but gosh if I was an aunt at a swanky southern wedding, I’d wear these to the welcome dinner or something.
I have a seagrass rug that has seen better days, so it’s time to get another one. I didn’t love it — it was very rough under bare feet and uncomfortable even with socks on due to the ridges. What else is out there that I could get in a custom size (like 4 feet by 12 feet) that could have a fabric edging? It doesn’t need to be a “grass” type fiber but needs to have a fairly neutral look against orange-ish pine flooring that is very soft (so will also need a substantial custom-cut rug pad beneath it due to use of roller office-type chairs in a WFH space). THANKS MUCH.
Where can I obtain term life insurance if I’m in good physical health but have a history of depression and mental health treatment?
I tried to get term life when I got married and was denied a lot of places, and since then just bought extra through work to get me to about $1M. However, I recently changed jobs and my new job doesn’t offer a buy up for term life. My daughter is 4 and while we have a decent amount in savings I want to ensure she’s taken care of if anything happens.
I recently tried again through a few brokers and keep getting denied. It’s a demoralizing process. With the de-stigmatization of mental health treatment e.g., counseling and medication, it’s disheartening this is still an automatic denial for so many carriers.
I need help breaking the cycle of work anxiety. Every Monday morning, it’s the same thing: butterflies in the stomach, dread, needing to take deep breaths during my drive in. NOTHING IS WRONG. My work environment isn’t perfect, but it’s fine. There is nothing bad enough to prompt such a strong reaction. It’s exhausting starting the day or week like this, and then it takes my brain a long time to get going on the real, actual work. I hate this and feel like such a broken person.
I already take an SSRI, btw.
How are you spending your weekends? What are you doing for fun?
Well, this weekend, not much! My kids went back to school last week and we were all exhausted, so it looked like a lot of resting, getting caught up on chores, and not much in the way of fun. Other weekends, I make much more of an effort to have at least one social event for myself.
I’m done. I’m a federal employee who has been THROUGH it in the last 1.5 years (with NO reprieve on the horizon). My job was demanding and it’s only increased due to the attrition, my direct leadership is awful, and what they’re doing to my agency as a whole is immoral, illegal, and awful to live through.
I’m early 30s, single and always have been, have been living alone for about 5 years, eldest daughter, yadda yadda yadda. I’m just DONE with always having to be the person who does it, otherwise it doesn’t get done. I have great friends and a well-meaning family, but I’m just over it.
I’m hella resilient. I wish I wasn’t hella resilient. I went straight from pressure cooker high school to a selective university where I was a double major and D1 athlete to an intense but meaningful and passion-filled government career where I’ve been for the last 10ish years. I just lost a really close loved one a few months ago. I’ve been single my whole adult life so I’ve never had someone to share some of these burdens with (I finally came out about 2 years ago – it took forever to feel comfortable doing so, so that explains my younger-adult singleness, but not my current singleness) . I love my career but it’s been miserable lately. I have an incompetent and cruel supervisor so I manage up to make things not even tolerable. The federal government is an abusive place to work right now. Financially things feel so much tighter than they should thanks to the economy. But also, with my benefits (and how much I adore my colleagues and the work we do), I’m stuck.
There’s a lot of good in my life: my friends/family, hobbies I”m invested in and love, some fun personal goals (training for my second marathon), I am planning a bucket-list trip for next year. My therapist is great and we’re working a lot of resilience and positive-self talk/appreciation about everything we are doing and can do and have to do.
But what I wouldn’t give to just not be the one who has to do/fix everything.
I say this as someone who tends to be this way: what would happen if you didn’t fix everything?
I love these pants. The price point is far superior to my
means though. Rats.