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Updated: Jun 4, 2021 256 Comments · by

Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Dolman-Sleeve Top

The Personal Shopper (TPS) |

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I bought a few of these dolman-sleeve tops from Banana Republic Factory last year, and they’ve held up beautifully after repeated laundry cycles. They’re also incredibly versatile — I’ve worn them with skirt suits during the week and denim shorts and sandals on the weekend.

This navy floral version is my favorite of the bunch, but it also comes in two other blue-and-white prints.

The blouse is $38.49, marked down from $54.99 at Banana Republic Factory, and comes in sizes XXS–XXL.

This navy floral top from Treasure & Bond is a nice plus-size option for $49 at Nordstrom.

Sales of note for 8.30.24

  • Nordstrom – Summer Sale, save up to 60%
  • Ann Taylor – 30% off full-price purchase; $99 jackets, dresses & shoes; extra 50% off sale
  • Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
  • Bergdorf Goodman – Final Days Designer Sale, up to 75% off; extra 20% off sale
  • Boden – 20% off
  • Brooks Brothers – Extra 25% off clearance
  • Eloquii – Up to 60% off everything; extra 60% off all sale
  • J.Crew – 40% off sitewide; extra 60% off sale styles
  • J.Crew Factory – Extra 20% off orders $125+; extra 60% off clearance; 60%-70% off 100s of styles
  • Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off (ends 9/2)
  • Madewell – Extra 40% off sale; extra 50% off select denim; 25% off fall essentials
  • M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
  • Rothy's – End of season sale, up to 50% off
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear in the big sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – 25% off regular-price purchase; 70% off clearance
  • White House Black Market – Up to 70% off sale

Sales of note for 8.30.24

  • Nordstrom – Summer Sale, save up to 60%
  • Ann Taylor – 30% off full-price purchase; $99 jackets, dresses & shoes; extra 50% off sale
  • Banana Republic Factory – 50-70% off everything + extra 20% off
  • Bergdorf Goodman – Final Days Designer Sale, up to 75% off; extra 20% off sale
  • Boden – 20% off
  • Brooks Brothers – Extra 25% off clearance
  • Eloquii – Up to 60% off everything; extra 60% off all sale
  • J.Crew – 40% off sitewide; extra 60% off sale styles
  • J.Crew Factory – Extra 20% off orders $125+; extra 60% off clearance; 60%-70% off 100s of styles
  • Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off (ends 9/2)
  • Madewell – Extra 40% off sale; extra 50% off select denim; 25% off fall essentials
  • M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
  • Rothy's – End of season sale, up to 50% off
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear in the big sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – 25% off regular-price purchase; 70% off clearance
  • White House Black Market – Up to 70% off sale

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About Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a 30-something lawyer living on the East Coast. She spent seven years as a Biglaw associate in NYC, three years as a partner at a medium-sized firm, and is now in-house counsel for a large company. She loves Diet Coke, '90s sitcoms, and dresses with pockets.

Comments

  1. Anonymous

    I need some ideas for a potluck. Looking for something with individual portions, as opposed to a shareable dip or something. Bonus if it’s something rainbow or pride themed. Any ideas?

    • Ribena

      Mini quiches! You can get quite a lot of colours of the rainbow in little chopped up veggies inside

    • Elle

      I attended a socially distanced baby shower and the host did individual charcuterie servings in clear cups. You could maybe do something similar with fruit salad or a fruit skewer

    • Anonymous

      Could you do funfetti cupcakes with sprinkles? Bonus if you find fun parchment liners for the cupcake tins.

    • Walnut

      Rainbow pattern fruit skewers! If you want something savory, you could do half a platter of fruit and half a platter of caprese skewers.

    • Anonymous

      Whoopie pies with confetti rolled on the outside.

      Mini cheesecakes (can do a chopped fruit topping for lots of color)

    • Anon.

      I’d do a sheet cake cut into squares. Prior to baking, you could divide the dough and color each portion with different colors, then spread thinly without disturbing the layers.
      Alternatively, marble cake slices with swirls of differently colored dough.

      Another option would be a yogurt parfait layered into cups, again with different colors. I also like the fruit skewer idea. Clearly, I’m into desserts.

      This link has some good ideas: https://www.tablespoon.com/holidays-parties/the-best-rainbow-recipes-for-pride-month

      For savory foods, that rainbow pasta salad looks great.

    • Marie

      A huge crowd pleaser I do that is perfect for getting into summer weather is a mini caprese skewers. Super easy and people love them. You just take a cherry tomato, a mini mozzarella ball, and a basil leaf and put them on individual toothpicks. Drizzle with balsamic or olive oil if you like and/or crack some pepper over them and that’s it!

    • Anon

      Google “rainbow fruit skewers” it’s my go to for any potluck and is always a hit.

  3. Anon

    I’d like to work from home in the Bay Area for a bit this summer. Any recommendation for neighborhoods with more young professionals and that is safe for a single woman? Open to both the city and surrounding areas such as Silicon Valley. Thanks in advance!

      • Anon

        What? No. For a young single person? It’s not even close to the bay.

        It depends on your budget OP – if you can swing the city, the marina, north beach, pacific heights, maybe SoMa

        • Anonymous

          It’s less than a 40 minute BART ride to SF, closer to Oakland and Berkeley, so yes, it is “close” to the Bay Area and is in fact part of the Bay Area. There are tons of young single people and working professionals. It sounds like you’re not familiar with it but that’s okay!

          • Anon

            Nice try. I’m a Bay Area native. OP, if you want a boring white suburb that’s far from the bay, WC. Otherwise, it actually sounds like you’re looking for the city or the Peninsula. The peninsula is mostly pretty suburban too, but downtown Palo Alto can be kind mildly lively. Also $$$ though.

          • Anonymous

            Weird flex from one Bay Area native to another, but whatever makes you happy from your perch in Mill Valley.

        • Anon

          +1 – the creek is where you go after you’re not single and is way too far for a city summer. Seconding the neighborhoods suggested here in SF. Adding to those, Hayes Valley, Inner Sunset and Richmond, Noe, basically anywhere but downtown, which is still dead. There are rentals in SF, but short term ones have always been a little harder to find, but I’d certainly look. Signed another Bay Area native/resident of SF.

      • Serafina

        Um, Walnut Creek is where people go when they have kids and families and need a bigger house (and spend weekends in the park with their kids instead of going into the city).
        Definitely live in the city if you can! Best location depends on what you’re interested in (lively bars and restaurants? something more elegant? more neighborhood-y? views? ocean? sun?).
        The East side of the city will get more sun than the west side (Karl the Fog makes an appearance).
        Russian Hill and North Beach are cute and neighborhood-y.
        Marina is a little fratty / yacht club feel but popular.
        South Park / Mission Bay is a little more “slick” and city-y.
        Lower Haight / Hayes Valley / Mission are lively, lots of cute restaurants and good food, some areas feel a bit grungy to me (but everyone else seems to love it).
        Richmond/Sunset are a little more suburban but lots of good food and closer to the Pacific ocean; but they will definitely be foggier in the summer.
        I saw someone mentioned Presidio – it’s pretty and close to the Ocean, but I always find that it feels a bit isolated and hard to get anywhere.
        Re: Safety, most parts of the city are pretty safe. As a young woman, the only places I’d really avoid are Tenderloin / parts of SOMA, and Bayview / Hunter’s Point. Some other areas (e.g. Mission) can feel a bit grungy at times but plenty of young professionals live there.
        Good luck!

        • Anonymous

          Huh, I guess this explains why I’m able to pay just 10% of my income on rent in Walnut Creek for a slightly dilapidated but spacious 2-bed, 2-bath apartment with parking, balcony, and W&D in-unit. I guess the lower demand is resulting in a great deal for me. I personally don’t care for the bar/restaurant scene, but when I bike or walk by, it seems to be bumping (pre-COVID and now on the street parklets). OP, do your own research and see if it would be right for you. The other posters are right that certain areas are very family-oriented, but where I live (downtown) is definitely not.

          • Anonymous

            I commuted to the city daily pre-COVID, but I WFH now. I typically don’t go to the city on weekends much, maybe once a month. I prefer to spend weekends at the beach or in the mountains. However, plenty of friends go into the city every single weekend. You’ll note that OP didn’t say she specifically wanted to be in or near SF for any kind of city vibe. She is open to a variety of areas.

          • Anon

            You are super defensive about living in WC apparently, since you’re all over this thread being snarky with anyone who doesn’t think it’s the ideal location for a single young woman in her twenties to experience San Francisco (because it’s not)

          • Anonymous

            Anon at 1:33, please stop taking a low-stakes convo on a fashion blog SO seriously. It’s not a good look.

        • Cb

          Lived on 24th and Santiago one summer before moving for Twin Peaks and NEVER saw the sun. But I love the Inner Richmond.

    • everyday bag

      Can you give more input into what kind of neighborhoods you have lived in the past, and what you like/don’t like?

    • Anon

      You might also look into jumping into a room in the Presidio, which is the national park/former military base located at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge in SF. It’s adjacent to tons of great neighborhoods, has really lovely hiking/biking/beach walking, is still right in the city if you want to Uber, and will undoubtedly have furnished rooms. Search on CL under zip 94129. Separately, there is a fantastic housing group on FB, “Friends Looking for SF Housing! – Anjou” which has 70K members, all in or near SF, and very active roommate/sublet postings where you could find a great place. It’s might be secret, if you can’t find it, but find an SF friend to help get you in–it’s worth it. Lots of nice, normal people there who’d be fun to be roomies or get a sublet in a 1BR or Studio from.

      • Anon

        The Presidio is gorgeous. It can seem a little far from the rest of the city (restaurants, shops, etc) with limited public transit, but if you’re a big walker it’s a great place to live.

        • pugsnbourbon

          I went to the Disney museum as part of a work trip a few years ago and holy moly. Coming from the midwest I walked around just gawping at how beautiful it all was there.

          • Anon

            I still haven’t been to the museum! I’ve also never been to Alcatraz despite growing up here, haha

    • anon

      Just bought one in Ivory (specifically the “Washable Stretch Silk Tank”). Not see-thru, a little clingy on the bra, though. It wrinkles a ton (I have a cheap amazon steamer and it looks beautiful after steaming) and is about 1-2″ shorter than I’d prefer, but I do like it and I would recommend it with those caveats.

      • Anonymous

        What steamer do you have? I hate to iron. The last steamer I bought didn’t do jack.

  5. Anon

    Looking for ideas for a small ($50-$100 max, $25 would be even better!) splurge that will either help me pull my life together or be “pretty”. I’ve really gotten off my routine wagon and I hope if I get an “aspirational” small gift for myself it’ll be the motivation I need to get it together again.

    I’ve tried lots and lots of ways to get it together again, with no success so trying this!

    • Anon

      I got a lipstick to wear for video meetings and court appearances — on video it serves the same role as mascara does in real life by making me look more awake and caffeinated. I have the Clinique Black Honey and it lives in the drawer of my WFH desk.

    • Anonymous

      Blush (nars orgasm is great)
      Eyeshadow (supergoop came out with an spf eyeshadow that I’ve been loving)
      Ditto the lipstick suggestion. I’ve been loving nars lip colors.
      Earrings, maybe something fun for summer?

    • anon2

      Right before the pandemic lock-down, I started wearing lipstick. Now that my state has lifted its mask mandate, I am fully back in the swing of lipstick and I love how it makes me feel put together even if I am wearing casual clothes and very little other makeup. This is my vote!

      • anon2

        Oh! I suppose I should have mentioned that my favorite lip is a red lip. My go to is Kat von D Studded Creme Kiss Lipstick in Outlaw. It’s pretty darn long lasting – I barely have to reapply after eating dinner/drinks.

    • Anon

      The new glossier cashmere lipsticks are actually fantastic (I find that line very hit and miss), I got an orange/red and it’s my favorite thing after a year of wearing a mask.

    • Anon

      I recently bought NARS radiant tinted moisturizer with SPF and I’m really loving it. It is lightweight and glowy but not shiny, they have tons of colors and I got a good color match using their online tool.

      For brightening the face, bronzer or blush or both. As a pale girl here, bronzer can often be muddy and too dark on me – almost dirty looking – so I often skipped it. But I recently got a sample sized Bobbi Brown bronzer in Golden Light and it’s lovely. It leans pinky on me and adds slight warmth, shapes my face a little, and looks natural. I’m really enjoying it.

      I’m not sure you were actually looking for beauty products but since that’s how everyone else is answering I thought I’d jump in with my recent finds!

    • Anon

      Thanks all – I’m not much of a makeup wearer and am happy with my very basic routine. I should have clarified – pretty things to look at or the like, not necessarily things to make me pretty!

  6. CHL

    For those of you that are in a hybrid type of work arrangement, with or without free address or hotelling, how does your organization keep track or provide visibility into whether people are in the office or at home, or which desk they’re at on a given day. Not to be creepy or monitoring, but more to make it easy to find people you want to talk to. Do you just always ping people? Use some kind of status technology? Would appreciate specifics. Thanks!

    • Anon

      My company allowed us to work from home twice a week prior to covid. You had to be in the office the same days each week, and the culture was to set your Teams status to show which days you were working from home. But even separate from working from home, the custom was to ping someone before going to talk to them to make sure it was a good time. It was viewed as rude to just assume someone was available whenever.

    • Anonymous

      In my org even when working in the office the rule is to send a message on slack, teams, etc before swinging by someones desk. It’s considered rude to just interrupt, so asking first via a messenger platform is important.

      • Anonymous

        What if you are just walking past? We have a smaller office and it seems that people going to/from naturally pass by where people sit.

        • Cat

          There’s a difference between someone who’s casually walking by, glances in to see if you look busy, and is reminded of a quick q, and someone who walks up to your door purposefully and demands your attention ASAP. Example 2 – it’s way, way more polite to IM first.

      • Anon

        Same here. I keep hearing this casually swing by argument and it doesn’t compute for me. Who does that? It’s like cold calling. You slack/IM the person you want to talk to and suggest options (phone, video, coffee bar on 4, etc.). It’s not that hard.

        • Anon

          My law office does not have any IM system and unfortunately we get interrupted all the time by all sorts of people just dropping in with questions. I’m 100% more productive WFH because of that. When I try to just send my boss emails instead of interrupting him, he always asks why I didn’t just walk down and talk to him….

          • Anonymous

            It is time travel. I will never forget the time I showed up for a meeting at a fancy law firm. The receptionist took my coat and hung it in an actual coat closet. Then the old white dude I was meeting with said, “Oh, I wonder whether they left us some coffee. Oh, yes, here it is!” There on the credenza was a full spread of coffee and other beverages. For two people. That some unseen person had automatically set up without his even having to think to request it. At my nonprofit, if I want coffee for a meeting I have to ask my assistant to lug the coffee urn up from the kitchen and make sure that we haven’t run out of powdered creamer.

          • Anonymous

            Definitely time travel. The law firm I worked at between 2012-2015 had an actual typewriter in daily use. It was shocking.

          • Anon

            I blame the courts in part for this. Up until COVID, you had to buy your Writ of Execution form at the Court and use a manual typewriter to fill it out. You couldn’t scan it to type because it had to have the embossed seal. Some very nice clerks would let you scan it, fill it out and then bring it back for the seal but the majority said “use a typewriter.” It is so bizarre.

        • Anon

          It’s very very common in my office to just swing by someone’s desk. Would be very weird and formal to slack someone to set up a time to chat.

          • Anon

            Same. When new junior people start, I always have to tell them multiple times to just come by or call, and if I’m busy I will have my door closed or will not answer the phone.

          • Ribena

            In mine too. I use people’s status indicators on the IM system as a predictor of whether they’re going to be available before I drop around.

        • Anon

          See, this is crazy to me. We’re coworkers, it’s not weird or aggressive if I want to talk to you! People in my office use their words to communicate if it’s a good time or not, or those who have offices have their doors open or closed.

          • Anon

            I really do not want to spend all day waiting for people to let me know when it is a good time to talk. If I need to talk to you, I need to talk to you now and if not, I will send an e-mail if it can wait for you to get back to me. Otherwise, people would get back to me . . . never . . . for some people.

        • Anon

          I get so many e-mails that I turned off audible alerts so that I can work. So every hour or so I glance at my inbox, but no more often than that. I really need someone to call (now) or come by if it is urgent.

          • anon2

            +1 – I turned off email alerts a long time ago and I don’t have it open all the time or no actual strategic/substantive work would get done. Email is not for urgent tasks – call, IM (if available), or stand in front of the glass wall of my office and swing your arms wildly.

          • Anonymous

            This reminds me of my old office. My friend used to kick her leg while the rest was hidden and then duck back and wave an arm. And then jump out.

    • anon

      We have several other offices in the same metropolitan that we sometimes work out of so it was common for people to label their office location in the Skype or Teams status even when not working from home. And I agree with the previous poster that we should ping someone before walking to their desk.

      • Anon

        I hope that does become the norm at some point in offices, as it’s a primary reason why I found a full-time, permanent WFH job. What I do requires long periods of concentration (probably many folks here could say the same) and working from home is the first time in my work life that I’ve been able to have those periods of concentration and not be interrupted by someone dropping by because they have a “quick question” that could easily have been messaged or emailed, or because they were bored and wanted to talk to someone. And then in the offices I worked in, it wasn’t considered polite or friendly to say “hey, I’m in the middle of something, can we chat later?” and so I would have to sit there and smile and listen to long stories about people’s cats, or whatever, until I could get back to my work. Similar to how it’s become much less common to “drop by” people’s houses unplanned and unannounced because they might be doing something else (or just might not feel like having company), the same etiquette should apply in offices, IMO.

    • Anon

      We just need to tell our receptionist the schedule so she knows what to say to callers. Some people don’t like to leave voicemails (which forward to our email) and she will give them our mobile business numbers if we are WFH that day but not if we just haven’t come into the office yet that day.

      We also try to coordinate to have one attorney in at all times for signing anything that needs “wet” ink still. We still have a few courts that require it but our rules allow attorneys to sign for other attorneys. It’s very informal though. I’m there every Tue / Thur and someone else is there every Mon, Wed, Fri so even just between the two of us we have it covered. I’d ask around if I knew I couldn’t be in on a Tue/Thur to make sure someone would be there.

    • Govanon

      We have an office calendar for vacation, travel, etc., in Outlook. Once the pandemic sent people home, we added who is in the office to the calendar. (We are on a rotation because we have some work that cannot be done remotely, so 25-30% of the team is in each week.) I expect our org will allow some hybrid work post-pandemic, and I suspect we’ll just keep the office calendar to note who is working where.

      • Govanon

        OH – also, we needed to have the who-is-in for emergency accountability. If there is a fire and we evacuate the building, the floor manager needs to know Jose is not here this week but Diana was in the office. That way we don’t try to find Jose and can focus only on whether Diana is at the gathering spot, stuck in the burning building, or went to grab coffee across the street.

  7. Sybil

    I’m giving notice at my small firm next week. I go in the office once or twice a week but am otherwise remote. I very rarely work with the partner I’ll give notice to, but 5 minute pop-ins are fairly common. What’s better for this – a pop-in or asking to get some time on her calendar? I feel like if I ask for time on her calendar that’ll be a dead giveaway, but I’m not sure how much of a conversation it’ll be.

    • CHL

      Probably either would be fine but sometimes for a conversation like that, it’s not the worst thing if it’s a giveaway as the person has a little time to pre-process which makes the actual conversation a bit easier.

    • Anonymous

      This is pretty know your office. If you have a good relationship with her and you want to have a real conversation about it, then schedule some time to chat. If you just want to hand over your notice then a pop in is fine. There will be an opportunity for follow up talks as you transition your work. Every time I’ve left a firm I’ve just popped in and out, but I also left because I didn’t have a solid relationship with the decision makers.

    • MJ

      Also–please, please prepare a transition memo where you list client contacts/preferences, important emails/files, near-term action items, key to-dos in coming months, etc. It will make your departure much easier for those left behind and if the ethical and professional thing to do. These take time, and you may want to spend your own time working on this over the weekend if your regular workload is heavy. This way you can leave with a clear conscience that you did right by your firm and your clients.

      • Anon

        Strongly agree and disagree with different parts of what you said.

        Leave a transition memo – yes, it’s the decent and professional thing to do (provided they don’t walk you out).

        Doing it on your own time is not normal because your own time by definition is not work time.

        Doing it on your own time when you are about to leave speaks to Stockholm syndrome and that the person needs therapy…

  8. Anonymous

    Do other languages have a singular gender-neutral pronoun (like “it”) that isn’t just used for things? It is weird to me that in English, “they” can be people or things (He cut down the trees. They had been infested by insects.). But even sentient animals are often he/she and not “it” (ask people about their pets and it’s all “he’s a good boy”). “It” for a person would seem mean-spirited but maybe other languages have a pronoun word for “human being” that is not gender-referencing.

    • Woods-comma-Elle

      In colloquial Finnish you would say ‘it/they’ (se/ne) equally about people and things. But the third person pronoun ‘hän’ is gender-neutral anyway since Finnish doesn’t distinguish nouns by gender (unless it is ‘man/male’ or ‘woman/female’.

      • Anon

        I like han! I will also always silently think “Solo”, but that is a feature, not a bug :)

      • Shelle

        The forward thinker in me embraces this as the natural evolution of language to fit our communication needs. The old fashioned grammar stickler in me winces every time :)

        • Anonymous

          Eyeroll. It’s a longstanding usage. The fact that you don’t know that doesn’t make you much of a grammar stickler.

          eg. “Someone dropped their hat. I’ll leave it on the fence post in case they come back for it.”

        • Anonymous

          Yeah, you can’t help but wince at some of the tortured constructions out there, honestly.

        • Anon

          You do know that singular they has been used forever right? So call yourself a grammar nerd all you want, you’re still wrong.

        • Anon

          100% agree. It’s like proper use of who/whom. I know it’s a rule that has been deemed outdated but it still sounds like nails on the chalkboard to me when used “incorrectly”. Obviously I would never correct someone else and I always use the preferred pronouns of the person in question.

        • Aunt Jamesina

          Welcome to the world of grammatical descriptivism!You can still be a stickler, but rules follow practice, not the other way around.

    • Anonymous

      “On” (“one” or singular “they,” can also sort of mean “we”) in French?

    • Shelle

      I don’t have an answer to your specific question but it’s been fascinating to read about the efforts in countries like France, Spain, and Argentina to make their respective languages gender neutral. So in Spanish it’s replacing the o/a ending with e. In French it includes the suggestion to create an equivalent to our use of “they” as a gender neutral pronoun replacement.

      • Anon

        I’ve been very interested in this but hadn’t researched it. I just recall that words like singer or cook or teacher had an o at the end if they were male and an a at the end if they were female. I was wondering how that was being addressed in transgender situations. For mixed gender groups (a group of teachers) you would default to o but add s for the plural. I figured gender neutral would end up being the o but that’s not helpful in situations where it is a solo man that does not identify as male.

        It’s been a long time since I studied spanish but didn’t the “e” represent a different tense like a command or something?

        • Anon

          I am having the worst flashbacks to “agricola, agricolae, masculine, farmer” from latin class. OTOH, latin had the concept of neuter as a gender. Did it have pronouns for that, too? I can’t remember. It has been a while.

          • Shelle

            yes the Latin class flashbacks are happening! The language doesn’t have definite/indefinite articles like “the” or “a/an” so you’d just say “agricola” to mean “the farmer” or “a farmer”. But you had to keep in mind that the noun is a first declension which is mostly feminine. Cue Celine Dion’s “It’s all coming back to me now”…

      • Anon

        Come on, it’s common usage. Say you have a new colleague starting and no one has told you whether that person is male or female or other, just that you should prepare. You’d say things like “They can have this office and they can also use the small conference rooms for meetings. They may be overwhelmed by the number of files in these drawers, but since the files will ultimately be their responsibility, we should leave them here.”

        That’s usage that predates common acceptance of they as a personal pronoun for a non binary gender person. I agree that it was a little tricky to get used to the first time I met a person who used they as their personal pronouns, but it’s a small effort really, and I don’t think it’s much to ask at all.

        It’s like I had this former colleague whose name was slightly difficult to pronounce. I wasn’t going to start calling him Joe because I got tongue tied on his actual name. I just learned how to say it. It’s a sign of basic respect for a person.

        • Anon

          I think it is a common usage that can be regarded as sloppy (like yeah for yes) or not for anything but speaking colloquially vs putting into formal written documents.

          • Anon

            Hahah so REALLY would you in real life say “He or she can have this office and he or she can use the small conference room for meetings. He or she may be overwhelmed by the number if files in this drawer, but since the files are ultimately going to be his or her responsibility, we should leave them here.” That sounds much more clunky than just using “they” and “their.”

            But we all know you just want to hate on tr@ns and non b1nary people by using grammar as an excuse, so have at it.

      • Anon

        I think that’s an exercise in futility. When an ENTIRE LANGUAGE is built around masculine and feminine words, you can’t get everyone to change how they use every word, it’s absurd. At best do similar to English and have a gender neutral term to refer to people, and as a culture choose whether to use the he or her conversion an adjective modifier.

        • Anon

          I didn’t think that English was gendered except for pronouns. Like the apple I ate for lunch may have a gender in some languages, but IIRC it is just an apple in English. Yes? No? I am confused now.

    • Anonymous

      In German you refer to “the child” as “das Kind,” which is neutral. I had a German friend who said (in English) “That kid is being dangerous, it might hurt itself.”

      • Anonymous

        You actually see this frequently in written English from not that many decades ago.

        • Anonymous

          And it’s perfectly accurate English to say “That kid is being dangerous, they may hurt themselves.”

          Anyone who complains about ‘they’ as a single gender neutral pronoun is only demonstrating their own lack of English grammar knowledge.

    • Lydia

      some languages don’t have grammatical gender, so the pronouns are neutral (e.g. Turkish and other Turkic languages).

    • Anon.

      German has the word “es” (“it”) which is used to refer to babies and children, regardless of gender. But “es” is not used for adults, usually. I could maybe think of some insulting words that are gender neutral (like the German word for a**hole) where one might use “es” in context, but that’s probably a rare exception.

      In German: “Das Kind/Baby ist müde. Es schreit.”
      English, directly translated: “The child/baby is tired. IT is screaming.”

      The caveat using “es” is that you have to have a reference to a baby/child person before.

      • Anon

        So do some of my holly trees, but they are its. IDK about our solo fish — it has a gender, but I have no idea. But pets are an area where a thing is sometimes gendered and sometimes not.

        • Anonymous

          What even is this? Animals are male or female. C’mon people. Let’s not pretend that science doesn’t exist.

        • Anon

          Pets are always gendered. I guess with a fish you might not know its gender, but that’s the only potential exception I can think of.

          • Anonymous

            If you don’t know an animal’s sex you say “it.” “Your dog is so cute. What’s its name?”

    • Curious

      Russian’s gender-neutral pronoun оно is decidedly inanimate, if I remember correctly.

        • Anon

          This is very cool! I think that if there were an obs singular gender-neutral pronoun, it might be easily adopted and then just a word (vs a loaded word). How do you pronounce OHO? And Han with the umlaut / thingie?

          • Anonymous

            English doesn’t need a new word. It has a word. The word is ‘they’. It’s used all the time.

          • Anon

            English is a total franken-language. It steals and borrows, my sense is, more than most. IDK that it is done (or any language, for that matter, except maybe Latin).

          • Anonymous

            English doesn’t borrow more than most. If anything, especially with tech words, other languages borrow a lot from English.

            And regardless this is a non-issue. Just use the word ‘they’ in mostly the same way as it has been used for generations (to refer to a single person of unspecified gender).

            The fact that some people are too dumb to know this just means we need to improve grammar education. Not invent problems.

    • amberwitch

      In Danish we could say “vedkommende” if we don’t know someones gender so as a substutite for he/she like “when our new colleage arrives vedkommende will have to decide”
      Or we just use the third person plural: dem/de

    • Anonymous

      In Norwegian one of the written languages has common usage where gendered personal pronouns are also used to refer to grammatically gendered non-human nouns where English would use it. So sentences like “My bicycle is blue, he is chained to the fence by the gate” is correct usage.

      In terms of gender-neutral pronouns, “hen” has been introduced (mix of the vowel sounds separating hun and han, which is she and he), but is not yet as common as Swedens hen, or Finland’s hän.

  9. Anonymous

    I’d like to get my first designer bag but I’m kind of lost. Must be lightweight and roomy. I like the shape and weight of the LV canvas bags, maybe a medium sized neverfull, but I’d prefer something a little more subtle than LV. No logos. I also don’t particularly care for the color brown and I’ve read that the damier azur print doesn’t wear well. Most of the other bags I’m drawn to are architecturally beautiful but after a year of not leaving the house, I can’t imagine being weighed down by a heavy leather bag. Any advice?

    • anne-on

      I think you should decide first what type of use you expect and how much you want to carry in it. My suggestion will be totally different if you want this to be a commuting bag with your laptop in it vs. an around town bag that you want to throw a wallet/phone/makeup case in, vs. a night time clutch.
      Also – designer bags are generally made of leather, and frankly I’m not sure I’d pay over $500 for a bag that isn’t…just, why? what are you paying for there?

      • Cat

        +1

        Canvas designer bags are also prone to oversaturation in many areas because they’re a relatively accessible price point, and they’re also cheap to knock off. I see tons of (real and fake) LV canvas, Gucci logo canvas, and Goyard around. So if one reason you’re interested in a bag is that it will be noticeable / ‘different’ choose carefully!

    • A

      I’d get a bottega veneta. I don’t care for the new designer, but the old Veneta model is a classic.

      • A

        Also, the BV looks good at work and also with more casual clothes due to the slightly slouchy shape. And it’s easy on the shoulders.

      • Anon

        Few specific ones I’d recommend: the Arco tote (new, modern look, smaller/cheaper than some others), the Snap (bigger, more $$ than others – might be too $$). Otherwise, I’d recommend REALLY ensuring you look at the measurements on resale sites – Bottega has done some GIANT, more luggage style totes in recent years, and that doesn’t sound like what you’re looking for.

    • anon

      You need to think more about how you will use this bag. I would also think about vintage. Forever I wanted to get one bag to rule them all. And it’s just not realistic for my life that a single bag will fit enough situations for me to spend huge amounts on it. So I have several bags that are high quality designer bags but bought on the real real. Like I have a beautiful giant Burberry hobo that retailed for 1200 and i paid 450 for it. I have a Celine bag that is from when Michael Kors was there that was like 2k in 2004 and I paid $200 for it. Because I care more about whether the bag is my style than if it’s trendy.

      • MechanicalKeyboard

        Honest question – what is the point of getting a designer bag if it isn’t trendy? Are the materials better? I don’t usually wear purses so I just get whatever leather thing is on sale but I’d consider looking at designer items if they actually are better.

        • Anon

          I’m the Bag commenter below who’s really into this, and I’d say a few things:
          – The quality *can* be better (for example, many Hermes bags are hand stitched), but isn’t always. This varies with brand and individual style. Also varies by vintage – I’d argue that Chanel in particular has had declining quality over the last 20 years and I aggressively seek out vintage versions of bags I’m interested in for this reason.
          – The design – you’re often paying more for a bag that inspired countless others and originated a specific style. I love this aspect and I love the history, but I’m a bit of a nerd about this stuff.
          – Some higher end brands provide free repairs for the bag for the life of the bag, which I appreciate.
          – And of course – the trendy vs. classic dynamic – some bags are very trendy (see: Bottega Veneta Padded Cassette bag) and some are very classic (Chanel Classic Flag) – designer bags can be both or neither, they’re not a monolith.

          • MechanicalKeyboard

            “– Some higher end brands provide free repairs for the bag for the life of the bag, which I appreciate.”

            I’d be totally interested in this. I can’tkeep things in pristine condition no matter how hard I try and I hate shopping for new items.

      • anon

        I think often yes the quality is better. There’s a certain cut off point where that isn’t true. But my vintage designer bags have higher quality stitching, leather, and lining than an equally priced bag from kate spade. Which is not a knock on kate spade or unbranded bags, because those can be great too! I also think from a design perspective, that it’s sometimes hard to find a lower priced bag that doesn’t either feel juvenile or mumsy.

    • Anon

      So I love bags (it’s a hobby and a vice at this point), and have quite a few of the canvas totes you references – three neverfulls (monogram, damier ebene, damier azur) and a few Goyard totes. With that being said, I love them for some specific reasons: they absolutely can take a beating and be wiped off, the LVs in particular come with a great warranty, and I put huge amounts of crap in them every day, and I have never found a better substitute that looks nice and can do those things. Leather is great, but it can’t sit on the floor or take as much of a beating. However, I often have two laptops, an iPad, and two phones in mine.
      From what you’ve said, I’d go in a different direction – may I suggest the Hermes Garden Party Tote? I have two and they’re my go-to when I need to haul a decent amount (beyond what a top handle or shoulder bag would hold) but less than a neverfull. The branding is non-existent, they come in beautiful colors, and the warranty and service Hermes provides for damaged bags is legendary. You can find them on sites like Fashionphile and TheRealReal (at a decent discount) and also on the Hermes website (this isn’t a birkin – you can just order one). They’re expensive, but I really think they’re classic and beautiful and I love carrying mine.

    • DeepSouth

      I got a Christian Louboutin bag this year as a very luxurious impulse. I LOVE it. It’s beautiful, not to heavy, the straps are nice and the bottom has a red sole like the shoes. It’s more dramatic (we do that in the south) but not so much that it is distracting. Nordstrom has a few options. got the Carabock in red, which is definitely more of a handbag, but I can slide my laptop and a file in it for a meeting. there’s also a tote that is very similar to the neverfull. The navy is gorgeous and may be my next buy.

  10. Roller Girl

    Any recs for a sponge or other type of non-electric hair roller for long hair? I was using velcro rollers when I had shorter layers, but now that it’s long they don’t stay in. Just looking for a little lift and slight waves.

    • Anon

      I just got sucked into a Facebook ad for the tyme style curling/straightening iron, and it’s pretty amazing for making waves. I used to do them with a flat iron and it’s a similar concept but they come out more salon-like than those did. Highly recommend.

  11. Woods-comma-Elle

    For those in bigger teams with pooled resource and specific projects, how do you deal with staffing those project? Is there are centralised system/person who allocates people, or do senior people just ask who has capacity and puts the ones they like on the project?

    My context: Big Law niche transactional team of 16 people (4 partners/12 associates of different levels). The current system is that an email is sent to the partners daily of estimated capacity for that day for each associate, which is self-reported. Partners can then approach people when they have work in.

    This isn’t reliable and there is no centralised system for deciding who will work on which deal (also firmwide), so it is totally ad hoc and it means some people end up mega busy and others less so. Some of the work that comes in is short deadlines/urgent/last minute but most of it is over a few weeks/months.

    We (partners) want to set up something to monitor capacity but it’s hard to do from scratch. Ideally one person would monitor it but the partners don’t have time to do that constantly. I’d be interested to know how other places (law firms or not) deal with this.

    • Anonymous

      We have a managing attorney that assigns work. A particular associate can request to work on a project and a particular partner can request to have a particular associate on a project, but otherwise it just gets assigned based on availability, skill level, and expertise if necessary.

    • Anon

      GC here, I set up a legal operations group that helps with this. For higher volume things, they monitor intake and assign work so it’s evenly spread out. There’s still plenty of room for conversation on bandwidth and future projects, but the hub/spoke model works nicely and my team is happy with it.

    • Cat

      Daily? That sounds insane for more senior people. No wonder no one wants to keep up with it.

      My old firm looked at people’s hours every two weeks and adjusted accordingly, but with context – let’s say Associate X is super busy but the deals are both scheduled to close in the next few weeks, ok keep X on tap for the next deal that’s just getting started; Y is currently a bit slow but was already well over target for the year, maybe Y can do some closing assistance on X’s deals and then ramp back up, etc.

      • Woods-comma-Elle

        I totally agree it’s insane – the reason for it starting was that we are a transactional team in a litigious group so we get included in it, but I don’t think it’s workable for transactions.

      • AFT

        Agreed – when I was in biglaw as an associate, we updated ~weekly, plus sometimes also on an ad hoc basis when we had a lot of time. Availability could change so quickly on a daily basis that it would seem like a hamster wheel of update – get something – have to update again.

    • MJ

      I would set up a spreadsheet on the system with a stoplight color code–green is avail for work, yellow is pretty staffed but could take on a little more, red is over 200 hours estimated this month, no capacity for new things. This would need to be in every week by 10am Monday, and then an admin on the team would send around the spreadsheet. This has been the most effective, low lift system I’ve seen.

      It is inevitable in biglaw that partners will have favorites and go directly to them, but depending on whether your firm has a culture where a soft no or hard no is OK (or you must always say yes), this is the best system. Source: Have worked at 5 biglaw firms in corporate transactional as both a paralegal and attorney.

    • MechanicalKeyboard

      There are tons of project planning, estimation, and assignment tools that you could try. I’m in tech and use Jira which is for agile project management. Microsoft Project, Monday, Teamwork, Trello, Asana, are some popular apps that may work for lawyer(I’m just guessing here). I’m sure you could find a tool for your needs. This emailing and guessing routine seems really archaic to me.

    • Onthecouch

      Public accounting here – I work in an team that has further break downs to particular client types. The full team is 10-12 Partners and Managers and a shared pool of staff. We have a dedicated Schedule Manager that works with with my industry team. Partners and Managers submit time budgets and scheduling needs to the Schedule Manager. Projects get scheduled out for all the staff and manager time, usually a quarter out but may be further. The schedule does change pretty frequently so everyone checks and communicates pretty transparently about their time/project status.
      The schedule is live site that everyone has access to and you can see what anyone else’s schedules are or look at a schedule for a specific project. Managers and Partners have the ability to make proposed changes to the schedule that the Schedule Manager has to approve. It’s also how we block and request time off. Weekly availability emails go out to the team with people who open capacity on their schedule.

      Works well for us.

  12. Anon

    Going through closet now – how much clothing have you given away? Professional clothing that I haven’t worn in 1 year plus due to WFH and didn’t wear much prior to pandemic…just not going to wear these pieces again.

    • pugsnbourbon

      My workplace (a community college) has a Dress for Success-type closet for students, and I just dropped off two large bags of workwear. I gained weight with the pandemic and a medication change and I’m not going to squeeze myself into pants that pinch.

    • Anon

      Tons, but I’m a big shopper. I routinely purge things hat are out of date, don’t fit great, or that I stop reaching for when getting dressed.

    • Cat

      Three giant bags. I’d kept clothes from Earlier Size hoping to fit back into them. I now fit into many of them again but I’m nearly a decade older and most of the stuff is either too youthful or too short, lol, and the items that are my equivalent of Jessica Simpson’s Daisy Duke size (how she described it as the “before” picture judging whether she was fat or not) — from law school — BYE.

    • Anon

      6 hefty bags worth for my family of four, but if I’m being honest at least 3 of those were just for my stuff. Goodwill made us come back several times and only give them one bag per day. It was a lot!

    • Senior Attorney

      Like, at least ten kitchen-sized trash bags full. I gave them to a small Assistance League thrift shop in town where I think they will have a good chance of finding a good home, rather than being tossed in with the tons and tons of stuff at the Goodwill or similar.

  13. Weekender

    Please recommend your weekend/duffel bag for short trips or week at beach…casual bag to take on road trip or on plane. I have a Vera Bradley duffel bag that I’ve been using for 10 years or more…received as a gift and it’s lovely but time to upgrade.

    • Anon

      I love my Cuyana weekender bag. My daughter used it and overloaded it (like it wouldn’t zip up) and the shoulder strap broke. They sent me a new one and even monogrammed it again. I was so pleasantly surprised, because the bag is minimum 4 years old – I couldn’t even find my receipt for it.

      • Anon

        Wow! Great service…thanks for sharing this. I have been admiring the Cuyana weekender.

  14. Anon

    I need some new jeans, and want to try something besides skinny jeans (not mom jeans, I just can’t see anything but the unfashionable adults of my childhood when I see them). But I really need a curvy cut. Do any brands have curvy straight leg or bootcut jeans? Ideally, a brand or store I could find in a large mall.

  15. Anon

    Quick sanity check – if an employer is hosting a party to celebrate vaccinations and not all employees can go (some due to health or not fully vaccinated reasons, one due to being remote, one due to preplanned vacation), do you think the ones who can’t go should be given the afternoon off too? For vacation, I would normally say no, but several employees CAN’T go to an unmasked gathering right now. My employer is saying they are expected to work a full day. Thoughts?

    • Anon

      Of course they should try to find a way to equalize a benefit. I can see the thinking that the social gathering is still work, but that just means the plans aren’t that fun.

    • Cat

      Normally (like if it were regular old holiday party on a December afternoon) if you don’t go to the party you don’t get the equivalent PTO… but in this case, I think it’s more than fair to give something equivalent to those who can’t safely participate.

      This may lead to jealousy among the vaccinated, though…. I know I’d 100% rather have the afternoon off than go to a work party!

      • Anonymous

        Same at my office, but if I were an employer, I think I’d make an exception this time. People who haven’t had a chance to get fully vaccinated yet don’t really have a choice here – the younger age groups only became eligible recently and those who got Moderna in particular are still waiting for the final date.

    • Anon

      No. The whole idea appears to be to reward employees who got vaccinated, so the perks should be reserved for that group.

      I routinely missed office events like parties, ballgames, etc due to my travel schedule and I would have felt ridiculous asking for comp time to compensate me for the missed recreational activity.

    • Anon

      Just about everyone would rather have an afternoon off than to go to an office “party.” I like the analogy to some other work event: if someone doesn’t go, no extra time off.

  16. Deedee

    Are you all planning to vacation this winter? I would love your thoughts on what is reasonable to plan as well as any advice for my specific situation.

    It will be my fifth anniversary in January. Because we married quietly/no honeymoon, my spouse & I have been eagerly planning & anticipating a big trip for late Dec/early Jan 21-22. We both have the ability to take ~three wks and have talked about New Zealand for years. Obviously NZ doesn’t want visitors, and I’m struggling with what else to do. We’ve taken an off season (cold) trip to Europe before, and I’m not super jazzed about doing that again, because we’re coming from a cold climate. We could do Hawaii, but would need to stick closer to 2 weeks than 3 for $ reasons, and I’m slightly concerned it will be a zoo that time of year given potential travel restrictions. And, that plan still leaves me bummed to not be able to do something “bigger.”

    I guess bigger picture I’m having FOMO about all the DINK travel we’ve missed due to the pandemic. I’m hoping we’re not long away from trying for kids, and I really wanted to do some adventurous travel together pre-kids. We had no money when we got married, so we haven’t done as much as I wish we had. I know this is the definition of a first world problem, so thanks for listening. If you have any suggestions based on what little I’ve shared or even thoughts on how to reframe this for myself, I’d appreciate it.

    • Anonymous

      Oh man, I could’ve written your last paragraph. After years of making it work on lower incomes in VHCOL areas, we finally got better paying-jobs and managed to get in just three short DINK trips before the pandemic (two in the states, one to Europe). Champagne problem to be sure, but I was SO looking forward to finally having both the time and money to do the adventurous travel I wanted.

      That being said, you can totally do adventurous travel with kids. A lot of people will say you can’t, but I’ve seen friends pull it off and they say it’s hard, but so worth it.

    • anon

      I’m on vacation in the Maldives right now. I highly recommend. Obviously depends on your personal vaccination status and health needs, but it works for us and we are having a fabulous time.

    • Anon

      I have no clue what the covid situation will be like but absent covid it’s a great time to go to Africa on a safari, though it is a pricey trip

      • Anonymous

        There are headlines today about how much of Africa is bracing for a huge wave of COVID. The pandemic “feels” over to many people in the U.S., but it’s so far from over everywhere else in the world.

        I’d actually wait and do a safari with kids, maybe by the time they’re 5-7, unless you also want to do something REALLY adventurous like whitewater rafting the Zambezi River.

        • Anonymous

          Do not do a safari with 5-7 year olds. It’s basically all day in a jeep and a lot of time where nothing happens while you look for animals. They’d be bored fast, and they’re crazy expensive to have bored kids not enjoy it. You could do it with kids, but I’d wait until they’re at least 10.

          • Anonymous

            Our lodge did not allow kids under 12. Totally agree not the right trip until that age. We could not walk from our hut to the main lodge without an armed escort. However, we could see elephants at watering holes while showering and got to take a walking tour to see hippos.

        • Anon

          Keep in mind it’s about 10k/person, that would mean, for me, the kids stay home. He blogger Jordan Ferney just went and has a lot of posts about it, looks amazing.

          • Anon

            It depends on how nice you want it to be. I did an almost 3 month safari that was just over 10k. I could have easily done a 2 week part of that for under 4k.

    • anonshmanon

      I am totally holding out hope that NZ will open for vaccinated tourists in time to visit for xmas/january.

    • Senior Attorney

      Maybe Canada? I’ve done Montreal and Quebec in the winter and it’s beautiful. Quebec City, in particular, is like going to Paris without the transatlantic flight. (And… you don’t want to go to a cold climate so never mind. But maybe somebody else would be interested.)

      How about Puerto Rico?

      • Deedee

        You must know me! PR was our last trip pre-lockdown in Feb 2020. We drove to Quebec City one year between Christmas and NY and it was lovely. Unfortunately it was unseasonably *warm* and rained the whole time. So between that, our cold trip to Europe (though that was our fault), and bringing snow to NOLA one January, I probably am jinxing wherever I go!!

        • Anon

          Canadian here – I have noticed our early winters are getting warmer and warmer – some years we don’t even have snow by Christmas. But if you come around Jan/Feb, you’re more likely to have real winter.

    • Anonymous

      Not exactly what you asked, but my husband and I were in the same position as you currently are (DINKS, soon to try for kids, who had a little money for the first time after getting married pretty broke) in 2008/2009. We talked about traveling, but our jobs seemed iffy and it just seemed like a horrible time to spend money. So we didn’t. I regret it, so will say on that end – take whatever trip you can, even if it’s not the “dream” one you thought you would take. But I will also say, traveling with kids is not impossible, it’s just different, and you’ll still travel again (either alone or with them) once they come along most likely. You’re life does not end when you become a parent, if you make that choice.

    • H

      I think Chile is doing well with vaccinations – you could do San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama Desert, wine tasting around Santiago, and then go south to the Lake District / all the way south to Patagonia (and it’s the time of year for Antarctic cruises). Not sure what’s up in Peru and Ecuador re: COVID, but also a good time of year to do Machu Picchu / Galapagos / Amazon. Both Peru and Ecuador have Amazon regions, and Ecuador also has some beautiful haciendas in the Andes for a couple night stay. Argentina is also great that time of year, although again, not sure re: COVID. Buenos Aires, Iguazu Falls, Mendoza for wine tasting, and then again Lake District / deep Patagonia (el Calafate glacier, Valdes Peninsula for wildlife, Antarctic cruises depart from Ushuaia).

    • Anonymous

      If you can get to New Zealand, definitely do that. If not, any chance of changing the timing? The Nordic countries are so beautiful. The coast of NZ and the fjords in Norway are equally beautiful to me. Not sure about visiting there in the winter.

  17. A.

    Help me spend a $200 Goldbelly gift card! I live in the Midwest and love food and cooking. I have a husband who also loves food and three picky kids. What would you do with this money?

  18. anon

    My kid has been back to in-person school for about a month and came home with a cold last week. Now, everyone in our family is sick for the first time in 18 months. I’m curious, if you have kids going to in person school, are they coming home with colds and sniffles? (We got a covid test, thankfully negative) I am a little surprised because the school is painstakingly taking every precaution: masks at all times, handwashing, no sharing materials, and keeping distance, so I didn’t think that kids would be getting sick with covid or colds.

  19. Anonymous

    Advice for coping/personality management tips needed: Much longer time at my company, demoted from his position of manager about six months before I started, very condescending, angry, unhappy, anxious person is really unpleasant to deal with. He’s moody, sometimes like a “normal human” but so unpredictable. We work closely but I’m not his manager. Our actual manager defers to him because “he’s like that” and also probably feels a bit guilty about having the position that this person once claimed as his own.

    • Anon

      If he’s not the sort to pot-stir/backstab, try and become his work friend. That office curmudgeon has a ton of institutional knowledge and could be a really good person to have on your side.

  20. Transplant Mom

    At the hospital with my toddler, about to learn whether he needs an organ transplant now. Wish us luck.

  21. Worried

    I have this blouse in a different print also with a navy background (bought it last summer) and I like that it is not see through. It fits a little loosely, so you can size down for a tighter fit. I’m in Canada so I cannot order online from br factory, but I went in store when our numbers were low last summer, and I have been happy with this shape and style, I’m busty, and though it has a bit of flowiness, it is not tentlike.

    • Anonymous

      I have several as well. I love the way they look but do not love the way 100% polyester feels in the summer.

    • Anonymous

      I bought several versions of this shirt recently and generally agree with your description. They are very versatile — work appropriate and easy to wear under a jacket, but also have been a go-to for happy hour. I will say on the sizing, though, if like me, you are straight up and down, without a much smaller waist, or you are short-waisted, sizing down might not work out as well. They are flowy but fit me at the waist and hit me at the hips in my regular size. I am a 5’5” short-waisted rectangle.

    • Anon

      Bear in mind that this year’s version is probably cut in a different factory (also, different colors are usually produced in different factories too) so it’s no guarantee that because last year’s version was great, this year’s will be, too.

    • Anon

      Thanks for this recommendation. I need some more work choices beyond Talbots this year and BR Factory really looked promising online. Happy it’s confirmed !

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