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Frugal Friday’s Workwear Report: Intarsia Puff-Sleeve Sweater

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A woman wearing black pants and a yellow-green top with a black floral outline

Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.

How pretty is this puff-sleeved sweater from T Tahari? A short-sleeved sweater is a staple item for me in the summer, and this gorgeous citron yellow color will transition beautifully from summer to fall. Wear it with a black midi skirt now and add some tights and boots once the temperatures start to drop. 

The sweater is $24.97 at Nordstrom Rack and comes in sizes XS-XL. It’s also available in black with a white flower. 

Sales of note for 7/29:

96 Comments

  2. Can anyone recommend a travel agent with whom they’ve had a good experience, particularly one who specializes in France? I’m going with a small group and we know we want to go to at least one wine region, but we’d like some guidance about where to go, where to stay, should we book tastings in advance, etc. Thank you!

      1. Not to hijack this, but would she or any other agent be able to help with a last minute vacation? I just want someone to plan a fun trip for me and my family and I have been just too busy to get to it. Flexible on where to go but don’t know who to turn to. Feels like a good job for someone who plans travel for a living to let me know of some last minute deal. Any other leads welcome!

        1. I would think so! The blogger Carolina Charm has recommended agents for family trips (like a multi-stop Costa Rica itinerary). Laura does both families and couples but so far have only experience on a couples’ getaway to Provence.

        2. I haven’t tried this and am not a Costco member, but a partner at my firm swears by their vacation packages.

  3. I have to wear this dress (link in comments) in mocha color in a wedding. any shoes/purse are ok. what color should i go with?

    3. Most rewearable – metallic of your choice, whether silver or gold or copper would look best really depends on how the fabric looks IRL (looks like it leans warm?)

      Fun contrast – icy pastel blue or lavender

      1. yes! my first thought was gold but icy blue or lavender would be fun — you could also try a red if it’s more in the fall

        1. If the goal is to harmonize, I wouldn’t do red or the like. I’m a color fan. But I’d keep the occasion in mind. Bride picked a neutral. I wouldn’t try not to be that one BM in photos.

        1. This is what I came to say. I think it would look great with this and depending on the shade, be very rewearable. My skin is by no means actually pink, but I’m a pale caucasian and have a pair of pale shell pink pumps that seem to work as a neutral shoe, nude for me but a little less dated than actual skin color nude for me. If I were OP I’d look for a rose/mauve/pink with a tone and saturation that paralleled the depth of my skin color.

    5. if you’re looking to make do i actually think black would be fine with this (patent or satin) otherwise gold

      1. Black with a different texture on the bag would be great. Maybe it’s time for a feathered evening bag…

  4. Is there a website or service you can sign up for where you plug in a specific product (i.e., my expensive sunscreen/moisturizer) and it lets you know if any retailer (dermstore, sephora, etc) is having a sale?

    1. I think the rakuten cashback browser extension does this if oyu search the product on one major retailer (at least it works with Azon)

      1. Yes, it does. But it often alerts you to a cheaper price, and when you go to the link, it is for a much smaller size than the product you want. So it is hit or miss.

  5. Have any of you looked into MTHFR genetic testing? We have a kid who has off-the-chart ADHD. No meds have ever really helped. We tried everything, starting with a regular pediatrician, who gave up and now a pediatric psychiatrist focusing on girls who have ADHD (and the doctor has ADHD herself). I really like her. We have tried everything, with only moderate relief (in that kiddo goes to a regular school and does well, does not have any conduct problems, but everything takes her much longer to do and everything just exhausts her and her peers have bullied her a lot over the years and she has gone through life as a loner who would love human connection but it’s always been beyond her outside of family and a few caring adults).

    My social media feeds are now sending me a lot of MTHFR / folate stuff. It all looks scientific and seems logical: we are all assembled differently, drugs metabolize differently in different people, etc., etc. We did the testing years ago, kiddo has two mutuations. Even after trying some supplements, nothing changed and I gave up on this as maybe the thing that would help. Now, after years, if it is ramping up again on my feed, is something new there? Or is it just a bunch of woo still (or maybe it works for some people, but it did not matter to us)?

    I’d so much love to help my child that I’d use a healing crystal if it worked, but I know better. And while I feel that some boys “grow out of it,” I don’t think that it will be like that for my kid.

    1. Has she alo been tested for a learning disability? ADHD can come with both above and below average IQs.

      Also boys don’t ‘grow out’ of ADHD they just offload their executive functioning to wives.

          2. “ ADHD can come with both above and below average IQs.”

            Did you miss the “above and”, my dear?

      3. There is a lot of time between the stage where some ADHD kids are bouncing around the school room and neither then nor anyone else in the room is able to learn in a chaotic environment and offloading the administrative center of their lives onto a wife.

        IDK if the wife will help you keep a job, but executive functioning being offloaded to moms may explain why my professor friends and entry-level hiring friends are complaining about being contacted by people’s parents.

      4. What? ADHD is a learning disability by definition.

        Are you asking if intelligence has been tested? Theoretically, IQ testing is part of a comprehensive ADHD assessment, along with screening for dyslexia, sleep disturbances etc.

      1. Sort of. But was years ago. And pediatric care is in such short supply that who really knows anything beyond one data point of one child and one doctor (who I think is great). People make discoveries all the time, but in suburbia, I don’t know when that is. Time can change what was a dead end into something that isn’t.

    3. Spouse has the MTHFR mutation, ADHD, and severe depression that is now under control. They’ve been taking L-methylfolate since before the generics were available (and that ish was EXPENSIVE). It’s helped but it was never a silver bullet, just a piece of the overall treatment.

    4. I’m sorry for your struggles and I think you need to just let her go to college already.

    5. I don’t think the MTHFR test results really predict whether supplementing folinic acid or methylfolate will be beneficial or not. And it sounds like they were not beneficial!

      But there are many far less controversial genetic issues that can be relevant to ADHD. My experience is that I was not diagnosed until adulthood with a genetic condition that contributes to ADHD phenotype by affecting neurotransmitter production, sleep quality, and mitochondrial function, despite signs showing up in labs my whole life. I tested positive on genetic testing and was able to go on the FDA approved treatment. I got the sense that there are too many rare genetic conditions out there for providers to keep track of, and doctors don’t know what they don’t know. So I think it is not unreasonable to see a genetics counselor for treatment resistant ADHD, especially when exhaustion is a factor.

      There are also a lot of medical issues that can occur alongside ADHD. I used to recommend All Brains Belong for this, but heir resources have sort of spiraled over the years to the point that they’re now overwhelming (maybe hard to avoid when it’s ND physicians maintaining them). But they still have some useful information about how ND patients can be medically different.

      1. My husband and his sister both have ADHD and are awful sleepers. In my anecdotal and unscientific opinion, I am so convinced there’s a correlation for at least some people there – I don’t know if it’s bad sleep causing ADHD or if it’s ADHD causing bad sleep.

        1. My doctor said he wasn’t sure that anyone can tell unless they can get the sleep fixed and see what happens!

          I got my sleep fixed and still have ADHD… but it was still life changing to be able to sleep well.

    6. I would seek another opinion, specifically around dyslexia. Dyslexia is often misdiagnosed as ADHD, because it looks like you can’t “focus” on anything that involves reading. But it’s not that you can’t focus; it’s that your brain gets exhausted by the effort of trying to read something your eyes don’t want to understand. You say everything takes longer — is that because she gets distracted? Or is it because she genuinely takes longer to understand what is in front of her?

      Note that dyslexia also often includes difficulties with numbers, as well. Some kids have an easier time with math than reading, but definitely not all.

      1. Oh, and if it is dyslexia, the treatments for it have come a long way since we were kids. Screen readers also really alleviate any impact in the workplace if it persists into adulthood.

      2. This is a good point. I learned when actually tested that there are other kinds of eye tracking/visual-spatial difficulties that aren’t dyslexia but can also be accommodated so that reading isn’t as tiring.

      3. I feel like reading is the one thing that has never been a problem. It’s more: fidgeting during 1.5 hour classes (what our middle schools do), no recess, switching between things on a self-directed basis (like when you have 6 hours to do laundry and put it away, the wash may go into the washer but the washer may not get started or the load may not get moved to the dryer, and you may never get around to eating lunch, so you are out of energy but need it, but also the neighbor’s cat is out and it is so friendly and cute). IDK if that makes sense, but we have done full neuropsych assessments for school at least twice and nothing deeper was uncovered for any specific learning disability.

        1. My dad takes folate for MTHFR mutation. It’s not a silver bullet but takes the edge off.

          The best ADHD treatment I’ve found is lots and lots of exercise, preferably cardio. 4, 5, 6, even 7x/week.

          Also not sure how old she is but it’s common for ADHD symptoms to increase in luteal phase. Sometimes just knowing it will get better in a week is a silver lining.

        3. This is said in the kindest sense possible. But your description described me when I was younger (and going to a boarding school). I could be very organized but often only through the first step – there was always one more page to read of the book before I did the next thing. I wish somebody had taught me how to live everyday life before I learned it many decades later.

    7. I have three children with ADD combined. The treatment plans are all different.

      Eldest (15 year old girl) also has ASD. Jornay works well for her.

      Middle (13 year old boy) also has AsD. Vyvanse works well for him.

      Youngest (10 year old girl). Intuiv works well for her.

      I run my kids daily, I’m on top of their diet and they get 10 hours of sleep a night. My youngest has sleep apnea and the ENT sorted that out. Highly recommend starting with diet, exercise and sleep followed by medicine.

      My kids have 1200mg EPA daily as a supplement. It helps.

      1. i need you to come coach me. I have so many quesitons. 1- how do you “run” your kids? 2-diet tips? 3-how do you get them to sleep? my daughter, AuDHD 9yo, just lays in bed awake for hours. 4- we have a Strattera RX, waiting to start until after new school year, have you tried that?

    8. We haven’t tried it but I’ve heard people liked Genesight — our doctor thought it was bunk so he wouldn’t order it for us, but I have heard good things.

      Just a note that a) ADHD can be anxiety — we see more reduction in his distraction/behaviors when he’s taking hydroxyzine. Also, have you looked into combination therapy? Basically the idea that you need to take a stimulant and non-stimulant at the same time to get the best effects and keep your doses relatively low on both. We take guanfacine and Vyvanse, but take a break from Vyvanse in the summeer and on holiday breaks.

      Given your description of things taking longer I’d also look into slow processing speed, a learning disability, or even something like Irlens syndrome. But sounds like the real next step for you guys would be neuropsych. We see her every 3 years (it’s like $3k every time) but she does extensive testing for our kid’s deficits and strengths and gives us like a 40 page report suggesting what we can do at home and what to consider for his IEP. I think we got hooked up with her because my child also has a chromosomal mutation (18q), but maybe our dev ped just sent us there.

  6. WSJ published an article about naked dressing. I think this trend has been around for awhile, particularly with celebrities. I have not seen this in the wild, but I don’t live in a fashion forward city either. https://www.wsj.com/style/fashion/naked-dressing-hailey-bieber-madonna-d2a1d94b?st=eeW1WH&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

    This reminds me of the poster who discussed how being able wear whatever you want to work is not empowering. That was an iconic post.

        2. I have never read this post, this is great. I cringe whenever I see an influencer posting about “work attire” and it is inevitably a crop top or extremely loud, striped pants. We need to bring back this type of energy!!!!

    2. So iconic, and so well put, that I saved it. With thanks to 2010’s “Amy”, if you are still here, I think I love you, because you absolutely nailed it…

      Amy
      08/05/2010 AT 3:00 PM
      News flash: dressing however you want at work is not “empowering.” Women’s magazines love to say this so they can encourage you to spend lots of money on things and they can get more advertising dollars. Then women wear things to work that are not appropriate, they experience negative consequences and career stagnation, and they can’t figure out why. Why can’t I wear my bright-red platform patent-leather peep-toe stilettos and still be taken seriously? I have seen many, many commenters on this blog put forth the idea that as long as your work is great, even as a lower-level employee, you can wear more or less anything you want to work. That is really, really incorrect.
You know what is really “empowering” at work? Actually having power. Having not only a voice, but having people listen to you and do what you’re suggesting. Having a say into important decisions. Being able to run your own show. Directing, managing and encouraging people who will move up in their careers. Providing people with jobs so they can make a living and support their families. That is empowering. Being able to wear whatever shoes you want to work? Who cares? That kind of fake empowerment has been sold to women over and over by the media. I don’t know whether I’m more disgusted that the media keeps doing it, or that women keep falling for it.
I would wear a chicken costume to work if I thought it would get me promoted faster. I don’t give a rat’s ass about what some editor from Vogue thinks about my shoes; I care what my boss thinks, because she’s the one who has power over my career. Not my friends, not my husband, not the salesgirl in Nordstrom’s. I am really discouraged when I see young women equating “wearing what I want to work” with being empowered and successful. They. Are. Not. The. Same. Thing. At all. Want to do something that makes a difference? If patent leather or peep toes are not appropriate for your office, put them away. Get some acceptable shoes, work your ass off, and get promoted. Move into management. From there you will be able to influence corporate culture a lot more than if you remain a junior-level employee, slaving away at dead-end assignments, albeit with super-cute shoes. I’d rather sit in the C-suite in “boring” shoes that don’t “show my personality” than wear the cutest shoes ever and go to work every day pushing paper in a cubicle, where no one pays attention to my shoes because I don’t matter.

      4. I do think there’s something to be said about choosing a profession/career path that has dressing norms you are comfortable with. I am really particular about my clothing and find things that restrict my movement to be really, really distracting. So I’m not going to be a lawyer or a funeral director (where formal wear is expected), but I could absolutely work in tech or be a school teacher or nurse or something. Totally agree that ignoring social norms isn’t empowering.

        1. I think there’s something to be said for getting over whatever “particular” neuroses are hamstringing your ability to make good money.

      5. When I worked at a small film production company, there was a young woman who’d hang out and so some occasional production assistant work. She told me one day that she was a natural blonde but dyed her hair brown “because no one was taking her seriously as a blonde.” She said this while standing next to me in a cropped peasant blouse and six inch long skirt. I was at eye level with her (exposed) navel.

        I too am blonde, and yet I have very rarely been “not taken seriously.” I dress appropriately for an office…

    3. Semi-related funny story – my husband and I had a rare no-kids night and decided to go out to a local brewery. Nothing fancy, but I thought “why not,” and broke out a skimpy lace cami, push up bra, and my 3 sparkly hoop earrings (thinking of this week’s ear piercing discussions!).

      Who happens to be in the parking lot, but my boss?

      1. For that reason, I have a whole lot of pool wardrobes. I am only likely to see clients / rival lawyers / etc. when I am with my kids at the pool or in transit to / fro. So I have whole get-ups of swim shorts and skorts, swim tees, and bikini tops so I don’t have to worry about the waxing situation, tummy situation, or if any bits pop out. I also can care a lot less about sunscreen, which is great. But it takes a whole plastic bin in the off season. It is much more of a sporty-spice look than elegant swan, but I do have some simple one-pieces that I wear on vacation in the evening and maybe have a drink in while lounging.

        1. Fortunately, I had grabbed a jacket in case of over-zealous air conditioning, but I spent the whole time chatting with him trying to close it just enough that the goods wouldn’t be too obvious and hoping he didn’t wonder why I was wearing a jacket while standing in the 85 degree parking lot.

          My husband insisted that boss thinks I’m a bad a** (he’ has said this), so he wouldn’t care. Not sure why these would be related, heh.

    4. I am forever wanting to ban all shades of nude leggings for women and bike shorts for men. It just makes for a stressful half mile while they get close enough on my run to see that they are in fact not winnie the poo-ing it at 6am.

      1. This made me lol fr.

        See also: hiking pants should not be nude-for-you. Wear camo if you want to blend in.

      2. I’m normally the kind of person who doesn’t care at all what my friends or family wear (I’m from a hippie family in northern California and have seen it all) but I’ve never come closer to saying “girl, you really can’t wear that” as when my cousin went out in nude-colored bike shorts to the grocery store.

      3. I actually saw a woman in the park who I thought was wearing a nude t-shirt. As she got closer, I remember thinking the printing on the shirt looked like nipples. And then she got close enough for me to confirm that she actually was walking topless at 8 in the morning in a midwest USA suburban park. My boyfriend still brings it up occasionally, 2 years later!

    5. Gives me SATC flashbacks to when Carrie wore “the naked dress” on her first date with Big.

  8. I live in a very small town, rural midwest. we have a major state highway running through us. A Flock camera was just installed in our town on the major highway, but inside the town still. The county installed, not the town.

    I really don’t like this and would like to calmly express my disapproval. Another town in the county did get their 4 removed and there is an ongoing contested sheriff’s election going on, so I don’t think it’s a waste of time to share my thoughts with the sheriff and candidates.

    My reason’s so far:
    + it is not clear who can put license plates on the list of vehicles behind tracked; appears to be just at the discretion of the sheriffs department without any judicial oversight
    + powered by AI, hosted by a privately owned company. Who has access to this data, where is it stored, is it being used to train AI systems.

    The argument for them is that it saves the sheriff’s dept money and is just another tool, camera’s already exist and this is just one with more features. However we didn’t have camera’s here before, they certainly weren’t powered by AI. I hate the creep to the total surveillance state.

    Do you have reason’s for/against these? Curious about the hive’s take.

    1. I just want AI to stop predictive text from adding apostrophes to plurals of words ending in vowels.

      1. omg now I can’t unsee all the extra apostrophes in my comment and they’re driving me crazy. I am definitely not above typos but I just really don’t recall adding an apostrophe to “reason’s” – twice! – in particular.

    2. I don’t like them. Once you have a bunch of personal tracking info online/in a database somewhere, it is going to get used by unexpected people in unexpected ways.

      For example, my state has a law preventing local law enforcement from using local resources for immigration enforcement. When Flock cameras were installed in town, the official police talking point for months was “ICE doesn’t have access to them; that would be illegal”. Turns out, the local police were allowing local police from out of state (ie. who are not bound to our state firewall between local law enforcement and federal immigration enforcement) to access them; and those out-of-state LE’s were running searches on behalf of ICE. This was happening for months before it came out publicly.

      I’m not even sure I agree with the strict firewall between local law enforcement and immigration enforcement, but I think it’s very bad for society for citizens to not have accurate information on what is actually happening. And large-scale surveillance programs with a big database somewhere are always going to be used in ways voters don’t know about, and therefore don’t get the chance to approve/disapprove (or elect/kick out the officials who approved them).

    3. I read that a town in Maine has been putting dark plastic trash bags over the cameras while they work to get them legally removed.

    4. Some people are chopping them down where I live (Bay Area) and it’s an increasing topic of discussion. I need to learn more about it but I’m generally never in favor of mandatory AI-associated surveillance. Old-fashioned traffic cameras that don’t store data are fine with me.

    5. Can someone tell me what these things are and why everyone is concerned without me having to go down a right wing rabbit hole? (My local town FB group is losing it’s mind about these, but I live in a super red bubble, so I can never tell if things are actually an issue, or just them losing their mind over nothing-burgers)

      1. They are license plate readers that feed a national database of your movements. They can be used to stalk people, to track and prosecute people who cross state lines for health care, etc.

      2. it’s probably easier to google what they are, but the shorthand is that Flock is a privately owned company selling cameras to local municipalities, and the feeds are tracked by AI. The reasoning is if there’s a missing person and they’re looking for a specific license plate, these Flock cameras will pick up on them.

        But also, they can be used to track a license plate number. It’s also not clear how long the data is being stored, by who, what it’s being used for, if can be hacked, etc.

        it’s not necessarily red-blue coded, because the FB commentary in my area a bunch of the MAGA people were for them so because they think that ICE is using them to track down “illegals”. I do wonder if that is where a lot of the money is coming from, since ICE is so gigantically overfunded and it seems like all of a sudden they’re everywhere.

        1. Flock is also just installing the cameras on their own initiative in places they have no authority or permission to do so. Even in places where the local authorities have no contract with them and have expressly prohibited such devices.

      3. This is actually an issue that isn’t cleanly partisan. Politicians who love power and the establishment like it far more than any of their constituents. The concern is that these aren’t normal traffic cameras, they are AI-powered by an independent entity that contracts with law enforcement agencies and they store lots of data. They are tracking, logging, and sharing (without a warrant!) the movements of everyone who goes through town (not by name but by vehicle info). Ostensibly to help with law enforcement, but lots of people think it’s a crazy overreach.

        1. Thank you, both. As I said, I can never tell when it’s just a red-scare, versus when something actually matters, when I only see on the socials.

        2. +1

          I am pleasantly surprised to hear that people in OP’s red bubble are freaking out about them. I agree it’s a bipartisan issue. Everyone should be concerned about the ever-expanding surveillance state, and really the ever-expanding police state, too. Both of which are, in theory, things conservatives oppose.

      4. They’re basically license-plate reading cameras (ie. like you might pass on a toll road) – takes picture, analyzes the image for key info like license plate number, make & model of the car, etc. But they’re installed all over, not just on toll roads, so the police department (and…whoever else has access to that data, legally or illegally) can track a random car.

        So the argument *for* them is basically: Car XYZABC was the getaway car in a bank robbery, or did a hit and run, or is the car driven by an estranged spouse who has disappeared with the kids, or was just found abandoned, burnt out and with two dead bodies in the back. Police naturally would like to know where it’s been in the past (ie. probably to the driver’s home) and where it is now.

        The argument *against* them is: mass surveillance is bad for society and dangerous. Catching “the bad guys” in the scenarios put forth by the pro-flock folks requires letting the police have a huge database that includes *everyone’s* movements. The data will invariably be misused: a sheriff will use it to stalk an ex, a repressive government will use it to track down the addresses of everyone who attended an opposition party event, a hacker will demand a ransom or threaten to release the info of everyone who’s car has parked outside the STD testing clinic, etc.

        And the second part is liability and accountability that comes from mixing public sector responsibility for public safety and private companies. The AI-recognition features (ie. did it correctly read the license plate, etc) will invariably have some mistakes. When that happens, and your house gets swatted bc “the AI” told the cops the car at the bank robbery had a “B” in the license plate not an “8”, who is responsible?

        I don’t think of opposition to them as particularly left or right wing coded.

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