Our Top Finds for Workwear Accessories, Shoes, Bags and Hair

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1. Anyone else working today? (albeit I am working remotely in comfy clothes)

   1. I’m here in the office!

      1. Whoops. Should say anon and not OP!

   2. I’m here in the office and hating every second of it!

      1. Me too. Waste of time.

   3. I’m in the office, along with about 5 other people on a floor of over a hundred. I didn’t want to come in this morning, but I don’t regret it since I didn’t want to burn a vacation day. I’ve been catching up on things I’ve been putting off for a while.

   4. In the office, but at least in jeans!

   5. Present. Full work day, regular dress code.

      1. same

      2. same

   6. I’m here and other than a few customer service folks, it’s a ghost town!

      1. Remotely. E-mail is very, very slow and for that I am grateful.

   7. Working from home (which my boss hates but she isn’t there so idgaf) in the hope that skipping my extremely long commute will help me get over my cold faster. Pretty sure it’s what got me sick in the first place – public transit where I live can be such a cesspool of germs.

   8. Yes, and TBH, after two full days of family/kids/being Mommy at Christmas, the utter, utter silence of my office feels so incredibly good. In contrast to a normal day, I am enjoying every hour until 5 p.m. and dreading the moment I have to go home — ha! Introverts unite!

2. Don’t know if anyone will be here on the comments today, but if so, I have a question for the lawyers here. I’m an attorney looking to apply to a court-based position (law firm burnout). The job posting requests a recent writing sample. Am I ok to submit trial court briefs and/or appellate briefs that I have written and have been filed? I think it should be fine, since filing already puts it in the public record, but I don’t want to make a mistake here. Any tips on this? Thanks!

   1. That’s fine, if the end product is truly your work product. My big question when reviewing something like that would be whether there were significantly edits made by other attorneys, and, with a filed brief, I generally assume so absent evidence to the contrary. The other issue you run into is length, as many briefs are too long for a writing sample. So, assuming it is your work with very few edits, I would pick a section, create a cover page describing the context of the case and the section of the brief and noting that it was largely your own work with only very minor edits from others before filing.

      1. Thank you so much, this is very helpful! Most of my briefs are filed with minimal edits from others, so I’m comfortable representing it as my own work. I appreciate the formatting tips with cover page, though, I think that’s the way to go!

3. Hi there. Looking for a pre-lit fake Christmas tree. Any sales you can recommend or buying tips? After years of schlepping to buy one, dealing with fallen pine needles, watering, etc…and not to mention guilt of cutting down a living tree each year, we want to go the fake route.

   1. I used the wirecutter guide to decide which tree I wanted and went for their second choice (it has less of the real-feel needles but felt fuller than the first choice, plus it was available at my local Lowes). Not sure on buying tips, but I’ve found that even the best fake tree (well, maybe not the $1000 ones) need fluffing to look good. Watching a few videos was really helpful – I probably wouldn’t have disliked my old target fake tree so much if I had spent the same amount of time fluffling it.

   2. I bought one on wayfair and have been very happy with it. It is pre-lit, but the lights are essentially just regular lights woven through, so they could be removed or replaced. I can’t seem to find the link now, since my husband ordered it, but they had amazing sales starting in early November which is when we purchased. It was maybe $90 for a 7.5″ tree.

   3. We went to fake trees about 10 years ago and are on our second one, which is new to us this year. We’ve discovered a couple of things: 1. You do get what you pay for; cheap trees tend to not last as long or look as good. 2. Depending on how you and your family feel about it, it may not matter. Even cheap fake trees look pretty good once they’re decorated. The one we had for 9 years was not particularly expensive and undecorated it was not particularly convincing; we did have to “fluff” it for it to look good the last couple of years we had it. It finally started looking so sad that last year we got rid of it. Our new one was more expensive (we bought it after Christmas marked down from $350 to $100) and you have to get pretty close to distinguish it’s not a real tree, which I can’t say was true of the old one. If you want a fake tree, today is the day to buy. I would check Lowe’s and Home Depot online (they tend to have higher-quality fake trees) along with Target (at the upper end of their price range, the trees will be better quality) and places like At Home. We got some outdoor decorations from Menards online last year at some pretty killer prices. But act fast because it seems like stores clearance out Christmas stuff earlier and faster than they used to. Last year by the time I got to Target at 10am on the 26th to pick up deeply discounted wrapping paper and bows, almost everything was gone; a store employee told me they try to have most of it sold or shipped back by Christmas eve.

   4. I think Target has good ones.

   5. We bought a no-fluff tree at Lowes last year and I can’t recommend it enough. You truly do not have to fluff it. It comes out of the box in 3 pieces, and you just turn them right side up and connect them. Life changing.

   6. Costco has great trees, but they may have cleared them out already. Look for lots of lights- 100 lights per foot of tree height seems to be a good rule of thumb.

   7. FYI on the guilt re real tree – you have to use the fake tree for more than 25 years to offset the carbon footprint so make sure you get one you love. And even after that it’s still landfill
      Plastic as they aren’t recyclable. Avoid pre-lit as you have to toss the whole tree if a couple of the lights stop working.

      So if it’s just the enviro guilt that’s driving you to plastic, you’re more environmentally friendly to get a real tree every year.

      1. Real trees also absorb a ton of carbon from the atmosphere while they are growing, and tree farms usually replant all the trees that they cut down — I’m not sure how that works out with the emissions from bringing them to your location (unless you go to a nearby farm?), but I care about the environment A LOT and I got with a real one.

      2. With regards to the pre-lit, you just need to buy a continuous or burn-out protection tree. Then, if one light goes, all the others stay on. If you are going to do a fake tree, I highly recommend one that is pre-lit. Just make sure that it is continuous (all but the cheapest tress should be now a days) and that you like the lighting scheme options.

      3. I read the break even point is actually seven years. Can’t find that article right now, unfortunately!

   8. Have you looked at getting one secondhand? I’d imagine this is the time of year to do so as people put theirs on Craiglist or FB marketplace or even take it to a secondhand shop. That would be the best option in terms of environmental impact.

      1. I got a really fun silver tree secondhand this year – not a natural look but SO fun. And cheap!

      2. Great idea, LMK if you would like a small one from Target, with grey green foliage and white lights. I will check back later.

4. Tween daughter has suddenly become my height (I am about 30 pounds heavier, but a pear). And has gotten her period (but it is NOT predictable).

   1. At school she has a backpack, but she should start carrying around a bag of some sort on the weekend for emergency supplies (and also $ and in the near future, a phone). What do tweens carry these days? I have no idea. I have tons of bags of various sizes to let her borrow and am happy to do so for most bags while she figures this out.

   2. Outerwear. Fleeces seem fine for mild weather outerwear, but what do tweens do for legit winter coats? I often buy something like the LandsEnd kids parkas this time of year b/c they are on super sale, but maybe that is not what tweens do? I grew up where LLBean etc. was generally OK, but I feel that kids are so media and brand-savvy that I hate to buy something now for it to go unworn. [Also: I have tons of coats, so can share while feelings are getting worked out. We have a kids 16 coat at the moment, but that is day-to-day I feel and certainly will be out grown by next winter.]

   3. Tween has never gotten into wearing jeans. Has been spoiled by wearing leggings + dress since baby-hood. I recently got her into fleece joggers, but those are so casual (and not allowed by current school; next year’s will be more lax). Leggings + tunic is OK as an athleisure look, but she is starting to look a bit “You aren’t leaving the house like that” with leggings + a shirt that would be fine with shorts but not with something form-fitting like leggings (which are NOT pants except possibly at the gym, depending on what they are paired with).

   4. Feet! We have been sneaker/Keens wearers since forever. That seems a bit not embracing the world of footwear. Kiddo has booties to wear with dresses to church, but doesn’t like to wear otherwise (and has nothing to really wear them with — see, supra, no jeans). Vans? Or are they just for VSCO girls (which she is not)?

   Anything worth trying while we are on vacation and the world is on sale?

   1. I feel like she has to start answering these questions herself — you can go shopping with her and set limits for price, appropriateness of appearance and weather, but she’s getting to the age where she would know more about what she wants that we would. If she doesn’t care, then just get her a lands end coat and some flat boots and be done with it. But if she does care, you aren’t going to know what’s cool or appealing to her — it’s too ephemeral and easy to get wrong.

      When I was that age, my mom gave me a budget and went shopping with me. She also helped me spend that budget appropriately, by thinking through what more expensive things I wanted and needed and making sure I got those — we would usually specifically shop for things like boots and coats first, and then see how much was left for other stuff. For example, one year I wanted a pair of very expensive jeans and we talked through what that would mean for how many other things I could buy — I bought them and LOVED them and wore them constantly for 2+ years. My mom thought the jeans were ridiculous but she didn’t object on that score. Another year I wanted to stretch my budget further and bought knock off Dr Martens that quickly fell apart — it was an important lesson!

      1. Agree. As a tween, your daughter should be the one answering these questions about what is popular, not adults who are totally removed from your location and the social circle at your daughter’s school.

   2. OP here — thanks and I totally get that. Maybe what I need are stores to try — we have three malls to go to and the “lifestyle center” I tend to run into may skew too adult to even have stores with offerings for tweens. The only stores I go into / look at online with tween offerings are Old Navy and Target. Lands’ End really doesn’t even have this concept (nor does Banana, JCrew or DVF, which is where I shop for me).

      1. American Eagle, Aerie, Francesas, Forever 21 (if she wants a trend and cheap just to try), ON, H&M, Hollister (pretty specific taste), Abecrombie (if you still have one), Hot Topic, Zara. Pac Sun.

         (I’m the mom of 2 just out of their teens, and the aunt of 6 teens).

      2. Again, why don’t you ask her?

         1. OP here: she and her friends have no real idea b/c they are at a school now with uniforms. The only ones with older siblings have boy siblings who wear shorts year round, so not terribly helpful :(

   3. I remember being a teen and a lot of this was school district specific. I grew up in a ghetto neighborhood and we dressed very differently from other affluent schools in the county. Think street wear instead of preppy, Nike vs. Polo. Things must have changed with the internet and social media, but I bet observing what kids wear at her school will provide some ideas.

      1. And it depends on the group within school too – aeropostale and abercrombie were big in my HS, but I never ever would have worn either brand.

      2. Agree with this. It’s so specific to her friend group, your social circles, her social circles, your region, etc. Can you talk to the parent of one of her (stylish) friends?

         Also, aside from teen-specific stores, any department store will have a juniors sections. Maybe you and she could do a “just to look” trip to one of them so she can start pointing out what she likes/doesn’t like. Not a buying trip, because that can bring emotions/pressure.

   4. Agree that these should be decisions for her to make. I would also suggest not doing what my mom did with me at that age— she used to always buy kids clothes too big so that we could “grow into them.” This works great with kids clothes but once you’re a tween, you may not actually grow into things…. so I ended up with a coat that was a size too big for me for years, etc.

      For shoes, she may want something like Birkenstocks or another pair of flats.
      For a coat, kids that age here all wear Patagonia everything.
      For clothes, I think you’re right to start with Target and Old Navy.

      1. My 12-year-old loves Hollister and Nike Air Force 1s.

   5. My 14 year old likes Vans and all of her friends wear them too. Patagonia or North Face for coats (but we also live in a place with a true winter, so YMMV). Stores she likes are Pac Sun, American Eagle and H&M. Lots of her friends wear Lululemon and Fabletics but she’s not super into athleisure.

5. I love the hue leggings with the thick waistband, but they only come in black. Any recommendations for similar quality and cut leggings that come in other sedate colors like navy and gray? Thanks!

   1. Daily Ritual brand on amazon.

      1. Oh – I’m 5’6” and I prefer the tall lengths

6. Can I jump in from a stylist perspective? Have your tween start a mood board of what she actually *likes*..she can do so via Pinterest or old school collage/ magazine.

   This will help her decide what she wants to wear/ try and then will dictate the stores she will choose and shop.

   If this seems too heavy for a teenager, I totally get it but I think it’s an opportunity for her to think about what she wants to wear versus “what’s in style.” I know teenagers want to fit in but this obviously varies from group to group, her interests, lifestyle etc.

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