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Updated: Nov 1, 2018 75 Comments · by

Sponsored Post: Back to School with Macy’s

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This post may contain affiliate links and Corporette® may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

This is a sponsored post in conjunction with Macy's and Style Coalition. Pictured: My son J and me dressed in clothes from Macy's. On me: Lauren by Ralph Lauren Ansford Three-Button Wool Blazer, Jones New York Collection houndstooth dress (no longer available online), Charter Club necklace (no longer available online). On J: Levi's Baby Overalls and Carter's Baby Bodysuit.)

For a long while now, “back to school” to me has meant OCI week — interviews! Interview suits! Interview etiquette, from lunch etiquette and thank-you notes! — for all the law students, MBA students, and even college students doing on campus interviews. But now that I'm a mother I'm starting to notice the collective deep sigh of relief that seems evident on the mommy blogs I read (and even among my Facebook friends) for mothers as their kids go back to school, because a return to routine can be a great thing, even if it means everyone's a bit busier. (Or then there's this, being shared by multiple single friends on FB…) I'm starting to remember all that excitement I felt as a child to go back to school — to buy new clothes, to pick out the outfit for your first day of school, to pick out new school supplies, to review your schedule and wonder what great stuff lies in wait throughout the school year.

J is no where near ready for school (hey, I think he's bright, but not that bright) but when Macy's asked me to consider what back to school would be like for him, I had a great time. In prep for our “shoot,” I got to hit Macy's with a gift card* to outfit me and J from head to toe. As a new mom who spends a lot of time on-line shopping, but almost never gets to physical retail stores, it was great to be back wandering the aisles, touching clothes, comparing colors, seeing the displays on the mannequin, and more. I wound up getting three colorful outfits for me for the shoot, and then a ton of stuff for J, primarily because it seemed like everything might clash. (I am by no means a professional stylist, but I've learned that shopping for a photo shoot is a bit different than shopping for Real Life — you want colors! and texture! and the tallest heels you can stand in.)

So the morning of August 27, J and I — with my brother graciously tagging along to watch J while I, you know, worked — went off to a studio in TriBeCa to have a fun photo shoot experience. (Uh, no, I can't believe this is my life either.)  We met the great photographer Ana Schechter, and I got to have some catch-up time with Yuli from Style Coalition, as well as Lauren from Second City Style and Gabriella from Miss Omni Media, both of whom were on set with their kids. Such a great time! Unfortunately J was pretty tired by the time we did our shoot, but he was a great sport anyway (aided greatly by my amazing brother, jumping around behind the photographer to help capture and keep J's attention and good mood). J thinks sneezes are hilarious so everyone on set was saying “A-CHOO!” to try to keep a smile on his face.

Here's a picture of J from earlier in the day, looking at the rainstorm happening outside in NYC:

And here's a picture of the fun happening behind the scenes…

As part of this promotion, Macy's asked me to put together a Pinterest board of back to school stuff for when J is a bit older — so I got to poke through all the older kid stuff. I like to dress J in fairly classic clothes, with a slight preference for themes like space, dinosaurs, and sci fi characters, so I had a great time putting everything together. I particularly love The North Face jackets, Converse shoes, and Levi's jeans. (Follow Corporette on Pinterest here!)

Now here's the cool part: you too can win a $1K shopping spree at Macy's with Redbook's Back-to-School photo contest — just Tweet a back-to-school photo of your children and tag it #SchoolSnaps.

Readers, what does “Back to School” mean to you these days? What are your favorite items to shop for at this time of year?

About Kat

Kat Griffin is the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Corporette. You can read more about her here.

Comments

  1. January

    I am totally going to steal your baby.* The pic of him looking out the window is too cute!

    *Not literally. You can keep him. :)

    • Ellen

      THIS WAS MY thinkeing to!!!!! I LOVE THIS BABY!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

      I want to have a baby, but I must FIRST be married. LOGISTIECEALLY, this is dificult, b/c I do NOT even have a decent boyfreind. Most guy’s do NOT want a releationship leading to MARRIAGE, but instead just want to “HANG OUT”. FOOEY!

      That is NOT what I want or NEED at this point in my life. I want a guy who will be there for ME when I need him to be there, and to be a father to our children. I want to live in the subburb’s in a NICE house, and take our kid’s to school, and mabye work part time as a JUDGE or as general council to a small place that I could do that mabye 12-20 hours a week.

      It does NOT seem like that is going to hapen any time soon, since I am workeing 65 hour’s a week on all of this litiegation and now the do diligeance stuff. FOOEY!

      I guess I can think about it, as the manageing partner is busy stareing at me and scratcheing his bald head with his ruler! FOOEY!

  5. Bluejay

    Congrats on Macy’s gig, Kat! What a huge professional step forward for you and your blog.

    Having said that, I’m not sure a promo focused on back to school and a shopping spree for parents of school-age kids is really on-topic for this blog. I know having a baby is life changing, but this is a fashion blog for professional women, many of whom happen to be mothers, not a mommy blog. I don’t think I’m the only one who’d like to see more focus on the core audience of this blog and less focus on mommy topics. It’s a little annoying to see you run a major promo and a contest that excludes what I’d hazard to say are the majority of your readers. Just sayin’.

    • cfm

      Kat very rarely posts on mommy topics, and although i am not a mom, I think there are a ton of mother corpor*tt*s who read.I think these are easy enough to skip and don’t think she needs to do less focus on mommy topics, considering how little there is.

    • Jordan

      No hazard. Click on advertising tab – 77% of blog readers have no children. I like the post though. Jack is cute and of course Kat has found their purple shoes.

    • MidwestCPA

      Seriously? Since it is Kat’s blog, I’d say whatever she posts would be “on-topic,” wouldn’t it? Maybe I’m too maternal, but I consider myself a mother first and a professional woman second. I’m sure I’m not the only frequent reader of this blog who feels this way…if the post isn’t relevant to you, skip it…that’s what I do. :)

      • E.

        From the about page:
        “[This site] is a fashion and lifestyle blog for women lawyers, bankers, MBAs, consultants, and otherwise overachieving chicks who need to look professional but want to look fashionable.”

        Nothing about mommies.

        • MidwestCPA

          Well, I don’t see anything in that about CPAs, so I guess I’m not welcome? Or would I be considered an “otherwise overachieving chick”? If so, then I would assume a “Mommy” could be considered an overachieving chick as well. Just my two cents.

          • Senior Attorney

            Good grief. I’m stunned by the anti-mommy mean-spiritedness that is coming out here. And I say that as somebody whose active mommy days are long in the past. It’s not. that. hard. to skip over the stuff that doesn’t interest me.

            And yes, OMG that is one cute baby!!

          • SAlit-a-gator

            Bluejay – I think being a working professional mom qualified one as an overachiving chick. I also think this is Kat’s blog and she gets to decide its content. So far she’s doing a great job. She hardly ever posts about herself and these sponsored posts are not a common thing. Get over it. I don’t have any kids myself, but frankly, I know I will someday. So all this “baby” stuff is not only cute but it’s preparation for the future for most of us. I look at all baby or pregnancy discussions on this blog as good things to know for the future. Plus, I have friends with kids who may want to enter this Macy’s contest, so this is good information to pass on.

            If you don’t like something on a blog, please skip it. Don’t demand that the author of a blog be stricly tied to the description they have posted of their content. It’s not your job to police the content of this blog. If this was consitutional analysis, I think this post falls squarely in the “penumbra” of the scope of this blog. You, however, strike me as a strict constructionist. However, unlike the consitution, the scope of this blog can be varied at will by Kat – no constitutional amendment necessary.

          • Honey Pillows

            Any perceived anti-mommy sentiment is the natural reaction of being hit over the head with BABIES BABIES BABIES in your late 20’s and 30’s, when many women a) don’t want children; b) haven’t found someone they want to have a baby with; c) don’t want to be a single mother; d) want babies but are currently terrified by the prospect; or e) have kids or want kids, but enjoy having some small part of their lives separate from their children, even if it’s just a fashion blog.

            Babies are awesome. They’re adorable, and they grow up from squirmy little beans into real, live, full-of-personality little people. They discover magic and beauty in the tiniest things, and keep us from becoming jaded as we approach the world.

            But maybe we’d just like a break from them once in a while?

            (BTW, I think Kat’s very light mother content is completely reasonable, I’m just putting in a word for people who, like me, are a little tired of Every. Single. Blog. talking about babies, and why you might feel like we’re “anti-mommy” when we express such tiredness.)

        • CJ

          I think this fits in the “Lifestyle.” Previous food and exercise and finance posts aren’t about fashion.

          There’s obviously a demand, since almost every comment thread includes something about TTC or pregnancy or nursing or going back to work whatever.

          You can enter the contest sans kids, and I could always use $1,000 at macys.

          • CJ

            Just kidding, must own the children to enter. Sad :( I’ll just have to spend the $1000 I saved by not having a child at Macys.

          • Midori

            Oh, CJ, you’ve saved faaaar more than $1000 by not having a child. ;-) Go have yourself a shopping spree!

      • eastbaybanker

        I am not planning to have children and that rank ordering of priorities is my own personal nightmare! That said, it isn’t that hard to skip posts and to skip comments I don’t care to read. If anyone says belly band, I know to keep scrolling.

    • TCFKAG

      Bluejay — just go find some rando kid and YOU TOO can enter. ;-)

      Just kidding (I think.) But, as a non-mommy myself, I actually think the kid based content is relatively light. The biggest change is arguably that the clothes have gotten more varied and less corporate since Kat stopped working in a purely corporate environment. But I don’t think that’s the end of the world.

      And….also…. THE BABY IS SOOOO CUTE. :-) (Had to have an ellen moment because ellen already had one!)

      • Jordan

        Haha I totally thought that too. Can I just turn in my friends pictures from facebook? I will cut them in for $250 if I win I swear….

    • meme

      I like the post. I’m a mother of school-age kids and I don’t know many (any?) other places to find professional, stylish working women’s views on this stuff.

    • Honey Pillows

      Meh, I’m not that bothered by this post, particularly since it shows Kat with her ADORABLE baby wearing a pretty durn spiffy purple blazer and pumps with the grey sheath dress.

      However, I do understand the sentiment. There are SO many mommy blogs. Any blog directed at women seems to have mommy content, and a lot of women don’t have kids! It was nice to have one little corner of the universe where we don’t approach our identities as women through our children, but rather through our professional achievements, goals, and interactions.

      • Lyssa

        That’s actually why I really enjoy the (limited, and appropriately so) motherhood related topics here! Have you ever read the mommy-blogs or pregnancy-devoted sites? I feel like those women might as well be from another planet.

        • Honey Pillows

          Maybe Kat should start spin-off blog for working moms -Momr*ttes?

          I’ll leave the naming up to her.

          • anne-on

            OMG, please, please, yes.
            Seriously, finding women who work and talk honestly about motherhood and still want (and heaven forbid) like their job is so insanely hard online.

    • NoVAAtty

      Us Mommy C*rporettes have repeatedly asked if Kat is going to do a blog more geared toward professional Mom’s. She has said a couple of times that it is a project she is working on. I’m not sure what that means exactly but I anticipate a C*rporette Mom blog in the future.

      So don’t worry – we’ll get away of your way :-) In the mean time the pickings are slim in terms of blogs for professional working mothers – Mommyish is probably one of the only ones I can think of. So have a little sympathy.

    • Latina

      I think you are being harsh. It is her blog. I am 26 and no where near ready to become a mom. I do find the mom topics and threads helpful b/c I work with many women who are mothers and I hope to have children one day.

    • RR

      A lot of the core audience of the blog are moms. Should she post no dating content? Because, you know, I haven’t had to date for 17 years so it’s not relevant to me. No interview content? Because the core audience has jobs? Just don’t read it. You’ll like the next post.

    • E.

      Y’all are majorly overreacting. Are you not allowed to criticize a company if you don’t own stock in it? Or to criticize a movie if you aren’t the producer? Kat runs a business (this site) that she sells to an audience in order to make money. She’s not your special little snowflake that you’re supposed to defend – she’s a savvy professional woman. Bluejay and all the rest of us non-mothers are profit-makers for her and we’re entitled to give an opinion of her product in a public forum.

      And frankly, Bluejay’s comment was extremely polite, especially considering that Kat’s run a promo that excludes 77% (thanks, Jordan) of her readership. That’s just plain bad business sense.

        • Honey Pillows

          Sure, by why the allegations of ” anti-mommy mean-spiritedness”?

          • hellskitchen

            This. Bluejay is anti-Kat’s-post… there was no need to call her anti-mommy. She commented on the post not on all mommy readers so there was no reason to call her mean. And I agree with E above… Corporette is a business for Kat now and her readers are allowed to express their opinion without everyone else attacking them. Bluejay could have chosen to go anon for the post but she was too classy to do that.

            FWIW, I am married and TTC so babies are on my mind all the time. I didn’t mind this post but Bluejay had every right to express what she thinks without everyone calling her mean.

          • hellskitchen

            This. Bluejay is anti-Kat’s-post… there was no need to call her anti-mommy. She commented on the post not on all mommy readers so there was no reason to call her mean. And I agree with E above… C***ette is a business for Kat now and her readers are allowed to express their opinion without everyone else attacking them. Bluejay could have chosen to go anon for the post but she was too classy to do that.

            FWIW, I am married and TTC so babies are on my mind all the time. I didn’t mind this post but Bluejay had every right to express what she thinks without everyone calling her mean.

      • Pest

        This post does not exclude 77% of the readership here. I’m not a mom, and I’m loving that outfit Kat picked out for herself. I’m now inspired to check out Macy’s this weekend.

          • Pest

            Right, but the post itself still has relevance for us non-mom Corporettes because of Kat’s outfit.

          • Non-Twit

            And you must have a Twitter account! As one who has chosen not to have a Twitter account, I am deeply offended. It is bad enough that ever since I got a smart phone all of my friends and family have been asking me when I’ll start Tweeting… now I have to deal with this assumption on my favorite blog! Just because I am a young, tech savy woman does NOT mean that I need to embrace social media.

          • Anonymous

            @Non-Twit – are you seriously comparing getting a Twitter account to having a baby? Sarcasm’s only funny if it’s remotely logical, you know.

          • also non-twit

            Are you serious, Anonymous?

            She’s picking up on the theme of exclusionary things about the promo. One is that you have to have a kid, the other is that you have to have a twitter account. And then she followed the same logic of “you’re married, when are you having kids?” with “you have a smart phone, when are you getting twitter?”

            Totally logical. As a child-free non-tweeter, I giggled.

    • Sugar Magnolia

      I am not wealthy, and my salary is way less than most, but I don’t complain about the high-priced items Kat usually features. There are many more posts about stuff I cannot afford than there are on Mom related topics. Let’s take a deep breath and learn to ignore the stuff that doesn’t apply if that’s the case.

    • karenpadi

      Bluejay, we usually agree on so much! But I gotta disagree. I just skipped this entry bc I don’t have kids. But then I saw the growing comment count and figured I’d stop in.

      I think Kat does a great job and I really liked the outfits she chose for herself. Macy’s was smart to sponsor her (I am a platinum Macy’s card holder). She has a valuable audience–women who have money and interest in buying clothing (see “advertising” tab: “32% have salaries higher than $100K, and 7% have salaries higher than $200K”). We have money, we’ll be targeted. There are a lot of moms who read, and are active in, this site (just look at the comments sections).

      Mommy topics come up because mommies have issues that they need to talk about. I just skip those threads.

      Re: single ladies. Yes, it stinks we don’t have the kind of “clout” that mommies have when discussing our issues. Most mommies (on this site) have dated and aren’t currently dating (unless they are widowed or divorced). Most single ladies (on this site) don’t have kids. Mommies remember what it feels like to date but don’t feel the same anxiety or urgency. So when we post about dating or bio clock issues, married women feel like they can take over because they’ve “succeeded” and offer platitudes we’ve all heard a million times over (“You gotta get out there! Love/Babies come when you least expect it! You still have a lot of time!”). It’s this attempt at “mentoring” in an area completely unsuitable for mentoring that annoys me.

  7. Me

    Hi guys,

    Can anyone suggest an online site/a US retailer where I can buy good quality gift/gourmet food hampers? Looking to get a gift for a friend and as I live outside the US am not particularly knowledgeable on this topic.

    • Cat

      I’ve seen Harry & David recommended several times. For muffins and breakfast goodies, Wolferman’s is a standby.

    • EC MD

      My favorite is Harry and David. Nice mix of gorgeous produce with a variety of other items. Always have had good customer service.

      • EC MD

        Also, Garretts popcorn in Chicago is so yummy and they do nice gift wrap, if you are looking for something different.

    • TBK

      You might be totally aware of this and if so, just ignore me, but while I know food “hamper” is very common in the UK (and elsewhere in the Commonwealth?) Americans tend to only use “hamper” in connection with laundry. For food, it’s typically “basket.” Just might affect online searching if you use hamper.

      • Cornellian

        may also affect the confusion of fellow readers, haha. that makes much more sense.

        interestingly, when I worked for a brit the thing you put trash in WAS a basket, while a thing holding gifts of food was not.

        • Merabella

          I read an article on Mental Floss the other day about when Americans lost their British Accents. It was fun and informative. This topic reminded me of that. It is so interesting that on this blog since everything is written I often forget who is international until moments like these arise.

      • SF Bay Associate

        Ohhhhh that makes much more sense. Agree with Harry & David, though my personal favorite is the fancy mini-chain grocery store near me – Draeger’s. They make THE BEST gift baskets.

    • Homestar

      We got this FABULOUS basket from Zingerman’s last year. I thought it was much better than the usual Harry and David fare, although I like them too.

      Our basket was the a Reuben Sandwich Kit. It seemed weird and I was skeptical at first, but everything was so yummy. That one requires overnight delivery, but they have other baskets with items that are not as perishable.

      Link to follow.

      • emcsquared

        YES to Zingerman’s. I went to school in Ann Arbor and still have dreams about their sandwiches and pickles. Thank you for reminding me about their delivery service – that would make a nice present to myself!

      • AK

        Living halfway across the country has made me miss Zingerman’s. I wonder how mad my husband would be if I spent our entire food budget on delivery Zingerman’s…

      • Wordy

        +1 to Zingerman’s. I’ve given many gifts from there which have turned out very well.

  8. Lawgirl

    Gorgeous Mom and baby! The purple jacket looks great on you, Kat. Can we see a full shot of your outfit and info about other items you’re wearing? The necklace looks beautiful, but I can’t see it all. :-)

  10. DH

    Kat looks absolutely nothing like I expected, and also appears to moonlight as Stephenie Meyer

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