Suit of the Week

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Neiman Marcus Belted Silk SkirtsuitFor busy working women, the suit is often the easiest outfit to throw on in the morning. In general, this feature is not about interview suits, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional. Eeee — great suit from Kay Unger New York, but we may just be distracted by that great belt. We like that it looks to be of a substantial, nubbly silk, so hopefully wrinkling won't be a problem, and we like the slightly feminine ruffles at the neckline. It's $480 at Neiman Marcus (Belted Silk Skirtsuit), available in sizes 2 through 18. (L-0)

Sales of note for 2/7/25:

  • Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
  • Ann Taylor – Extra 25% off your $175+ purchase — and $30 of full-price pants and denim
  • Banana Republic Factory – Up to 50% off everything + extra 15% off
  • Boden – 15% off new season styles
  • Eloquii – 60% off 100s of styles
  • J.Crew – Extra 50% off all sale styles
  • J.Crew Factory – 40% off everything including new arrivals + extra 20% off $125+
  • Rothy's – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – 40% off one item + free shipping on $150+

And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!

Some of our latest threadjacks include:

37 Comments

  1. Gorgeous suit – although that model’s way over-exposed cleavage is annoying. Anyone in the real world would wear this with a shell of some sort to work – it would be nice to see a picture of how it layers.

  2. Usually hate blue suits but this one is wonderful! That price is completely acceptable, too (and I’m cheap!)!

  3. What’s the consensus on sleeve length in general? More and more the fashions are having 3/4 or bracelet lengths even in the midst of winter. I would really like some advice on this. It appears we are all in agreement (or at least a majority) on cleavage, skirt lengths, pants length over shoes, but the sleeves? Besides being cold, what’s the thoughts of the other corporettes?

    1. I love 3/4 sleeves in part because I have short arms. Petite is too short, regular is usually too long. 3/4 sleeves == one less thing to tailor. That said, I’m more comfortable with 3/4 length sleeve shirts, cardigans and dresses (l0ve, love, love 3/4 sleeve dresses) than suits. A jacket’s a bit more dicey, so much depends on where it falls. There’s that risk of looking like the thing is outgrown (picture a sprouting teenager!).

    2. Are you worried about looking somehow inappropriate? It never occurred to me to worry whether bracelet or 3/4 length sleeves wouldn’t be okay in any situation where full length sleeves would be. I suppose some might think it odd if it’s 20 below outside, but I wouldn’t give it a second thought – although I might not want to wear a 3/4 length shirt and jacket myself when it’s that cold out!

    3. Putting aside the cold – I’ve always liked 3/4 sleeves – showing the forearms/wrists makes you look feminine without being inappropriate.

    4. Some offices are just sweltering in the winter. If your office is 76 degrees year round, I doubt anyone is going to think you’re weird for electing to wear the 3/4 sleeve suit jacket or shirt instead of a long-sleeved version. I think they’re pretty much interchangeable and are equally appropriate.

      1. Thanks for the early responses…it is typically 68-70 degrees in my office, year round. Nothing I can do about it, and I’m usually cold. I am most worried about looking as though my clothes don’t fit, especially if I need to wear something with long sleeves underneath the 3/4 jacket … see above, I’m cold! This wouldn’t be so much of a problem for me, except that fashion is producing a higher ratio of 3/4 and sleeveless tops, dresses, jackets, blouses, sweaters…everything! Frustrating to see something wonderful and then drop down my hand from the hanger to find out it is not full length. Spring and summer are bound to skew the ratio further.

        Thanks for the validation that 3/4 sleeves are just fine as I might try a few out for the spring/summer wear. However, don’t you find that the shorter cuff/sleeve length really takes a beating when you are doing alot of writing? I take alot of interview notes and then am constantly writing for 2-3 hours at a stretch when doing assessments of patients. My few escapades with that last summer produced worn edges much faster than on my long sleeved items.

        I never thought about the wrist adding to a feminine approach – nice turn of phrase and bones! Makes me think my everyday statement bracelet of woven sterling links would show more often. Gotta have a “nice” watch as well then.

        Thanks, corporettes for being there.

    5. I have two suits with three-quarter sleeves that are my standard boring suits – I think they look better on petites, making my arms look longer. The only thing that annoys me is when people wear a long sleeve that comes out of a short-sleeved jacket. While it is OK with a sweater, it just looks like you’ve outgrown your suit when you do this.

      1. Amanda, that’s another one of my many concerns with the 3/4 length. To stay warm, I’d have to put the sweater underneath and to me it seems a juvenile look. I think this is the case, even if it is a cashmere turtleneck sweater…

        1. I think a very thin sweater in a basic, solid color is fine under the 3/5 inch sleeve. I especially like the way this looks if the sweater sleeve is slightly long and neatly bunched up/gathered — the play of proportions really looks nice, I think.

          To add my two cents to the sleeve length debate — Sarah Palin wore this kind of sleeve throughout her run for VP, and whatever anyone thinks of her politics, I think it’s fairly universally thought (as much as anything can be, at least) that she looked very polished in her suits (and no, I am not suggesting everyone go buy a red blazer to dress like her…) So, if it’s a 3/4 sleeve is okay to wear when you’re running for VP of a country, I think it’s also serious enough to wear to the office.

          PS: I do think you should never, ever wear a 3/4 sleeve with a “reg” sleeve button down; come to think of it, button downs of all sleeve lengths generally look better with normal length jackets.

          1. Good point about Ms. Palin! You’re encouraging me to try one more time in the spring/summer.

  4. *gasp* I LOVE this suit!!! Ugh, if I wasn’t part-way loosing the weight I put on after my spine fracture this summer I’d be all over this. I simply adore everything about this suit – the belt, the collar, even the sleeves and I’m not a huge fan of 3/4 length sleeves. *sigh* I’ll just have to admire and use this as motivation to keep working hard toward my goal!

  5. That suit is **amazing**!! I love it! And I agree the pricetag is completely reasonable (though I would love to get it in a sale :) I wish I had the money to buy it!

  6. NICE! I’ve had about 6-8 tries of various Kay Unger suits over the past couple of years and looked dowdy each time. Don’t ask me why….material is super high quality, sizing is generous for us “Moms” and they always look awesome on the hanger, but not on me. Now _this_ one has potential! LOL.

  7. I love this suit. I also love the belt. I like 3/4 sleeves for the opposite reason a previous person mentioned. I have very LONG arms and 3/4 sleeves are nice because it is obvious that they are supposed to be too short.

    Great find.

  8. Question for everyone: How do you organize your work wardrobe? I feel like I always buy nice pieces, but then come morning, I’m scrambling around my closet trying to find an outfit that works. Anyone have any tips for how to arrange your clothes in a way that makes it easier to plan an outfit?

    1. Only thing that works for me is to lay it out the evening before. Shirt needs ironed? Shoes need a swipe with a damp cloth? There’s time to do it. Outfit is all assembled but the skirt turns out to be still at the cleaner? There’s time to assemble something else.

      It also helps that I now live in a very small house, which has changed me from a drop-it-on-the-floor slob into quite a tidykins. I hang pants together, skirts together, shirts together, etc. Huge difference.

    2. I organize my clothes by “type”. Shirts are organized by sleeve length and button-down blouses are separated out. Business clothes go in a separate part of the closet.
      Also, as part of my getting ready in the morning routine, getting dressed is one of the very last thing I do in the morning. That gives me plenty of time in the morning to consider what I’m going to wear.

    3. I hang tops on the top rail and bottoms on the bottom rail, then I arrange by color. Within the color, I’ll arrange button downs together, shells, or all the skirts, then all the pants by color, etc. I wish I was as good as Delta Sierra so that I could pick it all out the night before, but it’s rare that I do that. I tend to let my accessories mix my clothing pieces and drive my outfits, so when I’m uninspired, I’ll start with a necklace or scarf or something.

  9. I second the ideas of grouping items by type and then by color…it makes it all so much easier…choose the main item (jacket or bottom) and then decide what color you’d like to use as the accent…and go there. I have some wire shelving in my closet which hold stacks of sweaters, stacked by winter versus summer (decided by weight and sleeve length). Also helps me think about what I “need” versus crave when I go shopping … I can see the ratio of colors I own. Many times this prevents me from buying on impulse if the only colors available at the store are ones that I’m loaded up with at the time.

    1. How about ideas for storing purses? I’m in the middle of cleaning out my closet (Elfa system) and need to wrangle a pile of purses into some kind of organization. I’m torn between having them standing up on the shelf above the rack or in clear plastic bins to help minimize dust, and wonder if there are other options I should consider. Now that I have a few “expensive” purses, I can’t treat them like the disposable ones I was used to using. My closet also houses (too many) gift items waiting for gifting, and some seasonal decor items, so my plan is to move them to a closet in my office to free up more room in my clothes closet.

      My poor DH is already relegated to about 35% of the closet, so I’m trying to work with the space I have. My sage mother’s comment before we got married: “Are you planning to give him ANY closet space?” ;-)

      Next up: weeding out the shoe collection…

      1. I think it depends on how frequently you change bags. So having them on the shelf is better if you need them to be more easily accessible, and putting them into bags/boxes to minimize dust is more logical if you don’t change purses that frequently and therefore they will actually collect dust.

        That said, the most important thing, in my opinion, is to stuff something (newspaper, etc.) into larger bags to ensure they keep their shape. For storing small bags like clutches: I am a huge fan of those stackable/attached clear plastic boxes that have pull out drawers (they look like small clear plastic mini-dressers) and putting them on the shelf. The pull out function is super convenient for easy access and storage (since you typically wouldn’t use these bags everyday), and the stackability really saves space; plus it looks really cute.

        As for other methods: I have seen those long hangers that you hang from the closet rod & then attach the purses to, but I am not a fan. I think that hanging bags by the handle really ruins their shape. Don’t do this with leather bags you actually care about.

      2. I used to store my purses in one of those hanging gift wrap organizers in my closet. It allowed me to keep a bunch of purses in a small closet. I never had really nice purses that required better methods though.

        I think the plastic bins is a great idea though. I store all of my shoes that way. Each pair is in an individual rubbermaid-type shoe box. They are clear so you can see what you are looking at. I was planning to put photos on the outside of the boxes but never got around to doing that. I think something similar could work for purses. Also, the individual boxes stack so neatly and when you want to get 1 purse in particular you just slide that box out of place, which doesn’t disturb any of the other ones.

        1. AIMS and Jen, thanks so much for your suggestions! I absolutely agree about not storing bags hanging from their handles.

          I see now that I actually have a few different needs: to store rarely used bags (like evening clutches and out of season bags) and to store a handful of everyday bags. I usually use the same bag for a few months at a time, but if they were more easily accessible, I think I’d change them more often. I spent waaaay too much time last night browsing around for storage solutions and came up with the following:

          purse/shoe organizer – open front canvas cubbie with 8 movable dividers (32″W x 21″H x 12″ deep) $39.99 at improvementscatalog.com A little pricey, but also most easily customized to my actual bag dimensions. This is the only one like this I saw.

          Pack-a-Purse (holds 2 rows of 5 purses each standing upright in cubbies on a closet shelf, best price at amazon $21.74), 23″W x 21″H x 12″ deep, but it’s basically just an open front, coated cardboard box with fixed dividers. This one had the most hits.

          Iris drop front clear plastic shoeboxes, in the larger size (11″Wx14″deep x 71/8″ high) at $8.99.

          Sterilite shoe drawer, stackable white framed boxes, 12 7/8″ long x 8 7/8″ wide x 6″ high at $6.99. I fear this will be too small.

          I obviously need to start measuring my bags and closet shelf height to see if which dimensions would work, but I’m leaning toward a combination of the Iris closed boxes for the occasional bags and the open front canvas one for more regularly used ones.

          And if you haven’t seen purseblog.com — it’s a whole new level of purse-love…

          Hope this might save somebody some time. Now I’m off to organize!

  10. Very nice suit pick.

    I love 3/4 sleeves, myself, and don’t see any issue whatsoever about “appropriateness.” In super cold weather? That’s just personal preference, IMO. In Denver yesterday, I wore a 3/4 length emerald green silk turtleneck under a 3/4 length sleeve camel fitted jacket that tied in the front, and with a great cuff bracelet. (Brown pants, brown Mary-Jane Sofft pumps that are like walking on air.) I would have worn a full length silk turtleneck and not had a problem letting it show; I just didn’t have one in the color I wanted.

  11. Anyone looking for a new suit should check out Brooks Brothers’ sale. 50% off right now, and there are a couple of really cute suits.

    My favorite is boucle suit. Just about $200!

  12. It’s better to use just one bag that works well with everything for each season. It might be a new bag every summer and fall so it’s always in style. You can have some little “evening bags” on hand for a really dressy occasion. I think it’s a great big waste of precious time to change bags to match shoes and so forth – that’s for housewives, so to speak.

    Laying out clothes in advance is a good habit – it helps to plan the outfit for a special court appearance or meeting several days in advance. You can also line up your ordinary outfits a bit in advance, too. Then you have time to dig out the right necklace or whatever. I find my favorite time to pull together an outfit is when I get home from work and go to the closet to grab some comfort clothes.

    1. A waste for whom? I’ve actually started a schedule of wearing/rotating all my handbags (some are good, some are not so good). It’s more of a waste to have them sit unused in my closet.

      The “housewives” comment was a bit divisive.

    1. Not having seen the fabric up close, can’t say for sure whether or not I’d wear tights with it. But if the fabric is fairly substantial, definitely!

      And I’d go for grey tights, which always look good with the navy/blue family.

  13. An adorable and unique solution to a common workplace fashion dilemma. I love the navy color, and the material looks great.

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