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For 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 for women, which should be as classic and basic as you get — instead, this feature is about the slightly different suit that is fashionable, yet professional.
I'll be honest, I'm usually not a fan of wearing a matching top, pants, AND blazer, but this is the only picture I could find of the blazer and pants together.
This is a really lovely bright plaid (“vivid sky”) against white. It strikes me as perfect for spring and summer, either as separates or as a suit. (I LOVE that it's mostly cotton — there are soooo many linen blends out there right now.)
The pants come in regular and petite sizes, with regular and curvy fits for both; the blazer also comes in regular and petites. Nice. The pieces are $98–$198, full price.
Even better yet: Ann Taylor is offering 30% off full-price suiting, which (if I recall correctly), is a pretty good sale for them. (They often have higher percentages off, but suits are almost always excluded.) You may want to check out our discussion on which Ann Taylor suiting line is best — note that almost all of them are washable.
Sales of note for 9.30.24
- Nordstrom – Beauty deals through September
- Ann Taylor – Extra 30% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + extra 20% off
- Boden – 15% off new styles
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off sale
- J.Crew – 50% off select styles
- J.Crew Factory – Up to 60% off everything + 50% off sale with code
- Lo & Sons – Warehouse sale, up to 70% off
- M.M.LaFleur – Save 25% sitewide
- Neiman Marcus – Friends & Family 25% off
- Rag & Bone – Friends & Family 25% off sitewide
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Fall Cyber Monday sale, 40% off sitewide and $5 shipping
- Target – Car-seat trade-in event through 9/28 — bring in an old car seat to get a 20% discount on other baby/toddler stuff.
- White House Black Market – 40% off select styles
anon
So so cute!
crash
I agree. It is not my style but I think it’s adorable and I wonder if I could pull it off….
Anon
That is a nice suit! I’m pleased to see that they have a basic tan linen suit. Mine is from 2015 and I love it, but after 8 years and pregnancy, the bottoms don’t fit right and it is looking a bit worn.
Anon
This article has me a mix of bewildered and horrified. I learned to read by “sounding it out” and can’t imagine teaching children to read simply by telling them to memorize that the letters C-A-T spell cat rather than teaching them what sounds C, A, and T make. How…how are you supposed to learn that way? I’d fail school and life if I had been taught that way! The second article makes it sound like the memorization technique was/is a common way to teach children to read – did you learn that way? Have your kids been taught that way?
https://apnews.com/article/reading-scores-phonics-mississippi-alabama-louisiana-5bdd5d6ff719b23faa37db2fb95d5004
https://apnews.com/article/phonics-science-reading-c715dea43f338f163715b01b83bb1066
JTM
My eldest is wrapping up kindergarten, and she’s learned how to read this year – her school uses phonics and she sounds things out. I can’t imagine learning how to read English any other way.
Anon
Even in phonics there are words you memorize called sight words. But they’re words that don’t follow the normal pronunciation rules, like “who.”
Trish
My son was in kindergarten in 2005 and that is how they taught then. Fortunately, my mother already taught him how to read based on phonetics before he started school. I live in Florida and so glad he is about done with college.
Anon
Yikes. Can’t imagine being taught to memorize words instead of actually being taught how to read!
Anonymous
I have a kid starting kindergarten next year so I’ve been doing some reading on this stuff. NYC just switched to a more phonics based system, in light of dismal reading scores. I strongly recommend the podcast “Sold a Story”. Our local public schools (in an affluent Chicago suburb) are not using phonics. I talked to a few private schools and many, but not all, of them use phonics. My kid is attending a Montessori pre-K where phonics is used. It’s one reason we’re keeping him there next year, instead of switching him to public K.
Anon
+1 on Sold a Story. The good news is that the podcast (and follow up parental objections) have made school districts start to switch over. The reading specialist at my kid’s school wasn’t surprised when I brought it up last month at K orientation.
Anononon
Was also going to recommend Sold a Story. It is horrifying but fascinating.
Anon
I imagine this will make learning foreign language, complicated science terms, etc really hard for students when they get there in school.
Then again, a school that isn’t actually teaching students to read might also not be teaching those things either…
Sally
My mother, a kindergarten teacher, taught us both to read well before we went to school, using “sound it out” (I can hear her saying it as I type) as the main tool once we knew which sound each letter makes. This was in the 1960s. We went through all the Dr. Seuss books that way, which really helped. I used the same method to learn a language with a different alphabet as an adult (learn which sound each letter makes, then sound out words). I cannot imagine any other way.
Anonymous
Yes, “balanced literacy,” which in practice amounts to whole-language instruction (memorizing sight words) plus guessing at words based on pictures, has been a dominant approach to teaching reading for the past two decades. Phonics is what actually works, so unless your kid is lucky enough to go to a school that teaches phonics you have to teach them yourself at home. NYC has just mandated a return to phonics instruction because its students are doing extremely poorly in reading.
Senior Attorney
There’s a fascinating and horrifying podcast called Sold a Story that explains the whole reading instruction mishegas. I was taught via phonics, as was my child, and I was just horrified to learn what’s going on these days!
anon
That podcast is excellent.
Our son’s private Pre-K used phonics and was unapologetic about it; his elementary school used the sight word approach (I think that’s what it’s called?) and at the end of 2nd grade they still had a percentage of kids who couldn’t read. Parents were getting the old Hooked on Phonics tapes/cds and getting phonics tutors to help kids catch up.
Anon
This.
anon
My son was taught “sight words” in kindergarten and 1st grade, and he struggled with reading. His 2nd grade teacher used phonics, and his reading is much stronger this year. DH also was not taught with phonics, has dislexia, and didn’t learn to read until after 3rd grade, when his parents got him a tutor over the summer. He saw some of my kid’s homework the other day and was like, “This would have helped me so much in school!”
I was just reading an article about several Gulf South states–Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi–that passed legislation a few years ago requiring phonics be taught, mandating 50 hours of teacher training on teaching phonics, and providing resources for students falling behind. Those states rose in the rankings on early education literacy, from last to middle of the pack, over the past few years.
Anonymous
I’m in my late 40s and was taught with a combination of phonics and whole word.
In English we have some words that just can’t be sounded out so you have no choice but to teach children to memorize what the word looks like (laugh, for example, and all of those ough words that sound nothing alike). when I was in school they were called “sight words”.
Sally
Isn’t this what prompts like, “I before E, except after C, or when pronounced ‘aaay’ as in neighbor or weigh?” Or does the fact that I know this rhyme mean I am old?
Anonymous
I must be old too, then, because I totally remember that rhyme.
Anon
Yes but there aren’t cute mnemonics for all the silly exceptions.
Idea
Though, enough coughs through the dough!
Start with phonics.
Anon
Phonics are making a comeback because they are shown to work and the new approach has been shown to fail. It’s been in the news a lot lately and it’s tragic for kids who have been let down and don’t have enough support elsewhere to make up the gaps.
Anon
That sounds like how I got through math in high school – I memorized formulas but had no idea what they actually meant.
Anonymous
And that is why so many kids hate math! I was taught the same way and thought that math was mindless drudgery until I hit calculus, where the teachers derived all the properties and formulae and suddenly it was cool and interesting.
Anon
Believe me – as a parent and a math professional, Common Core is no better!
anon
Exactly. And I am so embarrassed by my total lack of math literacy.
Anom
My kids (now 2nd and 5th grade) were taught using a combination of phonics and sight words. Teachers College curriculum. Both are great readers, but may perhaps show that with neurotypical learners early years of elementary school are as much about socioeconomics as they are about the quality of the curriculum.
Anonymous
The Teachers College curriculum is the one that got NYC into so much trouble. In practice apparently it is not usually implemented with any phonics component.
Anom
Yes, we were in NYC for early years. Our school did also do phonics. Our suburban school does both too. I’m not sufficiently well-informed to say whether their method helped or not. As I said, my kids had lots of adult resources and no neurological differences, so they picked it up like the sponges of learning that they are.
Anon
It’s whole language v phonics. I learned by phonics and incidentally love to read. My mother, who grew up in the 50s was taught whole language and hates reading for fun. Commenting it’s not a new debate, but I think important and if I had kids I’d want them to learn via phonics.
Anon
I’m 38 and was taught to read in the early 1990s in the suburban Midwest using whole language. I don’t think it’s memorization, exactly. At least, the analogy about memorizing math formulas doesn’t ring true to me. It’s more about using what you know and context to fill in the blanks. For example, if you come across the word ‘category’ which you don’t know, you’d recognize the ‘cat’ part that you do know and then use the context of the sentence to figure out what cat___ word it could be. So it’s not memorizing per se, but it’s also not really sounding out words. It worked great for me and although I was not a particularly early reader (I learned to read towards the end of first grade when I was almost 7) I was reading way ahead of grade level by second or third grade and scored an 800 on the verbal SAT in middle school. But apparently whole language does not work for most kids.
Anon
Oh and I love reading, and read a lot fwiw.
Anon
My daughter learned to read by sounding out. My son learned to read by memorizing words (self-directed.) They’re both young adults now, and both can read, but my son is a better reader. One piece of anecdata.
Anonymous
I’ve found the recent news on this very interesting because I was taught to read English with phonics in the early 1990s at school and Chinese with bopomofo at the same time at home in the US. bopomofo is a non-latin based type of alphabet to help newer readers know how to pronounce a word show with the full Chinese character, but by 5th grade one is supposed to be able to sight read most full Chinese characters, without bopomofo or other phonetic help, used in daily life.
not surprisingly, despite also spending 10 years being schooled in Taiwan, my English reading and comprehension is leagues better than my Chinese. memorizing then guessing at full words is just not a good or intuitive way to learn, I don’t understand how Chinese people have done this for 2000+ years and yes I’m baffled at my own heritage.
No Face
My kiddo is in public school. They teach both sight words and phonics.
Sight words are short and subject to memorization. In English, that is necessary because there are words that don’t rhyme when they should. Tough though through are all different!
Anon
I’ve seen a lot of people praise the Logic of English for teaching the actual rules of English phonetics I think including some of the etymology (so that there are way fewer genuine “sight words”).
Cat
Add cough, bough, and hiccough to that list, lol.
Anon
That was what occurred to me. English is so hard to learn even for native speakers because it makes so little sense in many cases. The only way any of us learned words like Tough Though and Through was through sight memorization!
Anon
“Whole word recognition” is a classic example of how education research gets lost in translation. It’s absolutely true that highly fluent English readers are not sounding out most words as they read! It does not therefore follow that this means that phonetic understanding of English should not be taught.
We saw a similar misapplication with CommonCore math, where highly technical characterizations of what mathematically competent students understand were somehow misunderstood as examples of what the course content should be.
Anon
Oh dang this is so cute. I wish my life called for a 3 piece gingham suit.
Trish
Perfect for a summer work conference!
Senior Attorney
I have a two-piece black and white gingham suit and I love it and wear it all the time. Trying very hard not to order this blue one…
Anon
Over the last three months, I maxed out all my credit cards (4) as we made significant repairs to our house in preparation for putting it on the market. (It worked! We got a full-price offer the first day and we close in a few days! The profit is enough to immediately pay off the CCs, then finance a reno on another house.) Within the last week, I’ve begun getting spammy phone calls and junk mail from “debt consolidators” offering to refinance my CC debt, etc.
Where are those companies getting the information about my balances and how do I protect my privacy? I haven’t missed any payments; these aren’t real debt collectors. It feels creepy that some slimy company out there knows I’m maxed out and is trying to prey on me.
Anon
Are you sure it’s not just a coincidence? I get junk mail like this and never come close to maxing out (I currently have like 7 credit cards so my max line of credit is something like $200k which I am obviously not charging monthly…)
Anon
Credit reporting companies. I have my credit permanently frozen and still get this kind of spam.
Anon
I don’t have credit cards at all and get this kind of spam.
Anon
Is anyone else in NC and following Tricia Cotham’s side-switching? She seems like a hot mess and horrible person and yet there must be a whole lot more to this than is making the papers. What is really going on? I am suspecting some massive quid pro who but how on earth did this even come about?! I’m in Charlotte but can’t vote against her based on where my district is.
Anon
I’m from Charlotte originally and a bunch of my high school friends still live there, so I’ve been following it on social media through them. I thought this was a good article on the backstory, and left me just as puzzled as you are now. https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/tricia-cotham-democrat-republican/
Anonymous
Yes! I’m also in Charlotte, but not in her district. Jeff Jackson had one of his Instagram videos or a similar statement when it happened and he seemed very confused about the switch. (Background for non NC residents…. Jeff Jackson was a state rep for Charlotte region for several years and now is in congress. He served with her in the NC Statehouse so presumably knows her a little bit better than most people ). I take what he says to be generally true, and if he’s confused, then I am inclined to believe something more is at play, I think akin to blackmail or some kind of other bribe. It’s awful. I listened to an interview on Pod Save America yesterday with the new Dem party chair for the state and it’s what’s giving me hope about NC politics right now.
Anon
I heard on NPR that she previously made a big deal over having had an abortion herself and now overrides a veto for a 12-week ban?! Politically, I was fine with our (NC’s) 20-week limit and believe that that is where most people were OK also. I don’t know her and am a Republican and yet I hope she gets run out of office forever for being such an opportunistic flip-flopped.
Anon
A 20 week limit is really out of step with the rest of the world. This provides a good overview with specifics of gestational limits; most counties that allow abortion without justification (ie on demand) curtail it after the first trimester:
https://lozierinstitute.org/internationalabortionnorms/
Anonymous
That’s an incredibly biased resource you are using there: “The Charlotte Lozier Institute is an anti-abortion think tank founded in 2011. It is a research and education arm of the Susan B. Anthony List, an organization dedicated to electing candidates and pursuing policies that will reduce and ultimately end abortion.”
And on anon
ok but I don’t think that fits in with this conversation here
Taki
That is an explicitly anti-choice foundation. And “I don’t want a child” is the best justification of having an abortion I can think of.
ScandiCorp
That doesn’t change the fact that in many countries first trimester is the cut of for general abortions. And it doesn’t seem to be a problem here.
If you ask a doctor, whose job is to preserve life, to perform an abortion on something that might be viable, I think it is fair to give that person a board of peers to help make that decision.
Anonymous
“The United States is one of only seven countries in the world that permit elective abortion past 20 weeks. Upholding laws restricting abortion on demand after 20 weeks would situate the United States closer to the international mainstream, instead of leaving it as an outlying country with ultra-permissive abortion policies.”
The word “elective” seems to be doing a LOT of heavy lifting there.
Anon
For all those critiquing the source: so you’re saying that I’m right but you lack the intellectual honesty to admit it.
Runcible Spoon
No, they are critiquing the source, which undermines the reliability of the information presented, and hence the “rightness” of your position. Who is not being intellectually honest here, by being a proponent of anti-liberty literature? Why are you trying to start trouble here?
JTM
My birthday is the week of 4th of July and I’ve been thinking about what I want to do. Honestly I just want some time from work, to watch stuff from my Netflix queue, knit and not hear “mommy mommy mommy” for a few days. Any suggestions of a place to get away for a few days? I’m in the SEUS so I’d prefer a place I can drive to, but willing to fly as well. For some reason I’m feeling a pull to be near some water but I’m not sure I’m up for a trip to FL (for many reasons).
Anne-on
Charleston? Beautiful downtown, great restaurants, and a very chilled out vibe.
Anon
Unbearably hot in July though.
Anon
For traveling by yourself, I recommend a city. I’ve done both and felt a little less conspicuous, a little less what-is-that-noise in a hotel in the middle of a city. How about Asheville or Savannah?
Anon
I feel the opposite. I feel lonely being in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a city by myself. For me, a spa retreat or beach resort are much better choices for solo travel.
Anon
I guess we’re pretty different. I can entertain myself in a city with museums, art galleries, bookstores, restaurants, and shopping.
But what I really meant was not going somewhere remote, like an air bnb in the woods, solo.
Anon
Oh, it’s not boredom! I like museums, bookstores, galleries, etc too. It’s more just that when I’m surrounded by people in a big city and I don’t have anyone to talk to, I feel lonely. I guess I feel like the solitude is more natural at a resort-type place where it would be totally normal to spend hours reading on a balcony or secluded beach chair even if you were there with a friend or partner. I’m a pretty hardcore introvert and am very happy to have days on end to myself, but the loneliest I’ve ever felt was on a couple solo trips to European capital cities. There was just something about being alone in the middle of the bustling city that felt very lonely to me. I don’t really do the airbnb in the woods thing regardless of whether or not I’m solo, it’s not my style. ;)
Anon
I’m guessing you have a higher tolerance for heat and humidity than I do if you live in the south, but for me travel within the US in July means heading to New England or the Pacific Northwest or a beach resort where I can spend 90% of the day submerged in a pool. I don’t like 85+ unless I never have to leave the pool.
DeepSouth
Also in the SEUS. I went to Portland, ME last July and the break from the humidity was a gift. There’s some cute shopping and great tiny restaurants where you could sit at the bar and have a meal alone comfortably. A sailing tour is a must and the hop on/hop off was better than most cities for looking around.
OOO
Ojo Spa Resort in Santa Fe
Anon
If you’re up for flying, Cape Cod could be nice. My partner and I were there over the July 4th holiday last year and I could see myself spending a long weekend there alone. Newport, RI could be another option. We stayed at the Chatham Inn in Cape Cod and The Cliffside Inn in Newport. Would recommend both, however if I were to go back to Newport I’d look into The Chanler since I’m not too crazy about B&Bs.
Atlanta anon
can you get to a lake in the mountains or nearby? Lake Lanier, Hartwell, the Ozarks.
Anon
Not sure if Alabama is any better for you than FL but if you’re in the southeast you sort of know what you’re getting into. May I recommend the town of Fairhope Alabama? It’s a very quaint town on the gulf of Mobile, is generally artisty/liberal, and has a great fourth of July. There is an enormous resort there (The Grand – it’s a Marriott property) that has lots of included programming for kids if you need kids to be occupied, but I’ve also seen a ton of adorable AirBnbs to rent.
Runcible Spoon
Find as nice and fancy a hotel as you can afford, with a pool and room service, and focus on spending your time there. This might be the time to stay in an all suites hotel, and if it is located in a nice neighborhood of a nice city, where you can run out and grab croissants for breakfast, so much the better, but it sounds like you want to hole up in a resort-ish or all-inclusive location, so if you spend your budget on your facilities, you can read and knit and binge-watch to your delight without any judgment. That said, Asheville is lovely, and should be relatively cooler than other locations in the SEUS. Have fun!
Deck
Has anyone purchased PowerPoint design templates for personal or side gig use? I’m looking at Envato Elements, Canva, Slidenest
AIMS
A friend loves canva.
Senior Attorney
Any suggestions for what to do with three days in Copenhagen? We know we want to do a day trip to Malmo/Lund so we can scratch “Sweden” off our world map, other than that we are wide open. Have the hotel but are looking for places to eat and things to do.
Anon
Ha I didn’t love Copenhagen (unpopular opinion i know!) but Malmo was the highlight of our time there. It was warmer and cheaper, which was a big deal since we were poor students at the time. I’ve never heard of anyone else going there so I think it’s cool you are.
You really should try to get to Stockholm at some point though. It’s my favorite city in Scandinavia by far.
Nylongirl
Google Carly Riordan and she had a post on best things to do in Copenhagen. Have a great trip!
Senior Attorney
Oh, that’s super helpful! Thank you!
Annie Nominous
We loved a few side trips outside of Copenhagen if you’re up for that. One was to Odense (Hans Christian Anderson home), another to the Elsinore castle, and another to the Swedish crystal factories.
Former Parisian
Rosenborg castle was lovely. Take a boat cruise on the canals. Walk or cycle around Christiania. Eat at one of the many fine dining restaurants eg Kadeau. Have high tea at D’Angleterre. Shop for brands not available outside of Denmark. Watch Borgen on Netflix before you go!
Anonymous
Go to Roskilde, 20 minutes by train from Copenhagen central station. Old walkable town, real viking ships in a museum and a completely breathtaking cathedral which is on the unesco world heritage list
Anon
I really enjoyed going to Magasin at Kongens Nytorv, trying the Danish version of Haribo (gummy candy) called Pingvin, biking around, seeing the parks, and getting a beer at Mikkeler. I was there in October so saw the Tivoli gardens all decked out for the holiday which was cool;
I think it could be worth going
CreditRisk
During covid I lived in Denmark. Copenhagen is interesting. If you are a foodie they have some excellent restaurants but yes you will pay $500 a head for some of them so double check the prices and book now.
For two days in Copenhagen, I would start with doing the bus tour so you hit all the main spots first. Highly recommend the hotdogs and open faced sandwiches. Danes go from strait laced and deadly serious to fun and free with a drink in them. One evening (Friday or Saturday ideally) go hang out at a cafe and watch it unfold.
Shopping wise, Copenhagen is excellent. Danes do not like to pay but demand high quality. Bestseller is everywhere and I don’t recommend them because it’s all polyester. A lot of the other staples such as Noa Noa and Espirit have excellent casual and business casual clothing in natural fibers. Get the high end designer stuff at the airport but order ahead so you get the discount.
Danes have excellent washing up brushes and these silver discs you put in the opening of a bottle of wine to stop the drip. Very cheap and amazing. You can pick up at the supermarkets Meny or Fotex. At Fotex check out their clothing. A lot of it is awful but their tshirts and thermal underwear were good.
Anon
Best meal I have ever had was at Geranium in Copenhagen! Highly recommend if you can get in.
Anonymous
From a trip many years ago, what stands out most in my memory was Tivoli Gardens.
Senior Attorney
Wow, thank you everybody! This is making me very excited!
lawswitch
Has anyone here gone from private practice to teaching a clinical program or legal research and writing at a law school? A law school in my area is currently accepting applications for full-time positions in those roles. I enjoy what I do as a litigator, but I also love teaching and think that the different pace, schedule (slow summers and true time off for every holiday?!), and decrease in conflict (I’m so tired of clients and opposing counsel and unreasonable court deadlines!) would be game changer. Has anyone made this jump or done something similar? It would be an enormous pay cut for me, but I think my family could manage it. I also wonder if teaching for a few years might be a great new experience, and when my kids are older I can revert back to private practice. Any and all thoughts and advice are appreciated!
Anonymous
Teaching is not a low-conflict profession.
Anon
It’s MUCH less conflict than litigation. I’ve done both.
Anonymous
I thinK the transition back to practicing is going to be quite challenging for multiple reasons, esp if you are looking to join a firm as opposed to a solo practice. That said, I have come across a very prolific plaintiff’s PI firm that had, in addition to all the lawyers who “litigated” for them, one person who could actually interpret the law and write a brief. That person was a former writing professor at a law school, and he was presumably well compensated (and overworked) since he was apparently the only lawyer at the firm capable of.responding to a summary judgement motion (per their requests for additional time). We filed about 125 and it is my understanding that he responded to all of them.
Anon
+1 yeah I think it would be really difficult to go back.