ByKat Hours Updated
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Suit of the Week: Banana Republic

light blue pant suit

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. Also: we just updated our big roundup for the best women's suits of 2024!

I think suits with oversized pieces can be very hit or miss — and the wrinklier the fabric gets, the more of a miss it gets.

I keep coming back to this pretty “seaglass blue” suit from Banana Republic, though — and in my experience, TENCEL lycocell fabric tends to have more of a drape, less of a wrinkling effect, than, say, linen.

This suit comes in a beigey cream as well as seaglass in regular (0-20), tall (4T-12T), and petite sizes (00P-10P), but with a lot of lucky sizes — call your local store if your size is out. It's a best-seller, with prices marked from $130-$250 down to $99-$199.

If you're hunting for colorful suits, note that light blue suits for summer are some of the easiest because you can wear them as you would a light gray suit. As of 2024, we're seeing nice ones at Reiss and Brooks Brothers. On the more affordable side, find blue suits at Ann Taylor (“blue echo,” ojai, “precious sapphire“), Banana Republic Factory, and Eloquii.

light blue pant suit
Banana Republic
light blue suit with dress instead of skirt
Brooks Brothers
a woman wears a dusty light blue suit
Ann Taylor
light blue skirt suit from Eloquii in cornflower blue
Eloquii

Sales of note for 12.5

131 Comments

  1. I am moving to NYC from nowhere nearby in about a month and looking for a primary care doctor. Will go anywhere for a good doc taking new patients but Manhattan below 85th or north Brooklyn would be most convenient.

    2. Kimberly Scotto at Mt Sinai at w 57th and 7th.

      If you find someone affiliated with the big hospitals in NYC, the medical records can all be accessed at other hospitals. Depending on where you are in life, and whether you have children, this is so so convenient.

  2. What’s your favorite/most memorable thing you’ve seen/experienced/enjoyed at a wedding?

    (don’t worry, we’ve got the basics like guest comfort, good food/drinks, etc. down – would love any inspo for fun touches we can add or just happy stories about weddings for a change :) )

    1. Get good music! I love weddings where people literally can’t stay in their seats because the beat is so good. You’ll know you’re successful if you have 90-year-old Grandma on the floor next to the preteens.

      1. A couple of recent weddings started with oldies for the dance music – by oldies I mean disco and 80s – then the music got newer and hipper as the night went on, middle aged and older people weren’t dancing anymore, and the youngest people were then dancing to music from their own generation.

    2. I really love weddings where the ceremony is personal, not just the standard template. Often people attending the wedding only really know one half of the couple so it’s nice to learn more about the person you don’t know as well and to get a glimpse into their relationship.

      On a lighter note, I love a creative cake topper. And you’d score many points with me if you have a chocolate frosting or ganache option for the cake itself. I’m not a fan of vanilla frosting which too often just tastes like whipped cream.

      1. great point! we definitely have extended family coming that don’t know one of us super well.

      2. I agree about the ceremony! One memorable wedding I went to had a reading of some of the couple’s earliest text messages to each other. It was really cute and they did it very well and it stands out to me.

      3. I love when the officiant is someone who knows the couple (whether it’s a friend or a priest) rather than a professional. It feels way too sterile when done with a professional

    3. Last year we went to a fancy wedding with an AMAZING live band. Maybe an 8-person band? DH and I are usually pretty reserved people but we had an absolute blast dancing the night away.

      1. Last year we went to a fancy wedding with an AMAZING live band. Maybe an 8-person band? DH and I are usually pretty reserved people but we had an absolute blast dancing the night away.

        1. Agreed! My cousin’s wedding had a large band and 1-2 people who were always working the crowd – dancing and getting people on their feet. It was probably pricy, but so much fun. OTOH, a very good friend went with an DJ who turned out to be awful. None of this is to imply that all bands are great and that all DJ’s are awful. I’ve seen it both ways however excellent music entertainment can really make it or break it large weddings.

    4. A quiet space where people can go and chill and talk away from the noise of the dance floor, especially if your crowd will go for more of a raucous dance floor as the evening progresses. For older relatives that use weddings as a way to catch up with extended family, it’s annoying to have to shout in people’s ears. It’s nice to feel like you are still part of the party if you want a quieter area, as opposed to hanging out in the hallway next to the ballroom.

      1. This. Even in my 20s, the main reason I went to weddings was to catch up with far flung friends, so nothing ruins a wedding faster than music that makes it too loud to have a conversation. This is especially true during dinner, but also during dancing, which I personally couldn’t care less about.

      3. Along with this, the background music during cocktail hour and dinner should be quiet enough that everyone can talk without shouting

      4. This x1000.

        I started to really hate weddings because the reception room was always cold and the band would be hammering away at ear splitting volume all night long. It really sucks when you can’t even talk to the person sitting next to you at dinner because the music is too loud.

    5. One of my friends got married in New Orleans and did a Second Line parade (in the rain, as it happened), which was really fun, but that’s pretty location specific.

      1. My nephew just got married in NOLA this February and we all marched in the Second Line parade. It was a lot of fun.

      2. Senior Attorney did a second line at her wedding, in LA! (And IIRC, another ‘rette happend to be driving on that street and saw it!)

    6. One of my friends is a later in life child for her parents. Her much older dad stood up during the ceremony and played a violin solo for her. It was so touching to see this somewhat stooped, gray haired gentleman playing for his daughter. Not a dry eye in the house.

    7. I know this garners disagreement here but the best weddings I’ve been to were SMALL. Or small enough plus involved a bride and groom who cared that their guests had taken time off and spent money to attend. At these weddings it felt like everyone hung out with the bride and groom for the entire event – talking, dancing etc. – so it was more than just a cursory thank you for coming type of walk by. YMMV. I don’t pretend to understand how to walk that line between the bride and groom enjoying their day by themselves and just with their immediate besties, while still making everyone else spending thousands of dollars to attend feel like they are welcome too.

      Maybe I just think this because I’m Indian and my people like to throw HUGE weddings. Sure it’s an excellent show but at the end of the day, some of the wedding behavior is shockingly rude – not even saying hi to guests or designating some family member to say, ONLY hanging out with the special circle of wedding party guests etc. – you often walk away feeling like you just came for a meal and dancing not to be a part of a life moment.

    8. Please be sure to have enough bartenders! Last wedding I went to there was only one bar station with two bartenders behind it, so a lot of us waited over 30 minutes for a drink.

      I think it’s nice to have open wine bottles on the table so guests can at least serve themselves wine with their meal. Better yet a waiter comes around with it, but every recent wedding, and not just the one, required you to stand in line for a bartender to pour you a glass of wine.

      2. I was just at a wedding like this. The ceremony was in the same room as the dinner tables so everyone sat at their tables for the ceremony. This was great! However, they then needed to “flip” the room (take away the ceremony stage and set out the first course) so they ushered all 250+ guests out of the room and into the large lobby area for a cocktail hour. Very limited seating in this lobby and one small round table with appetizers set out. The worst part – there were 2 bartenders behind only one bar! And it wasn’t a fully open bar so guests inevitably took time reading the drinks menu or asking the bartenders questions about the wine options. I stood in line for almost an hour and only just got my glass of wine as the doors were opening for everyone to return to their tables. By the time dancing started, my feet were so tired (my own fault of course because of my shoes… but I didn’t expect an hour of standing plus dancing!) I also fully agree that you should have wine at the tables or waiters walking around with wine.

    9. I lovvvve hora loca. We eloped and so we didn’t have one, but if I’d been having a wedding with guests and a reception, I would def have done it.

    10. Dedicated wedding childcare so those who’d travelled with kids could stay up late to party with adults. They rented two attached rooms in a nearby hotel – one babysitter for the littles who needed to sleep earlier and one for kids who enjoyed a movie / swim / sleepover. Kids and adults both had a blast.

    11. To-go boxes next to a dessert buffet. Consumable treats are so much better than a random favor with the couple’s names on it.

      2. This is also great when guests may have babysitters waiting at home and can’t hang around for dessert. When my kids were little I liked to bring them home a cookie or pastry from the wedding too.

      4. Definitely go for consumable favors if you don’t have a dessert buffet. We did fancy chocolates and cute little jars of wild blueberry jam (we got married in Maine where wild blueberries are a big thing).

    12. I saw this on Insta, not in real life – a surprise ring-bearer. The ring was tucked under one of the seats and then the officiant asked attendees to check, and that person walked it up. It looked really cute!

    13. Bride and groom pranked a couple of friends (who played along) by pre-writing speeches for their friends to give, only the toastmaster knew. The speeches were ridiculous, over-the-top odes to the couple, very, very funny.

    14. The officiant gave the rings to the first person in the first row of guests and asked them to pass them to all the guests so everyone could give a little blessing of their own. When the rings made it back to the bride and groom, they’d been infused with good wishes from everyone.

      1. We had one at our Ohio wedding (however one side of my family has roots in Pittsburgh).

    16. instead of a sit-down dinner a friend had a big dance floor with food stations at all corners and they were all sort of middle-of-the-night/comfort food — french fries, mac n cheese, lo mein, etc. it was a lot of fun.

      1. This is kind of what I would want. The majority of the weddings I’ve been to have had horrible food. It’s usually a chicken, steak, fish or vegetarian option and often they are all terrible. The cocktail hour always has the best food!

    17. in truth, the photobooth was way more fun than we thought it would be (my mom wanted it, i didn’t care). key is to bring your own accessories/props somewhat tailored to the group instead of what the photobooth company provides (we had lightsabers and every accessory my family had ever used for a Jimmy Buffett tailgate).

    18. Similar to the ring-warming, above: During our ceremony, when the (Episcopal) priest blessed us after pronouncing us husband and wife, she had the wedding party come close and touch our arms and shoulders, and then invited the whole congregation to touch us and each other so that everybody was joined for the blessing. Again, I am a stony-hearted unbeliever but it was incredibly moving to have all that support from everybody present. Plus the photos are incredible.

      Also before the wedding the priest asked each of us to name three things we loved about each other and one thing we found challenging, and she incorporated those into the ceremony. It turned out to be really funny because my “challenge” about him was “he likes to keep the house dark as a tomb” and his about me was “I have to follow her around the house turning off the lights she leaves on.”

      Reception: In addition to the second line band, we had a magician doing close-up magic at the reception, as well as a balloon animal guy for the kids. (And a mime and stilt walkers because my husband is insane and doesn’t know when to stop.)

      My husband is a dedicated bicyclist and so are many of his friends, so we had a wedding bike ride at 8 a.m. on the morning of the wedding and about 30 people showed up. We wore bride and groom cycling kits, of course.

      Our ceremony was at 11 a.m. with luncheon reception immediately following. But we didn’t want to miss dancing on our wedding day so we had a dance party later in the evening and at that party we gave everybody name tags indicating their relationship with us. LIke “Susie: Bride’s College Roommate” or “John: Groom’s Cycling Buddy.” It was fun and got everybody mixing. (I stole the idea from my late former father in law, who did it at his 90th birthday party.)

      3. We had an 11 am ceremony and lunch reception also and our dance floor was packed! We had a very fun-loving crowd that can dance in the middle of the day while mostly sober :)

      4. One caution: I know someone who participated in a “wedding bike ride” and fell and broke a bone, causing him to miss his daughter’s wedding because he was in the hospital.

        1. Yeah…I stopped riding my horses the week-ish before the wedding, just to make sure I didn’t fall off and really regret it.

    19. We went to a wedding recently where kids were invited, and it was clear when we got there they they were straight up welcomed. They had thought a lot about their younger guests and had stuff that the kids would like (and young at hear too!). Instax camera/Photo Booth, mini golf area, self serve candy station, coloring books & pages (including ones to be left for the B&G), bubbles, a couple of board games, like checkers and Uno that got HEATED between my 10 year old and my great uncle!

    1. None of those pictures show the sleeve, but it looks like a dropped sleeve, which I think would make it a harder alteration. You could take in the side seams but there’d still be a lot of room right under the armpit.

    2. Even if you could, I wouldn’t invest tailoring money into a $60 top. You’re talking a nearly equivalent or more depending on where you are in tailoring costs.

    3. It looks pretty boxy in that photo. Are you sure you didn’t get too large a size for you?

    4. I’d just hem it to a few inches below my waist and lead into the boxiness. But long + boxy means it’s too big if it also has to clear my hips.

    5. There’s a reason the model has a half tuck – that works well with boxy.

      You could try a tacked side ruche to make it a little bit asymmetrical. Do a simple running stitch close to the bottom at side seam – one side only – and ruche the seam by pulling the thread. This will shorten one side, and drape from one hip.

  4. I feel that jackets like this do well on people shaped like we could be in the WNBA draft. I am not sure that they are for those of us who are shorter and more resemble the ball than the player.

    1. I have not really found a way for an oversized blazer to look right on me. I am short, and also generally a petite person, and I just look like I’m a kid wearing her moms (or dad’s depending on the jacket!) clothes. I would so love to embrace this trend, but it requires very careful styling if you’re not tall.

      1. I’m 5’8″ and they still look stupid on me. I think it’s all about proportions. Short jackets don’t do it for me, but neither do the long jackets. Just a classic middle-of-road style, please.

    2. A lot of people who post here came up during the shrunken jacket era and it shows.

      Oversized or longer jackets are not meant to be form fitting or necessarily traditionally figure flattering. It’s the style.

      1. Nope. At least for me, I had a double-br3asted Brooks Brothers outlet suit with a short skirt, just like the Cake song, as one of my first pieces of workwear. Very Ally MacBeal.

      2. If a new style looks bad on me, I’m not going to wear it; that’s the definition of “fashion victim.”

      3. We know.

        Signed,
        Had an oversized jacket for an interview in 2001, and it was tragic.

      4. I had a gorgeous light peach double-breasted blazer by some designer or other that I bought at Loehmann’s in the Bronx in like 1990 for my first non-college job. It wasn’t oversized. I felt very professional and cool wearing it.

          1. I lived in Riverdale and spent many happy hours there. Apparently it wasn’t the original, as my Bronx native husband’s female relatives often reminded me.

      5. Shoot – I used the word and got stuck in moderation. I bought a designer four front button jacket of which we speak at Loehmann’s in the Bronx in 1990, not oversized, just before starting my first job. I felt so stylish and professional! I do miss those days.

      6. Wut? No, I “came up” in the 80s with shoulder pads and the over sized jackets are ugly on most women.

  5. If you live in the Netherlands or Belgium, what is “Natan Coture”? Is it like your version of St. John?

    1. Never heard of this brand. Then again, the Dutch are not your fashionable crowd, dress code here is ‘functional wind & waterproof long jackets/parkas’ and they seem to avoid colors.

  6. I am usually handy around the house but I am stumped here. I have hidden hinges on the cabinets in my bathroom (so the hinge is inside the cabinet; you can’t see it from outside). Two hinges are loose so the doors either bump each other or the frame when closing. I can’t angle my hand right to do what I think is the needed tightening on the screws on where the hinge is joined to the wall and don’t want to strip the screws. I don’t want to call a handyman, but may have to. Any advice or YouTube videos? I used to work on habitat builds and have done all of the hard tasks (cutting and hanging siding; roofing; sanding drywall). I can do regular hinges and install hooks on a stud in a wall and deal with toggle bolts. Just not this. Ugh.

    1. Take the door and hinge off the frame, tighten up, and reinstall. Once you have the door off, you can access it easily.

    2. If you can’t see what you’re doing – set up a hand mirror inside the cabinet, with a flash light if needed.

      If you can’t do the angle anyway – there are bendy screwdrivers and screwdriver bits, search for bendy or flexible.

    3. I second the suggestion of taking it off to do most of the readjustments. Also, my go-to tool for hard-to-reach spaces is a small ratchet with a drive bit on.

    4. Are you sure the hinge is pulling out from the cabinet? If so, it’s possible the holes are already stripped. Otherwise, you may need to adjust the correct screw(s) on the hinge to pull the doors back into proper alignment in the frame. Your specific hinge style itself matters, but if you google “cabinet hinge adjustment diagram” you are likely to find instructions that match your hinges.

      If space is tight, pick up a stubby little screwdriver. I have a small collection of them that are about 3″ long and they are great for tight spots.

  7. I need a lawyer recommendation, but don’t know what kind. My parents contracted with a modular build company, which in turn contracted with a factory. The factory went bankrupt. A massive amount of money was paid and it appears that nothing has been built with it. It is unclear whether the modular company is in denial, uninformed, or in cahoots. I can’t tell if our contract is with the modular or with the factory – there is really convoluted language about which party shall be referred to as what in the beginning of the contract that’s difficult to trace through. In CA. Thank you!

  8. Just a rant to the void because I’m losing it: I am so tired, stressed and defeated, and there is no wiggle room, no give, no flexibility in my life right now. I just have to wait.

    (Husband is unemployed and hates SAHD life, I’m working from home, we’re working on moving to where my job is/where our families live, our house is pending thank God but we haven’t found a place in the new city yet, there is not a spare minute in my day for anything, my marriage is basically not even there anymore and kiddo is teething. Send good vibes.)

    1. I’m so sorry- that’s so much all at once.

      Is there any way you can hire a “father’s helper” or a babysitter for a few hours to catch up on sleep and maintenance?

      1. Yeah, I don’t think being pushed into the SAHD (or SAHM) role due to involuntary unemployment is a good thing for anyone involved. Being a SAHP is a hard job that someone has to really want to take on, or it just doesn’t work, in my experience. Assuming the husband is making a good faith effort to find employment, I think hiring a babysitter and allowing him to focus on his job search is the right move.

    2. All the good vibes and is there anywhere you can go work that isn’t home? Even like a WeWork or something one day a week?

    3. I’m so sorry and vibes to you. Marriage counseling? Sounds like teamwork is an issue.

    4. Commiseration from Chapter 13. I am losing it as well. Good vibes to you and echo the comment above suggesting to work in a new location perhaps.

    5. I don’t think she needs to add marriage counseling to the to-do list. Better to spend the time/money on hiring help to give dad a break, a babysitter so they can have time together, and/or a co-working membership to get her out of the house.

      1. A therapist once told me that most couples should spend their couples-counseling money on a housecleaner instead.

        2. It’d be for me, not my husband (although I’d let him go use it for a bit on the weekends if it made him less annoying).

          Thanks all. I definitely think we need a babysitter to give us a little time.

          1. date nights is really crucial to my marriage, and when the kids were young, time alone was really crucial also… you can find budget ways to do it like swapping date nights with another family or grabbing dinner during one of those “party nights” at gymboree or whatever

    6. Hello. I could have written this twelve years ago, word for word. I promise it will get better. Find a babysitter, take a day off, try to find a way to get out of the house, but just focus on taking care of yourself through this difficult period. It will pass.

    7. Good vibes being sent to you! And I know this doesn’t actually do anything, but I want you to know that you always post helpful, interesting, and kind stuff here. I always appreciate it.

      1. That does something for me, thank you ever so much!! I can’t tell you how much that’s bolstered me.

        1. thinking of you and your sweet family! that is A LOT when you have a one year old. hoping good things are coming your way

    8. Sending you good vibes! You are in the trenches right now with a one year old, and added stress with the rest that you have going on! Give yourself some grace and do what you can to get through it – and you will get through it. You are always so kind and such a bright light on these threads and I wish we could do something real to support you, but know that you have our collective good vibes!

  9. If you and your SO sleep mostly in separate rooms due to snoring / sleep issues, do you keep this up when you travel? If not, do you try to go back to 1 room in anticipation of the trip, to practice sharing space again prior to leaving?

    2. We sleep separately because we’re both terrible sleepers, not snorers, but do share a bedroom when traveling. I see no point in sharing a room ahead of time, it just means we’d be sleep deprived before the trip starts, which makes no sense.

    3. Sleep is the gold dust of happy traveling. I cannot sleep in the same room as somebody snoring, and on a trip planned together to enjoy together that means separate rooms. Sleepless travel is miserable. I would rather spend half as many days in a hotel than double and exhausted.

    4. We sleep apart at home and book a room with two queen beds OR one king bed. I also use an amazing travel white noise machine that is as good as the one on my night stand.

      (he snores, I am the world’s lightest sleeper)

    5. I purely accidentally booked a room with two queen beds, years ago. It works great. A suite can also work well, if you just need a break from the snoring person. Co-signed, downloaded a decibel meter to show my husband how loud his snoring is.

    6. we sleep apart because he’s snoring and has apnea issues and refuses to use his cpap (sigh) – but when we’re traveling the two of us for a quick getaway i book a king bed with hopes for gardening, and if it’s a family vacation i usually make everyone suck it up and sleep in the same room but we each sleep with a kid instead of each other. one of my kids has misophonia and his brother apparently “smacks his mouth” in his sleep, so if we’re at a really cheap place we’ll maybe get 2 rooms or a suite.

      1. It’s too bad about the CPAP. I was on a multi-night river trip where three men brought CPAP machines in their dry bags and used them in their tents with battery power. It can totally be done.

    7. We share a room when traveling. Preferably one with two beds. I bring earplugs and anticipate being exhausted by the end of the trip due to poorer sleep quality.

  10. I need advice! I am a person who needs a mammogram and ultrasound more frequently than typical. No problem usually except I was due to go in Feb. The screening center only had doctor’s orders for the u/s part. I called my doc office to get the mamm orders and the receptionist acted really put out, arguing that they had already sent the orders and that the screening center just needed to send them something to sign if they didn’t. I let the screening ctr know. Then crickets. I tried calling the dr’s office a 2nd time. Same thing, attitude and “we already did it”. I gave up at that point. Then I got a reminder in March and I thought maybe it had been resolved. But no, still missing orders. I called the dr’s office a 3rd time. More arguing but then the person says fine, they will fax it. I call the screening ctr. The faxed orders are over a year old and not usable.The screening ctr themselves calls the dr’s office but they are on lunch. They leave a msg. Nothing happens. I call the dr’s office one more time…got a different person who said, no problem will send them over. Screening ctr still doesn’t have them. I do NOT want to leave this dr. But how do I elevate this? I am missing getting a screening because I have a full time job and just cannot deal with being made to feel like I did something wrong and endless calling. Is there some magic code I can say to light a fire like, “I wonder how my lawyer will feel about violation of X”….anything I can do to raise this but not have to leave the dr? I wish I could talk to the doc directly but have no way to do that.

    1. Your doctor certainly wants you to get your screening on time. I’d make an appointment as soon as possible and let him/her know what is going on. Failing that, is there a message portal?

      I have left doctors in the past due to the attitude and incompetency of the front desk staff, and I have let the doc know exactly why.

      1. Agree, and write down an account of all of the calls that were made and the responses to them, and give it to your doctor at your next appointment. It will be a lot of info for your doc to process if you just try to tell them.

    2. Try the message portal. A doc had written a paper order for my mom to get a kidney u/s. I called the appointment line, said my mom was a new patient, and apropos of nothing the receptionist said mom’s doc was an idiot, had written the orders wrong, and that I was to tell the doc to call the u/s place to get a tutorial in how to write orders. I sat there on the phone almost shocked into silence – I had said like 2 words to the lady and she lights me up. I emailed a brief summary of that whole convo to the doc’s office through the portal and was like, “Uh, here, your problem.” The medical assistant at the doc’s office who read the message was shocked, called the u/s place, the u/s place PULLED THEIR RECORDING of the call(!), agreed the receptionist was insanely out of line, counseled her on how to speak to patients, and the manager of the u/s place called me to apologize.

      So a short, factual email can do wonders. “Hello, I’ve called you on Dates, I’ve called u/s on Dates, and I still don’t have what I need. I need a timely u/s because of medical condition and I’d appreciate your help in getting this taken care of. Thanks.” Good luck!

    3. Can you have the doctor’s office send them to you and then you send them to the screening center? My mammogram orders have always been given to me on paper from my doctor with a list of places to go with them, so at least in my experience there is no issue with needing them to come directly from the doctor. Even if there were an issue with authenticity, the center could then confirm with a call, right?

    5. Make an appt to see the doc.

      Do not mention lawyers because you’re not actually serious about that and the staff will immediately tell the doc you mentioned your lawyer and gossip about you.

  11. Y’all… What happens if the corporation holding escrow funds closes? We had money in escrow waiting for project completion. The escrow company appears to have gone out of business. Where should we look for our money?

    1. I don’t know the answer. But I would re-post your question as early as you can tomorrow morning; I bet someone knows.

    3. a company going out of business has to pay back debtirs before they dissolve. but…good luck finding them or enforcing this. talk to a commercial litigator.

    4. If it was a title insurance company, you may want to speak to the insurance regulator in your state.

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