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Suit of the Week: Boden

coral pants suit made with a fluid, drapey fabric

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.

Oooh: this pants suit is gorgeous.

I love the addition of the matching waistcoat, and the t-shirt+vest combo feels very 80s-in-a-good-way (and 90s, I guess – I'm remembering outfits from both Pretty Woman and Clueless, I think).

The fabric is 96% viscose, 4% elastane, and dry clean only. They note that the pants are a “longer length (for heels)” — with all trousers like this I'd pick the shoes I wanted to wear with the outfit first, then have my pants tailored to that height.

(For my $.02: I'd say they're tailored a bit too long on the pictured model; you should have a break in the leg by the vamp of the shoe, but the fabric of the pant should be .5″-1″ off the ground in the back.)

The blazer and pants are $260 and $180 and available in regular sizes 2-22. The vest ($120) is only available up to size 14; the pants also come in petite and long sizes. The color, confusingly, is named “fox.” (Any insights, gang?)

(In other news — April 1 is unfortunately a Saturday this year, or this suit would be a serious contender. Wow.)

(OMG and the comments!)

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Sales of note for 12.5

121 Comments

  1. OMG the D&G suit has me HOWLING!! And I NEED to see the pants on their own.

      1. oh wow!

        …anyone remember fashion plates? This reminds me of something I would have designed with those.

      2. I’m surprised it isn’t half bodysuit!

        For the days when you only have time to shave one leg…

      3. I like how she’s wearing the pants with the control top of her footless pantyhose showing.

        Never tell me Julia Fox hasn’t influenced fashion.

    4. Sorry, I need to wait until this suit is half off to purchase it for unironic reasons.

    5. I love the Met Gala comment!

      In real news, I kinda love this suit posted this afternoon. Of all the ’90s things I’m not keen on coming back, the vest-with-wide-pants reminds of Season 1 of Friends and has a good nostalgic vibe for me.

  2. I enjoyed this piece: Meet the Women Trying to Avoid a Spending Train Wreck in Congress – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

    And wow, Shalonda Young is gorgeous.

    Here’s hoping Kay Granger and Susan Collins show some backbone and integrity and resist the absurd and suicidal demands of the right-wing lunatics that apparently own Kevin McCarthy.

  3. Wow that suit!

    Off topic: has anyone gotten a subscription to Daily Harvest? Thoughts? How hard is it to put stuff together?

    1. I periodically get Daily Harvest boxes. I find their food to be fine, not great. I like the soups and smoothies more than the other offerings, and I mainly use in on days I want to have a quick lunch. It is extremely easy to put together – for the hot stuff, just add water or broth and cook on the stove or even in the microwave for a few minutes, and for the smoothies, just add water, juice or nut milk and blend. I do like that it is health and mostly (all? I can’t remember) organic.

    2. Hard no. Expensive for what it is and they had a food poisoning issue. Just grab some protein power and frozen fruit for your smoothies.

  4. Not sure if there’s any kind of creation solution to this BUT: A few friends and I booked a VRBO for a month to remote work in a new location. I put the booking on my credit card, and the host charges a $5k deposit fee which was charged to my card and will be refunded minus any deductions after our stay. I always pay off my CC in full each statement period so I was unfamiliar with the rules around rolling charges from one statement period to the next and thought I could just roll it over from statement to statement until the refund hit without accruing interest as long as I was pay everything else off. I learned the error of my ways and now am trying to see if there’s anything I can do to avoid having to pay off the $5k, as it’d be a hassle to have to account for the $5k refund and replacing that money in my savings.

    I’m not super savvy with credit cards so wanted to throw it to the hive–any tricks I could use to settle that temporary charge without having to pay the $5k off in full? The answer in hindsight was to open a credit card with a 0% APR promo and book on that, but alas, not an option.

    1. Don’t pay an interest charge just because you don’t know how to account for a refund. That’s silly.

      If you have the money in savings, pay if off before the bill, but since the deposit can be dinged for damage, I think you should in turn bill all your friends for their share of the deposit, and they’ll get proportional shares of the returned deposit. Everyone should have skin in the game.

      3. Exactly this. If you all rented a traditional apartment, you would all pay for the damage deposit up front and you would all understand that “oopsie” means everyone pays. Same thing here.

      4. I may just be ignorant to the finer points of credit cards, but I’m unclear on how I would get a cash refund from my credit card once the deposit is returned. Whenever I get refunds for things like returned clothes, it’s just a returned credit on my account against future charges and can’t be exchanged for cash into my checking account. I would then have to rebuild that $5k in my savings with the extra money I would have each month that I wouldn’t have to put against my CC bill, vs getting a lump sum cash refund.

        That’s the reason I didn’t want to split it amongst all four of us is that I am still on the hook for the $5k on my card, and would be reimbursing everyone with money out of my savings, while my reimbursement would be the total statement on my card. Is there a way to request a cash back deposit from a CC into a checking account ?

        And yes, if deductions are made I’ll be charging everyone proportionally for those.

        1. Correct, you won’t get a cash refund, but the $5k refund (once it posts) will erase the next $5k of purchases in any category. Unless you put very little money on the card, you will recoup your savings quickly. If you’re not using your credit card for routine purchases like groceries and transportation you should start, because you’re leaving a lot of money on the table if you pay for these things with a debit card.

        2. The refund of the deposit will come from the VRBO. It totally depends on how they do the refund. It will probably be a check to you, but might be a statement credit. You’re just going to have to juggle the money here amongst your accounts to avoid missing a payment or overdrawing your savings.

          1. It will not be a check. The deposit will be refunded to the original method of payment. That’s required by the credit card companies except in limited and specific circumstances.

        3. Can your friends all give you their portion of the bill, which you put into checking and refund them gradually over a few months?

        4. I believe you can get a check from the CC company after a number of months, if you still have a credit.

          1. I’ve gotten checks for an overbalance on my credit card multiple times. Once they refund the money just call credit card company and ask for a check.

        5. if you have a large credit balance on your credit card, you can contact them and ask for a check. In my experience, they’ll send one, but it can take a while.

    2. When is the booking? Could someone else carry it and have your card refunded or would they split it across two cards so at least you are only paying $2500?

    3. And take VERY good photo documentation, time and date stamped when you arrive. I am surprised at that amount of deposit for a one month rental on VRBO.

      1. I was as well, but I assume the host uses it as a barrier to entry for younger and/or lower income from renting, unfortunately.

    4. Why would you think you can just let the $5k sit there without paying interest? You charge it, you pay it, or the interest starts accruing. Why you can’t just use savings now and return the $5k to savings once the refund hits?
      But also a $5k refundable deposit for a vrbo is pretty crazy to me! I think the most I’ve ever spent on deposit was like $500 and that was a very nice house.

      1. Because I pay my CC off in full every month and have never carried a balance over, so I don’t have any first hand experience with accruing CC interest. I’m aware of all of that now after some googling :)

        Is there a way to get a cash refund instead of an account credit when things are refunded to a CC?

        1. Depends on your credit card company, but a check refund from them will probably take a long time (weeks), if it is available at all.

        2. I pay off my credit card in full every month too, but it never occurred to me that I would be allowed to let a $5k charge sit there for months without interest. It’s pretty obvious…

          I don’t think there’s a way to get a cash refund at least not without big fees, but I’m not sure why you’d need one. Once the refund posts you’ll have $5k of “free” spending and you can divert the money you would have spent on all those purchases back to your savings account to replenish it.

        3. No, the refund will be a credit to the card and the card issuer will not give you cash. That’s generally only an option if the card account is closed.

          1. OP could close her account and open a different credit card if she really needs the money back.

          2. You can call and ask for a check for a credit balance. I’ve done it. It’s not automatic, but they can certainly process it.

    5. If you have the savings, pay it off right away. Call your credit card customer service number and ask them to waive and reverse the interest charges (you might have to do this 2 months in a row). Make a point of keeping your balance below zero this month i.e. pay in advance so you get out of the interest on a tiny balance hamster wheel.

    6. You owe this money to the credit card company, not the VRBO. The credit card company doesn’t care if it is temporary — it will collect interest if it isn’t paid off immediately. Pay it off in full now, get your friends to contribute their shares now to you to help pay it off. If/when the refund arrives in the future, pay yours friends back. There is no way around this other than cancelling your VRBO and getting the deposit back, but I assume you don’t want to do that.

        1. I agree this deposit is really high. Is it a deposit against future payments or just a security deposit? Sure this isn’t a scam of some kind?

    7. That’s more than any deposit I’ve ever put on any rental including my actual home. That must be some house! I agree with the others, your friends should be putting up their share of the deposit too. If you were renting an apartment with a roommate you would expect them to pay their share of the security deposit, right?

  5. Any recommendations for accommodation near Lisbon on the beach? Only have about 3 days so ideally would be within an hour of the airport. Not adults only but doesn’t have to be super kid friendly as we’re hoping to be at the beach all day.

    1. So, my recollection of the beach near Lisbon was that the Atlantic was cold, furious and not super-safe to swim in. The beach was pretty, things were cliffy, but it’s not like heading to Florida or SoCal and feeling like it’s fine to swim. I swam in college and grew up by the beach in LA, and it did not look fine to swim. Further South in Portugal has better waters.

      Anyone that’s been to Portugal more recently, please correct me if my recollection is off!

    2. I think you have to go to cascais for the actual beach, which is pretty close to Lisbon.

      1. Second Cascais. Tons of good hotels and restaurants between Lisbon and Cascais proper.

    3. I have linen sheets and a duvet cover from Brooklinen. Linen sheets spoiled me forever. I’m ok with the wrinkles.

    5. I’ve had linen duvet covers from Pottery. Barn and, then, Etsy, when I could not stomach replacing the PB version at PB’s new price. The Etsy version is 90% as good as the PB version at probably a third of the price.

    6. Check out Coyuchi. I’ve done several rooms with them and quality can’t be beat. (Coupons and promos for 20% or more all the time, so don’t pay full price though).

  7. What is your favorite rom com movie? I was remembering how great Crazy Sexy Love was; there might be a rewatch in my future.

    1. Crazy Stupid Love? I love that one. I’ve seen it three or four times but I still tear up so much at the ending when Steve Carrell says “That was the only time I lied to my father.”

        1. I was never attracted to Ryan Gosling until I saw that movie! The Notebook Gosling did nothing for me, but Crazy Stupid Love Gosling is such a dreamboat.

    2. I know it didn’t age well but there’s a soft spot in my heart for You’ve Got Mail.

      1. it’s aged OK, just saw it with my son. The AOL/modem stuff is all obviously too old.

        I was gobsmacked how poorly things like Miss Congeniality have aged… some scenes would be so incredibly offensive by today’s standards, and we didn’t even raise an eyebrow at them back then.

    4. I like While You Were Sleepoing with Sandra Bullock and Peter Gallagher. Although I suspect none of the movies from that era hold up.

        3. Okay, so I watched this and thought it was great… however, my name is Emily and I actually almost died of freak post-childbirth complications… so I look over and my spouse is SOBBING. Absolutely in tears. It brought up a lot for him.

          So. If you happen to be named Emily and have a similar set of experiences, heads up.

    5. Crazy Stupid Love is definitely a top 5 for me, along with He’s Just Not That Into You and Definitely, Maybe. 13 Going on 30 is up there too.

    6. French Kiss! It holds up surprisingly well but is not on streaming, so you’ll have to work to track it down. Or for a very old school rom-com: Bringing Up Baby

      1. oh man I loved that movie! Although I could never understand why she ate so much cheese if she was lactose intolerant. And then she shouts something weird as her tummy starts to go south – like LACTOSE INTOLERANCE or something?

        other than that, though, i remember loving it!

    9. The Philadelphia Story has not held up well at all from a feminist perspective, and I’m a feminist, but boy do I love that movie. Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn, and Jimmy Stewart.

      They made a musical out of it later, High Society, with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra (and a small role for Louis Armstrong) that is very fun. There’s only one musical number I really like – if you watch it, it’s the one with Crosby and Sinatra in the library – but it’s the same story as The Philadelphia Story, basically.

    10. I’m not much of a rom-com person (would happily snuggle up on the couch to watch “Point Break” if I could convince my violence-averse husband to do so), but I think “Down with Love” (Renee Zellweger, Sarah Paulson) is absolutely adorable. Also I love “Heartbreakers,” because Sigourney Weaver is such a delicious villain and Jennifer Love Hewitt is super-cute in it.

      2. Original Point Break only please! There was a terrible remake where Lori Petty’s character has become a potted plant. Also no Keanu.

    15. The Holiday, Bridget Jones, Love Actually (less as time goes by though)

      When it came out, I thought Shallow Hal was really funny and cute. Of course now I’d be mortified to admit that in public.

      Also, Fools Rush In! Does anyone remember that movie? I’m sure hasn’t aged well but used to loveeee it as a tween/early teen.

  8. Dumb question: for liquid makeup removers, do you use one of those reusable pads? Are you supposed to clean it every time? I find that the liquid makeup removers don’t work well with cotton balls/tissues like my old remover.

    2. I cut up a couple microfiber cloths into little squares – about 10 total. Toss in the wash after each use.

        1. Put them in a bag because they can get sucked into the drain pipe and clog it…lived experience.

  9. Inspired by the comment about the VRBO – when you split travel expenses like a rental with friends, do you pay your friend back when the booking is made or when the trip happens? I guess back in college when I had to hand someone cash or a check, I probably did that at the trip unless I saw them in person before then. For as long as cash apps have been a thing, though, I’ve paid people back when they make the reservation. I don’t think it’s fair to expect my friend to basically give me an interest free loan for weeks or months. This came up recently in my group and apparently most people don’t pay until the trip. Is that still the norm? Am I weird to think you should pay people back as soon as you’re able ie nowadays when the trip is booked? Fwiw I have no skin in this game, I’m not making the booking, I was just a little surprised.

    1. I am in the midst of booking a trip for mid-March, for which the friend made the reservations and advanced the payment, and I put a check in the mail to him this morning (after procrastinating for a week).

    2. I think it’s nice to offer at the time the trip is booked. But it’s also reasonable for the person booking the trip to feel like it’s more convenient to wait until the trip. The whole thing may get cancelled, or the number of people splitting may change, etc. I keep a bank account specifically for travel, and it’s not hard to use that money to pay off a credit card, then put the money back into the account when I get paid back later. I’d rather do that than deal with refunding a friend who dropped out of a trip and collecting more from everyone else.

      1. +1. I think this really just depends a lot on the people you’re going with, how much you’re spending, how stable the travel plans are, how far out you’re booking, and how strapped for cash they are. It’s definitely a good idea to offer, but it may or may not make sense to actually pay up until later. But definitely pay promptly when asked!

    3. I’d ask for folks to Venmo. These days there really isn’t a reason to wait until after and it decreases the likelihood of someone else getting stuck if someone flakes (skin in the game to also make that flaking less likely).

    4. This VRBO situation is a bit complicated because of the deposity but I would pay them before the trip exactly because I wouldn’t want them to have an issue with a higher-than-normal credit card balance

    5. For a trip this weekend, my share of the deposit was $500so I sent money to the friend organizing. If it’s small, we’ve agreed to settle later.
      Dumb question—I have Venmo attached to my CC and hate the fees, so I usually settle with friends by check. Am I an Old who should just link to my checking account? The fees to use my own money really bug me, but I prefer the liability coverage of my cc over my bank account.

      1. I think linking Venmo to your credit card is much easier than mailing a paper check. I share your frustration about not being able to use credit cards but the fees aren’t worth it unless you have more money than you know what to do with.

      2. Yes, just link your bank account. I’d be super annoyed if someone tried to mail me a check. For what it’s worth, I’m 45

        I don’t understand your liability concerns.

        1. Not that poster but a lot of credit cards come with travel insurance and other fraud protections that checking and savings accounts don’t. So if the trip gets canceled or you show up at the house and it’s terrible, you’re generally going to have a much easier time getting your money back if you paid with a credit card. I have a Chase credit card they pretty much refund anything no questions asked if I say the service wasn’t what was advertised.

    6. This exact issue caused a falling-out between my friends!

      Friend A put it on her credit card, friend B stalled and stalled and then Friend A had to insist. Friend B said she didn’t know why friend A wanted it right away and why should B have to pay A before A’s bill was due? Friend A didn’t like carrying a balance and wanted to pay it off in cash right away.

      They’re still not friends after this!

    7. We don’t do big trips very often but the rule that we’ve found works great — planner gets first choice of room, and then everyone else gets choice of room in order of when they paid the planner.

    8. When I bought concert tickets (family friend worked at the box office and I could get some great seats), I asked to be paid back immediately. Ticket went elsewhere if they didn’t want to do that. I’m not going to be in a situation wherein someone “forgets” to pay, goes to the concert, and I never get my money back.

  10. Gross medical question, collapse if you don’t want to read.

    My dog had a sebaceous cyst that was getting larger/more detached and seemed to be leaking fluid a bit. We took her to the vet and while inspecting it the vet kind of just….pulled it (??) off. It was incredibly gross to witness (blood and the white cottage cheese-like cyst contents everywhere) and I felt horrible for my poor dog who had no pain meds. They cleaned and bandaged the wound and my dog has 7 days of oral antibiotics, but they said the bandage is supposed to come off no later than Friday and my dog will have a “crater” where the wound was. Has anyone had a pet with something like this? Did you have problems keeping the area clean?

    Also, whew… Healthcare for old dogs, just like old humans, is not for the faint of heart.

    1. Could you get one of those soft donut collars – not quite the cone of shame, but might keep her out of the cyst area?

    2. I’ve been a pet owner/guardian human for decades now. I’ve had old and young pets get some sort of cyst or injury that got infected, lanced or popped, and treated with antibiotics. They all did fine. Most recently, my cat got out of the e-collar immediately and spent an entire day (while I was at work) licking his wound, which was weepy, and honestly he took very good care of it. The vet was complimentary of his wound care when we had the follow up appointment.

    4. When my dog had a cyst removed, she was miserable in a doughnut collar or e-collar, so we put an old t-shirt on her. We cut off the sleeves, and she tolerated it just fine. It was navy and white stripes, so we told her she looked like a Venetian gondolier.

    5. I think you’re saying that the cyst ruptured. How difficult it is to keep the wound clean and the best way to do that will depend on where the cyst is located on your dog. I suggest calling your vet and asking them for more information. Sometimes it makes sense to use a donut or e-collar, sometimes putting a T-shirt on the dog works, and other times you leave it. Your vet likely clipped the area around it, so you won’t have to worry about hair getting in there or any topicals getting into your dog’s coat.

    6. Hope you see this, if you have a big dog- there is a zip up hoodie on Amazon for big dogs. It works great instead of a cone to keep the dog away from the wound.

  11. What are your favorite sources for fashion trends, new brands and stores, etc? Magazines like Vogue? Social media?

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