Suit of the Week: Max Mara
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Sales of note for 2/14/25 (Happy Valentine's Day!):
- Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
- Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase — and extra 60% off sale
- Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + 15% off (readers love their suiting as well as their silky shirts like this one)
- Boden – 15% off new season styles
- Eloquii – 300+ styles $25 and up
- J.Crew – 40% of your purchase – prices as marked
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site and storewide + extra 50% off clearance
- Rothy's – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Flash sale ending soon – markdowns starting from $15, extra 70% off all other markdowns (final sale)
And some of our latest threadjacks here at Corporette (reader questions and commentary) — see more here!
Some of our latest threadjacks include:
- My workload is vastly exceeding my capability — what should I do?
- Why is there generational resentment regarding housing? (See also)
- What colors should I wear with a deep green sweater dress?
- How do you celebrate milestone birthdays?
- How do you account for one-time expenses in your monthly budget?
- If I'm just starting to feel sick from the flu, do I want Tamilfu?
- when to toss old clothes of a different size
- a list of political actions to take right now
- ways to increase your intelligence
- what to wear when getting sworn in as a judge (congrats, reader!)
- how to break into teaching as a second career
Oh, that’s gorgeous. And totally not me, either style-wise or budget-wise. Off-topic: would anyone in New York mind sharing the name of a good general practitioner/internist?
When I was in NYC I went to Dr. Nina Priven and she was awesome.
Dr. Julie Bikhman
Thanks to all who’ve previously encouraged calling one’s elected officials regarding legislation!
I just called my state elected officials on pending legislation on a matter dear to me (alleviating our state’s severe housing shortage) and it was super quick and easy! Much faster than writing an email.
I can’t imagine this playing well in real life. It would probably look really costumey, especially the jacket. Maybe the pants with a good slightly cropped chunky knit turtleneck sweater. But OMG not with those shoes!
I’m pretty sure I wore a (much cheaper) version of this suit in early college. In the 90s.
I definitely did, and thought I looked smashing. But Anon @227 is so right about the shoes. They are criminal! Speaking of criminal — I am pretty sure I saw a pic of Ivanka Trump trying on this trend, and I did not think even she looked good in it, at 6′ tall and slender.
I am looking at Aritzia’s Wilifred Cocoon coat after a disappointing run with J Crew’s City Coat/Cocoon Coat, which pilled horribly all over after a year of wear. I love the silhouette, but I am concerned that the Aritzia version will also pill, and at that price, I don’t want a coat that pills! Can anyone speak to the durability of the Aritzia version (aka, will it pill)?
My J Crew coat pilled horribly as well. I don’t have experience with Aritzia, but at that price point, may I suggest checking out Suistudio? I have a camel coat of theirs and it’s wonderful.Starting to get a tiny bit threadbare in the elbow creases from wearing it so much but no pilling at all.
I have the cocoon coat (bought it last year). I don’t wear it daily, but I’ve worn it probably two dozen times in the past year with no pilling in sight!
Does anyone else have the problem that bra shoulder straps are always too short? Has anyone found a brand with longer-than-average shoulder straps? I’m tall and long-torsoed, and my bras fit in cup and band, but almost universally the shoulder straps on the longest setting are still too short. If I get a bra with padded straps, the part that is supposed to rest on top of the shoulder rests 2-3 or more inches in front of where it should be. My chest is sitting where it’s supposed to be, proportionally – I’m over 30 but things aren’t sagging that much yet. I’ve come around to the idea that I may need to have straps altered, but I’d rather not, so I’m hoping someone else has figured this out.
I find that the bras that let you covert to a cross-back have longer straps.
Agree with anon – I’m 5’10” with a long torso – I do generally find ThirdLove Bras to be okay, though.
I’d just buy bra strap elastic at the fabric store and have a tailor fix my bras for like $10 each. Easy-peasy.
Looking for recommendation on a good clothing steamer for Christmas gift for my son (22 years old in first job). He wants a better one to replace the small handheld that he borrows from his roommate). I have a ConAir that works fine from about 10 years ago (has a hose and a handle on the bucket). I want to get him a reliable one ….looking forward to your recommendations!
Look at the Wirecutter, they have reviews for this.
I actually bought the Wirecutter favorite – the Joy brand handheld. It’s fine but I prefer a larger hosed model – will buy a Jiffy next time since that’s what we used when I worked at Banana Republic. Previously I had a Rowenta but eventually it just got too minerally. The next “investment” steamer will be on a distilled-only diet.
I am obsessed with my Rowenta! It is handheld, but better than other large ones I have used. I recommend it to everyone.
I have a Conair one from about 6 years ago that still works perfectly. Having a full-size steamer is what will improve the experience the most, so I wouldn’t bother with an expensive brand.
Hi Ladies! I’ve been absent from the comments for a long time but I’m hopping in because I have a question. I quit work and went back to school to finish my BA last year because I was burnt out (previously a project manager in tech). My BA is in history and I finish in March. I’m looking at next steps. A prof (mentor) of mine said he could see me in law, and several friends and ex-bosses have told me this as well. I was planning to apply for Ph.D. programs for history for research and teaching. I realize neither have amazing prospects, but I’m eager to hear what everyone thinks about going to get a JD at this point in time – I know the job outlook was dismal for a while. I’m not about to jump on something because I’ve been told I would be good at it…I’ve considered law in the past and I do think I would be well suited for certain aspects of it.
I am 34, so I would be entering the workforce around 40. Is that even worth it?
Thanks in advance!
Don’t go to law school unless you’re beyond 100% sure that you want to practice law.
Echoing this and what others have said. Figure out what “practicing law” and “being a lawyer” means and then decide. And a caveat to defining “practicing law”- law school does not necessarily teach you anything practical. That’s fine, because that’s true across the board of all law school graduates. So, you start at your job and you don’t know anything. You have to put in extra time to learn how things are done, and then more time to learn how to do them well. Then, a few years in, you know how to do things. And that’s great – you’re practicing law and you get to do this for a few years. But then, pressures start building about training other, more junior attorneys while doing your work. Then there are additional pressures to bring in business and deal with the business side of being a lawyer and having a firm – making sure bills are paid and “keeping the lights on.” At a certain point, as a partner, you’re more of a business person than a lawyer.
There are aspects of the job that are great and interesting and most days I don’t mind it. But I am in that sweet spot of knowing how to do things on my own. I am certainly not looking forward to the talks that are coming about bringing in new business, etc.
Do you want to be a lawyer? What traits/skills do you have that make this an attractive option?
Given the debt level associated, if you can get a full ride scholarship at a good school, I would do it.
Otherwise, I would combine your tech background and BA and market yourself to law firms as a paralegal or tech manager. Solid IT is very valuable to firms and someone who can understand not just the tech side but also the human side of how things need to work, would a great asset.
I’d skip law school altogether and learn data privacy compliance. GDPR is brand spankin new and you do not need to be a lawyer to advise on it and companies desperately need it.
I knew I wanted to be a lawyer for a long time, went to law school with a big scholarship, graduated with no student loans… and 7 years out I want to quit practicing law because there is almost no ‘medium speed’ unless you do JD preferred roles (which is where I am looking now) or the very rare positions that are extremely competitive. So yes, think about if you 100% want to be a lawyer, think about the cost of that, think about if you are comfortable not making any money for three years, think about yourself as the ‘average’ salary of those that graduated from your school (keeping in mind that some who don’t get jobs aren’t able to report). But then think about your life on the other side of that. Do you want to keep working towards partner? Do you want to have a family? Do you want those things to happen at the same time? That’s the part I failed to do.
I’m a regular here but going anon for this topic. I have a PhD in History. DO NOT DO IT. I was trying to think of a caveat to that, but I really don’t think I can. At most, I’d say “unless you get into Harvard or Yale, and you have a thesis advisor there who is a star and is personally recruiting you.” Even then, you’d be in for a very tough run. But you’d probably make it eventually.
Not “amazing prospects” in the job field is a severe understatement. A humanities PhD means making below minimum wage during grad school (assuming it’s not negative earnings, i.e. having to borrow money, which many do). Then when you finish, statistically speaking you will likely continue making below minimum wage as an adjunct or other contingent instructor of some kind “until” you get a tenure-track job…which most of us never do. The competition is so extreme that I wouldn’t even call it competition–it’s more like a crap shoot.
I went through all of this in my 20s, and even then it was exhausting and insulting. I cannot imagine doing it now (in my 30s, like you) and entering the job market at 40. No advice about law school, but I urge you not to get a History PhD.
Cosign. Do not get a PhD in history, unless you don’t need to work and are doing it purely to pursue your passion with no expectation that it will ever lead to stable employment.
I work in academia and was an undergrad in a highly-ranked history program, and watching my peers who went on to pursue PhDs struggle has been heartbreaking.
+1 to all of this. I have a PhD in history, and feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to get a job (and now have a career) doing something else, because the academic job market is just unbelievably bad. DO NOT DO IT.
Not a new opinion on this thread, but cosign on the hoardes of others who said don’t do law school. I went to a T-20 with moderate scholarships, worked my butt off at a small firm that paid about big law salary, and am now mostly done with my debt. My bosses have both said I have “talent” for being a lawyer beyond my years (3), and I’ve gotten some decent results on complicated projects. However, 0/10 would not redo law school if I could redo my life, it is 100% not worth the cost unless you have had a calling to be a lawyer since before forever.
I wouldn’t pursue a PhD unless you have 1) a lot of flexibility about where you live and 2) confidence that you’re exceptional. If you’re independently wealthy, of course, you can do what you like. But the higher ed job market, especially in the liberal arts, is just ridiculous. You may find that your only job offer is in, say, rural Texas or that it pays you 35,000 and isn’t on the tenure track. Or, if you’re really lucky, you may find yourself piecing together a full time gig out of several part time ones.
If you’re interested in law, I’d once more suggest being relentlessly pragmatic about your job prospects and about what student loans you’d need to make that work. Paying off student loans–especially at the cost of saving for retirement–can really hamstring your financial and professional future.
With your background I might look into something like information management or organizational history rather than academia or law.
Unless you get a 100% free ride, no, it’s not worth it.
I was 28 when I went to law school. I had been making around $70k in a MCOLA with just a bachelors, so pretty decent. No income for three years in law school = $210k income lost + $60k debt assumed = $270k lost in three years. Then I decided to get an LLM because student loans are awesome = $50k additional debt +no salary for another year = $390k lost in four years. And do you know how much I earned in my first year out? $65k. And my second and third years? $75k. Not until my fourth year out did I start earning $130k…and that’s partly because I moved to a HCOLA, so who knows what I’d be making in a MCOLA with my advanced degrees or even if I had just stuck with my bachelors in a MCOLA.
The giant salaries you read about on this board are absolutely, positively not the national norm. Look at the career stats from the schools you’re considering and assume you will be the average – how long does it take grads to find a job? what’s the salary? Because everyone who goes to law school is smart, “average” out of law school is more common than you’d think.
Do you specifically want to practice law? DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES go just because you don’t have any idea what else to do or because it maybe kinda interests you. In your 30s, and especially if you’re single, you need to be building wealth for tomorrow, not taking on debt. There are no loans for retirement.
Can your school put you in contact with lawyer alumni to do information interviews, particularly with lawyers in different practice areas? With a previous career and at your age, which is not a deterrent – you would still have a multi-decade career as an attorney if you go to school now – but rather a consideration with respect to the type of law and nature of practice you may want. Most of the second career attorneys I went to school with did not go into big law because of the hours, brutality, and frankly disrespect towards early career associates that they couldn’t handle after working jobs with normal business cultures. Most chose regional firms that were more work life balance friendly, in house, or government, and chose less deadline heavy practices (or at least with predictable deadlines) like tax, wills and estates, insurance, public interest or public finance, education law, dirt law, etc.
Your decision to go to law school would require much more input than you could get on a board, which will skew more negative than positive (even if the person posting actually likes their job in practice. You should consider the lifestyle you want, the employment prospects in your area of the country and area of the law you want to practice in, the bimodal nature of compensation, opportunity cost of more schooling versus going into the market, opportunity cost of losing other career options (it is harder to get hired as something other than an attorney or j.d. preferred positions after law school), and the business aspect of it – you are the commodity and have to market yourself as if you were a sole proprietorship.
I doubt it’s worth it under those circumstances, but the history academic job market is even more brutal than the legal one right now and I know top-tier students who just cannot find academic jobs. Is there anything else you’d want to do with this interest — maybe a masters in public administration and work at a non-profit or in government?
So, I generally tell people not to go to law school. However, for those who REALLY, REALLY want to be an attorney and actually have researched what that means, I advise to only go if you get in to a top 5 (if paying) or a top 14 (if you get substantial scholarships, and by that I mean I full tuition). If you live in a smaller market and know that you would only ever want to stay in that market, going to a well respected local school can also be worth it. Basically, law is a VERY, VERY prestige driven field and what law school you go to will impact all of your future jobs and how much you are paid.
Overall, law has been a good field for me. I paid off my student loans when in BigLaw (although I did that in my 20s, and not sure I would be willing to do it in my late 30s/early 40s), and now make a good income in a job I like. Even given that, I’m pretty sure I would not do it over again if I had the choice
If you are adamant about going to law school after researching properly, I encourage you to go part-time at a good to mid ranked school – at minimum the best regional school you can get into for an area you want to stay in (for example a University of Houston, University of Minnesota for the Twin Cities, Washingotn University in St. Louis, George Mason for the DC area) -regional schools don’t carry much weight outside of the area). A part time program allows you to still earn an income greatly off setting the opportunity cost of not working, part time programs are generally built around the schedule of people with full time jobs, you can pay for living expenses and school as much as you can to off set debt, and it’s only 1 extra yr of coursework.
And don’t do a Ph.D. more than a decade out of school and not a single peer getting a ph.d. is on anything resembling tenure track and have bounced around to a new city every other year on adjust and assistant professor contracts – several gave up and make much much more teaching at prestigious public schools.
Wash U in St. Louis is not regional – they are T25 these days and a decent chunk of the student body goes elsewhere to practice.
If you can get into Wash U, you can go to St. Louis University and get substantial money. SLU does not have the prestige outside St. Louis, but is just as good in town in terms of job prospects (but not so much outside of Missouri/Southern Illinois).
A school can be a top school and also regional. Think University of Texas. T15 or University of Houston, generally T50, not that many hires outside of Texas/the South.
I do not have any experience with the PhD side of this (except what I know from friends), but my entire family are lawyers. Me and my brother went to law school right after college. I went to a T20 school, graduated in a terrible market, just now, 4 years after graduation, I am happy with my job and able to fully pay my student loan bill every month. I had 2/3 tuition, so my loans were much less than most of my classmates but still substantial (around $90k when I graduated). Even though I am happy with my job, I feel like there are other jobs I would have been happy with that would have involved less effort/debt to get.
My brother went to a regional law school and is doing grunt work for a plaintiff’s attorney.
My dad and mom both went to law school late. They both went to our city’s local night law school that had an extremely low (like 15%) bar pass rate. My dad passed the bar at 40 and started closing residential real estate loans as part of his existing mortgage business. He added on probate/family law work during the recession. My mom went to law school later and passed the bar at 50. (My mom also finished her BA in her mid-30s.) She works with my dad. They do well and are successful. I think they are both happy to be lawyers and make more money than what they are doing before (and use their pre-existing network from the mortgage business), but they have said they work more than they should for how much they make and are concerned about their ability to maintain their income/level of work as they get older. My impression is that most people that go to law school late end up in career paths like my parents and use the law degree to add on to an existing business or do court-appointed work like guardian ad litem, criminal, and family law work, etc.
Went to law school at 26 and practice in biglaw now at 38. I don’t see a prof knowing what he’s talking about. You might consider it if you get a 100% scholarship as something to do – law school itself is interesting. But folks your age don’t get hired into big law and that’s the training/experience to makes the law school price tag worth it. 99% certain you would end up with a non traditional law job or solo practice or very small town public defender work or doc review/translation. Personally, I’ve done cool stuff and big deals and traveled, but I also hate my job and would undo it if I could. My husband is a lawyer who didn’t get a big law job and he regrets law school.
Why do you think you need to do more school? Why not look at the job market and see what makes sense there first, or at least in combination with the academic routes.
More school isn’t always the answer. Also, law school will still be there in a few years if you decide you really want to go after thinking about it for more than a few months.
Thank you to everyone that responded. I should have prefaced this by saying that I’m in a bit of a unique situation – my husband is the main breadwinner and I can kind of choose what I want to do as long as it makes some money. I’ll pretty much never top his salary, so money isn’t the main determining factor. I realize that the academic path is even more abysmal than law at the moment, but we do have flexibility in where we can live (I know this is the key: you move where you find a job). I would be 100% happy sitting in a room doing research somewhere and not having a tenure-track job. Maybe being a part-time instructor at a university or community college.
I just want to research and write…but I know that’s not practical. :)
The practical side of me is leaning toward a Public History Masters…which may be the route I take! It’s a personal goal to obtain my Ph.D. at some point though, even if it doesn’t increase my pay rate.
Late to this, but I also have a Ph.D. in history, and while I’m not a lawyer, I work on legal history. Your flexibility definitely makes you a better candidate for a Ph.D. program than most people, as long as you are genuinely ok with not getting a tenure-track job, ever. Standard advice still applies, ie do not go anywhere that doesn’t fully fund you for at least 5 years. Top programs pay better than they used to; my grad students make about $34k, which is not a ton but enough that they don’t need to take on any debt and can even save some in our MCOL city if they are single or have a partner making equivalent amount. Some places pay more, but most of those are in VHCOL areas. Some places still pay peanuts, $20kish or even less.
Have you looked into JD/PhD programs at all? In some cases, you can do that route in only 1-2 extra years, and actually come out with less debt than a JD alone. Not true of all programs, there is a wide variety in how institutions set this up, but it might be worth investigating. The bonus is that the joint degree opens up the possibility of teaching in a law school; that job market is not exactly rosy, but it is waaaay better than the market in history. Only a good idea if you are genuinely interested in legal practice, since you’ll probably still have some debt and there’s no guarantee you could teach. And teaching would require getting into a T-5 school; the market in academic law is even more prestige-obsessed than the legal market in general.
In any case, I do think that taking at least a year off before jumping back into a degree program is a good idea. Maybe try to get an entry-level position in a museum to check out the public history track; or work as a paralegal, if you want a taste of legal work.
Thank you for this! I am very interested in intellectual history and would probably enjoy teaching law more than actually practicing law. I have talked to my professors with a pulse on the job market, and they have told me that the area that I am most interested in has a decent outlook over the next few years. (I’m not just choosing what I WANT to study: I’m going to be somewhat mercenary about what I decide on to ensure that I have a better chance of getting a job). But again, I don’t think I’m dead set on a tenure-track job.
I am taking at least a year off – I plan to go back to work in March for a while and make decisions after that. I don’t want to just jump into more school needlessly.
I have not looked at JD/Ph.D. programs at this point but I will now. Taking on more debt is a concern…I don’t have a large amount in school loans (less than 20k) but I also don’t want to drown in debt with no job prospects.
I chose not to go to law school after doing research into what it actually means to practice law. I love debate, I love competition, I love talking in front of people. That is not what law is, even for litigators. I sat in small claims court for a day, just watching the proceedings, and it was so boring. I worked with lawyers who did copyright and contract law in-house for my company, and their jobs were so boring to me. I read this board, talking about sitting alone in an office reading case law and writing writing writing for hours on end. I hate being alone (super extrovert here!). In short, all the actual daily tasks of practicing law sounded terrible to me. That, and I realized I wouldn’t have the stomach to do litigation if I didn’t like my clients or believe in their position. I am so thankful for the people who can put aside their personal bias to give a proper defense to ALL clients and provide a vital balance in our judicial system. However, I am not that person.
I think before spending any more time and money on school you should do some data gathering on what jobs in those fields might be like (prospects, pay, day-to-day) etc. If you’re looking for some advice on doing that, I like the “Design Your Life” book by the Stanford D-School guys. You’re already kind of non-traditional as a candidate, so having a really good (and true) story about why you’re changing careers and why that makes you valuable will be important. If you think law might be for you, network to find lawyers with a story like yours to help narrow down why type of law might be appropriate, what the right schools are for that kind of law, the internships you should have, etc.
I need to bring a kid-friendly dessert to a holiday gathering on Saturday. What should I make? Brownies? Scotcheroos? Sugar cookies?
Brother and his wife are bringing “keto friendly pies,” whatever the eff that is, so I’m OK with going junky/not gourmet.
Sorry, that was super snarky, but SIL irritates me for so many reasons and is always following the latest diet craze du jour.
My kids would like chocolate chip or cute sugar cookies (or regular, but cute decorated ones are fun.)
Rice Krispy Treats with holiday colored sprinkles or M&Ms? Kids love those!
I totally vote for the rice krispy treats with sprinkles! Or choc chip cookies with holiday M&Ms replacing some of the chips.
Kids go crazy for rice krispy treats. I also saw rice krispy treat christmas trees with green marshmallows (or something like that). Also, if practical, ice cream sandwiches are always a hit.
Dying to know what “keto friendly pies” are. An avocado pie? Sweet potato? I think sweet potatoes have too many carbs. ::eyeroll:: I’d bring brownies to spite her. Signed, Also Snarky
Will report back on the keto friendly pies. Am not optimistic.
Maybe something with almond flour as the crust? I’ve never tried to make a pie crust out of it but I’ve made bread with good results! I mean it was cheesy bread and cheese is always delicious sooo ymmv. I’m curious what they would use for a pie filling. Is it like a meat pie?
I’ve also made keto friendly fudge with an artificial sweetener. It was actually pretty good (it’s cream cheese and cacao powder of course it’s good!) and didn’t have that – aftertaste – that some sweeteners get.
Oooo you know what maybe they’re making cheesecake. Cream cheese + artificial sweetener + almond flour pie crust. It might be pretty good actually.
My favorite easy junky dessert is brownies with candy toppings. My mom makes brownies from a box mix and puts marshmallows on top for the last 10 minutes or so of baking- gooey and delicious! I’ve done it with chopped up Reese’s cups or M&Ms and it’s a fabulous kid dessert.
I googled it and found some recipes. Mostly with artificial sweetener. Whatever. I would make monster cookie bars, if you can make anything with peanut butter. If not, then brownies with peppermint patties between the layers of brownie.
Anyone have any recommendations for a tea gift set? Looking for bags, not loose. Anyone know anything about the Harry and David set? I’m looking to spend about $50. Gift for nanny (we give her a bonus of real cash. This is just a token of my appreciation for her as a lovely person rather than as an employee).
Late to this but in case you check back. I’d get the Palais de Thes set. It’s very luxe and lovely.
also davids tea has some bags sets and they are real tasty.
totally second david’s tea – I do their tea advent calendar every year and end up ordering my favorites in January to get me through the winter.
Harney and Sons