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Suit of the Week: White House | Black Market

summer skirt suitFor 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. Before everyone gets excited and wonders if this is a reversible suit (which would be kind of awesome, yes?) I should be clear: this is two suits. There's a white one with black lines, which first caught my eye, and then I decided I liked the black one with white lines better. Both are available at White House | Black Market in regular sizes 0-16; the white one comes in petite sizes as well; the black one is an online exclusive (and does not come in petite sizes.)  Which do you like better, ladies?  Both look great to me for lightweight summer skirt suits. The black jacket (Piped Jacket) is $150, and the skirt (Contrast Black Suit Pencil Skirt) is $88; the white jacket (The Piped Long Sleeve White and Black Jacket) is $150, and the white skirt (Black and White Piped Pencil Skirt) is $88. Here's are a few similar plus–size options. (Psst, don't forget to check out new page featuring lots of plus-size workwear.) womens-suit-for-summer   (L-all)

Sales of note for 12.5

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

Some of our latest threadjacks include:

60 Comments

  1. I like piping, but I think this is too much piping when worn together. Either piece would look chic with a solid top/bottom though.

    3. Yes, too much piping! It stands out too much and I’m an introvert/shy so I like to blend in.

  3. Work relationship question– I’ve been at my job for several years and have a work friend that I’m having a problem with. As of a few months ago, I would have said that this woman was my “work best friend”, but over the last few months, she has been acting like I annoy her, and at one point made an outright hostile comment to me in front of a group of people at lunch about how I deserved to be judged for having a (moderately) expensive wallet, which I just think is weird because we’re at the same level, so it’s not like one of us is making a ton of money more than the other, and she buys expensive things too from time to time. But other days, it’s like everything is normal and fine and she’s friendly and pleasant.

    So my question is do I ask her about this? On one hand I feel like I may have in some way insulted or upset her but on the other hand… I don’t want to create a situation where there isn’t one.

      1. I agree with Anon. I have this issue with Madeline, who for along time made more then me b/c she was older. She never liked that I got a clotheing allowance, even tho it is ME that is goeing into court and making nice with the JUDGE. So she used to make coments about my clotheing but NOW that I am a partner makeing more money then her, she is alway’s snickering at my pump’s and short dresses and implying that my sucess rate in court is b/c I am flirting with the judge and even haveing sex with him which is totaly false! It would be like haveing sex with the manageing partner–I wonder often how Margie doe’s it, but I guess b/c he is very rich, she does NOT mind him huffeing and puffeing on top of her every night, and she did get a baby out of it, which is what she alway’s wanted, and she does NOT have to work at all. She has what I want (other then the manageing partner, that is). FOOEY!

        But anyway, OP, just kind of lead your own life and do NOT even batt an eyelash when she attempt’s to put you down for being styleish. It is b/c we look good that the frumpy women get jelous. You have not said it, but I think she must be frumpy. The only other potential I see (b/c some days she is nice) is that she does NOT have a boyfreind and is annoyed at you b/c you may have a boyfreind and get sex regulearly. I know that we are alway’s happier when we have a boyfreind, as long as he care’s about us. So mabye you should try and find a boyfreind for her and she will mabye be a littel nicer if the boyfreind is good to her the night before. YAY!!!!

      2. I had this same scenario happen to me. My nickname in my head for her is now “buddy/bully.” One day, it just switched and everything I said annoyed her and she’d make a point to disagree with everything I said, to the point that it was almost silly. I agree with Anon above – slow fade. Stay pleasant and smile when you see each other in the halls or walking into a department meeting, but I wouldn’t say anything.

      3. +100000000000000000. I had this happen to me when a very close work friend became horribly passive aggressive, hostile and a bad “mouther” when we applied for the same job. Following this awful situation, I no longer get too close to co-workers. I am pleasant and occasionally socialize with them, but I keep my closest friends outside of work.

        2. Same here. I like everyone at my work/office. They are all nice and lovely people but I keep my closest friends away from work. I remain neutral when I’m at work and try not to engage in any gossip or get involved too deeply with anyone or anything. I think having this “shield” keeps me from being too emotionally involved with anything and keeps me professional. I don’t get hurt over anything anyone else says because its never a personal issue. I’m nice to everyone and socialize as needed but remain very neutral. Some senior staff member advise me on this when I first started and it has worked very well.

    2. I dunno. I often give more direct advice on here, but if she did something really egregiously mean (like another group comment that was not nice), I would take her aside and tell her that it hurt your feelings and you were wondering why she would say such a thing. Judging her reaction could tell you a lot where she’s coming from.

      That said, when someone says not nice things, or acts in a nice way, it’s generally not coming from a good place, so the slow fade is probably a better way of not being confrontational about someone whose’s feelings have changed. I would probably want some closure and to put her on notice that (i) I see what she’s doing and (ii) I don’t appreciate it. Then she can act however she wants, but she wouldn’t be bullying me without me saying, “Hey, I see you acting like a mean girl.”

  4. I like the white jacket but would probably wear a black skirt with it because I don’t like white skirts and the potential for wardrobe malfunctions.

  6. Is a gap in a resume a problem still? I’m applying for a government position. It took me four years to graduate law school (I started ten years ago) because I took a year off to live in Houston. I worked for a firm as sort of a paralegal type thing. Do I need to mention that? I feel like it confuses things.

    Also, is a two-page resume a problem?

    1. I know applying for government positions is usually different, but for a job in the private sector, I think you would just list the year you graduated from college and the year you graduated from law school. Ten years out, I don’t think it would matter very much whether you took a year off during law school or took a year between college and law school (which, incidentally, is common).

    2. Depends what is on your second page. Deal sheet, list of publications? Fine. But if your resume is 2 pages because you’ve listed all your college and law school extracurriculars, and fifteen hobbies, and any non-legal jobs, then it’s time to edit.

      1. +1 – I’ve been out of college over 10 years and I can still fit all of my job descriptions on one page. Older jobs can have less detail (and take up less space), unless specifically applicable to the application. I saw one the other day that took 2 pages to cover 6 years and my eyes kind of glazed over.

        1. All of my legal experience and education are on the first page, but I have a lot of board positions right now and a few publications that I still think are worth mentioning. The board positions are all bar related or community service. It’s more like 1.5 pages. I don’t include any hobbies.

          Thoughts?

          1. I’m not in law, but another field where board positions and publications would be normal to see, and that sounds perfectly fine to me.

            If the gap is between undergrad and your professional degree, I don’t care about it. When I’m hiring someone with an advance degree, I primarily care about their experience from that point. In my field, I’d have someone early in their career list internships or jobs that occurred during a break in school (or during/before school) if they were related to the position for which they were applying – but I’d expected it to be omitted for someone with an established CV under most circumstances.

          2. What can you cut? Do you still have law school activities on there? You can most likely cut them. Do you have long descriptions of job duties? You can probably cut those too. I bet you can get it down to one page. If not, I’d create a separate addendum of non-employment publications, volunteer activities, bar positions, speaking engagements, teaching, etc., and put it all there. I lumped all of that stuff at the bottom of my resume under “Miscellany” and cut way back on everything else. My entire law school period is now 2 lines (school and law review; I cut everything else).

    3. Related question – I was part of the generation that graduated at the height of the recession, and as such, I did a lot of short-term/service job/internship positions before finding a “real” job. If I leave those off, they leave a sizable gap, but even with just the job title and company name per line, they push my resume to two pages in any font larger than size 7. I don’t list hobbies, just education and “hard” skills – Adobe Suite, certifications, etc – and those take three lines total, including section header. I tried leaving them off for the last job I applied for, and it was remarked on in the interview. What’s the procedure here?

      1. How about if your pertinent work experience is in category “[industry] experience,” and then you have a “miscellaneous experience” category where you sort of describe the variety of short-term positions lumped together, accounting for that time period? If they need more detail on the specific organizations, they can ask (like in a background check situation).

        1. This is good, but tricky, since I did internships in Industry A, temp, retail, and service jobs, and am now working in Industry B, which I fell backwards into and am now planning on pursuing further education in. The Industry A jobs were helpful, since they taught me a lot, but technically still aren’t “relevant.”

          1. I wish I could recall details, but I had a resume cross my desk about a year ago that handled it well. They said something like ‘Employment in other industries’ with one time span. I thought it was a great way of showing that they were working, and I could easily ask for details if I wanted, but I could also still easy scan over their resume and get what I was actually looking to find.

      2. I took all of the temp/retail jobs off of my resume. In my recent job search, not a single person asked about that period. I left on earlier non-super relevant stuff, and just heavily edited down my descriptions there (and left fuller ones on Linked In).

  9. Fun resume question: what do you have listed on your resume under interests (presuming you include such a section, which I know some people don’t)?

    What I actually have: a sport I used to play, a specialty thing I used to cook, a far-flung place I used to travel to.

    What my actual interests are: fantasizing about cleaning my house, watching netflix, and going to bed early.

    1. I used to include this section but don’t anymore. I scrapped it because it seemed both too generic (travel! etc) and too specific (the sport I teach and used to compete in), and ultimately it just seemed like filler.

      My last item on my resume is now my languages.

    2. I don’t have this section. I look at a lot of resumes though and I’ve seen maybe 3 “interests” that were actually worth mentioning. 99% are “reading, travel and photography” or something similarly vague. Plus I feel like if you don’t have this section and someone says “tell me something about yourself that’s not on your resume,” answering “I just ran a half-marathon” gives you a better opportunity to discuss your hobbies. Anyway, I know the debate on this will continue…

    3. Haha your actual interests made me laugh.

      Does day drinking and binge-watching TV count as an interest?

      I haven’t updated my resume in a bit but I think I’ll probably just take the interests section off because it doesn’t reflect reality.

    4. These sections backfire I think. We had an applicant that had a “stupid human trick” item on it- think, I can build a house of cards in 60 seconds. No one could remember anything else about the applicant, but you better believe that everyone provided a deck of cards.

    5. Mine says something like “interest include travel and tap dancing.” Granted, everybody says “travel,” but it lets the interviewer ask where you’ve been and it’s easy to have an interesting answer prepared. Generally, though, people want to ask about the tap dancing thing, which is fun and (I hope) sort of out of the ordinary.

      But yeah, day-drinking and binge-watching TV are my real ones, too…

    6. I dropped the “interests” thing to make room for a volunteer activity that I’m passionate about that’s somewhat related to my field. Frankly, I spend so much personal time on the volunteer work that it constitutes my primary “interest” anyway.

    7. I think it’s unusual to have this section unless you are applying to a law firm.

    8. My most recent CV is last March which will need revamping when I next need it.

      I have ‘interests and awards’ which has Model UN from high school and a national poetry award – which will be removed next time I use the CV. It was useful for applying for internships from within university. There’s also my having represented my university on University Challenge, which will stay as it includes that I then ran the team selection the following year.
      There’s a single line for sport, and an addendum to my full clean driving license to say that I also have the same for boats.

    1. I was thinking summer business casual garanimals:

      white jeans + white jacket w/ black piping + solid color nice T shirt in any color.

      Too much white?

  11. A friend insisted in picking me up for the airport. Really insisted to the point it was kinda weird. So I relented. She ended up getting a photo radar ticket for speeding on the way to the airport. Ticket is 120, if I had just used a taxi I would have spent 20.

    Do I have to pay the ticket? She is strongly suggesting I should “take care” of it.

    1. No. Absolutely not. You weren’t driving, you didn’t force her to speed, you didn’t force her to be late to get you such that she chose to speed. To even suggest that you pay for her ticket indicates that she is not a friend.

    3. I would only help pay for the ticket if it were a really good friend and I felt so inclined. I definitely would not pay out of obligation–as noted above, you have none. You weren’t the one speeding.

  13. I’m so totally over the constant c*ck jokes and other little-boy “humor” at my firm. And the fact that the boys in the club all assume its okay because no one ever complains (they just leave). And knowing that if I did complain, they’d dismiss me as too thin-skinned and touchy to make it in this business. And feeling like a bad feminist for not complaining anyway. That is all.

    2. So sorry, I know the feeling. What really grates on my nerves is when they call a female lawyer the “girl” or, even worse, “little girl.” Or assume she is a paralegal or admin assistant, not noticing the Esq or J.D. I somehow always seem to miss the opportunity to call the young male attorneys “the boy” or even “the little boy.” I cannot help but think this might get their attention!

  14. Just a general plea to the public. Please do not comment on your coworker’s skin condition. I had someone take me aside today and recommend that I wear more makeup to cover up my “acne” so that I would look more professional. It’s not acne, it’s actually a skin condition caused by other issues. Makeup makes it worse, so I wear the bare minimum I think I can get away with. I’m super embarrassed about it already. Please please please do not judge people’s professionalism if they have any kind of “flare-up” or discoloration on their skin. Please. I promise you they know about it already and wish it wasn’t there.

    1. I am so sorry this has been your experience (today, presumably). I hope you can ignore this as much as possible and try not to let it bother you.

    2. …… I’m really surprised people do this. I’m sorry you’re on the receiving end :(

    3. I hear you. I recently had a terrible rash on my face that could not be covered by makeup. Fortunately my coworkers were nice about it but it still was rough.

    4. This happened to me too several years back…. almost exactly as you describe.

      What are people thinking….

      Sorry you had to deal with this today. I hope tomorrow is a good one for you.

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