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Suit of the Week: BOSS

hugo boss 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. This tailored dress+jacket combination has been calling my name for weeks. I love the mixed materials in the sheath dress (crepe on top, suiting micro-stripe on the bottom), and I like that it looks really polished by itself as well. The pinstriped jacket (BOSS ‘Julea1' Stretch Wool Suit Jacket) is $595, and the dress (BOSS ‘Darlana' Mixed Media Sheath Dress) is $595; matching pinstriped pants are available in regular and petite sizes for $275. (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:

86 Comments

  1. I ordered this jacket and dress. I normally wear a size 4/6 in tops and the size 6 was too small on me, particularly in the bust. Does Hugo Boss run small?

    I haven’t received the dress yet so can’t comment.

    Does Nordstrom typically have Boss suits during its anniversary sale? I’m wondering if I should buy this now or wait for the sale. I typically never buy anything full price and this outfit is so pricey.

    1. Anniversary is new Fall merchandise only, so this particular suit will not be part of Anniversary. There is usually a Boss suit as part of Anniversary though.

    2. I think it may run a little small – I am usually more of an 8 in Talbots, etc. and the 10 definitely fits but is not super-loose.

    3. Love this suit. IME Boss usually runs large. There are usually a few items in the NAS but they will likely be new items.

    4. I don’t have a ton of Boss experience, but I had ordered several pairs of pants from Nordstrom Rack and they were all huge on me.

    5. I came so close to buying this suit in anticipation of interviewing as a lateral, but the jacket just did not fit me well. I have a large chest, and the 2 button style just didn’t hit at the right spot. It really is a beautiful suit though.

      I find Boss to run large – I am a 12p at Talbots, Tahari, etc. and 12 in Tory Burch, but consistently wear a 10 in Boss (with alterations to the skirt length).

  2. Soul Cycle is throwing a donation ride for my organization! I am so excited!

    I would like to do something afterward to get the people who are there more engaged. I’ve seen groups have champagne and snacks afterwards, but I always feel like I will be too sweaty and hot to enjoy that. Would y’all enjoy that? Any other ideas? I feel like people would like to donate a few bucks to the group if they were given the opportunity to do it other than just a tip charge kind of thing.

    1. Juice or smoothies from a fun juice/smoothie place? This always goes over big at my gym.

      1. Love this idea! Popsicles, snocones/slushes, etc.–fruity, icy treats are my favorite after a hot sweaty workout.

    3. Maybe it’s just me, but champagne specifically would rub me the wrong way. Just because of its association with “money”, it gives the feeling that donations aren’t being used wisely.

    4. Honestly, there is not a time when I wouldn’t drink champagne. But I am also the girl that grabs for a beer over a water after a long run!

    5. I do fundraising/non-profit stuff for a living. I would not have champagne at a post-exercise event just because people will probably be dehydrated and hungry. Popsicles or smoothies are a great idea. Reach out to local shops and see if they will donate product if it’s for charity. It’s really amazing how much people are willing to give if they know it’s going to a good cause. Depending on your local gambling laws, you could also sell tickets for a raffle, door prize, or some kind of draw – see if Soul Cycle will donate some merchandise or gift certificates as a prize.

      1. Also if you have champagne you will have to deal with liquor laws and that can get complicated.

  3. Need some advice I think. I’m in sort of a sticky situation at work – I’ve only been with my company for about 8 months now, and about 2 months ago, we encountered a terrible contract situation. Because of time constraints, activities went forward without a contract in place. Fast forward 2 months to now, and we’re still negotiating the deal (yes, I am a lawyer). My supervisor has been aware of every step of this, but he’s not cc’ed on every email. I frequently would check in and let him know what was happening. We’re now at a place where both sides are digging their heels in and a Very Important Person has gotten involved. I know my supervisor and his supervisor (also one of my supervisors) are not happy with the situation but I genuinely cannot get a feel of whether they are disappointed in me or whether they consider any of this my fault. I feel badly that this went poorly, but I don’t believe I did anything wrong or would have done anything differently (other than maybe saying don’t do it in the first place, not that anyone would listen to me). If I can’t tell if they are disappointed in me (maybe because I haven’t been here long enough to tell), then I don’t know if I need to say or do anything to try to remedy the situation. I’d hate for them to secretly think I’m a moron or incompetent, but I also don’t want to make something out of nothing either. I know the head supervisor is passive in general, and I’ve heard them badmouth previous employees in the past. Help?

    1. Have a frank conversation with them discussing the situation. I think people badmouth people instead of talking to them directly, so if you have some conversations about the situation you can get around that. Talk about your frustrations, why you made the decisions you made, bounce ideas off of them, etc. It makes you look good.

  4. I wish I had a job where I could just buy 10 gorgeous suits like this one and wear them on rotation.

    1. I feel like I would get bored of that so fast. I like my very casual business casual environment because I get to play around with different looks.

      1. Same here. I’ve been very business casual for 15 years. It would feel really weird to wear a suit.

  5. I’m in the market for a new mattress, and I have no idea where to start! Any tips? Any well-loved mattress types/brands? I was thinking of going with a latex or memory foam mattress

    1. No specific advice, other than don’t heap out of its your primary mattress. You don’t have to go top of line to get great quality (though memory foam can be expensive if that’s what you want).

      We got 10 good years out of our pillow top, and it has now been retired to a guest bed (it has a few years left but we moved an upgraded to a king).

      1. Don’t cheap out, haha. And do shop around, some of the mattress stores really gouge you.

    2. I’m going to pull the trigger on a Casper mattress pretty soon here. I’m happy to report back after sleeping on it for a while. Not sure if anyone else has experience with them, and wants to weigh in to support the decision or tell me to avoid Casper!

      1. I love my Casper mattress, but only with the addition of the Casper bed topper. The bed was too hard without the topper. They will send it to you for $20 shipping after you’ve tried it for 30 days.

      2. I’ve had my Casper since October, and the mystery lower back pain I couldn’t figure out has been gone since November. They are firmer than a pillowtop, but I think that was the magic trick for my back pain.

    3. Temperpedics are great and improved since we got ours. They do trap alot of body heat–great for cold nights, bad in summer. Ours is really hard–I would check out their softer cloud mattresses if I was buying again.

      Several coworkers rave about their sleep number mattresses. It sounds gimmicky but then I tried one while shopping with a friend–pretty nice! I can see how couples would really like being able to adjust their sides.

      I like the Marriott bed when traveling. I think it has a memory foam topper.

    4. Definitely shop around. When we were mattress shopping, sears was selling the mattress we ended up buying for $200 less than the same mattress at Macys. We like Simmons Beautyrest.

    5. I love a soft mattress but I would not buy a mattress with a pillow/Euro top again because they wear down so quickly. Even if you rotate the mattress you end up with big indents.

      1. I agree, we went for a firm, non-pillow top mattress from Costco, then added a nice 3 inch memory foam topper that can easily be replaced in the future. It was perfect. And it wasn’t, Costco has an amazing return policy!

      2. Took a recommendation from here from a while ago and did the same — cheaper mattress, nicer topper. LOVING it so far!

    6. Check out natural latex mattresses – no chemical off-gassing, no bedbugs, and they seem really durable. Ours is from Green Sleep and the only downside is that it’s a little too firm.

        1. I just have a latex topper and it is very heavy. But I have never slept so well as I have since switching to that plus a latex pillow. Can’t wait until I can buy a latex replacement mattress. And as for Anon’s too firm mattress, I would recommend adding a topper that is one step less firm. Cheapest way to address the issue.

        2. I love our latex mattress, but it is super heavy. As in so heavy I’ve not put on a bed skirt yet as I can’t lift it and move it, even with my husband’s help – I’m going to need another body or two to do that. That said, it’s a king size, so definitely heavier. But so, so worth it.

        3. Responding late, but it’s SO heavy. I’m a little scared for how we’re going to move that thing to our new place this summer. We might have to take out the individual layers.

    7. We’ve gotten 11 years out of our Sealy spring free. Love it except it’s very hot to sleep on and so heavy it takes at least three strong people/movers to move it.

    8. Wait until Memorial Day weekend to buy. Furniture/mattress stores have their biggest sales on the American holiday weekends (Labor Day, Memorial Day, and 4th of July).

      We were able to get half off a very nice mattress last year at Macy’s.

    9. We recently bought a Beautyrest from Macy’s. It was the most firm one in the line, but it has a pillow top. I wen in not wanting a pillow top, but I like the combination with the firmer mattress. Definitely keep an eye out for sales. We also git a $200 price adjustment because the price went down the week after we bought it.

    10. We went to a mattress store when we bought our last mattress. I felt like the salesman really did a great job listening to what we needed in a mattress and our budget. I’ve been super happy with what we came home with. I can’t remember the brand, though.

      It’s possible we could have got the same mattress cheaper somewhere else, but it was in our price range and the salesman spent an hour or so with us making sure we got what we needed so I didn’t mind giving him the commission.

    11. We got a Leesa and we’re pretty happy with it. It’s great for not disturbing your partner when you wake up/get up in the middle of the night, but perfectly comfortable for other bed activities. The only thing I’m not crazy about is that it sleeps a bit warm. But for the price, it’s great, and I’m told their return policy is fantastic, too.

    12. We just got a Leesa, which is similar to Caspar in that you buy direct from a website. This results in a cheaper price than going to a mattress store. It’s delivered to your door. It’s foam and comes in a box that is way smaller than the mattress ends up being upon expansion. You have a trial period (don’t remember exactly how long) and if you don’t like it, they come get it.

      If you want to go more traditional, you can save money by shopping over a holiday and buy buying a non-matching box spring/mattress. Nobody sees it, so the non-matching may not matter (do your research of course, as there may be times when it does matter).

    13. Our Stearns & Foster mattress is a POS and has huge indents after less than 2 years.

    14. Costco has tempurpedic trunk shows/road shows so you can do a google search to find out when they’ll be in your area.

    15. COCO-MAT is the best – our bed is unimaginably comfortable. Our priority was no flame retardants and we really wanted a ‘green’ mattress company, but we ended up with seriously the most comfortable mattress I’ve ever slept on.

    16. I bought a sleep number about a year ago and am very happy with it. Consumer reports rates them very high (I go the low end model for about $700 for a queen, it is the second highest rated). I had a very expensive memory foam mattress before that, and it developed “valleys” after about 7 years, and I weigh under 100 pounds. It also slept very hot. I like the fact that the Sleep Number is adjustable for firmness, and I kept the adjustable base from the memory foam, and it works well with that as well.It’s only been a year, but I have much less back pain than I did with the memory foam.

    17. I have the $2oo mattress from Amazon and I don’t love it. So – don’t go that route. It’s perfect for a guest room or probably a child but not good enough to be your primary mattress for 10 years.

    18. We love our foam mattress ordered off of Amazon for a great price (queen size–under $300). It can be hot, but a good mattress pad helps tremendously. When one partner gets up, the other doesn’t get jostled, and the bed is super comfortable after several years. And shoulder and hip aches have disappeared! It’s heavy and took a couple of days to “off gas” the plastic smell.

    19. We just got a Helix mattress a few weeks ago. It has some similarities to a Leesa or Casper, but it has some customization options for firmness, elasticity, etc. The top layer is latex, then a microcoil layer (whatever that means) and some sort of foam base. You can also get it split into two separate configurations for an extra charge, but we opted not to. We love it.

      The only thing we don’t like about our new bed is that the frame we bought for underneath it (we upgraded from queen to king so had to get all new everything) is squeaky.

  6. I’m considering a contract attorney position. It’s with a service/company that will actually collect my fees from the firm. Any advice/warnings about contract attorney work? Any idea on a rate? I think we paid our contract attorney $65/hour a couple of years ago. Was this the amount she received or was it what the company received so she received less?

    1. Most likely that is what you paid to the company and she got less.

      If I remember right, you left firm practice because of the time demands/feeling like you were bad at it? I think contract work might be good- especially if it’s for a defined amount of time and a specific task! Worth a shot, if you don’t like it you can always quit.

      1. Yes, I did. I’ve been teleworking in a law-related position for a year and I love it, but my very small company doesn’t have enough work to keep me full time.

    2. What kind of work would it be? If it’s document review the rate will be much lower. In NYC the going rate is $25-$35/hour. Some have overtime pay and some don’t. The firm pays the agency a higher amount than that. I saw an invoice once and the agency was receiving $49/hour and paying me $35/hour.

      1. I don’t want to give myself away, but it’s not doc review. It’s exactly what I did for my big law firm. Very specialized with specific background requirements.

        1. You’ll still get a lower rate than what the firm pays the intermediary. If you’re not working directly with the firm, whoever is in between you and the firm will take a cut of what the firm pays out. Agree that your field is a lot more lucrative than doc review though.

  7. This posts (and many before like it) make me curious: how much do y’all spend on work clothes? (Per year or per month, however you want to express it.)

    1. About 4K per year, some months heavier than others (like if I need a suit, although my price range is on-sale JCrew, not Boss). My work tops (pretty silk shells with sweaters, mostly) do a lot of double duty for dinners out; I probably spend $500 or less per year on clothes I can’t also use for work.

      1. I probabley spend about $6000 of my OWN money on clotheing, but that does NOT count the clotheing allowance that the Manageing partner pays for. I asked Dad to keep tab’s on how much I spend so that I can better report on this to the HIVE. YAY!!!

        1. G_d, how I hate ELLEN comments. Yes, I can just ignore… but seriously they’re not even entertaining after what – 3+ years of fake ellens?

    2. Eek. According to Mint I spend $9800 on clothes and shoes last year. I can’t break is down by work/nonwork, but I did spend a lot on gym and yoga clothes. Since I work in a business casual (heavy on the casual) office, most of my clothes can pull double duty.

    3. Less than $500 a year. I’ve built a decent work wardrobe and there are so many things I would rather spend my money on. Buying work clothes brings me no joy and so I only do it when something essential has worn out.

  8. I need some basic underwear to replace old pairs that have gotten too stretched out. I used to like Gap body hiphuggers, but they changed the style slightly and they don’t fit well anymore. I’m looking for all-cotton styles that cover my whole butt and that will hold up to machine washing. I’m willing to pay a bit more for pairs that will really last and not stretch out. Any recs?

    1. I love the basic cotton bikini ones from Lord and Taylor, all my basic ones are simply those in black

    2. Have you tried Fleur’t? I moved on from Gap hiphuggers and am pleased with their coverage. They are pricey (+$35 a pair), but they machine launder well (I don’t put them in the dryer), and they last for years.

    5. For cotton, try Natori. I like Soma’s no lines line, but they are not cotton.

  9. Recommendations for a personal injury attorney in Seattle? I was a pedestrian crossing the street on green light when a distracted moron ran me over making a left. The impact was so bad I broke his windshield. He admitted to playing with his phone. Ughh.

    3. Oh man, I’m so sorry that happened! I’m an attorney in Washington state and if that had happened to me over there I would probably contact Myers and Company in Seattle. I personally find their website kind of informal and weird (there is a case success story about high five accident, for example) but up until recently I did defense work and when they were on the other side I always found them to be very professional and competent.

    4. Attorney Karen Koehler at karenkoehler[dot]com

      For background, Google “owen family sues Washington state ice storm” for the Seattle Times article. Heartbreaking.

      Never met her but I’ve heard she’s fantastic. She has a blog “The velvet hammer” which cracks me up. I’d like to meet her someday.

    5. I’d go to David Barrett or anyone in his firm. His contact info is at glpattorneys dot com.

  10. I have this suit! Just wore it for a huge presentation yesterday. I received a ton of complements. I had to size down in the dress, but the jacket was TTS. You may have to tailor the jacket…it was a little boxy around the waist. I had to have it nipped in a bit.

  11. It is late but going to ask now anyway. I am flying to a different city to give a lunch time presentation to other lawyers. My choices for clothes are a pants suit but I am afraid they will whisker-wrinkle and getting baggie in the butt or a polyester sheath that looks nice all day, but might not be sufficiently formal. I can wear a jacket but I always feel it looks mismatched. Which one???

    1. Go with the right level of formality. People get that wool suiting wrinkles a bit during the day as you wear it, and it won’t reflect on your judgment the way that not wearing something formal enough will.

  12. I have a weird question–I am graduating from law school soon, but I already have another masters. Do I get a different hood for my prior degree? Is that stupid or douchey? I never understand what to do, but I vaguely remember that a lot of my prior masters classmates had on extra hoods from stuff. What is proper? Thanks!

    1. You wear the law school hood for law school graduation. Some people buy hoods from their schools – like a professor would buy the hood for her advanced degree to wear at graduation for her students. But that is totally optional I think. Your classmates were probably wearing them because that was the only reasonable time to wear the thing they bought.

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