Suit of the Week: Lafayette 148 New York
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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 2025!
I love the dark teal blue color of this suit from Lafayette 148 New York. I'm intrigued what you guys think of the buttons — I don't think we've seen a blazer with three buttons in quite a while. (If the suit has a '90s feel to it, this is probably why!)
The old advice — from Stacy and Clinton, at least — was always “the more buttons, the better it fits a bigger bust” — but I'm not sure I've ever found that true personally. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
The suit pieces are $598 – $1398, at Neiman Marcus, available in sizes 00-18.
As of 2025, if you're hunting for teal or blue-green suiting, look to Argent, M.M.LaFleur, and Reiss. Nordstrom has a few lucky sizes left in these statement suits from L'Agence and St. John's, as does Talbots for this pretty twill suit. In plus sizes, check out the Moroccan blue suit at Eloquii.
Sales of note for 3/10/25:
- Nordstrom – Spring sale, up to 50% off
- Ann Taylor – 40% off everything + free shipping
- Banana Republic Factory – 40% off everything + 20% off
- Eloquii – Extra 50% off all sale and select styles with code
- J.Crew – 40% off everything + extra 20% off when you buy 3+ styles
- J.Crew Factory – 50% off all pants & sweaters; extra 50% off clearance
- M.M.LaFleur – Friends and family sale, 20% off with code; use code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off
- Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
- Talbots – Flash sale until midday 3/14: $50 off every $200 – combineable with other offers, including 40% off one item and 30% off everything else
This is an absolutely gorgeous pick!
+1 LOVE this color
+2. If I wore suits, I would want to wear this one!
Beautiful, I would wear this whole outfit exactly as is (well, probably more work-appropriate shoes)
YES! I love this.
Absolutely! I hope beautiful high quality suiting becomes more commonly available for women again. On some days, it feels like we fought Afghanistan just to turn into it on home soil. Long live women who work!
Just saw the price. What the heck!
Anyone stay with a spouse or partner for a long time and then start questioning whether you are actually attracted to them? I have been married for almost 20 years and I think I’m interested in gardening more, but not particularly with him. I’m almost more interested in self-gardening. I don’t know what I’m saying really, but just wondering if anyone else has had similar thoughts and how you resolved it or just moved on from those thoughts.
I have also been married 20 years and agree that I am currently more interested in going it alone, but I’m not interested in anyone else and I still am attracted to my partner. I just want a quick, clean run through the garden; I don’t want to get all dirty.
Could it be that your partner is bad at gardening?
Out of curiosity are you mid-40s? I remember when I was a kid hearing that mid-40s were the peak sexual time for women, and I think that proved true for me but only in the self-gardening sense. Lots of fun new toys, too.
I definitely had those thoughts and made a concerted effort to focus on my husband. It didn’t help our relationship but it helped the gardening part and my focus and desire.
I was also filled with guilt over even finding a celebrity more attractive than my husband – even in dreams, I would turn down the celebrity in favor of my husband! So, some people might feel differently and seek fulfillment in a different way but that’s what I did
Can we just say sex instead of this weird TikTok censorship lingo
Amen.
to be fair, the euphemism on this site predates tiktok by probably 10 years
I think the gardening phrase dates back at least 10 years. As I remember it, a regular poster called “A.” created the euphemism to avoid m0d. Other related words like garden hose and flowering were then used in the conversation that day.
And it stuck as a bit of an inside joke here. I hope we keep using it.
Same. It’s a very old throwback, like “is my water bottle professional?” and part of our shared lore.
Yes. I’ve been reading here since 2009 and gardening was the term used then. I also like it. It was definitely used to avoid moderation, not any kind of censorship/prudishness.
Yes and someone did an absolutely hilarious post with various euphemisms to describe her experiences with her partner. Probably more than once, but there’s a particular one I remember that caused me to laugh out loud.
I think she used “sprinkler head. “
I usually feel the same, but “gardening” as a euphemism for sex originated on the board forever ago, and is more of a cheeky callback than an inability to spell out s-e-x.
Same
I’ve always assumed it was to avoid mod.
Part of the reason is that people read at work.
The opposite here. I’m 25 years married and still wildly attracted to my husband. Pretty much zero percent interested in solo work, but down for fun times with him whenever he is into it.
I was married before and got the ick about my first husband (college boyfriend) to the point where I couldn’t stand the idea of him touching me. Don’t ignore that feeling. We were absolutely wrong for each other. That loss of attraction is coming from somewhere.
Heading to Chicago soon from a much smaller town in the Midwest – I’d love to go shopping for clothes. Any favorite stores that have brick and mortar locations in Chicago?
Bloomingdales
Nordstrom
What kind of clothing are you interested in?
MM LaFleur should still have a location there.
You could walk down Michigan Avenue, near Watertower place.
Uniqlo!
Also trr has a Chicago option where you can send pieces you want to see in person! I would also add max mara to the list!
I commented on the morning thread to a poster who was going back into the office 5 days a week. I said they should confirm that if they don’t have WFH flexibility during business, then they shouldn’t have to WFH outside of business hours unless they were getting paid a ton of money.
A couple posters responded that this mindset would get associates fired, good luck, lol, etc.
I recognize that this is an employer’s market and it’s definitely got some nuances with industries, but at some point, it feels like workers need to set some boundaries as a collective, especially if you’re privileged enough to be able to do that now.
I’m in tech, so 100% WFH and/or hybrid policies are standard. I withdrew from two interview processes because they switched from remote to 100% in the office. Many of my colleagues who have left my current company that allows 100% WFH are at new companies with 100% WFH, and they wouldn’t interview with companies who didn’t have significant WFH flexibility.
Prior to the pandemic, I was in the office every single day, in multiple industries, for 10+ years. I rarely worked outside of business hours. Maybe that’s the nature of my role, but across multiple companies and industries, roles who were expected to be on call outside of core business hours were compensated for that time. I arrived around 8:30am and left around 5:30pm, and I didn’t get back online or jump on calls or work weekends. My salary reflected this, and I had to make up time or take PTO if I was gone for more than ~2 hours in a work day.
This idea that everyone should be available all the time, while also requiring everyone to sit in the office from 8am to 6pm, while also paying low wages, can’t be sustainable long-term. At some point, workers are going to have the upper hand to make changes, and I think that exercising that power now if you have it helps everyone benefit in the long-run. Before cell phones and WiFi, most people went to the office and stayed late if they wanted to get promoted. Those who had to be on call, like lawyers or surgeons, get paid a high salary for that availability.
I don’t think I’m crazy to say that people should have boundaries, and we shouldn’t all be working 24/7 for low salaries, even in an employer’s market, and I’m not an outlier in my circle in having this flexibility and looking for it in my next employer.
You understand that your industry is unique, right? I don’t know many industries outside of tech or IT where there are multiple WFH jobs right now, and anyone who left a job could get another WFH job. Even my adult child who is in sales goes into the office 5 days a week.
I believe you but don’t personally know people in sales who go into the office; it’s WFH + travel.
I do think that an in office requirement is a red flag for a tech employer in a way it isn’t for every industry though.
I don’t think you are responding to the OP’s point though. If the employer acts like wfh is not feasible by making employees come in, then be consistent and don’t also expect them to work from home on weekends or to take calls at weird hours.
A custodian or retail assistant can’t work from home, but they are then only working from work, and get paid for every hour of work. With a lot of office jobs, the lines are very blurry.
This is the core of my argument. If you insist that the work just can’t be done effectively while WFH during business hours, how come it suddenly can be done effectively outside of business hours?
I interviewed for a role with a huge red flag where you weren’t allowed to WFH… unless your boss needed something on Saturday, then you could just work on it at home.
The work was not an emergency and the salary was not buying all of my time. Why, if I have any ability to push back or withdraw, would I take that role? In all cases, I’ve told them that I’m withdrawing over the WFH policy, and in many cases, the recruiter has said that they’re struggling to fill the role due to no WFH, so it does have an effect when they start losing good candidates.
So many jobs are not emergencies, and we should push back on this idea that something can’t wait until business hours, simply because we all have phones with internet.
OP, I think your distinction is a very important one. If WFH “just isn’t productive,” then people absolutely should stop checking email and answering their phones after business hours.
Yes. I’ve also heard of this complaint with starting and ending times.
(Cue all the throat-clearing about exceptions for jobs that require strict hours, like surgeons, or when people have morning meetings.)
You get a similar dynamic with salaried workers who are treated like hourly workers when it benefits the company and salaried workers when it benefits the company.
Person comes in at 9:02 am instead of 9 am? Riot act! You’re two minutes late. Person wants to clock out at 5:15 pm instead of 5:30 pm because their work is done? Nope, butt in seat. The person has wayyyy too much work to do and had to work until 8 pm? That’s why you’re salaried, don’t expect a bonus or comp time or anything.
If the rules are that you need to be in the office to do work, the rule is that you need to be in the office to work, so I guess that 8 pm email isn’t getting answered. But if you want employees to be flexible, offer them flexibility in return.
I’m the OP of that thread and I appreciate your input. I totally agree with you btw. The last time I worked in the office full-time was before the pandemic, and I never worked at home after hours back then. There was zero expectation that I should (I am not a lawyer). Maybe the flexibility that came out of the pandemic is making people think that they should be available at all times? No thanks.
Your industry is unique.
We can’t really push back very effectively, in general, without unions.
I guess this is the question then – why are so professional fields so weak? Medicine has huge issues with this too. Agree that the answer is probably unions and just the idea of collective action. But professional people don’t like the idea of being in a union or think they need one.
Part of why it works in tech is that most people think and feel how “job requirements ” does. So its the situation employers have to deal with.
Because those industries already pay exorbitant amounts. I literally cannot imagine a law firm unionizing. The equity partners would decide they no longer needed associates.
I’ve been in conversations about unionizing, and a lot of white collar professionals have the mindset that unions are just for blue collar workers.
Some government lawyers are unionized.
Government lawyers get paid a lot less than private practice attorneys
I’m a government lawyer whose office organized and unionized about five years ago. The process of it was fascinating and it was certainly an uphill battle, but we succeeded. I’m on the younger end of things, and there was absolutely a generational divide where the older attorneys were staunchly opposed and the younger attorneys more open to the idea. Thankfully the push was successful. I would love to see more industries open up to unions. Especially Tesla. Organize those workers and let’s push back, baby.
OP (and others), I agree that it is worthwhile to take a stand about WFH and hours. I started WFH regularly over 26 years ago, when my oldest child was born. With every job change since then, I have made it clear that WFH was a non-negotiable for me and that has served me well. Everyone is pretending like WFH is a new thing that only happened because of the pandemic. That is absolutely not true and this backsliding towards butts-in-desk for 40 hours a week will hurt everyone, but mostly women.
I am a Fed (for only 8 years) and am planning on retiring the first day I am able (later this year) because my life has been turned upside down by a FT in-office mandate. My other jobs were in financial fields.
Good luck to everyone who is continuing the fight for boundaries and flexibility.
Something that I didn’t realize early in my career is that there’s a pretty big gap between “no one has mildly unpleasant feelings about my choice” and “they’ll fire you if you insist”. I used to think I just… had to get done everything anyone asked me to do, unless it was physically impossible. But, a lot of people just leave at 5. I took work email off my personal phone and my manager has never mentioned it me being less responsive. I assume different rules in different fields and if you’re being paid $$$$$ in big law, you know it – but for me, I thought a lot of stuff was “required” that just wasn’t
100%. A lot of people (and probably women especially) overestimate the cost of boundaries.
This is an excellent point and one that I also didn’t learn until later in my career. Now that I’m a hiring manager, the cost to remove someone, get a backfill, and find and train a replacement is not small.
I don’t want to go through that hassle just because someone can’t take a 5pm meeting because they need to pick up their kid or go do their hobby or whatever.
Get your work done, be responsive, don’t make everyone’s lives hard during core business hours. But it’s ok to say that you have a hard stop or can’t travel every month, etc. if it’s not affecting your ability to get your work done and solve customer problems. (All the caveats for lawyers or doctors etc. who actually have emergencies happen whenever they happen, but again! They know that’s the job and they are compensated accordingly.)
1000000%. I am a big law partner who doesn’t work on Sundays and I never have. People told me in law school that it would never work, I would miss opportunities, clients would refuse to work with me, partners would be annoyed, and I would be managed out.
Well, partners were annoyed, maybe I missed an opportunity here or there, but no one died and I made partner on schedule. When colleagues ask, “how do you do it?” the answer is, I just don’t work on Sundays.
I’m a lawyer who went in-house about 1.5 years ago from private practice. Where, exactly, is the corporate grind? Granted I don’t work for a fortune 500/tech company, but people really do just…leave at 5:00. Pretty much all the time. The only people I see working with any sense of urgency or staying past that time are the legal department, and VP level/c-suite.
I’m a 40-year-old lawyer, and I agree that an expectation that someone is available 24/7 should be reflected in an employee’s salary.
Even with relatively high compensation, flexibility should typically work both ways. My employer doesn’t require PTO if I come in late after a dentist’s appointment, take a long lunch with a friend, or step away to pick up my kid in a pinch. And if needed, I’ll accept a last-minute 8 am calendar invite, take after-hours calls, or work a couple of hours when I’m supposed to be on vacation.
I completely agree with you.
I agree with you. I paid plenty of dues pre-COVID and I am not going to RTO more than 2 days per week.
I will sooner sell my HCOL house and live off the proceeds before I agree to an in-office job. I am mid-40s, expert in my field, and being in the office is like accepting a 2nd job with the army of people asking me how to do THEIR job.
If you are an expert in your field then a lot of your job is helping people learn to do theirs better.
And I’m a very hands on manager who manages a team remotely.
It can be done remotely, but this person avoids the office because she doesn’t want to manage or mentor.
And I think about my kid entering the workforce- they need mentors and role models in the office!
Plenty of people have been mentored not at the office. Again remote work is nothing new!
I’m fully remote in a company where very few people are fully remote. Two of my peers left the company in the past 2 years – one role was filled internally, and the other was filled because my boss reached out to someone who had recently left the company and enticed her back. I also interviewed for roles reporting to me and it was very hard to find candidates who were willing to sit in the office. (And it’s not just because I as manager am remote – all open roles reporting to my in-office peers are taking a long time to fill). So RTO policies are definitely hurting the recruiting process.
While I will definitely agree that it has been the case for the couple of years, I think that’s going to start changing, given the changing market. Employees are losing their bargaining power.
I’m 4:35 fully remote and I agree. However, I personally will never take another job that’s not fully remote. I’m at a point in my career where I can take contract work and do as I please. It won’t work for younger or less experienced people.
Lost. Lost their bargaining power. For every role I’ve had to fill lately there are multiple great candidates.
in my field there’s a zillion applications but few “anywhere close to meeting the reqs” applicants – especially for non entry level
My last job search was about 8 months. It gets harder as you get older and earn more. I’m Wfh right now. But the reality is it will be tough enough to get another job if I lose this one. Pre-Covid it was expected to be available after hours as deadlines neared. I don’t think that’s a WfH vs RTO battle so much as an expectation as you are salaried, and especially as you advance into management.
haha, oh to be young again!
+1
I am not young… I’m early 40s with 20 years in the workforce, climbing the ladder to Sr. Director/VP roles, including senior-level roles in large, publicly-traded companies. I’ve been managing teams of 5-10 people for nearly a decade, and I’m well-respected in my industry. I’m not making these arguments because I just haven’t experienced enough of the world yet.
You obviously dont work in Silicon Valley. I agree with you BTW, but it’s just not the culture here.
I am getting ready to spend a long weekend with my mother, whom I love but I also find it tough to have a close relationship with for a multitude of reasons. My mother is of the belief that women, and mothers, should engage in utter self-sacrifice for their families, being thin is the ultimate signifier of health, and she drinks excessively. I am planning on taking breaks to read and could use recommendations. Specifically, I am looking for books, or podcasts, that feel counter-cultural to how I was raised and provide an opposing viewpoint for any of the above into my brain. I’d love any good recommendations.
Oh boy, my mother is pretty similar (minus the excessive drinking, her extreme self-discipline would never allow it haha). I actually love her to bits – she’s great in so many other ways, and for her these viewpoints come from a really awful childhood – but it is HARD when the conversation touches these particular third rails. On the light side, I would recommend books by Jasmine Guillory, which are fun body-positive romantic comedies. For a little more serious – Elizabeth Strout’s books (especially those focusing on Lucy Barton, but really all of them) I think speak well to the meaning and importance of happiness and connection. Real Self-Care is the only self help book that’s actually spoken to me, and the author comes from a very differently point of view than our mothers.
I enjoyed the audiobook of Leena Norms’ Half-arsed quite a lot. The introduction gets a little repetitive on introducing the term, but the chapters on how to aim for imperfection and small efforts in different areas in life are great. Her youtube channel is quite representative to her style, if you want a preview.
If you want something with a focus of being nice to yourself, How to keep house while drowning by KC Davis is very much a counter-argument to utter self-sacrifice.
For the diet stuff- Maintenance Phase is a great podcast.
I’m my mother’s only child. How are you my sister?
All fours by Miranda July if
You want mind blowing fiction
Ambition monster by Jennifer romolini if you want a memoir
Anything by Roxanne gay?
Normal Gossip. Not explicitly counter cultural but great for a break and the feeling that you have someone to roll your eyes with, and the host was actually raised in a pretty strict mega church type environment and that comes up in small ways that I think you would appreciate. Some episodes may be esp on point for you.
Why is it that a decent suit jacket like this now costs more than my silk wedding dress cost?
The suit is beautiful but who is buying such expensive pieces this economy?? Unless you’re the Princess of Wales.
When did you get married?
Prices have gone up a ton, sure, but for everything? Also, this is a designer brand…
A little more than two decades ago. At that time a beautifully tailored wool suit jacket was maybe $400 full price, which would be around $700 now. Now you have to buy a designer jacket that costs twice as much to get anything that isn’t garbage.
I’ve noticed this, too.
In 2004, I bought my first really nice suit from Ann Taylor. It was $300 all in, so maybe about $550 in today’s dollars. It was gorgeous, great tailoring, wore amazingly well for ten years (it didn’t fit quite right and looked a bit dated after that).
Not sure if I could get a replacement for under $1,000.
What’s a banana cost? $10?
There’s always money in the banana stand.
1) Inflation
2) The Amazon-ification and enshittification of consumer markets. People don’t want 1 nice blazer, they want 10 blazers today and another 10 tomorrow, and that means they have to be cheaper and crappier.
Let me teach you about a little thing called inflation, my dear.
Inflation applies to wages too. So it’s not that. Please be polite in your tone.
When I meet up with a friend or family member I struggle to think of topics to talk about. Then afterwards I come up with like 5 things that would have been good topics, or questions to ask them. Why is this? How do I get better at it?
Use the notes app on your phone or keep a small notepad with you, and jot down good topics when you think of them. Then review the notes before you meet up with someone. Or just remember a few general topics you can ask about, which may trigger your memory about specific topics, such as TV, sports, news, travel, health.
I put these kinds of things in the notes of the contact – like how I know them, what college they went to, stuff like that
I do this with my partner and friends! I keep topic lists specific to them and they have all said they feel so special that I keep track of things I want to discuss with them specifically. I don’t even memorize, I just go “ok so here’s my list of things this time!” and go through it LOL.
You aren’t alone with this problem. Since you know your issue, before you get together, jot down a few topics/questions on a piece of paper. Just think about it ahead of time! Of course, in the end, the person you are seeing should have topics to talk about too, and should be asking you questions. But sure – make it a new rule that before you go out with your friends/family, come up with your “5 questions” or topics that you want to hit.
Is it partly because you’re busy processing the social interaction while it’s happening? (I think I do this sometimes.)
Can anyone else relate? I’ve recently realized that I’ve entered my f**k it phase when it comes to dressing outside of work. Not in a sweats-every-day kind of way, but in the sense that I no longer dress to flatter my body or cater to the male gaze. I invest in high-quality clothes that I think look cool, and that’s it. I’ve completely stopped worrying about whether they make me look “good” by conventional standards. And honestly? It’s freeing.
The best part is that nothing bad has happened. My husband is happy, my friends still invite me out, and I’m still included in school parent circles. It’s made me realize I should have done this years ago. I think this shift is a mix of reaching my mid-40s, feeling relatively secure in my career, and having recently lost weight.
It’s fascinating how much of fashion, especially for women, has been about pleasing others rather than dressing in a way that aligns with personal style and confidence. The realization that the world keeps spinning just fine when you stop catering to external expectations has been pretty powerful for me.
I’m in my mid-40s as well, and I’ve hit a point where I refuse to wear clothes that make me uncomfortable physically. And, if they require shapewear, absolutely not. When I was in my 20s and 30s, I would wear clothes that were restrictive or hurt by the end of the day, and now that is a hard “no” from me. The pandemic and increased WFH definitely accelerated the change. The funniest way that this has come out for me is in my running clothes and weekend attire. I now love loud and bright prints for running. My weekend attire is now jeans plus black t-shirt (bonus if it says “I dissent” or “SCOTUS, No law, just vibes”) plus a red lipstick.
Yes!!! Power on.
I have also started doing this. I wear what I like, what brings me joy, and what I find comfortable. It’s actually made me enjoy fashion so much more. Before, I was just worried about how different parts of my body looked, and now I can focus on so much more of an outfit or a garment.
This is also the #1 reason I hate when people bag on current trends as being “ugly” or “unflattering on everyone.” Like okay you think that, but lots of people like it, and some of us aren’t out here trying to just look as tall and skinny as possible all the time.
This! I find body shape guidelines are helpful when I’m stuck in a “why don’t I like the way this looks?” kind of moment, but I’m not always trying to look taller or skinnier. Also fashion is really fun when you embrace trends! I’m not the Duchess of Windsor; it’s ok to try a trend that will look like 2025 in a few years. Sometimes that’s fun.
Piggy backing off “So Anon” above — for those of you who have mothers like this, how have you found positive ways to connect?
My mother is very similar to what OP described (minus the drinking). My life is very different than hers and any mildly in depth conversation seems to turn into a lecture on how selfish I am (I moved away, I don’t have children, I limit my time around relatives who partake in activities that damage my health like chain smoking cigarettes, I don’t call enough even though she won’t call me). A big part of why I made certain choices was watching her typically seem unhappy/annoyed/resentful as I was growing up. See Miserable by Kacey Musgraves.
I appreciate the solidarity. Aside from this annual long weekend, I spend limited but intentional time around my mom. I take her out to coffee once per month, which lets me end the conversation, if need be. I try to call once per week, but never past 7 pm because of the drinking. We have a nearby family home on a lake that I adore. However, I don’t spend weekends out there with her because of how challenging it can be. She is hurt that I don’t spend more time with her, but the amount of time I can spend with my mom is inversely proportional to my own mental health. I have realized that in order to have any on-going relationship with my mom, it needs to be pretty surface level and limited in interaction. It sucks in many ways, and I have spent many therapy sessions talking through it. There is a lot more to our dynamic (she remains close with my abusive ex, she doesn’t believe that I am lactose intolerant, etc.) but I want a relationship so I have to rely on strong boundaries.
Reality TV. Honestly. She can get all her judgment and gossip focused on reality TV participants, and it is not directed towards me. Southern Charm is great for this, as are the Real Housewives. It needs to be something outlandish and not based in reality.
In my case it was my father and not my mother, but I found that it was best if we were either actively doing something or had a topic of conversation that was relatively inane to discuss. (Cars and sports in our case but reality TV would certainly work.)
We did not understand each other at all and I had to hold pretty firm boundaries. But he died a few weeks ago and I am so glad now that I made that effort despite how difficult I often found it.
FYI The link to the suit isn’t working!
If I buy a blazer to wear with work top and pants, I can keep it on inside my office and the whole day (including walks outside to get lunch, maybe with scarf added) and stay warm enough. I am in California and don’t have to deal with very cold weather.
I like the J Crew sweater blazers but they don’t have any colors I like right now (navy or green or reddish brown). What about corduroy blazers, are they considered outerwear or can they be worn inside?