Tuesday’s Workwear Report: The Ara Jersey Midi Skirt
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Our daily workwear reports suggest one piece of work-appropriate attire in a range of prices.
A breezy jersey skirt is just the ticket for a steamy July commute. This gorgeous number from M.M.LaFleur looks flowy but still put-together enough for officewear. I would add a short-sleeved sweater or a sleeveless blouse (if that’s acceptable for your office) for the summer and layer on a blazer when the weather gets cooler.
The “abstract bluebird” print is my favorite, but it also comes in seven other prints.
The skirt is $249 at M.M.LaFleur (with some prints on sale for $174) and comes in sizes XS-XXL.
Sales of note for 7/19:
- Nordstrom – The Anniversary Sale has started! Here's our big roundup of the best workwear, as well as everything we've selected thus far. Don't forget to check to see if their daily beauty deal is a good one for you – e.g., 7/23 Lancome; 7/24 YSL; 7/29 up to 40% off select lip products; 7/31 Bobbi Brown; 8/1 Jo Malone
- Ann Taylor – Semi-annual sale, 60% off sale and 40% off everything — readers love this blouse and I always love the variety of colors/textures for this jacket (it's a great separate)
- Banana Republic – Summer sale up to 60% off sale styles + extra 20% off
- The Fold – Up to 50% off, further markdowns
- J.Crew – 50% off select cashmere
- J.Crew Factory – 60% off clearance
- Lo & Sons – Summer sale, up to 50% off
- Lululemon – Summer sale!
- Me & Em – Sale! Up to 60% off (new lines just added)
- M.M.LaFleur – 25% off jardigans (Try code CORPORETTE15 for 15% off on other items)
- Nordstrom Rack – Clear the rack, extra 25% off clearance! Nice selection of Vince, Veronica Beard, Reiss and Rag & Bone, a ton of affordable work dresses from Calvin Klein, Maggy London, Eliza J, and Donna Morgan
- Talbots – Red Door Sale! Prices start at $15
- Theory – End of season sale is on!
ISO Athens recs. We will be there for 3 full days for our second trip, in mid-September. We loved the city in general last visit (so underrated, especially the evening vibes and amazing food) and hit the major tourist stuff then – Acropolis, Acropolis museum, agora, sunset from Lycabettus (sp from memory…).
So, looking for dining recs and fave “second trip no obligations” sightseeing. (Love it when we repeat a visit for this reason!) We enjoy some museum time but max one per day, so need to downselect among Archeological, Byzantine, Benaki, etc.
When I was there, we only had time for the Acropolis, so my only recommendation is Django gelato near the Acropolis museum.
The Benaki is amazing. I also love wandering around the Central Market, where all the amazing food starts.
I wanted to add one thing to the conversation yesterday about how to stop scrolling and get back into reading as a hobby – always tell yourself that two minutes, five minutes, ten minutes are better than zero minutes. Applies to anything worth doing in life. You can also tell yourself that you’ll try it for five minutes but if you’re really too brain dead to continue, you’re allowed to stop. It can really help! I didn’t read as many books during the newborn and infant phase (when I was most exhausted) but I’m so glad I did keep reading.
I’ve found reading even 5-10 pages before bed instead of doom scrolling really helps my mental health and quiets my brain. It’s made such a difference I just keep doing it.
re: look above, i generally avoid wearing a proper cloth top with knit or jersey bottoms. is that not a thing?
by “proper cloth,” do you mean a woven fabric as opposed to a knit one? If so, I don’t use that as a guideline. I pay attention to whether the dressiness level of the fabrics and items works together, and to the colors, cuts, and proportions of the top and the bottom. If all that is good, I’ll happily wear woven fabric with knit fabric.
I wouldn’t wear a dressy blouse or shirt with a casual knit skirt unless I was confident with my style and was intentionally doing a juxtaposition for it’s own sake. Which can be done.
The top looks like jersey to me.
In general, I think jersey skirts tend to look pretty sloppy.
No? Do you mean you only wear tees with jersey bottoms? And by proper cloth do you mean a woven top with buttons? And you only wear those with…only suiting pants?
This seems unnecessarily complicated.
yes. i would wear a sweater or a tee with a jersey bottom but not a woven shirt. A woven shirt doesn’t necessarily have buttons (this one doesn’t) but i mean out of a cloth, not a knit.
Knit is cloth too. I think there are some cultural or language differences that I don’t understand. If you don’t like the way the model is styled, feel free to wear something else, but it doesn’t mean it’s wrong or weird just because you don’t do it.
Personally, I used to avoid tucking any top into an elastic waist, but elastic waist technology has improved dramatically so now this is not longer an issue for me. (Also, knit bottoms can have fixed waists with zippers etc). And I certainly wouldn’t judge anyone who makes different choices as doing it wrong.
I too am confused. Clearly there is something I’m not getting, because all this reminds me of is the bit in the Bible about not wearing garments of different material together.
I think with the rise of dressier jersey skirts and pants this year that woven cotton or linen look nice with them.
I clicked through to the page’s photos and the skirt looks quite elegant for jersey. The top may be woven (is that what you mean by “proper cloth”?) but it’s a relaxed style. These items look fine together imo.
i’m sure this is a common question here but i have mostly been off this summer…. are the oral GLPS that pop up on my instagram marketed to those who just need to lose “aesthetic” weight and not medical OK? do they work?
I take the wegovy pill via Ro and it’s amazing, wanted to lose 15 and ended up losing 30 and am back to my high school weight.
disney folks. how busy is busy (like a holiday week?) what can be done to mitigate or plan around it? there are so many sites, i’m overwhelmed. my son is 16 so not a baby but we want to do star wars and epcot which we’ve never done and probably a day at magic kingdom.
you want to use a Disney planner. They are free. The number of deadlines and tricks and strategies to avoid spending 80% of your time in line is nothing short of a military operation. (Source, sibling with older kids who was stressing about something being released 180 days prior to their trip.)
I am constantly looking for beige/nude sneakers that I can wear with dresses. (And not look orthopedic.) I spotted a woman on an elevator today wearing sneakers that were covered in beige lace for the front 2/3 of the shoe (like through the tongue/laces) and then the back part was beige-y ivory, and there was a gold lip on the heel of the shoe like where it met her ankle. There was a narrow rectangle logo on the bottom of the heel like just above the ground, looked at least 1″ wide with a brand name but she was 3 people in front of me and I couldn’t squint to read it. Our elevator has all non-public floors so I didn’t want to bust in front of everyone else and ask her/scare here. Anyone have any idea of the brand??
Hi, friends! I ordered the Crocs Miami sandals that have been all over my social media and the straps feel a hair too tight. Does anyone have these and know if they get looser at all as you wear them? I’m curious whether it’s worth trying to break them in b/c they’re otherwise as cute and the footbed is as comfortable as folks say. Thanks!
I have them and love them but the straps don’t stretch in my experience. And I have short legs so am often balancing on tiptoe in a chair (which in theory would stretch them). Instead I just end up with dents across the top of my foot if I do that.
Have you tried the method of boiling (or pouring boiling water) and stretching them that you can do with regular crocs?
For those of you not new to OSA and sleep studies and whether you need a CPAP, do you recall what your overnight O2 sats were? Mine when I’m awake are like 99%, no variance. But my SO has them when they are normal when awake and dismal at times when sleeping (like so low that EMTs would have protocols mandating supplemental oxygen). But overall, he’s “mild” and has a theory that it’s just time for GLP-1s vs a CPAP. This is a rabbit hole I’d like to get out of and now it just seems layers and layers deep (but the guest bedroom has a mattress that is amazing, so that is good at least).
He’s probably right, losing weight cures a lot of apnea issues. My husband went from needing a cpap to not at all after a GLP1 weight loss.
i have disruptive afternoon sleepiness (doze off at my desk, etc) and so have been tested at multiple points in my life. I don’t remember any of the numbers but i do remember that like lots of things, you can have mild test and severe symptons and vice versa. Meaning you can have mild apnea but a lot of sleepiness (me). there is no medical down to the CPAP for the wearer and other than it’s silly it doesn’t disrupt a partners (certainly less than snoring and i found the sound almost soothing, like white noise). give it a try!
My family member has mild sleep apnea, and she feels a CPAP made a meaningful difference for her. It’s the difference between needing multiple naps a day and being able to function fine without naps. Sleep apnea can also lead to other serious problems over your lifetime, so I wouldn’t just poo poo a CPAP off the bat.
I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea, and I am not overweight, so losing weight isn’t necessarily a fix for everyone. Sleep apnea depends on your anatomy and can also run in families, just mentioning that because people always mention losing weight as a go-to option but that might not actually be the root of the problem in every case. If you are anti-CPAP, you can also try a custom oral appliance made by a dentist that moves your jaw forward so that your throat stays open as you sleep (it can also reduce snoring, which you might appreciate). They are supposed to work well for mild and moderate sleep apnea.
I’m traveling to Mexico for the first time and I am not normally a beach vacation person. I just bought a new swimsuit but I think I may need some kind of coverup or large shirt to wear on top of my not-toned 50 year old body. What do you normally wear on top of your swimsuit and what can I get that will be the most versatile and get the most rewear?
A cotton gauze dress.
To go in the water, or to sit on the beach? For going in the water, Lands’ End has dresses and shirts made out of swimsuit material. For sitting on the beach, an oversized linen button up seems practical.
This is an entire wardrobe category for me. So many things, caftans, beach pants and t-shirt, oversized button downs with shorts, etc.
I’m thinking of getting some Jo Malone candles off eBay. Do I need to worry about counterfeit candles or old candles that have gone bad?