The Most Affordable Office Clothes for Women in 2024: Our List

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What are your favorite, most affordable office clothes for women, and where are your favorite places to find trendy work clothes on a budget? Whether your weight is changing, you're just starting out, or you're on a tight budget for affordable work clothes for other reasons, let's discuss!

To kick off discussion, here's a template for you — what is the cheapest item in each category that you own and would recommend to a friend that is reliably available on the rack (not just a great clearance find)…

  • pants
  • blazers
  • suits
  • tops
  • dresses
  • office shoes

I'll give my own answers below; I can't wait to see what everyone says! (If you can only think of items for a few categories, that's fine too!)

New here? Some of our main fashion articles that might be of interest include our Ultimate Guide to Business Casual, Wardrobe Essentials for Work, and The Corporette Guide to Comfortable Heels — all constantly updated! If you're plus-sized, check out our Plus-Size Picks for Work.

The Most Affordable Office Clothes for Women in 2024

Affordable Women's Pants for Work

As of 2024, our top picks for really affordable dress pants for women include Lee, Uniqlo, Old Navy, or Quince — also check out Amazon sellers Tapata and Rekucci. If the pant comes in regular, petite, short, tall, long, or maternity sizes, we've marked that with R/P/S/T/L/M below.

Affordable Blazers for Women

For blazers, the spots I would check first would be Quince ($69), Amazon, and H&M almost always has a single-breasted blazer available for around $50 in different fits and colors.

Hunting for women's blazers under $50? Our favorites as of 2024 are below — if you're open to going up to $75, also check out these options from Amazon, J.Crew Factory, Old Navy, and this Uniqlo blazer.

Affordable Suits for Women

Banana Republic Factory would probably be my first stop here. Department stores also carry a lot more “suiting separates” for affordable prices these days than there have been in the past; e.g., Macy's carries suiting separates for Kasper and Tahari.

(Suiting separates are better because you can buy a different size pant than jacket, and often there are several different cuts of pants and cuts of blazers available so you can buy the ones that you personally like, or buy several options to have a mix and match wardrobe.)

If you're OK with a single suit (both pieces purchased together), this Anne Klein Executive one is a good option, or you might want to try this affordable suit at Amazon (often under $75!).

Our Latest Favorite Budget-Friendly Women's Suits

Some of our favorite budget-friendly interview suits for women include stores like Banana Republic Factory*†, J.Crew Factory*†, Mango*, and Express†, as well as widely available brands like Anne Klein Executive, Vince Camuto*, Calvin Klein*†, and Tahari ASL. For a vintage vibe, check Amazon seller Marycrafts*. (* = some plus sizes also, † = petites)

Tips for Buying Suits on a Budget

A few things to note if you're buying suits on a budget: look for as seasonless a fabric that you can find — four-season wool is the ideal. Cotton and linen will only be able to be worn in summer, and tweed or corduroy could only be worn in the winter.

{related: the best suits for women this year}

Affordable Tops for Work

I'm curious to see what people say with regard to tops — I think in general there are going to be a lot of good options at fast fashion places, from H&M to Zara to Old Navy to Loft. The big trick is to make sure that it's washable — and I'd also try to avoid trendy shapes and go for the most basic cuts. (Also check thrift shops and resale sites!)

Some of our latest favorite affordable work tops include

{related: what to buy at Amazon for work outfits}

Affordable Work Dresses

There are so many options for dresses, but in 2024 I'd head to Nordstrom Rack or TJ Maxx and take a look at the options from Eliza J, Maggy London, Donna Ricco, and Calvin Klein. Some of the reader-favorite sellers on Amazon include Grace Karin, Marycrafts, Miusol, and MUXXN. Recent favorites:

{related: what to buy at Amazon for work outfits}

Affordable Office Shoes

DSW and Target both have a bunch of options in general. For a comfortable flat, I'd suggest the Skechers Cleo, usually under $50.

Affordable Flats for Work

Stay tuned for a roundup of your best bets for affordable flats for work!

Affordable Heels for Work

Stay tuned for a roundup of the best affordable heels for the office! In general as of 2024, good brands to know include Anne KleinBella VitaComfort Plus by Predictions (still around even though Payless has closed), LifeStride, Sam Edelman, and Trotters.

{related: The Ultimate Guide to Business Casual for Women}

Affordable Work Bags

Looking for a great work bag under $100 in 2024? Some of our favorite spots to check include Nordstrom Rack and T.J. Maxx. Specific styles include this faux leather Amazon tote under $20 and this affordable line from Samsonite (especially this backpack). Everlane's great ReNew bags are also under $100. The very trendy BÉIS bags are usually under $150 as well. If you just want a lightweight, basic nylon tote, this Amazon one looks great; Quince also has one that's getting great reviews.

Readers, how about you — what are your favorite budget workwear pieces? Where would you start first if you needed an entirely new wardrobe, or a workable wardrobe while you're losing weight or whatnot?

Stock photo via Pexels / Karolina Grabowska.

14 Comments

  1. Fast fashion dilemmas aside, the most difficult part of finding affordable – and not so affordable – office wear is how to find something that’s not made from polyester.

    Polyester tops are just throwing away money whatever the price point – I don’t want to wear polyester or acrylic fabrics next to my skin. I’m fine with some polyamide fabrics, but that’s mostly sportswear or underwear.

    I try to find linen and wool suiting. UK brand Next sometimes has some good items, same for &Other Stories. Banana Republic used to have some wool, but is no longer widely available in Europe. Sometimes I get items that are poly blends, but I don’t get any suiting in all polyester.

    1. There’s polyester and there’s polyester – some of it is pretty good. I have poly tops that have lasted years and aren’t unpleasant to wear. And I have cotton tops that got decrepit-looking pretty fast.

    2. Modal is pretty bad too. Most of Loft seems to be modal and it breaks down pretty quickly.

      What it all means is there’s a sweet spot to hit between buying inexpensive clothes that only last for a wear or two and spending more for clothing that lasts for a little longer.

  2. I think JCP should be on this list somewhere. With the frequent sales, they have really good deals on a number of items.

    1. I’ve found that the Danny & Nicole line fits me as well as Maggy London does (short hour glass figure). But it’s slim pickings for styles I’d actually want to wear. Still I get a lot of compliments on my few good finds.

  3. I don’t have a fancy lawyer job – I probably make in a year what some of you make in your yearly bonus. So I’m all about work clothes on a budget. Don’t sleep on Old Navy! I get most of my pants, jeans, and knits from there as well as my casual clothes. They also have introduced more formal blazers and pants and they have inclusive sizing!

  4. I’m willing to buy everything secondhand except shoes. My typical pattern is to find one thing I like at a retailer, then buy duplicates & other colors on eBay.

    1. Same! I prefer secondhand shopping for green and budget reasons, and also to afford higher quality clothes in natural fibers. As part of post-death decluttering and WFH, many of my tops are hand-me-downs, focused on natural fibers, and if I didn’t like the color, I dyed them. As for the suits, I will wait some time for mourning to see where my non-mourning diet, exercise and lower stress routine is like, and then get the suits tailored with complementary, but not 100% matching side panels.

    2. Although you can find excellent, all-leather shoes on eBay pretty easily. I will not wear shoes with man-made soles (don’t breathe, don’t soften over time, etc.) and I know what brands work for my feet.

  5. I’m surprised resale didn’t make the list — thredup would be my top recommendation for affordable work clothes. Especially post-pandemic the more formal items are veeeery discounted.

    1. but she says everything should be reliably available on the rack. are there things you can always buy on resale? not everyone has time or energy to scroll those sites.

  6. I buy primarily secondhand for both work and casual, and I stick with pieces that are high-quality enough that they will last years of regular wear.
    I prefer secondhand not only for the fact that I can find those higher quality pieces often for less than their lower quality counterparts, I also prefer it because at least some of my clothing dollars aren’t going to support third-world sweatshops, and because I am keeping the clothes I buy out of the landfill for a good while longer.

  7. Ann Taylor and Talbot both are good for suiting and tailored dresses for formal office workwear. Last week in the sale I got 4 dresses for just under $250 from Ann Taylor.

    For shoes, I think there is better value from European brands such as Gabor in the sale. $60 for a nice pair of shoes is a great deal.

  8. J. Crew Factory and J.Crew. They have petite, tall and regular sizing. I swear by the school boy blazer and the sweater blazers. They are great! I go with their basic artist tshirts underneath. They also have great suiting pants on sale at J.Crew. Like others said, I absolutely love to thrift shop and MM La Fleur, Brooks Brothers, Talbots, J. Crew, Boden and Tuckernuck are the brands I most often thrift. I have found a lot of Lafayette 148 and Theory suits and blazers in Arlington and Alexandria thrift stores!

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