Tuesday’s TPS Report: Raw Edge Collar Jacket

43 Comments

1. I really want to like this one but …..seems badly cut and not ‘sharp’ enough. With that colour, a jacket better be well cut to avoid being frumpy.

2. The lapel/collar detailing reminds me of something, frankly, inappropriate. If it made me think that, I certainly would not want to have anyone at my office making a similar anatomical connection, even for a split second!!

   1. I totally did not notice that until I read your comment. Now it’s all I can see. It’s like looking at a Georgia O’Keefe painting.

      1. Now that I’ve seen it, I can’t NOT see it. Laughing in my office :)

   2. I liked this jacket until I read your comment. That will never be unseen! Laughing in my office, too!

   3. I totally thought the SAME THING, immediately! I don’t know if it would have quite the same effect in other colors, but I wouldn’t chance it. Hoo boy…(or should I say hoo ha)?

   4. Oh, wow, thanks for the great laugh. Holy cow! Add in that Georgia O’Keefe reference, and there’s no avoiding. The jacket should have a suitable nickname.

3. I LOVE the color, but am leery of the raw edges. Seems like the kind of detail that won’t wash well.

   Corporettes, I’m about to take a trip to San Francisco to visit some relatives, but will have plenty of time to myself while there (it’ll be about a week).

   Any suggestions for fun/cheap/solo activities in the neighborhood? I’d love to know about quirky/off-beat little clothing stores, although my budget probably can’t sustain a huge shopping spree just yet.

   Thanks!

   1. Best “quirky shop” areas are Valencia St., Union St west of Gough, Fillmore St north of Geary, and Chestnut St. Maybe also 24th St in Noe Valley, and Hayes St.

      What neighborhood? There are lots!

   2. Ambience on 24th street in Noe Valley for quirky clothes. Eye Gotcha in Noe Valley for eyeglasses. SFMOMA for modern art. Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park. DeYoung Museum (especially the tower for a view of the city). Chinatown for great jade earrings and necklaces at good prices.

      1. Ambience is a great recommendation.

         Don’t buy jade in Chinatown unless you know what you’re doing. There’s a lot of fake jade over there, too.

4. @Hmmm… good point! Awkward point, but useful nonetheless!
   Also, it seems oddly wide at the waist.

   ***
   Threadjack: nude and/or skin-tone heels seem to be the perfect neutral, and fairly easy to find. But is there any sort of equivalent be for Corporettes of color? As a girl with tea-colored skin, “nude” heels make me look like I”m wearing off-white shoes — they don’t blend with my skin tone at all. Which, although sometimes appropriate, is not particularly neutral and can’t be “worn with anything”.

   Brown shoes don’t seem that neutral to me, and black shoes, while basic, don’t go with everything.

   Have you found or seen a solution?

   1. FWIW – I think there was a discussion about this before. You might try searching the site.

   2. What about a tan shade more like these? http://www.zappos.com/corso-como-delicious-whiskey-burnish-calf

   3. Perhaps a darker “nude” would work. More tan. Like this: http://piperlime.gap.com/browse/product.do?cid=66453&vid=1&pid=833671&scid=833671002

      1. I’m about the shade of Condeeleza Rice (tea-colored?). Anyhoo, I don’t think the “nude shoe” thing looks that cute on black women. JMHO. I wear taupe, cream, beige, bronze, etc. But I never try to “match my skin-tone.” Just don’t work with the sisters, KWIM?

         Check out this one from Talbot’s ( I have it!) http://www.talbots.com/online/browse/product_details.jsp?id=prdi25509&rootCategory=cat440040&catId=cat80032&sortKey=Default&section=Outlet&conceptIdUnderSale=cat440040

         1. I’m in the Beyonce/Halle Berry shade range (sadly, I’m talking skin color only) and I do the nude shoe thing all the time. Makes me look taller and thinner. I really like a nude pointy toe pump with a black pencil skirt.

            I think that if you can find the right shade it looks great.

         2. Come on now, Lawgirl. You know that we sistahs come in a wide range of hues. I’m probably the same skin tone as say, the actress Vanessa Williams and I have no problem wearing “nude” shoes. So the trend does work for *some* women of color. And yeah, I know it’s probably a bit more challenging the darker your skin gets.

            To the original poster, the key is really to find a shoe that matches your skin tone, so if you’re brown, then brown shoes are probably the way to go. Also try looking for mocha, cinnamon, taupe, bronze, etc.

   4. Just saw this linked in another thread, the “nude” shoes in these models look great, I think.

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1260407/BRIGHT-SPARKS-Break-open-paint-box-follow-lead-designers-colour-blocking-trend.html

   5. I think beige (which is what most people mean by nude, so I’m assuming that’s what you mean) shoes look neutral even if they don’t match your skin tone. I have the opposite issue – I’m paler than “nude” shoes – but I wear them regardless of whether they blend with my skin tone. I think it looks fine on women of color, too.

5. Question on phone interviews – is it OK to have notes at hand with answers to commonly answered questions? I’m talking about the ‘talk to me about a time you led a team’ sort of question. I don’t plan on ‘reading’ things out should a prepared question arise, but I plan on looking at my answers as I talk…if that makes sense. I’ve always done this but I wondered whether other people do the same?

   1. I don’t think this is a good idea. In my mind, an interview should be more like a conversation. They’re looking at whether you’d fit in at the organization as well as your qualifications, and I’d think it would be really hard to judge your true personality while you were referring to notes like that.

   2. I think its a great idea – with the caveat that the notes are there to remind you of what you wanted to say, not as a crutch to read from. You can still work it in, conversation style, but stay on message with what you want to get across to them.

   3. I’ve done it before, but unless it’s sparse and in bullet point format, it’s not useful to me and can actually lead to me being more flustered. Instead of having answers to frequently asked questions typed out, I just have three main points about myself that I want to emphasize, and one or two anecdotes (not written out, just a few words to remind me of the anecdote). That way looking down at the paper doesn’t cause me to get flustered, or start reading. I think having notes is one of the benefits of a phone interview, so you are certainly not alone!

   4. Great idea (I did this once and got the job). But notes are just that….notes (not a speech or lecture) so try to be spontaneous. I find that jotting down notes helps me structure my thoughts even if I may not refer to them during the interview (makes sense?) So I usually have bullet-point type stuff on them (a word or two) – that way I still retain spontaneity!

   5. I’ve had several phone interviews, and have done this (successfully) for all of them. I write down a bunch of questions that I anticipate could be asked in a Word doc and them write out brief notes/bullets for what I would say to answer each question. I also do this for each thing listed on my resume.

      These lists definitely made me feel less anxious about the phone interviews, because I knew that nearly all my possible speaking points were written down and on the screen in front of me. I knew my resume very well, anyway, but my document sort of functioned as a “cheat sheet” or back-up, in the event that I blanked or got stuck on a question.

      1. I agree with everything this comment says.

6. Threadjack,
   Can anyone recommend a blog similar to Corporette targeted to men? My sweetie, has been primarily working from home and is in a bit of a style rut. He is open to new idea’s so I am just looking for a direction I can point him in.

   1. (apologies if this posts multiple times–comments are being a bit finicky today for some reason)

      No blogs, but my BF reads Esquire and GQ for the fashion advice (I think he thinks Esquire is slightly better in terms of fashion?). But if there isn’t a similar blog, someone should start one, if only for the comments. My BF occasionally reads the corporette comment threads, especially the financial advice ones, because he thinks they’re smarter than what he finds on other sites ;-) (like, say, above the law)

   2. The Sartorialist is a great men’s street style blog, although it is not exactly like Corporette. That’s all I can think of, but it’s a great starting point!

   3. http://www.refinery29.com/the-ultimate-fashion-website-blogroll?page=13

      here is a list of some fashion blogs geared towards men – maybe some of them will prove inspirational?

7. Still getting 403 error at work, and at this pt I’ve tried: deleting cache, installing 2 new browsers (firefox & safari), and turning off java script. It’s like a star-crossed romance, doomed!

   1. I am too Kady, but currently reading the site at work through proxy.org. It’s much slower but at least I can read and comment!

      1. Actually I take it back. It actually broke there too. I can only see corporette from my iPhone now and I’m going to end up looking at it altogether because it’s simply too annoying.

         Kat – I imagine this is super frustrating for you but I’m fairly certain these technical issues are why there are such few comments on this post today.

         1. I have tried in firefox mozilla and internet explorer and could see nothing at work today. At one time, I got the message that corporette was suspended?!

   2. If its only happening for people at work, isn’t it likely the problem is on the work end?

      1. i think it’s unlikely that we are all experiencing problems with individual IT departments at different companies in different parts of the country all on the same day!

   3. Same here, since last week. 403 error now tops Gawker Media’s “Posrt Save Fail” as the most annoying glitch of 2011.

8. Kat, I can finally see the blog again! And it loaded quickly!

   1. And a minute after I said that, it crashed again. But 3.5 hours later, we seem to be up again!

      I’m editing a brief, I swear :).

      1. So happy it’s back!

         1. My excuse is that I’m grading final exams…plus it’s not even 11p.m. on the west coast.

9. I could not access this website at all yesterday. Got a message that the account was deactivated? Anyway, glad to see things are working ok again.

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