Business casual goes business fashionable

According to a recent USA Today article, the prevalence of business casual in professional work environments is declining across America. Personally, I have no problem with going more formal – I usually dress up more than my coworkers on any given day at the office.Then again, I work at a PR firm where so far this summer, I’ve seen the following items as work attire:

• Flip-flops of all materials, colors and audio quality
• Plunging, sleeveless, strappy or heck, strapless dresses (click here to learn how to wear the latter to work with aplomb)
• The two forms of cleavage. Think about it.

The hapless employee pictured in the story was indignant when banned from a meeting because of her Bermuda shorts and sleeveless tops. Instead of taking personal offense, it's wiser to look to senior management in your office for fashion cues. This doesn't mean you have to be boring or lack any personal style - it means that if your boss's boss isn't wearing flip flops and capris you might not want to either, if promotion is on your mind. And look in the mirror before leaving for work and ask, "would I take myself seriously in this? Would a client?"

So what does a notch up from business casual look like? Instead of a polo shirt, a collared cotton sateen shirt with a good belt. Instead of khakis, tailored dress pants like the ubiquitous Editor from Express. A jacket thrown over the crewneck sweater or sleeveless top - you can remove it when closing time rolls around.

Jingle your way to better posture

I have terrible posture. Even after years of theatre, marching band and countless spins on the elliptical machines, I am constantly hunched over like a weary gardener. Not good for maintaining an appearance of confidence at work, that’s for sure. My solution, discovered by accident this week, is to wear a necklace that makes noise. This leaf motif necklace, $24 from Urban Outfitters, fits the bill. If you stand up straight when walking or sitting, the pendent lays flat against your chest, silent. The minute you hunch forward while striding down the office corridor, it bounces against you, making a jingling racket sure to annoy every coworker within a 50-foot radius. Problem solved, fashionably.

Macy's on State Street has a bad week

Clearly the ghost of Marshall Field himself is haunting the downtown Chicago Macy's in the worst way: First, on July 23, the department store's food court was shut down by health officials following the discovery of a fruit fly infestation. (I will say, however, that the condemned food court has the best frozen yogurt in the city.) Then, two days later, a man plunged to his death inside the store from one of the upper balconys. If you're not familiar with the store, it has two atrium-like areas where one could - with concerted effort - get over the balcony and fall 8-10 stories. All this comes amid speculation of a buy-out, Chicago area union woes and sagging sales at the historic State Street store.

I tried to remain neutral on the brand changeover since it happened a year ago and was successful until last week when I went in to look for 1928 jewelry. I instead found that this beloved lines has been discontinued it in favor of Macy's own in-house brand. Now the gloves come off...

Fun Friday Fashion: The most expensive hot dog in history

What does $210 buy you?

• One round-trip plane ticket from Chicago to Las Vegas on Southwest
• An office-appropriate Custo Barcelona dress
• Dinner and drinks for two at NoMi
• A Dooney & Bourke handbag that looks like a cocktail frank.
  
  
  

Retail mystery: Bloomingdales by way of Victoria’s Secret?

Do you ever get d�j� vu? Do you ever get d�j� vu? I did, the last time I was paging through the Victoria’s Secret catalog. I have great retail memory, meaning once I’ve seen an item in the store, I can recall with startling clarity the brand, fabric and price. Recently I’ve noticed higher-end apparel items winding up in the catalog/website several months after their initial season under completely different brand names.

Take, for example, this silk polka dot blouse. This top definitely began life as a piece from Aqua, a brand sold at Bloomingdales, for $68, and is now $48 via Vicky’s. It’s also, oddly enough, being sold under the Central Park West brand.

This striped and ruffled shirt, also originally an Aqua design, is now available under the Pixie Hopkins name for $20 less. It pays to shop around.

Target scores big with Libertine

Target has hit a new high with its Libertine designer brand, now in a store near you. While Target blazed entirely new fashion trails with its Go International designer-for-the-masses collections, its current offering is far and away the best in terms of quality. So often, lower-end designer lines (Nicole by Nicole Miller at JC Penney, Wal-mart’s George collection) look fantastic online, leaving you wondering why everything is under $30. That is, until you log off and sprint to the store, there realizing the clothes are paper thin, easily wrinkled and have all the softness of Matthew Fox’s five o’clock shadow on LOST. I don’t buy cheap clothes if they look or feel cheap, which is why I rarely buy from designer mass market lines. That has been the case with Target’s collections until Libertine. For once, the clothes look and feel as good as they do online. Standouts include a navy camisole in 100 percent sumptuous silk, a color-blocked cardigan in fine-gauge cotton and a similar V-neck sweater vest, all of which range from $19.99 to $29.99. The only disappointment was the $39.99 black belted dress: while it’s been in every fashion magazine since May and looks great from a distance, the woven polyester is a bit stiff and the white embroidery at the neckline looks like your grandmothers’ after three decades in storage.

Funny Friday Fashion: A top that's just wrong

The poor folks at Overstock.com must be scratching their heads, wondering why this wooden-beaded top isn't flying off the shelves. It's not so much of a mystery to me...or anyone with female anatomy.

New jewelry line at Kohl's

Kohls continues to surprise. While the discount fashion world eagerly awaits Vera Wang’s new budget designer line this fall, I checked out the store’s always voluminous jewelry section last week. Kohls is renowned for its hordes of always-on-sale silver and gold accessories that tend toward the classic, but a new line, Stamp 10, takes the selection modern. Unfortunately I replaced my camera phone with a BlackBerry, so no picture, but the jewelry is reminiscent of Lucky Jeans’ or Kenneth Cole: chunky silvertone pieces with accents of turquoise, coral, wood and hefty beads. Think slightly Western mixed with the Caribbean. The best part: Every piece in the collection will punch up a drab office ensemble for $25 or less, and it’s frequently on sale.

Poll: Do you match handbags to your outfit?

I'm hoping someone will invent something very specific: A bag that goes inside your handbag. How many times have you dumped the entire contents of one handbag onto the bed to transfer everything into another, then realized at a crucial moment later that day that your lipstick must have rolled underneath the dresser?

My question to my readers is this: What solutions have you found to keeping everything together in your purse and easy to transfer to another handbag? And on that note...

Do you change your handbag each day to match your handbag?
	Yes. It's the only way to justify owning 26 of them.
	No. I'd lose my keys even more often that way.

Update: A big thanks to my friend Monica for clueing me into this purse organizer from the Container Store.

MSRP news

The same day that I posted my rave review of Last Call Neiman Marcus, I learn that the Supreme Court has overturned a 100-year-old law on the usage of the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), meaning that manufacturers will now have more power in forcing retailers to sell items at the price they want. The Budget Fashionista discusses how this may put a serious dent in shops like Last Call, who may no longer be able to sell discounted designer goods. Here's a view from USA Today, which concludes that this does not spell the end of off-price retailers.

Store review: Tahari Collection in Atlantic City

I am just full of store reviews these days, aren’t I? While out east for work and a wedding last weekend, my fiancé and I stole away to Atlantic City for a day. We did the usual AC activities: ate white pizza on the boardwalk, ambled through the cheesy casinos, dodged rickshaw drivers, crashed the Continental for lobster macaroni and cheese and, of course, went shopping.

One of the many reasons I’m marrying Brian is his endless willingness to sit in the Boyfriend Chair (usually stationed outside the women’s dressing room in a boutique) and let me attack the racks. He even took me to the Tropicana’s Quarter, an area of the casino that’s indoors but feels like it’s outdoors, with a sky-painted ceiling and towering fake palm trees. Here you’ll find the one-of-a-kind Tahari Collection, a surprising destination for sale-priced workwear in the most unlikeliest of settings. It’s not advertised as an outlet, but everything in the store is marked down at least 25 percent of MSRP, often much more. You’ll find skeins of corporate-friendly Tahari suits alongside the upper-crust Elie Tahari line, chock full of embroidered Mandarin collar blazers and full floral skirts. Many of the higher-end pieces still sell from $200 and up, but an entire table was draped with $12 tees and $50 sweater jackets. This is my second visit in a year, and last year the sales were comparable, so it’s not a fluke.

Bottom line: When your luck runs out at the slots, score something to wear on Monday here.

Store review: Neiman Marcus Last Call

One of the “perks” of my job as a communications consultant is frequent travel. For the last two months I’ve been making weekly trips to a client site near Philadelphia. Of course, logic requires that I make a shopping excursion or two to take advantage of tax-free clothing sales (it is, after all, like getting a 9 percent discount off of Chicago.) I found myself at the Franklin Mills outlet center, and then, in Neiman Marcus Last Call.

This is essentially the place clearance items from the regular stores go to die. Unlike Saks Off Fifth, however, the selection is excellent, both in terms of sizes available and attractiveness of styles. Very few offerings looked like reject dresses from Project Runway, and deals were to be had with an extra 30 percent off most of the store. Vivienne Tam silk chiffon cocktail dresses were $105 and a Rebecca Taylor separates ranged from $40 - $150, including this perfectly work-appropriate jacket for $80.

An abundance of Theory, Marc Jacobs and Elie Tahari overflowed from circular racks, though unlike Nordstrom Rack or Filene’s Basement there was some semblance of order. Handbag selection was a bit pricey and not expansive. And I didn’t feel like I was raiding grandma’s attic – the entire space was well-lit, well-staffed and overall a joy to experience.