Washable Workwear Wednesday: Bella Side-Drape Dress

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A woman wearing a Bella Side-Drape Dress.I have not noticed this dress before, but Talbots has it in a zillion different colors and prints at the moment: meet the Bella side-drape dress. It’s machine washable (line dry), comes in regular, petite, plus, and plus size petites, and ranges in price from $62-$149. The pictured dress, in “forest fern,” (pictured in the plus size version), looks great and is only $62-$69 — nice. Bella Side-Drape Dress Looking for other washable workwear? See all of our recent recommendations for washable clothes for work, or check out our roundup of the best brands for washable workwear. If you are interested in plus size workwear, please sign up for CorporettePlus, our newsletter! Signing up helps us gauge interest in the project, and we promise not to blast your email more than once a week at most. (Right now it’s more like once a month.) (L-all)

Sales of note for 2/14/25 (Happy Valentine’s Day!):

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

  • Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
  • Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase — and extra 60% off sale
  • Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + 15% off (readers love their suiting as well as their silky shirts like this one)
  • Boden – 15% off new season styles
  • Eloquii – 300+ styles $25 and up
  • J.Crew – 40% of your purchase – prices as marked
  • J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site and storewide + extra 50% off clearance
  • Rothy’s – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – Flash sale ending soon – markdowns starting from $15, extra 70% off all other markdowns (final sale)

And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interestworking mom questions asked by the commenters!

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I have been sick for close to three months straight. It has been a string of things one after another, all appropriately treated, but it is really wearing on me. Our team is slammed with work right now, and I have been getting all kinds of cr@p about being out intermittently (at the doctor’s office or home with a fever) and inefficient. I have not shared all the details with my team, but they know enough to know that I have been legitimately ill. Now our team lead is freaking out because he is leaving the country and has asked me to cover two conferences while he is gone, so I won’t be in the office to keep other projects moving. I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I am completely out of PTO, so I can’t just take a few days off to rest and recover. At home, my family has lost patience and I can’t just skip cooking dinner and checking homework so I can go to bed early. I am just so freaking tired. Any tips for getting through this?

Somewhat akin to the FMLA question above… My company offers fully paid parental leave for all employees that have been with the company for more than a year. The leave must be used within the baby’s first 6 months of life.

I’m not eligible for the paid leave immediately upon my child’s birth because I’ll be employed less than a year, but I’ll hit my 1 year date before the baby is six months. She’ll already be in a daycare center, and although we could hold the spot with 1/2 tuition, there’s no need for me to be full time caretaker. In theory I could just sleep for a few weeks! That just seems lazy, though. More likely I would do short days at daycare and also take my older child on special outings. Would you take extra leave after coming back from maternity leave (10ish weeks planned) for a few months? I feel like it’s a crappy thing to do to my office, but I also hate to leave a benefit like that on the table. If your coworker or subordinate did this, what would you think? Be brutally honest.

For all of you more experienced with this and without baby brain…. So I have just learned that my office runs FMLA by its leave year, which happens to restart in the middle of my anticipated maternity leave. Unless I’m reading the law wrong, this means I can stack FLMA, correct? So if I am out for 10 weeks and the office’s FMLA year then resets, I get 12 more on the back end? Can that possibly be right? When I met with HR, they told me I only get 12 weeks maternity.

Need toy suggestions for charity Christmas box. We’ve committed to buying 5 toys for girls ages 2-4 and 5 toys for boys ages 5-9. Looking to spend about $15 per toy. Also these are being shipped overseas so preferably: (1) smallish; (2) no batteries; and (3) not too US-centric. I’ve put play-doh, crayons, and drawing paper in my Amazon cart for the 2-4 yos (my two year olds are super into drawing and play-doh). But anything else for that age range? What about the 5-9 yo?

File this in the “I am happy I am not her (i.e., me)” category…. I could use some moral support, or at least someone to tell me I will be OK. And this isn’t something that I am comfortable talking to my real life friends about yet.

This morning I found out I am pregnant. Definitely was not planned, in fact was taking BC pill… I may not have taken it at exactly the same time every morning, and I honestly can’t even remember if I missed any days and doubled up this month, but nothing out of the ordinary (I have been on the pill for 10+ years). Had this happened three months ago, I probably would not have cared. I had been dating someone for over 2 years, I am 33, I have a stable job, supportive family, etc. BUT… My said boyfriend literally broke up with me between the time I must have gotten pregnant and today. We have been talking some still over the past 1.5 weeks, but seriously….what a mess and unbelievable timing! I haven’t even told him yet that I am pregnant (I will, soon – he is out of town on a work trip until Friday). Do I wait until this weekend? Call him today?

I am not even sure what the best case scenario is here in my mind. I don’t want a child to make him feel obligated to get back together. I love him dearly, but I also don’t even know if I WANT to get back together. But at the same time, how on earth am I going to raise a child by myself??? (I know, I know, plenty of people do it….I am just a little overwhelmed at the moment.)

Getting ready for 2nd baby — any recommendations on how to prepare? The first time around I feel like we did all the classes (prenatal yoga, hipnobirthing, breastfeeding, baby care, etc. etc.) and this time I just haven’t had the time or energy. Any suggestions on which classes I should take as a refresher, or good ways to prep for a second birth? Is it not necessary having been through it already? I do plan to have a doula and will have a couple of prep sessions with her.

CorporettePlus – thanks Kat!