a six-figure suit

In spring a young woman's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of cold hard cash. As in, am I currently making enough of it, and if not, where can I get more of it. I've asked myself these questions (even though, yes, it's still not spring). The answers have led me, in a roundabout way, to the conclusion that I need a suit.

The prospect of job-hunting has made obvious the lack of a suit in my wardrobe. I mean, I have suits. I don't have a Suit. My suits are vintage, adorable, and make me look like something you'd chase around a desk. They were fine when I was a spunky young kid just eager to find work. They say dress for the job you want, and I no longer want just any old job. It's time to get me a Big Girl Suit. One that makes me look like I'm in charge of something. A six-figure suit.

I found two suits I liked. First I looked at Nordstrom, thinking of their reputation for good service and tailoring pretty much anything under the sun. I assumed something timeless would be right up their alley. I found their selection of 30-40 non-interchangeable suits disappointing. There was only one suit I liked and even that one hardly screams "CEO" at me. It looks more like something a bank teller or real estate agent would wear.

J. Crew is a little better. Nordstrom's jackets had an average of one option as to what you could pair them with. J. Crew's suits mostly offer two cuts of pants and a pencil skirt. They also offer two choices of jacket in most of the suit families, albeit two jackets indistinguishable aside from the number of buttons. I found a few I liked enough, but only one jumped out at me. And when I looked at the zoomed-in image, the fabric looked a little iffy.

So this brings me to a question, which is why aren't women's suits taken as seriously as men's? Why so few options as far as the notching of the collar, the shape and number of pockets, the cut of the pants? And seriously, what about the fake pockets, and the buttons that don't actually button anything?

It's almost.. gee. It's almost like they expect us the buy a new suit each time fashion changes, and not use it for anything practical in the meantime. Think I'm overreacting? Then why does Nordstrom have skinny pants in their suiting department?

I find this all really disappointing, as what I wanted was a classic suit. One made of lovely fine wool with an exceptionally careful cut, painstaking craftsmanship, and lines that will still look decent a decade from now. Now I'm feeling a bit gun-shy. If these suits are made to comply with the trendy dictates of fast fashion, how are they going to hold up? And if they can't be relied upon to hold up, what's the point of dropping $600 on one?

I'm tempted to think that vintage suits are the only decent women's suits out there.