I would suggest plain short sleeve t-shirt like blouses as long as they do not have a ribbed neckline. These used to be sold as Shells. The suggestions I have seen in the past included chemise no sleeve type tops but I prefer if I had to put a jacket on not to wear this type. Depending on how cool your office is kept when I was working I found long sleeved knit tops where I could push up the sleeves to 3/4 were best for me. Wally World used to have inexpensive types of all of these.

If you do not already have some I would suggest some light unlined jackets for summer not because your suit jackets are not fine but the unlined looks more casual. I used to have an array of linen look jackets that I wore during the summer the switched to the regular the rest of the year.

I dont like the idea of going to W world but i will look online.

I will not do sleeveless unless i am covered all day. i am

uncomfortable and in my profession it would be judged

Honestly, teying to be cheap but if anyone knows a structured blazer that would be great. i have several but lined and custom and hot!

Would something like this work? Good neckline for a jacket and the price is right. All cotton for comfort.

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/karen-scott-cotton-boat-neck-top-created-for-macys?ID=11317124&CategoryID=255&swatchColor=Intrepid%20Blue

Also from Macy's:

Another from Macy's...I like this one as it will feel like a t-shirt, but the satin trim on the neckline will make it look fancier and good under a jacket. Lots of colors to choose.

https://www.macys.com/shop/product/alfani-satin-trim-high-low-t-shirt-in-regular-petite-created-for-macys?ID=11333755&CategoryID=255&swatchColor=Cream%20Beige

Garnet HIll is having a summer sale right now. They have a variety of prices on their sale items, some within your price range.

https://www.garnethill.com/womens-fashion/tops-tees/?rows=36&rangeFactesDefVal=unbxd_prime_facet_price%3A16TO149

Talbots has some linen blazers you might want to check out.

Talbots has 40% off everything this weekend...

Haveyou tried the outlet/factory versions of Loft, Banana Republic, Ann Taylor? Different selection and much lower prices.

Annie, the patterened one would be good!

I will check out Garnet Hill!

i will have to check out Talbots, I can hit a store and an outlet within a couple miles!

I like UNIQLO. Link, HERE

I order 4 or 5 every Spring...a few for DH. After a few years they are comfortable for gardening, around town, and over a light t-shirt. Wash well but the pure linen does need a quick steam iron to clean up the collar. Very light weight fabric. But sturdy. Good quality. I steal DH's old big baggy ones for weekends, yard work and walks.

If you go to talbots, they have the simple cotton short sleeved tees in a whole bunch of colors...look great under a jacket yet cool and comfortable.

I do shop the outlets eld. I have some custom suiting and then a wardrobe that runs the gamut in cost. I have gotten some of my biggest complements from a piece from a discount store.

I was fortunate enough to not to ever truly worry over money but when i was in college my father was ready for me to learn to live on a budget. I dressed from kmart and army surplus mixed with the higher end stuff i was used to.

I am a bit restricted by my industry now.

Thank you sleevendog! some sites worry me to click on. I have seen pop ups from them before. another site i frequent has pop ups of gorgeous pieces but seems the name of the sites changes.

Anne, I actually meant online. Much more merchandise than in the store. Bonus if you can directly return to the stores.

I am a petite and the selection is so limited in the stores.

While I primarily shop online now, I get irritated with the sites that arent easy to navigate. I have something to return for hubby near both Talbots so I might stop in.

LandsEnd

Mdln i like the 3/4 sleeve, do you know how the fit is for busty girls?

Anyone buy untucked?

That said I like something more feminine most days.

the button down would be good to have though

I have a couple of lightweight Tees from Old Navy (like those above, they don't scream T Shirt) that I wear under jackets or cardigans. The necklines are neither high nor low - just below the collarbones. They worked well on my last overseas trip because they were cool enough for the warm to hot days, but with the cardigan or jacket were good too.

I hope that Old Navy (or maybe one of the sister stores) still has the same quality and style.

I have a number of the Croft & Barrow line of t-shirts at Kohls. They are inexpensive, but not screaming "cheap!" and come in solids and patterns, both in petite and regular sizes. Uniqlo is also good, particularly for smaller people.

In the old days, I used to wear the button front shirts, but in later years, they made me feel too 'masculine' almost like a wannabe. I associate that more with the 80s when women were trying to make it. In later years, I felt like we had made it as women and can be proud of the fact that we don't have to copy the men to be successful. (Even though we still have to know how to pee standing up!)

I have some sleeveless old navy shirts which work inder a sweater and have a pretty pattern, i cant (wont) sit in my office with bare arms. i do have better t shirts as as suggested but guess i want t shirt feel with professionial look.

I like a button down, one of my most complimented tops is one from Target, but even unfit seems to gap on my chest. Anyone had success with Amazon or Coldwater? i hate shopping

Office casual and "professional" casual are not the same. I think what annie posted would not be considered professional casual attire, it's too informal. What mdln shows, with properly appropriate top and bottom pieces, would be.

Where I am we have a lot of tech, and everything has gone really casual. My go to is a pair of simple slacks and a top. Something like this - https://www.chicos.com/store/product/sandwashed+dolman+knit+top/570287515?color=5291&catId=sale. You could throw a jacket over it, or be fine as is.

Anne, I was always careful not to wear a button front shirt when I was giving a presentation...or if I did, it was always with a long scarf. I learned the hard way about the gap... fortunately it was a button around my middle, not across the boobs, but still, never again.

Naturally, I disagree with elmer...the shirts I posted under a jacket would look absolutely professional...and without the jacket for when there are no clients around, are no less professional than a man in shirt sleeves without his jacket...this coming from one who worked for over 30 years in a professional office environment.

Please share what your experience is with professional dress in the world of major organizations (whether public or private sector) and employers. Not business casual, but professional casual dress.

lynda, when I think of "professional" casual dress, I'm thinking of outsiders calling on customers, clients, or potential ones. Lawyers, subject matter advisors, consultants of whatever kind, financial advisors, professional sales persons calling on major accounts, etc., In that context, the outfit in the Chico's link is, to me, not close to being professional dress. Note that the same top in a different color is shown with blue jeans. The cut is wrong, the sleeves are wrong, the look is wrong. Perhaps with a buttoned blazer on top it would be better (because it would be hidden) but that outfit is WAAY too casual.

I have no need nor desire to defend my position to you by describing my personal or professional experience. (You have thrown this challenge at me before and it's getting tiresome.) You don't have decades of experience in the diplomatic service with intimate knowledge of fashion etiquette rules around the world any more than I do. You have never been a female professional achieving success in a male-dominated business environment. I have. And I've dressed the female body far more often in my 60+ years on this earth than you have.

I find your presumption, regardless of subject, that your say so is superior to that of anyone else's -- especially mine -- is just imperiousness, coming from someone who doesn't know his macronutrients from his micronutrients or his chi-square from his t-test. Moreover, arguing with someone who values personal opinions, especially his own, over citations of credentialed experts is not worth my time.

Elmer, you will just have to accept that we disagree.

Peace be with you.

I’ve hesitated to assume too much about the OP’s comment of “professional” business casual but I’ll continue to assume that’s the context.

My large professional services firm worked in an environment where most staff spent a considerable amount of time working at client sites. Some almost exclusively. We needed to dress just a touch better than clients' personnel because of our professional relationship with them.

My office had a yearly intake of (as I recall) nearly 100 new hires, recent grads with Bachelors and Masters degrees. Well educated and bright but not necessarily ready to hit the real world of our business. They went through a one week new hire orientation, a few hours of which were presented by an image consultant offering guidance for professional conduct, demeanor, and PROPER DRESS. During the dress session, about a dozen existing staff members (given prior guidance about what to wear for their participation) were presented to model do’s and don’t’s of proper dress. Attendees were given a crib sheet with key points to remember.

For a number of years, I was one of the partners on what we called the “Dress Code Patrol”. Keeping an eye on the appropriateness of what our people wore on the job. Calling aside those who fell short of our expectations to explain why what they may be wearing was inappropriate. The newer hires commanded the most attention, some were slow to fill their closets with what they needed to wear for their professional, well paid employment. On my part, the task of keeping staff in-bounds required having a certain popularity (and respect) from them overall and a sense of humor. The females typically required more attention than the males because for the males, if told they needed to wear clean and pressed decent slacks and a shirt with a collar, and throw on a jacket when meeting with higher-ups, you're done.

That’s my experience with the topic.

@Elmer J Fudd Was this recently? What part of the country?

I started my professional career in the early 90s at a Big 4 Professional services firm and what you described in the first paragraph was part of our new hire onboarding. Back then, professional dress was a matching skirt suit, pantyhose and closed toe pumps. Within about 5 years of starting, that all changed, and continues to trend more casual.

Where I am, which is a beach community and more informal than other parts of the US, the only people who dress that way are sales people and bank tellers. I donated all my suits about 15 years ago. Some of them were beautiful, but I never wore them, and would look out of place if I did. I have spent my career in finance as a CFO, senior financial exec or financial consultant. I consult full time now, and as such am frequently in my client's offices in a professional capacity. My client base varies from the fortune 500/multinationals to small start ups and they are all very casual. I aim to dress just slightly more formally than the rest of the office.

Exactly, a Big 4 firm's Silicon Valley office. Without dwelling on the suit era, when we shifted to business casual, suits (for men and women) other than board meetings, panty hose, prescribing specific kinds of shoes (other than to avoid athletic shoes or too casual styles), all went out the window.

From my perspective, business casual (or less) started here in the mid-80s, in startups with engineering grad students from Stanford and elsewhere wearing as little as gym shorts and flops. The President of one of my clients at the time, when someone came to a meeting wearing a tie, would leave the room and come back with a paper cutter to cut the tie in half.

Older companies (of the HP ilk) and those in the semiconductor sector remained conservative (dress code-wise) and evolved more slowly and settled at higher standards. From what I saw in my firm, the practice spread east from California in the late 80s and early 90s.

Being a one off consultant like you describe Lynda, leaving home for a meeting, is different than the sometimes van-load of people we (and others) could show up with at a client site at short notice. Not at the lowest staff level but you can appreciate that we were on call - a phone call could come for an unscheduled meeting with a CEO, or CFO, a VC or a board member, and we couldn't walk in and say "sorry, I didn't expect to see you today". I kept a jacket in my car trunk and probably needed to grab it at least once a week for an unexpected meeting. Yes, I was a partner, and subject to a higher standard, but directors/managers and senior staff also needed to be ready to tick up their appearance in the middle of the day. The funny thing is, the pendulum swung back a bit because in the early 2000s, business casual seemed to become a bit more dressy and less casual. I think it has remained there.

While Silicon Valley has always been a wild and crazy place, it's not a beach community. I'm from SoCal originally, have a second home and spend a lot of time there. I agree that "off-duty" casual dress practices in SoCal, far removed from the business world, are much more casual than in the Bay Area. And so too, in a business setting.

I will chime in what Elmer was stating was true for the parts of the financial sector but not all of the world is in the financial sector. In other industries shortly after business casual became a thing men seemed to adopt light colored khaki or grey/gray slacks, blazers, but still wore a buttoned shirt although open at the neck. During the rest of the week it was business suits with matching slacks and jackets. Waistcoats were preferred but if not worn jackets were kept buttoned except at desks. The only concession to women was that they could wear flats if they wanted to advance. If they did not want to advance or knew they were not on that track which was most women in an office dresses were acceptable. In offices there are always those who are either hired to be worker bees and as long as they looked acceptable they did not have to wear the suits that those who were on the advancement track unless they had to meet the public. I would suspect 80-90% of office workers are of this type. Elmer was of that 10% or higher and probably never noticed or interacted with those of not similar status nor if in a building with several companies noticed what other people were wearing other than to look down at them for not being professional at all times.

Since many of the companies in this area were very civic minded they spearheaded the casual Friday's as part of their social responsibility. They pushed dressing in less than a professional manner especially after energy conservation practices were pushed where ac temperatures were raised. Some companies pushed employees to donate to various charities to horrors wear jeans on certain days and would match whatever was collected.

I'm not sure about the "look down" insult that wasn't necessary but you're describing a different environment than I was in. Even back in the suit days, coats were almost always removed in one's office or workspace except if cold. Or at client meetings. That was true even when I worked in Europe during that era. No one was so superficial or petty as to consider an individual's career goals by the type of shoes they wore.

As far as "office workers", I thought I'd been clear that our business had us working at client locations, sometimes multiple ones each day, and we needed to dress as well or better than they did themselves.

Fridays were not "casual" but "dress down". Unless going to a client location that didn't observe this, jeans (without holes) and more casual attire were all acceptable.

Why does a thread posted by a woman about where to shop for her wardrobe digress into a pontification about some random guy's career and his expertise to decide what she and other women should wear? Seems to happen a lot around here. And we all know what it's called.

What attracted my attention was the posting of images that I thought were not appropriate "professional" attire. What it's called is conversation.

Everyone is entitled to post their opinions and experiences, including you with this one. Everyone and anyone can also, at their own option, pass on by conversations they have nothing to contribute to or don't find interesting. Including you with this one.

I think each workplace is different and has various degrees of what is considered appropriate.

OP agreed with Annie about that the tops she posted could work in her environment.

Elmer, I wonder if the rules you presented still hold true. Do they still have fashion police patroling the newbies?

Apparently I should have translated what "office workers" were because it was apparently not understood that those were the people who were not on the management ladder. Of course it was not the environment that someone was in but the environment that most people who worked in office buildings were since they were not in or ever expected to be in management.

I am a professional. I believe things had already changed before COVID and have changed during.

I have appreciated the suggestions and they all would work as long as I have a jacket and with some a scarf and heela to put on before seeing a client.

eld, we took great care to look and act professionally and with appropriate dignity. Not stuffy (that needed to be avoided too) but professionally appropriate. I'm retired and haven't been in the office in a few years but I can't imagine that today's new joiners in their first professional positions have any better judgement about their dress than they did awhile ago. Fortunately, with all wanting to do well, there was never any pushback or challenge to a gentle and friendly observation. It was why I was asked to do it, I always got on well with staff, especially female ones.

maifleur, more of the "that wasn't my experience and so you're wrong" attitude. Our administrative staff, who didn't go to client offices, were also expected to dress professionally, a notch or two above how their counterparts at clients would dress, because clients came into the office for meetings. We had upper level management and partners who worked in strictly administrative roles spent solely in our office so your "didn't expect to be in management" comment is also off the mark. Just as at a large law firm, presenting a professional appearance was part of the culture for everyone.