Not a Blogger: A Corporate Fashun Blog

The Real Working Girls here at Not a Corporate Fashun Blog strive to provide our readers with helpful advice.  While we often will link to products that we haven’t purchased, those recommendations are thoroughly vetted prior to posting in order to ensure that we’re recommending products that we personally would use and/or buy.  However, there are instances where we’re just not comfortable recommending products based upon assumptions alone.  Today’s workout gear review is one of those instances.  Why? Because we’re discussing running underwear which, if you read Katie 2’s post about chafing , you know that proper running underwear is key to preventing chafing, especially when training for a long distance race.   Workout underwear is one of those products that you really don’t know how it’s going to perform until you try it.  This is why we came up with a pretty scientific method of trying different brands although our ultimate recommendation is based ...

One of the perks of working in banking is that we get all of the federal holidays off work (Columbus Day and Presidents' Day, we're looking at you) which is awesome.  One of the pitfalls of working in banking is that the Friday after Thanksgiving isn't an automatic day off, which is totally fine given that we've got 10 other federal holidays off.  Plus, most people take that Friday off anyway, so it's a great day to be at the office, especially if you need an excuse not to travel.   Hopefully you're out shopping while we're at work.  We realize that literally other fashun blog has some sort of breakdown of Black Friday sales to the point of being overwhelming.  You're not going to find that here because honestly, we're not super into Black Friday shopping anyway (too many crowds, the deals often aren't that good, the crowds).  However, we did want to point out a few of the sales that we will be shopping.  Here's our very curated list:  ...

If you live in a warmer climate, you may never understand the struggle of finding the right winter boots. Here in the Midwest, we need boots to wear when we have somewhere to go and won't be able to change our shoes and therefore need them to look presentable. We need a pair that will withstand a blizzard. And we need boots that we can wear after the blizzard when the snow is melting, the whole world is wet, and we are waiting for the next snow storm.  Those in more temperate zones may be able to get away with the basic bitch standard Hunter boot with a pair of wool liners. In fact, that was the #1 recommendation Katie 2 heard when she first moved to Chicago back in 2011. But for many reasons , that is just not a viable option, least of all being that her feet were frozen after just 10 minutes outside. Fear not! We are here to offer you plenty of options to fulfill all your winter booting needs.  Boots That You Can Pretend Aren't Sorel is the gold standard wh...

Congratulations! For whatever reason you’re hosting your first major holiday.  That’s exciting or terrifying or super stressful or something.  However you’re feeling, go you! You can do this, with our help of course.  On Friday we posted Part 1 of this guide written by Katie 1.  Now it’s time for Part 2 - Holiday Prep. Part 2 - Holiday Dinner Prep: So, you’ve taken our advice and planned your menu well in advance. It includes the perfect balance of pre-made, make ahead, and make day-of dishes. It’s traditional yet modern. That’s a huge chunk of your holiday preparation, so way to go.  Now you’re probably starting to freak out about all of the shit you have to do in order to make that menu happen.  It’s cool.  It happens.  This is a totally normal reaction. Part 2 of this guide helps you turn that meltdown into a seamless holiday experience.  As you know from Part 1 of this guide, in planning my menu for Thanksgiving, I took ti...

Congratulations! For whatever reason you’re hosting your first major holiday.  That’s exciting or terrifying or super stressful or something.  However you’re feeling, go you! You can do this, with our help of course.  As we’ve discussed in the past, Katie 1 is our resident Ina Garten and has a number of successful holiday hosting experiences under her belt (Hanukkah, a small thrown together Thanksgiving, Christmas) and has generously decided to share her wealth of knowledge with you, our dear readers in the form of this 2 part holiday hosting guide.  Hopefully it’s helpful. Part 1 of this guide will focus on menu prep.  Part 2 will focus on holiday prep (i.e. the cleaning, shopping, decorating, table setting, etc.). Part 1 - Holiday menu prep: I love food.  I love to cook.  When it comes to planning and prepping my holiday menus, most of my menu planning work is reducing the number of dishes I want to make.  Thus, I start planning...

Readers, today we offer you the start of yet another blog series. [Elizabeth believes that it is not really considered a series unless it occurs at a regular interval. Katie 2 disagrees. In reality, it probably doesn’t matter.] We want to talk to you about those basic pieces that we come back to again and again that are the foundation of any working girl’s wardrobe. We want to show you how to wear basic a bunch of ways and where to find them ( In this post Katie 2 said you should invest in classic pieces  so they last, and Katie 2 knows what she's talking about. When it comes to the pieces we feature in this series, we believe you should invest in the best you can afford.) Because we want to be realistic when it comes to the advice we give in this blog, you will see us use the basics we feature in this series again and again (take THAT stupid bitchy bloggers who wear something once because they got it c/o and then never wear it again/dumb bitches who wear something  super tr...

Remember when Katie 2 ran the half marathon ? In our effort to bring you real advice from real women, Katie 2 wanted to take some time to give you some #truth. Ready? Running sucks. There- I said it. I don't care how many songs you listen to, or how many great views you see, or how you get a runner's high when you're done. (I call BS on the runner's high thing, BTW. But that rant is for another day.) Running is tedious. And it makes your toe nails gross. And it hurts. Besides the aching legs, your back hurts, your feet hurt. Oh. And the chafing. (Katie 1 disagrees that running sucks. She finds it relaxing and a good way to clear her head. But she agrees about the toe nails and chafing. That shit is real.) (Katie 2 would like to point out that the above statement from Katie 1 is why she wasn't allowed to write the post on running a half marathon, because she's not normal.) Back in the day, I used to run. I got up there in the mileage, and I never had any...

As some of you may have noticed, we don't post every day.  Some weeks we post MWF and other weeks it's TF, which usually works out pretty well in terms of content planning because this isn't our full time job (and if it were, we'd be really bad at it because this blog makes us no money). It also allows us flexibility in terms of posting on non-regularly scheduled days, like today.  What makes today so special as to warrant a post you may ask?  Today is proof that we live by the advice we provide in this blog and recommend items that we actually own and/or would purchase with our own money.  In fact, Katie 1's work attire today is the combination of 5 of our prior posts as shown in the picture below.   Let's start with her cardigan, shall we? If it looks familiar it's because it's the Kirkland Signature Merino Wool cardigan we recommended in our Sweater Weather post yesterday.  Those booties? We recommended a similar pair in our discussion of Fall...

The time is upon us! There are a million ways we could divide up our recommendations for you today, but we've decided to go with just a few that are realistic needs for working women. That being said, we think everyone should invest in (at least a few) great cashmere sweaters. You don't have to spend an arm and a leg, either. Neiman Marcus Last Call and Lands' End ( yes, we really do love it ) offer some of the best cashmere for your buck. Wear to Work:  Because this is kind of the whole point of the blog... This might be the best recommendation we have for you. It's a completely basic crew neck sweater that is 100% cashmere. Oh, and it 's only $100. And it comes in 13 colors. Seriously. It doesn't get much better.  Katie 2 LOVES a turtleneck. She loved them in the late 80s and early 90s under her oversized sweaters and she loves them now. We don't like to recommend obvious places to shop, but Banana has been doing the classic turtleneck for years ...

Some of our most popular posts have involved how much we spend on shit.  In THIS post we discussed how much we spend on skincare.  In THIS post we discussed how much we spend on make-up and in THIS post we discussed how much we spend on working out.  Since apparently you find this stuff interesting (or really like to judge us), we’ve decided to come back for another installment of how much we spend on stuff, this time tackling hair care. Katie 1: I’m not one of those ladies who can get out of bed, shower, and wash her hair and go.  Like me, my hair isn’t that well behaved and it takes a lot of stuff to tame the beast (or at least not anger it). Naturally, my hair is a weird wavy/curly mix that isn’t uniform so when it dries naturally it just looks bad. As a result, whether I wear it straight or curly I always have to style it. Thus, I spend a lot of money on hair care products.  Let’s dive into what I use, shall we? Shampoo and Condit...

We're back with more Shoes Every Woman Needs : Recommendations. Up next on this Shoes Day Tuesday are black pumps. Katie 2 is very happy that we are going back to the top of the list, and hopes that we can proceed through the remainder of the list in order. But the real reason we are doing black pumps next isn't because of Katie 2's neurosis, but really because black pumps are the most basic and therefore sometimes the hardest to find. And, because you wear them all the time they will probably have to be replaced the most often (even if you do follow up on the regular shoe maintenance and shoe repair tips we've given you). We would like to note before we get started that some of the n ude  pumps we recommended   a re also available in black. We refer you to that post for many more options, but here we will attempt to highlight different shoes and designers than we did in the Nude Recommendations and Shoes Every Woman Needs posts.  Without further ado, her...