Where To Find Career Wear (Part Four)

In this installment, I'm going to discuss mail order/home shopping.

Certainly, you can order over the internet anything from brick and mortar chains like Banana Republic.com, AnnTaylor.com, Nordstrom.com, Bloomingdales.com, etc. But I'm going to focus on retailers that offer things through the mail/home delivery exclusively.

QVC--QVC has for years had a great selection of reasonably-priced, well-made clothes for work in every size from 0 to 3X. Its best deals come from its own labels like the casual Denim & Co. or the career-y Dialogue line. Occasionally a "big name" comes along to promote a line and the nice thing about is that 1) it's often your only opportunity to find something in your size from that brand and 2) during the showcase is when you often get the best deals. QVC also offers FlexPay plans from time to time so you don't have to pay more than $30 a month on the item. QVC is also very easy to deal with concerning returns and exchanges.

HSN--Home Shopping Network doesn't have as many career-oriented wear as QVC, but if you work someplace casual, it does have some interesting clothes that are often exclusive to the network. For example, HSN just started carrying an exclusive line by a former designer from True Religion and unlike TR, tweener sizes are available. Like QVC, HSN is pretty good about returns and exchanges. Installment pay plans are also available on some products.

Spiegel--This old warhorse of misses' wear has long been one of the friendliest retailers to tweeners around. The clothes are womanly, not girly. They're with the times without being outrageously trendy. They're not too edgy but they're not stodgy either. The quality is excellent, the prices are reasonable, and the sales are pretty good. Of course, once you order something from Spiegel, you're on their mailing list for life.

Newport News--"Younger" than Spiegel's main catalogue and a little bit cheaper, Newport News is another option for the tweener set. Newport News can overdose on the animal prints, appliques, and weird cutouts, but the quality is high and the sales can offer great deals.