Building a work wardrobe: Loft & Ann Taylor

Over the past year, I've been building up the professional side of my wardrobe, as some presentations and events require business formal / business casual clothing. Full time recruitment also starts this month until the end of my program next May, so having outfits on hand is quite important. Usually, for business clothing I hit up Banana Republic when they have their 40% off sales online/in-store. However BR stocks a pretty mediocre selection of summer tops, so what I get from them are mostly the button down shirts and tailored pants.

Due to my petite stature (I'm almost but not quite 5 ft), I've been frequenting petite fashion blogs, and as a lot of them frequently mentioned Ann Taylor and Loft clothing in their posts my interest was piqued. These brands unfortunately do not have stores in Canada, but I visited their stores 2 weeks ago during my trip to NYC. At full price, the clothes are pretty expensive, so its too bad my trip wasn't long enough (or timed adequately) to make use of online coupon codes. However I was able to visit the Niagara Falls outlets in Buffalo when driving back to Toronto, and discovered some great finds at the Loft Factory Store and Ann Taylor Factory Store.

Loft had a wide selection of things that were 25% to 40% off. At this time my selection of professional looking tops consists of mostly boring button down shirts so I wanted to get some nice tanks for a change. I ended up picking up two tanks, both 25% off, with some interesting crease detailing around the neckline.

Grey and red floral tank in their petites sizing.





Purple tank, regular sizing. You can see above that it is slightly wider and about 1-1.5 inches longer than the petite version, but since I plan to tuck these blouses in anyway the longer length is almost a bonus, as it will stay tucked in better. Some XS tops tend to have armholes that are too big but these were still almost like the XSP so no issues there.





At Ann Taylor they had 40% off on many items, which was great since their prices were a bit higher than Loft's. This time I picked a burgundy tank with chiffon flower details, and navy blue butterfly sleeve top. Both are darker colours but they seemed fitting for fall.









As Loft is also made by Ann Taylor, there is minimal differences in sizing. When comparing the same size tanks (regular, not petites) both are almost the same, with maybe <1cm longer length on the Ann Taylor top.



Hopefully Loft and Ann Taylor will eventually make their way to Canada, or at least their factory stores, because I really like the style and quality of these tops!