Dress For Success 

🗓️ April 3, 2026

✍🏾 Isabelle Hector

Coming to college as a freshman, I was unaware of how important it was to have a suit or two in my closet or even just a pair of slacks and a button-up. Whether it’s for class, a career fair, or just a networking event, it’s important that you have the tools necessary to dress for success. Knowing what I do know, I would like to give some recommendations of where to find business professional and business casual clothing.

1. JCPenney

During my Freshman Year when I needed a suit at the last minute, JCPenney came in clutch. JCPenney offers a wide variety of business professional pieces at different prices based on your budget. The two suit brands I have purchased from JCPenney are Worthington and Liz Claiborne. With Blazers starting at $80 for both brands, but currently on sale for half the price this easter weekend(perfect time to re-up on business professional and casual before the summer), and suits pants for Worthington and Liz Claiborne starting at $54. Both brands are perfect for starting your suit collection at a pretty reasonable price. The link for both brands is down below. Worthington:https://www.jcpenney.com/s?searchType=Predictive+Search&searchTerm=Worthington+pants+women&predSearchTerm=worthing 

LizClaiborne:https://www.jcpenney.com/s?searchType=Predictive+Search&searchTerm=Liz+Claiborne+pants&predSearchTerm=liz+cl 

2. Express

This store is a bit more costly but offers both business professional and business casual clothes with a bit more flair. Their editor pants which have different colors & different styles such as bootcut, flare, straight ankle, and skinny start at $88 and are currently on sale. I personally love and own the wide-leg pants, but I would recommend going in-store for sizing and seeing which style you like best. Their Portofino button-up starts at $50, also on sale is a pretty popular option for button-ups amongst women. For the men, their suit pants start as high as $128 but are on sale this weekend for up to 30%-70% off. Their blazers for men start as high as $298, but similar to the pants are on sale this weekend for up to %30-70% off. The links for both the men's and women's sections is down below. Women's: https://www.express.com/womens-clothing/wear-to-work/cat1910076 Men’s: https://www.express.com/mens-clothing/suiting/suit-ensembles/cat2430045 

3. Macys

Macy’s offers suits from brands like Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and DKNY, offering different styles for different tastes. These suit blazers range from prices as low as $89 to as high as $135, making Macy’s the priciest option on this list. The pants start as low as $80 to as high as $129.These suits are definitely the perfect statement pieces to wear when stepping into your post-grad jobs, but are definitely out of my budget for right now, at least. The link for these suits is down below. Women's Suits: https://www.macys.com/shop/womens/clothing/suits/pants?id=33928