I am the proud daughter of a hard-working mom who was once a hard-working single mom, way back when. My mom has always been and always will be my number one role model: ambitious, kind, generous, understanding, and with an amazing ability to balance her work life with taking care of her family.

The other day, I received an email about Spiegel, and it took me right back to my pre-teen years, when I used to sit on my bed and flip through my mom’s Spiegel catalog. I remember one Spiegel outfit in particular that my mom bought and wore to work as an Administrative Assistant at a hotel in the 80s: It was a color-blocked sweater and skirt set, teal on the top half of the sweater and black on the bottom, with a black skirt. Later, I inherited (or stole from her closet) the sweater.

My mom relied on Spiegel back then to enhance her professional image as she climbed the ladder from waitress to Admin Assistant [to a bunch of jobs I can't remember] to HR Service Center Manager for one of the world’s leading specialty chemical companies.

As much as we say image isn’t important (or at least it shouldn’t be), clothes give us the confidence we sometimes need to do our jobs well and to grab the attention we deserve for it.

Looking through catalogs is still something I love to do from time to time, but online shopping is now my preferred method of seeing new styles I can recreate myself. So the other day, I spent a little time on the Spiegel website and found a few outfits I would feel confident (yet also comfortable) wearing at work.

How cute is this one?

The pants, shoes, bag, and sweater are all from Spiegel; even better, they are all currently on sale. The sweater is $34, as are the pants. The pumps are $59, and the bag is $109. All of the items are versatile enough that I would get a lot of wear from them over the years.

Do you have a favorite outfit, whether you wear it to work or not, that makes you feel confident?

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Spiegel, but all opinions are mine.