Hi Ladies,
Thought I would pick your collective style brains and experience on this one.
I am on the hunt for a pants suit, likely dark grey. I do not wear a suit to work, but do occasionally wish I had one for attending evening work-talks in restaurants. Use as an interview suits has been infrequent although I just recently went through an unexpected burst of interviews as I needed to switch jobs, thus the suit issue snuck up on me.Thankfully I had some separates that made do but it wasn't as up to snuff as I would like feeling on such an important day. NOw that income is somewhat steady again I think I should secure a suit for the future.
What I would like is a pants suit that can easily function as separates, which is how I will most use it.My suits in the past were Ann Taylor(my favorite shirt suit, but sold it three years ago when I left work to stay at home for a while) and LeSuit from a department store.They were very classic and didn't work well as separates for some reason(think it was an odd waistband on the skirts). Ann Taylor now doesn't suit my style very much, but will check them out again since they seem to be going through a bit of style revival. Banana Republic is more my speed, but I am also curious about Jcrew. Any thoughts on the suit collections from these lines how they stand up to wear and do they function well as individual pieces?

Thanks! I know there was a prior post on suits in general but figured I would check in for recent thoughts on these two specific lines...