I am on a powershopping mission to get together a solid, functional wardrobe for both summer and winter interviews, and also for wearing to work (whether I have to or not). I would love to have a skirt for summer, as both my current ones are winter skirts. I feel most confident going into interviews in a fabulous skirt. I look much better than I do in pants.

I am very fond of the idea of some kind of print--particularly a micro check, houndstooth, or plaid. As always, my budget is sort of suffocating. Express has exactly what I want, but they are all too expensive for me right now. I know these are meant to be "investment" pieces, but there are two reasons I don't really want to spend a lot:

1) I can't.
2) My body size and shape has been changing for years and I don't know when it's finally going to level off, so I would rather wait until it stabilizes a bit. I don't think most employers are expecting a just-out-of-school 20something graphic designer to show up in an immaculately tailored suit or anything anyway.

My best skirt silhouette is undoubtedly a pencil, but I'm not so sure about wearing pencil skirts in the summer. I'd prefer a more breathable option. I absolutely adore flounce/fluted skirts, and fell in love with this one, but the price and the fact that it was too long turned me away:

http://www.express.com/catalog.....goryId=424

I'll wear anything though. The only definite exclusion is anything that is very full, or has lots of pleats and gathers. Those kinds of skirts look awful on me.

I checked Zara and Mango and found nothing of the sort. What other stores would be good places to look?