CONFESSIONS: Whole Foods

Fair warning: this post is all over the place. Each season, I always have a wishlist, rather a checklist, of items that I want to get. Some I'll thrift, some I'll casually eBay snipe or order offline and others I'll have to throw down the money to nab.

For spring, I was inspired by these three looks. 

• Summer wedding or "Is this even considered business casual,  or is it just slummin'?"
• Casual cool or "Hey kid, you wanna buy some weed?"
• Night out or "So you're going to Capsule this year, right?"

1. Summer wedding: A very casual summer wedding but really just going to Whole Foods after work. Lately, I've been really into the idea of having a pair of trousers with drawstrings. But really, let's be honest. These are tailored sweatpants with a drawstring. I mean, I believe dressy sweatpants function in the same category of striped tees. 
   Example: The T-shirt's all like, "I'm just a tee, but I have a little jazz to me that is refined and cool" and the slim sweatpants are like, "I'm a skinny sweatpant that hasn't been slept in and used as a napkin for Doritos." I wouldn't wear this to a wedding, but I would wear this to Whole Foods for a 2-for-$6 pizza special.
• (Seth's editorial thoughts: Sweatpants don't strike me as being in any way appropriate for summers OR weddings.)
2. Casual cool: Last night's outfit that I slept in after three rounds of 'gritas at Big Star and now need a morning after hangover cure and my friends want Bongo Room but really I'm just going to Whole Foods breakfast instead of waiting in line for some eggs and sexy salad.
   Striped tees are so versatile. Unlike a plain tee, you can't just sleep in them because the get wrinkled. The stripes hide wrinkles and stains, so you can easily sleep in them and layer them under shirt and jackets. Roll out of bed and go, bro. Striped-tee-and-anything all spring and summer and fall and winter. All year, baby.
3. Night Out:  It's the kind of night where a date showed up an hour late, stayed for 30 minutes then left me with the check because she had to go pick up a "friend" from the airport. 
   Some say that women get dressed to impress men. Others say women get dressed to impress other women. I think it goes the same for men. I've been hunting for a double-breasted jacket for a while, and you know I'm feeling the camo anything, like every other menswear blogger. So with the hunt continuing, I'm just waiting to find the perfect mid-weight jacket that I can wear just about year 'round. However, if you want to go hunting for cougars, go to the Whole Foods bar in an afternoon in Lincoln Park. And always get the grab-bag drink special. 

Summer casual sweat suits, jean jackets, striped tees, camo pants and double breasted blazers. Those are my jam right now and what I'm looking to incorporate into my wardrobe. 

What about you? What are you on the hunt for this spring?

Oh, and Whole Foods, holla at me if you want to fund my lunch breaks, hangover cures and impulse snacking habits.

Friday Wrap-Up: Hey there, April, throw us a bone

So look, April. You're being kind of being a tease, and we're getting sick of it. You're yes, then you're no; you're in, then you're out; you're up, then you're down. But worst of all, you're hot, then you're cold. I mean, it was 71º last week for crying out loud.

Listen. We've got some good posts planned for springtime, and you're really holding us back. So do you like us or not? Now that we've got the DTR out of the way, here's a photo that's more wishful thinking than anything else:

Straight henley weather. We're over this layering bullshit.

Friday Wrap-up – If you're just now joining us, here's a throwback to a few of our posts you might have missed from previous weeks:

• Shoes. Wingtips. Let's get 'em.
• Leaping and bounding in the hayfields where we were raised.
• Workin' from home in Logan Square.

And from others we love around the Net (wait, is it not called that anymore?):

• Refinery 29's Ultimate Chicago Blogroll. (Psst. Check out slide 5.)
• An illuminating interview about American shirting from AllPlaidOut.com.
• And oh, yes. Put This On is coming to Chicago. Do drop by, won't you?

FAVORITE: Shearling-lined Bean Boots

(I topped the whole thing off with this here waffle henley. Hey, it's casual day at the office.)

I've had these puppies less than a week, but they're fast becoming a huge favorite. Spring may have gotten here on Sunday, but it's still colder than a well-digger's ass in January, so I'm getting everything I can out of these boots. And I've been waiting long enough—when I ordered them earlier this winter, there wasn't a pair to be had until March. (Something about the demand being through the roof...L.L. Bean had to make more pairs.)

I first came across the 10-inch shearling-lined Bean Boot about a year ago in Minnesota when I saw hot-mess-and-theologian-in-training Marta Douglass flouncing around the cold Rochester streets in them. (She's since fled the country to be with some Englishman, but I have no doubt the boots are serving her well in the London fog.)

At $149, they're admittedly pricey. But quality is worth a Benjamin to me. In the review section, a guy posted a picture of his 30-year-old boots next to his brand new ones, and the only thing noticeably different was that the old boots had weathered character. Seems like a fair price for kicks that are going to last me three decades.

A word to the wise: Bean Boots run huge. Per the site's instructions for half-sizes to order down, I selected the 7. When they showed up, they were still about two sizes too big. (My brother, a size 9, fit into them comfortably.) Thing is, the 7 is the smallest men's size available. Womp, womp.

I'm not one to sacrifice fit, so I called the company and exchanged them for a women's size 8. Let it be known: L.L. Bean's customer service is fantastic. They took the order with zero ridicule about my baby-man feet, and shipped them off about a month faster than promised.

Marta wore them rolled down like so:

She totally pulled it off, and L.L. Bean advertises the roll-down as one way to wear them, but I'm not sure it's for me.

10-inch shearling-lined "Bean Boots" (llbean.com, $149) by L.L. Bean, women's size 8–I'm over it; "1969" jeans (retail, sale $44, reg. $64.50) by Gap; grey waffle henley (Walmart, $5) by Fruit of the Loom.