The Blazer Sun

Got a late start today on account of the asado party last night. We met a bunch of friends at a classmate's house and had grilled steaks, sausages, grilled provelone, corn on the cob, french bread, grilled asparagus, macaroni salad, and everything was delicious and washed down with beer. Our friend from studio was hosting it, and we were insanely jealous of his two bentwood Eames chairs, which are actually really great to sit in.

Interesting trivia point- Charles Eames was a St.Louis native, and actually went to Wash U architecture school before being thrown out/leaving prior to his meeting Ray.

Anyway, that was a lot of fun and we drank and talked and sat by the fire pit late into the night until we all went to Par Bar nearby. I really don't see the charm of the place- its small, cramped, kind of a bro hangout, and really the only things going for it is its relatively white collar/graduate student clientele and it's walkable proximity.

So we got up slow today. Once up, we struck out for the mall to search for blazers.

I have a nice suit, but the suit jacket looks like I stole it from the suit. We both needed nice blazers to wear on review days, to dress up a little bit, and for potential interviews. I'm looking for something that I can wear with a tie but also wear with jeans. The go-to navy blue blazer, basically, although I'm looking more at black since I'm in the monochromatic field of architecture.

We hit Gap, Banana Republic, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, J Crew, Macy's, Urban Outfitters, and even H&M. H&M had some really cheap blazers, but they were total crap. They looked so cheap, when I tried them on, I felt so low that I almost bought them.

It seems to me that most of the blazers I've looked at fall into two categories- the cheap blazers ($50-$150) are styled to be worn with tee shirts, are of abominable quality and of cheap material and frequently are styled to look edgy or urban or contemporary or whatever. They all say to me "low ranking thug".

The other category of blazers are the pure business blazers, and they're priced accordingly. Beautiful material, immaculately cut and finished, often as boring and doudy and big as a 1980's IBM computer and for about the same price. The cheap blazers are made by labels with names like "American Raggs", but these are designed by "Joseph Abboud" or "Hugo Boss." The median price for these guys is about $300. Browsing for the cheap type, you're next to racks of tee shirts and polos. These ones are located in the part of the store where clerks who dress more nicely than you did at own wedding approach you and ask you if you have been helped yet with a kind of attitude and look that make you feel like you've been caught stealing hotel towels.

There's really very little between these two extremes, as I've discovered. I'm looking for a slim cut blazer around $75-$100 which is not a tee shirt blazer and of decent material. The Gap had a nice blazer for around $100 which I considered, and Nordstrom rack also had a nice Calvin Klein blazer for 150 which had really really nice suiting. It really is an investment so I shouldn't cheap out, but I want to make the right choice. I didn't end up buying anything today, so I may head out to the outlet mall either tomorrow or sometime later this week.