London Laundry Day

(Calvin Klein Collection blazer, Calvin Klein t-shirt, Seven A-Pocket jeans, Camper Pelota shoes)

Having to live with a wardrobe that fits into a duffel bag necessitates regular trips to the laundry room. I try to do laundry on the same day every week to avoid a deficit of clean clothes. Of course, sometimes events completely out of control occur and my planned trips to the laundry room with my blue Ikea bags overflowing with clothes don't quite happen on the day I had planned. So I have the problem I had this morning: none of the t-shirts in my regular rotation were clean. No worries, I thought, I'll just dig out a plain white undershirt and wear it instead. Let it be said at this point, and as you can see in the pictures adjacent to this post, the shirts that I choose for this purpose are clean, white, and free of any random stains from my adventures in our mini-kitchen. However, this ad hoc clothing choice never fails to annoy my co-blogger who feels that this clothing option is unsatisfactory. Personally, I feel that the white t-shirt and jeans combo is classic. I'm not the Fonz, and jumping a shark tank in the parking lot of Arnold's isn't in my skill set, but I can see why he was always thought to be so cool in this attire. Thumb through any fashion magazine today, or even over the last fifty years or so, and I'll bet that you will discover at least one picture of the jeans and white t-shirt combo. It is timeless American style. I have paired my jeans and tee combo with a cashmere Calvin Klein Collection blazer. This is the first piece of non-LL Bean clothing that I ever ordered off of the Internet. The picture doesn't really do justice to the rich shade of the jacket, or its soft texture. What got me to take a gamble on this blazer was its clean design. Notice that unlike most blazers, it has no outside breast pocket, buttons on the cuffs, or back venting. It is a bit longer than a standard blazer, but that adds to its style. My favorite feature, though, is the pocket on the interior seam of the jacket. If it weren't for the zipper pull, you would not notice the pocket inside. So even on days that I can't find a better shirting option, the blazer spiffs-up the Calvin Klein v-neck tee beneath it, even though it came in a pack with eight of its brothers from Costco.

Click to check out the zipper in the seam

Defending my tee