Complain all you want when a beautiful weekend in the high 70′s is followed by a week of rain — that’s spring in the Northeast.  So to be prepared for the ups and downs of the season, why not turn to an old standby: the crewneck sweatshirt.  Despite the best efforts of Justin Bieber, hoodies no longer reign supreme; everyone from American Apparel to Alexander Wang has their own take on the ultimate layering piece, meaning you can spend anywhere from $20 to triple digits.  Thankfully, if you do splurge, it can be a sound investment — keep the shirts around for cool summer nights, crisp fall days and under heavy coats in the winter.

From left to right: T by Alexander Wang ($115); Viktor & Rolf ($395); BDG ($39); American Apparel ($42); J. Crew ($98); Trainerspotter (£55); Acne ($149).

In the fall of ’07, bolstered by a strange fascination I had at the time with The Specials, I decided I wanted to purchase a great pair of black and white saddle shoes.  This is weird on a few levels, namely that I just tried to find a picture of anyone in The Specials wearing saddle shoes and wasn’t able to do so, even after a stalker-deep Google search.  So, I’m not sure where I got the idea that they wore them.  Also weird that I wanted to dress like a semi-defunct British ska band, but it must have resonated pretty deeply, because I also bought a pair of Fred Perry suspenders for the same reason and wore them in public approximately once.

Anyhow, after resigning that I couldn’t justify buying the pair of saddle shoes I saw in the Bergdorf’s window on my entry-level PR budget, I went ahead and got a tan and brown suede pair from J. Crew (you can see them in an earlier post here).  There were a few problems.  As anyone else who wears a size 12 or bigger can tell you, sometimes shit doesn’t translate well that large.  These shoes were huge and clunky, which led to problem #2: at the time, the only jeans I owned were skinny (thankfully that fact cannot be traced to any sort of ska style inspiration).  Still held captive by the shackles of a business-casual dress code at work, I refused to wear khakis outside of the office.  So, after a few ill-fated attempts, the saddle shoes pretty much sat in my closet for about a year, until I broke them out again last spring and found that, like everything else you wear, the likelihood of any piece of clothing or footwear succeeding for you increases dramatically if you don’t give it too much thought.  I wear them now pretty regularly.

Had my saddle shoe fixation kicked in a few years later, I would have had a lot more options.  Saddle shoes are all over the damn place this spring, and don’t appear to be letting up any time soon, with more styles rolling out by many designers this fall.  Forgiving my shoddy Photoshop collage above (I’m tired), you can see a few current and upcoming offerings from Mark McNairy, Florsheim by Duckie Brown, Billy Reid and Opening Ceremony.  I’ve already showed you some great ones from Band of Outsiders, and there are more popping up every week on the blogs.

So, I guess being a clothes-hoarder and holding onto those J. Crew suckers did have its upside.  Since I already have the saddle shoes, I can spend my money on other items brought on by bouts of 80′s nostalgia.  LIKE THIS.

Slam x Hype has a post today about layering, emphasizing how piling on clothing can “add depth and shape to your look.”  That’s certainly true, but they forgot the most important benefit of layering, which would be not freezing your wang off.

Shoes: J. Crew; Cardigan: J. Crew; Shirt: Levis; Jacket: Vintage, courtesy of Mr. Dool, Sr.