Keeping It Unreal / Coming Up Short

A few days ago, I wrote about my disappointment at visiting The Liquor Store, J. Crew’s men’s boutique in TriBeCa. I mentioned the $250 straw hats as one of the “not found in our other stores or catalogs!” items. It turns out that the store has an even wackier waste of money for poseurs: “Limited edition paint-splattered shorts.”

bim

According to GQ, there are only 20 pairs of these masterpieces, and they’ll retail for $148. Good thing their mass-produced ones only cost SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS. With real paint!

Both of these are trumped by a $250 pair of tennis shorts by Brooks Brothers, about which Sartorially Inclined seemingly seriously asks, “Everyone needs that one pair of shorts you bring to the dry cleaners, right?”

I’ll stick with my embarrassingly loose cargo shorts for the nonce.