Jonesin' For My Next Nautical Stripe Fix

I have a wee touch of a serious and deep-seated addiction problem. There is just something about the classic, clean, preppy-inspired allure of a nautical stripe that keeps me coming back for more. I am amassing quite a collection, as it turns out. In fact, having just returned from a week away, I realized (while finding several specimens in the week's resultant laundry) that my collection is growing arms and legs. Okay...technically I suppose it already had arms...so legs then.  Definitely legs. The realization that I had brought more than two types of nautical striped tops with me for only a week away prompted me to take a look at my photos from vacations past...more  evidence of my escalating addiction.

Clockwise from left: A classic Breton stripe tunic in Milan,

 a navy and white tee under a blazer at Edinburgh airport,

and a wide bateau-neck navy stripe in Portugal.

And Holy Toledo, I'm wearing that tee from the Edinburgh airport pic right now.

As I write this.  I may need help

As items of clothing go, it's not exactly art, is it? I mean, we are basically talking about a dressed-up t-shirt here, yes?

So what's my deal?

Maybe at baseline,  I am inherently lazy.  But a classic nautical stripe is just easy. Especially when you are traveling in a warm climate. It is unfussy, uncomplicated, and always looks pulled-together. (Okay, provided you aren't wearing a pair of Cheetos-stained sweatpants on the bottom, that is. Some effort is required on your part).

A nautical stripe layers well, and yet if you find yourself stripped-down to that last layer because of the weather, you somehow feel like you are still wearing clothes, as opposed to the vulnerable feeling of stepping-out in your paper-thin layering tee, wondering if the world can read your bra tag or can see your arm fat under its thin, slubbed veneer.

But I think this season, the thing I like best about this tried and true classic is that because of it's simplicity, you can really go bonkers with the color on the bottom part of the look. And oh, do you have choices this season. Though I do admit to still being on the hunt for the perfect pair of fire-engine red trousers this spring (who am I kidding, I will wear them year-round), I have now also added to my trouser-lust-list a pair of acid yellow crops.  Here are a few little somethings from my nautical-outfit-lust-list that I hope to be poncing-about in later this spring and well into summer. All from J. Crew, who the Highland Fashionista thinks is one of the leading authorities on clever riffs and high-concept variations on the nautical stripe.

Sequin-Stripe V Neck Sweater $198.00

High-Waisted Pant in Silk Wool $298.00

Schoolboy Blazer in Chambray $158.00

The sweater is sequinned, yet still a stripe. Enough to feed my addiction without being yet another navy stripe tee (and therefore not risking a fatal overdose), yet subtle enough to wear when the sun is still up. The pants speak for themselves. Or shout for themselves, rather.  Love the pants.  And the blazer....I used to fear chambray and denim-blue blazers as I felt the Texas Tuxedo coming on (I think J. Crew actually was trying to get us all to wear denim with denim not that long ago, was it one or two seasons ago, I forget...). But a chambray shirt or blazer layered over a nautical stripe over a pair of finger-in-the-electrical-socket-colored bottoms is a lovely balance indeed. Therefore chambray blazer, you're in.  You may stay.

So what'll it be readers? Enable my addiction further by branching-out into the as-yet untapped realm of lemon (and possibly fuchsia) trousers? Or do I go cold turkey? (yeah...right).

Rhetorical questions notwithstanding, I would love to meet others (in the comments) who suffer this, or a similar addiction. We could form a support group.