I should pop by the post office and officially change my address to ‘under a rock’. While spending a TON of time on the road lately, I managed to steal away to the Aether Apparel in SoHo this afternoon in search of absolutely nothing but some cool looking threads. Albeit a bit expensive, the trip was a success.

The customer service was top notch like it was in the Aspen location earlier this year. I’ve never before been offered whiskey while I shop. Too bad one night in college kind of ruined the stuff for me and a decade later, I still declined.

It’s the thought that counts. 🙂

I took a few items into the fitting room with me, but one was an overwhelming winner.

Surface Sweatshirt Tee ($95) in Total Eclipse Heather

If there was an olive green available, I may have been tempted. However, the sweatshirt was still a bit plain for the asking price. I gave it a shot, surely didn’t hate it, but didn’t feel the LOVE required to drop Sir Benjamin.

Vapor 1/2 Zip Base Layer ($95) in jet black

I recently found a new favorite base layer at another retailer a few blocks away… oh hi Sweaty Betty! (You’ll get your feature soon.)

Nothing about this base layer made it stand out at all amongst its similarly styled and priced competitors. Average.

I did try one one pair of pants, but all of the pants currently in the collection were either joggers or tights. Joggers don’t really jive with my build, so I didn’t even bother snapping pics or noting the name down. Hard pass.

So now we’ve got the ‘meh’ out of the way, let’s talk about the AHHHH (insert an excessive amount of heart eyed emoji faces here).

Aether Apparel Wright Jacket ($195)

I was already in an inexplicably stupid good mood this afternoon, and this jacket made it even… gooder.

Crossfit/swimming shoulders have made it pretty uncomfortable for me in certain fitted garments for a solid two decades now, so I was unsure of which size to try. It looked to be a slim fit, so I started off with the L.

The second I put it on, I knew I was in. Hook, line, and sinker. The fabric is wind and water resistant, and had a bit of stiffness without feeling like you were wearing paper, which some shells can do.

I was most pleasantly surprised by the length of the sleeves, and this jacket’s thumbholes. Some lululemon items I’m completely unable to use thumbholes because of my height (read: weirdly long arms). None of that today. If you’re a shorter woman, I will concede that you may end up having a bit more sleeve than you bargained for.

So, the L felt pretty good, but I still felt like I had a bit more room than intended for the slimmer fit the salesgirl mentioned when I’d first taken the piece off the rack. So, I grabbed an M too.

I felt good in the M as well, but to me it felt more like a zip up shirt than a jacket. The torso fit perfectly, but my annoyingly large shoulders felt a bit of a pull when I did the forward reach. The length also seemed noticeably shorter.

Anyhow, I proceeded to seek out the salesgirl’s opinion (she was so helpful, I feel bad for not catching her name). She liked the M, and I liked the look of it too.

However, I felt that shoulder pull which has plagued me with any cap-sleeved anything EVER. I proceeded to try on the M and L at least two more times each.

Alas, common sense won me over. We all know you can pick a woman out of a crowd who’s uncomfortable in her shoes or outfit from miles away. Constantly adjusting, uneasily. You all know what look I’m talking about.

I didn’t want to spend my entire time in a new find constantly thinking about how I had a bit more room in the shoulders. Look good feel good? In this case it was more like feel good look good. My gut told me to go with the larger size.

When you’re out and about, nobody on the sidewalk is reaching for the tag to check what size you’re wearing, so why care if you size up? Be comfortably confident, people!

Long story short, I went #intotheAETHER and walked out WITH some Aether. I can’t wait to pop those tags off.