Salt Highly Recommends

Bench jeans, Bass desert boots & James Dean (finally) shirt from Undefeated for SM Boy's Teen's Department

TOPMAN jeans, (finally) Jack Purcells & SM Boys Teen's "Bossing Para!" shirt by Team Manila Klassik

I had the craziest dream, involving two people I have odd feelings about and the moment I wake up, the first thing that came to my mind was to get things done. 

I'm obviously suffering from bad dreams cause I've been doing nothing (imagine, just days off of college and I'm acting up). My resolution to this is to hunt for a job. That one, I've done so far. Then to finally dive deep into Kerouac's On The Road...Well, I bought the deluxe edition which has like about 200 pages of introduction and I'm only on what, page 45? Then finally to get myself tons and tons of great-looking shirts for the summer. 

As we all know, Manila is all about t-shirt weather and this is a HUGE challenge for me since everything that I'm used to wearing would cause me a heat stroke. While I'm not yet into the whole working force, I told myself I need to get stocked on nice, young-ish summer basics. I've always told my closest friends that I'm not a t-shirt person. Something about it makes me feel naked. So my best resolution is to buy shirts with great prints on them. 

Months ago, I've seen amazing shirts from this high-street label we're all quite familiar with. Knowing my money habits, I couldn't afford myself five of those shirts that I loved. Even my mom says no to them. And in an attempt to ease the summer-clothes hunger pains, I checked out what the Filipino shopper calls home: SM department store. The amazing thing about SM is that it's cheap. Sure, we've got that settled ages ago. You want something cheap, you go to SM, cause they've got it all, right? But what makes it even more exciting is that, something about SM has changed. I used to doubt going to SM for anything cause I never found anything nice---in my opinion. Now that I'm older, much more concerned with money and is awfully more knowledgeable at---well, "nice" things, I find myself thanking the big wigs behind SM for revamping and changing it up at their place.

Gone were the days when SM offered unappetizing things. Today, you check out what the kids at SM could wear, you'll see so much great pieces. Up at the Men's department, the brands they now carry are chicer, more tasteful and the price range still the same. For the t-shirt hunting, the first place I went to was SM Boys Teen's Department. And it was the BEST place to go to. 

Hours ago, I found myself carrying around five shirts to wear and a pair of really cheap, girl scout green shorts, all of that I bought for the price of a SINGLE PRINTED TEE on that high street label I've been talking about. No offense to them, but I still love their brand. But imagine that. IMAGINE THAT. My mom's so proud of me, she wanted to kiss me on the cheek but thought of otherwise. You may think what SM Boys Teen's Department has is all bull, but I tell you, models up in the States and in Europe would go crazy down here to wear these shirts for their super cool, off-duty looks. They're THAT cool, I decided to call in two of the coolest people in the world for a semi-spontaneous photoshoot: Tj Estrada and Lesley Choa. Tj and I have been itching for a shoot together, though we're not models, this is our way of having (vain) fun. Lesley Choa, of course is a Salt and Institution of Style regular, just like Aaron Articulo. And since I've talked to Lesley first (and that's cause I also worked with her first for our defunct VINO organization) this Wednesday, we're having that shoot done. The story will be about summer looks and what we could do with printed shirts. Tj's going shopping too. 

Up there's a preview of what things will look like. The Dean shirt and the "Bossing Para!" shirt are two of my favorites. There is so much more to love that I love from SM's Boys Teen's Department. And I'm just saying, while you're at it, get your shirts there and check out what they have in store for you IF you want to win something real nice down at their Facebook (CLICK) page (make sure you LIKE their page first, then check it out). I promise you, you'll want your photoshoot too and more of SM's great stuff.

As for Tj and I and Lesley, well, we're up to something good this Wednesday...

Stay tuned for the whole shoot (SALT exclusive lookbook shoot hahaha) on Friday folks.

- Gerard