mostly david ephgrave

Spending £90 on two shirts has put me in a full-scale panic. I went out with the intention of buying something new to wear onstage. I haven’t bought clothes in an aeon and it’s starting to show. I have two shirts I would describe as my best which are in constant rotation. There’s only so many times you can wash and flash-dry the same outfit before it starts to degrade. The contents of my wardrobe could double as an illustration of coastal erosion. I was all set to go somewhere closer to my budget (rhymes with 'text'), when I noticed my favourite - and pricier – clothes shop had a 50% sale. You can’t argue with that. Whether the discount would equal the sale price of an item from my intended destination is up for debate (answer: “no’), but it was worth a look. This is how they lure you in. There were a number of shirts on the rail outside suiting my remit (i.e. “slight hint of wallpaper”). All were at a marked down price. There was n...

I don’t seem to have any smart clothing. When it comes to my wardrobe, I’m a little bit stuck in a rut. I have a handful of shirts and a couple of pairs of jeans in almost constant rotation. I haven’t got to the point where I wear the same outfit on the same day of each week, but it’s getting pretty close. The problem is I have very little money. When I do buy anything new, I’m usually so pleased that I wear it almost constantly; washing it every few days until all that remains is a faded husk of its former glory. The last time I had a large-scale wardrobe rethink was when I was doing Dreamboats & Petticoats in the West End (thud goes the namedrop). I was earning enough then to facilitate a little frivolity. I didn’t buy anything crazy, like a gold lamé jacket – but I did stock up on a couple of nice pairs of shoes and a few natty shirts. (That's right: I did just say 'natty'.) This was now over three years ago...