Culture

In a word . . . Clothes

Recently I received emails from London-based fashion designer Tom Cridland offering clothes that last 30 years – part of his campaign against planned obsolescence

Patsy McGarry's face
Patsy McGarry
Sat Dec 9 2017 - 00:00

I would not be noted for my sense of the sartorial. Yes, I wear jacket, shirt and tie at work every day while all around me have abandoned theirs. But when I began in this job our then editor liked us all to dress this way and so be presentable when meeting people outside the office. And I am a creature of habit.

Editors move on. Times change. So nowadays in the news room it's all scruff, and me.

Off duty it’s another matter. I get more attached to items of apparel as they get older. Jeans, particularly. One or two tops also. It was always thus. When I was in College a (still) good friend gave me his FCA coat which I had dyed navy blue. It was my coat, my bed, my blanket for years. We were inseparable.

People probably thought the same about a light blue jumper I wore throughout one year as a student. Except it was two. Same design, same colour.

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I bought them in New York at the end of another student summer saving there, when I shopped for the following year. Unthinking, indeed not concerned, that people would imagine I was wearing the same jumper all year round, I bought the identical pair. I liked the shade of blue.

Recently I received emails from London-based fashion designer Tom Cridland offering clothes that last 30 years. It’s part of his campaign against planned obsolescence. “Fed up of clothing that wears out after just 1 year? All our 30 Year Collection garments are guaranteed for 3 decades,” he says.

Probably too late for me. Who cares about being a well-dressed corpse? But still, what an interesting idea? Wish I came across it decades ago. Though some probably think I did.

In his emails he insists on addressing me as “Dear Pasty” which can hardly refer to my complexion as we’ve never met. Indeed I don’t know why he sends me these emails at all, but suspect he is confusing me with an altogether superior colleague who has since left the building.

I refer to Patsey Murphy, former editor of our Weekend Magazine and who no one could ever refer to as "Pasty". Even with an "e".

But what a marvellous idea! Jackets, trousers, shirts, and sweatshirts that last a generation!

Clothes, from Old English claoas, mening 'cloths, clothes'. Originally plural of clao for 'cloth'.

inaword@irishtimes.com