RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31836, 14 November 1968, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

WEAR AND TEAR

Not everyone has the ambition to be a latter day Beau Brummel, but most people take some pride in their appearance. Sadly, some of those who would very much like to look a la mode and dashing simply do not have a flair for wearing clothes. Some women can get away with anything, but, in general, men fall well behind. There is a very unfortunate case in Christchurch of a professional man who could make something from Savile Row look like an old nightshirt, and who fails rather badly in his efforts to keep up sartorial appearances. He is well aware of this deficiency, but, within the space of a very few years, fate decreed, on three occasions, that he should be reminded of it, cruelly. He went to a men's tailoring establish-

ment, where the man In charge was a personal friend. His friend simply refused to make a suit for him, or to sell him one, because, he said, within a week it would be the worst advertisement he could possibly have. That is what our professional man does to clothes. He was directed to another establishment, where the, prices were cheaper and the product was not expected to retain its first glories very long. The unfortunate man had hardly recovered from this grievous wound when he suffered another. Among his acquaintances was an elderly gentleman living on a very small pension, and not always in the best of health. Our friend offered him a suit, because it was clear that he needed one. So the suit was handed over and the recipient inspected it. It was not ingratitude, but

an unemofional assessment of the facts, which led to the suit being handed back. Our friend is not, so far as we know, a careless feeder, or a regular spiller of things; but some such conclusior might well be drawn from the third arrow which pierced his heart. He war attending a social functioa with a friend, and the; had just arrived at th» public hall where it was being held, our hero wearing his very ancient dinner suit, almost green at the edges, and under considerable strain across the midriff. As they mounted the stairs, a most offensive odour assailed their nostrils. Our friend chanced to remark upon the dreadful smell. Whereupon his companion said it was nothing to worry about, it was just the old dinner suit warming up.