{"id":3492,"date":"2012-07-11T23:09:23","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T22:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=3492"},"modified":"2012-07-11T23:09:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T22:09:23","slug":"trying-to-look-on-the-bright-side-i-parade-my-sales-purchases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=3492","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Look on the Bright Side: I Parade My Sales&nbsp;Purchases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday 10th July 2012<\/p>\n<p>The damp and consequent mustiness! In England&#8217;s green and pleasant for the last six weeks it has regularly deluged. Some rain has persisted for 36 hours.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s impossible to keep the home fresh and wholesome.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s nothing I can do to get the stock markets going. The dead weight of dead weight weighs&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>But, we must forge on as best we can. Do you know, despite it all &#8211; I had a good Sales. Targets were achieved and in some cases exceeded.<\/p>\n<p>Then on Saturday the Multis gave a home concert followed by a six-course dinner at the urban farm next door. 22 dined and were brought in for \u00a31000 not including wines (it&#8217;s BYO at the Farm).<\/p>\n<p>Even you could entertain 22 to dinner thus! On an ordinary salary of \u00a3100,000 this could be achieved.<\/p>\n<p>Come back later for more. The highest standards were achieved all round.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday it&#8217;s Lord Arrowby&#8217;s party &#8211; as every year. He, you may recall, is that high, high Government back-room greatness who loves a drag show at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Last week, he texted: &#8216;I&#8217;m on my way to Dalston to see &#8220;Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!&#8221; &#8216; To meet, he&#8217;s formidable and governmental, like Mr Darcy but his frockage might be wild. Many try to gain entry to his party and fail. He&#8217;s got an irresistible vulnerable side.<\/p>\n<p>So,back to the Sales. Paul and Joe came up trumps as they have been doing recently with salmon (or coral) slacks (\u00a389 40% down at Harrods) and highly useful black trousers (what I call in-between smart and casual) with a controversial sheen some will condemn as common (\u00a3100\/50% off). These are a godsend, because my friend,Mrs Manreza, axed my adored Prada black nylon pair (&#8216;The fly is grazed,&#8217; she withered) and they had to be replaced.<\/p>\n<p>Another replacement was a Helmut Lang jean in a rare putty shade, filling a desperate gap left after the development of a strange pale patch on my Alexander McQueen miracle creamy, rich grey (such a difficult colour) ones. They were acquired at the Designer Warehouse Sale, Thane Villas, London N1 for \u00a369, down from \u00a3170, as was a Dolce e Gabbana double-collar and cuff shirt, also in putty,down to \u00a3105 from \u00a3250.<\/p>\n<p>At The Library (yes! it&#8217;s a frock shop if you&#8217;re bone-ignorant) I improvised with credit card and indeed whole life: I took the black suit by Claudio Tonello (I&#8217;m sure they said it was Japanese; it can&#8217;t be with a name like that) with silk facings in the jersey material that I&#8217;ve already mentioned as wearing at the Bath wedding. It&#8217;s having a difficult birth into my life &#8211; will it be clingy of threads? Will I always be brushing? 40% off \u00a3900, whatever that is.<\/p>\n<p>I fear I will go back to wearing the 3-year-old black suit by Niccolo Ceschi Berrini (also from The Library) with an extraordinary slub that was admired by that opera designer despite being tiny.<\/p>\n<p>Then they brought out from the back\u00a0 a white jacket by a rare house &#8211; a hand-stitched, crooner&#8217;s piece with dodgy shawl collar, satin facing and satin covered buttons in an intensely interesting linen\/cotton mix which doesn&#8217;t take the dirt.<\/p>\n<p>I already got the Zara white jacket from last summer, plus the cream suit from Topman (slightly funny smell) &#8211; but the opportunity was too great to miss. IT WAS HALF PRICE. \u00a3250.\u00a0 That Zara piece is <em>just a little bit too small.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So far I&#8217;ve worn the new white jacket three times (at the Bath wedding for the reception, at Angus Willis&#8217;s dinner and at the Multis&#8217; home concert and subsequent urban farm dinner). It&#8217;s attracted attention. &#8216;Hand-stitching,&#8217; everybody cries. You&#8217;ll be thrilled to hear it&#8217;s full length, not tiny, bum-freezing as I&#8217;ve been championing for 4 years now.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, finally, the Dolce e Gabbana putty shirt I mentioned before wasn&#8217;t quite the silver shade I was looking for to replace a silk\/cotton blouse by Paolo Pecora which had faded at the cuff edge and rotted underarm.\u00a0 At Harrods on the first day of the Sale I&#8217;d seen the Platonic ideal but it was too small. I thought to revise that Sale and maybe, maybe &#8230; well, it was still there. I tried on the next size up, a Burberry, and I thought: I&#8217;m on my way to Val&#8217;s (he&#8217;s the one who&#8217;s keen on a drop but miraculous at the sewing machine). He can slim it down. I had a fitting at Val&#8217;s straightaway and it&#8217;s already been returned &#8211; reeking of cigarettes no longer after airing for two days.<\/p>\n<p>That Burberry shirt deflated from \u00a379 to \u00a369 between rail and till. The starting price was \u00a3170.<\/p>\n<p>Come back tomorrow for graphs of lesser pieces<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3496\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3496\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3496\" title=\"004\" src=\"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/004-650x487.jpg\" alt=\"Black Suit by Claudio Tonello in a Jersey Fabric\" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3496\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black Suit by Claudio Tonello in a Jersey Fabric<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3497\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3497\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3497\" title=\"006\" src=\"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/006-650x487.jpg\" alt=\"Black Suit by Claudio Tonello in Slinky Jersey: But Will It Be Clingy of Threads? \" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3497\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black Suit by Claudio Tonello in Slinky Jersey: But Will It Be Clingy of Threads? <\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3498\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3498\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3498\" title=\"007\" src=\"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/007-650x487.jpg\" alt=\"Crooner's White Jacket with Hand Stitching by Francisco Vanbenthum (Likely Name)\" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3498\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crooner&#39;s White Jacket with Hand Stitching by Francisco Vanbenthum (Likely Name)<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3499\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3499\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3499\" title=\"008\" src=\"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/008-650x487.jpg\" alt=\"Crooner's White Jacket by Francisco Vanbenthum: Fuller View\" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3499\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crooner&#39;s White Jacket by Francisco Vanbenthum: Fuller View<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3500\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3500\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3500\" title=\"009\" src=\"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/009-650x487.jpg\" alt=\"More of the Crooner's White Jacket: Don't Tell Anyone, But I Had to Replace Some of the Hand-Stitching Myself By Hand\" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3500\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">More of the Crooner&#39;s White Jacket: Don&#39;t Tell Anyone, But I Had to Replace Some of the Hand-Stitching Myself By Hand. Note the Interesting Linen\/Cotton Mix Fabric<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_3501\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3501\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3501\" title=\"010\" src=\"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/0101-650x487.jpg\" alt=\"Crooner's White Jacket by Francisco Vanbenthum: Detail of Hand-Stitching\" width=\"650\" height=\"487\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3501\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Crooner&#39;s White Jacket by Francisco Vanbenthum: Detail of Hand-Stitching<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tuesday 10th July 2012 The damp and consequent mustiness! In England&#8217;s green and pleasant for the last six weeks it has regularly deluged. Some rain has persisted for 36 hours. It&#8217;s impossible to keep the home fresh and wholesome. There&#8217;s nothing I can do to get the stock markets going. The dead weight of dead [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3492"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3502,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions\/3502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}