Fashion Sense
by David Turner

Forget the designer labels
The Versace, the Lacoste,
New Italian handsewn leather shoes
Haute Couture merdé at haute cost.

Forget the snappy numbers
In new-black, new-pink, new-red;
Forget colour co-ordination,
Wear something old instead!

Wear something comfortable
Don't worry about the tear,
Or that the size is not quite right,
Why should anybody care?

Take these ancient moccasins,
They were ambipederous new;
Now they're comfortable in parity
Both left and right feel true.

When you wash a tee shirt many times
The cotton gets quite thin,
And perhaps there is a hole or two
But it feels so soft against the skin.

Twenty years ago, I think,
These leateher shoes were new;
Their grey shine now is scuffed a bit
But rub them and they'll do.

What's the point of wasting money
On new clothes when the old
Are good enough to walk the streets
And still keep out the cold!

Of course sometimes bare necessity
Forces me to the shop*;
Those trousers may be quite intact
And still match that faded top,

But Time has a way of changing things,
Old bodies most of all,
Stomachs tend to grow and grow
And make old trousers far too small!

*THE shop is of course Marks and Sparks!

For any American readers:-
To explain the Britishness of this - Marks and Sparks is the nickname for a
very old British Chain Store called Marks and Spencers - They became famous and successful by buying the London Penny Bazaar Company.Its reputation was made by selling
good quality British Clothing at a reasonable price under the Trade mark of
`St Michael's '
There is still a Marks and Spencer Penny Bazaar stall in - seeNewcastle Covered
Market

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/vnev.nsf/shoptext/shopmark?opendocument

Well there is a bit of an oblique plug for Michael St Mark there too I guess :- Ian