If you like shopping, this is the job for you!

I have been costume shopping today for Glengarry in Manchester. People often express extreme envy that I go shopping for a job and get to spend lots of someone else’s money! Let me just remind you, I am not buying anything for me! I don’t want to pretend that it is a complete chore, despite the fact that my feet are killing me now. Liz, our wardrobe supervisor is very glamorous and I can’t show her up by tramping round the shops with her, wearing my comfy dog-walking shoes and an old anorak. So I have to make an effort and the little patent ankle boots which I chose for today’s jaunt started to hurt when we were at our furthest point from the theatre. It was a long walk back and it reminded me of the Little Mermaid whose every step was like walking on a thousand knives.
But despite all, it is fun going costume shopping! We march around the shops with our list and a sense of purpose looking for a variety of specific items. We have some shops that we hate (Primark) some we love (Kendals) some we dread (Afflecks Palace, all those stairs! With ten bags of shopping!) some which are dull and useful (Clarks) and some which we resort to in desperate circumstances due to the prices (Russell and Bromley). Today we were looking for men’s shoes in an 80’s style, brown trousers, a variety of shirts and possibly a mac, in case the actor playing Levene has to wear one. At the moment he thinks he may only carry it over his arm, so it doesn’t need to fit, and we have a suitable one that is too small for him to actually wear

I started out at our hairdresser, Peter Reagan’s on Deansgate, where I took one of the actors to have an 80’s style cut. I go along with the actors so I can explain the style I want. Sometimes I take period photos along, but Peter is very good, having worked in films, and knows exactly the look we require. If you secretly desire to have a hair-do like James Dean or David Bowie, to name but two recent iconic heads of hair, then Peter is your man! I then visited shoe shops along Kings Street without success and met up with Liz in Kendals. Here we found a suitable pair of shoes for Roma and some shirts with the right sort of collar for the period. Unfortunately they were all expensive, so we went off to see if we could find anything cheaper. ( Production Manager take note!) M&S delivered up a shirt which might be OK for Levene, and we had a few near misses on the 80’s shoes. One pair too warm a brown to go with a stone suit, another not available in the size. Neither Slaters or Wippels had shirts which could possibly have come from the 80’s, but we found the trousers. So, a return trip to Kendals finished off the afternoon; you can see me in the picture about to buy the overpriced shoes and shirt. Tomorrow we are doing a fitting for a suit, so the actor can try these on too. I’ll try and get a picture for my next up-date. Plus one of the Production Manager stretched out on the floor when he sees the receipt.