Clothes That Will Be Worn Again
He plans to spend winters abroad in a warm city, where he expects to live in linen shirts and sandals.
Picture a man named Wendell, 74, who spent thirty-five years in an insurance office. His closet holds six wool suits, a camel overcoat and a row of polished leather shoes. He plans to spend winters abroad in a warm city, where he expects to live in linen shirts and sandals. The suits will hang unworn.
His wife Rita said the closet was a museum. “Give them to somebody who goes to an office,” she said. “They would be worn again.”
Wendell wanted that, but he did not know whom to ask. He called a job program in town that helps people prepare for interviews. A counselor told him many of their clients arrive at interviews in whatever they own, and a suit changes how they walk through the door. She asked whether he had any suits that no longer fit him. He had two.
Owen, 23, came on a Tuesday. He had finished the program two weeks before and had an interview on Friday at a bank. He tried on the charcoal suit in Wendell's hallway.
The jacket sat too wide at the shoulders and the sleeves covered his knuckles. Owen looked down at himself. Wendell saw a boy wearing his father's coat. For a moment nobody said a word.
“I look ridiculous,” Owen said.
“It needs a tailor,” Wendell said. He felt his own face fall. He had pictured the fit and the fit was wrong. Then he remembered a small shop near the train station run by a woman who had altered his trousers for years. “She can take in the shoulders by Thursday. I will walk you down.” He had put a gray tie in the jacket pocket that morning.
They carried the suit to the shop together. The tailor pinned the sleeves, chalked the shoulders and said Thursday morning. Wendell paid for the alterations, and Owen tried to stop him and then thanked him.
On Friday afternoon Owen called. “I wore the gray tie you put in the pocket,” he said. “They offered me the job.”
Wendell put down the phone and told Rita. The suit had given him thirty-five years of work, he said, and now it had given him this Friday. Rita said the closet looked lighter.
| In the closet | Who could wear it again |
|---|---|
| Wool suits | A young person with an interview |
| Camel overcoat | Someone starting work in a cold city |
| Leather shoes | A person who has none for the day that counts |
You could…
- Call a local job program and ask what they need.
- Ask a tailor whether a suit could be altered for someone younger.
- Offer the shoes, ties and belts along with the suit.
Whose first day of work could your closet help? Share your idea in the comments. A reader with a good coat to spare could find someone who needs it this winter.
Tell us in the comments