A New Old Shirt by Hadiru Mahdi

#1 in a series of blogposts from VulpesVulpes reflecting on their AirSpace Gallery Residency activity for  PARLOUR.

A New Old Shirt
by Hadiru Mahdi

Oh not sure if that shirt'll fit you, what are you, a medium? well it fits more like a small.

I'll give it a go, I'm deceptively slim.

He sets up a changing room in the kitchenette, left after the bead curtain, there's a mirror on the door

it's perfect. Light blue tree fell patterns - leaves, twigs, acorns, seed casings. A pleat to cover the buttons down the middle and at the cuff; a fold between the shoulder blades. J CONRAN J JASPER on the button and JASPER J CONRAN stitched in navy at the left waist, just a thread or two that need clipping off.

That was my shirt. Twas. Got it in London. Used to fit nice before this happened.

He cradles his belly with two spread hands, looks down sombre. He's still in pretty good shape, but he knows what he once had.

Went all the way down to London, 48 pounds I paid and doesn't fit now.

Ah...well I'll try and do it justice. Here, let's have a picture, before and after.

As long as it doesn't end up on Youtube!

PARLOUR is a 3 week Summer Residency at AirSpace Gallery carried out by London based collective Vulpes Vulpes exploring notions of social gathering. Click here for full details