September 6, 2013 |
Sometimes, winter lingers a little longer in London. Snow falls in March. The sun is shining. It should be spring. Yet the snow still falls. “It’s snowing again,” Vincent announced to nobody in particular as he replied to yet another email. “And I don’t know what I want to eat for lunch. It’s too cold to go outside but I think my soup in the fridge is past its sell-by date. Sophie, would you smell it for me please?” he asked. “As if,” she replied. Vincent was hurt. He’d smelled Sophie’s milk many a time before she put it in her tea, knowing that she couldn’t bear the stench of past-it dairy. He decided to distract himself from thoughts of lunch, his mouldy soup and the unwelcoming weather by browsing Style.com for coats. Just then his email pinged with news of some fabulous Giorgio Armani launch. “That’s it. That’s where I’ll get my coat from! Giorgio!” he shrieked. He opened up the show in full screen and began to flip through, pausing once in a while to admire a collar or the placement of a button. Suddenly he let out a little yelp of desire. “What is it?” Sophie asked. “What’s wrong with you now?” “Come see,” said Vincent as he pointed at the screen, his hand trembling ever so slightly. “It’s the coat – my coat! Isn’t she perfect? A gorgina confection of soft, double-breasted charcoal wool lined with the softest golden fur. And that collar, that collar that cradles the back of the neck. It caresses the neck. I could go without a scarf and still be warm. Which means I can already put about twenty quid towards the coat fund that I am now starting because I have to have it. Which means that I only have to get my hands on, like, another 1,000 quid. Which is totally doable if I don’t eat for, like, six months or so, which is perfect timing as that’s when it’ll be in the shop and, until then, I can feed myself in soup kitchens. Or do that thing, that other thing where you look for food in bins behind restaurants, what’s it called? Foraging!” “Gross,” said Sophie. “Look, I have better idea. Why don’t I just call it in? I’ll say we’re doing some fabulous shoot about coats and that it’s all based around this Armani coat. That the coat is in fact the reason we’re even bothering to put out the magazine and that if we don’t get it we have no magazine, and they’ll send it. And off on the shoot it’ll go, never to return. These things happen all the time.” “But that’s stealing!” Vincent cried. “What if I went to the press day and they saw me wearing it?” And so Vincent is faced with a dilemma: save and starve to own the coat of his dreams, or steal and hide. To save him the trouble of making a decision we would like to announce a new fund we have started called “Help Vincent help himself. Get that Giorgio Armani Coat on his back”. Or HVHHGTGACOHB for short. No donation is too big, but they can be too small, so before you pledge, think long and hard about this young boy’s dream, then double it. With your help we can make Vincent’s dream come true. Together. Just imagine him, come September, swanning around the shows in a Giorgio Armani coat. Please, pledge now.
Photographer: Jason Lloyd-Evans
by Natalie Dembinska
