Costume Cupboard

Hanging Up

Not just the title of a lukewarm Ephron comedy which largely failed at the box office and in the press despite the hefty late-nineties name-recognition factor of its headlining stars, this is a section which is about Hanging Up Your Clothes.

I used to believe that everyone learned to hang up their clothes from an early age; perhaps not an enjoyable task, on par with doing the washing up or making one's bed, but a necessary one. It is the sort of thing that one learns to do and may then choose to ignore in the privacy of the home if one likes, but while in someone else's property or after borrowing someone else's clothing surely the admirable thing to do is pick up a hanger and use it. THIS IS NOT SO. In fact, no one who has ever been in the Bedlam costume cupboard for any reason has ever learned to use a hanger so it falls to me I'm afraid to teach them.

1. Pick up a hanger and an item of clothing 2. Hang the item of clothing on the hanger 3. Hang the hanger somewhere suitable (a rail for example)

Supposing this fails! And the item of clothing drops off of the hanger and onto the floor.

4. Do not walk away and pretend you cannot see/hear the item dropping to the floor. Just because you hung it up once does not mean you have done your bit and what happens to the item next is the wardrobe manager's responsibility 5. Fix the problem. Some helpful hints: - Some hangers are just for coats/shirts/dresses, these are your standard default hangers. Some hangers have little squeezy bits on the ends, these are trouser/skirt hangers. There are plenty of both so there is no need to mix their functions. - Sometimes dresses have loops of thin ribbon attached to the inside of the shoulders. Like a bra strap, but don't wear them like that because it is the sort of fashion faux pas only forgivable in six-year-old girls. Confusing, I know, but these are specifically used to hang the dress on a hanger if the sleeves are likely to slip off. Use this feature well, for it is well-thought-out and works.

And that's it! You're done!

Rules of Hanging Up Your Clothes: 1. DO NOT hang jumpers and cardigans (or other things made out of wool-type material) up! This will stretch them. You can use that rule in your daily life as well as in the costume cupboard. Instead, fold them and put them in the appropriate box. 2. DO NOT use wire hangers. I hate them and am trying to phase them out, which will succeed if you never bring another wire hanger into the Bedlam ever again. They lose their shape and are useless for hanging anything heavier than a handkerchief, and they wreck the shoulders of your clothes. So just don't use them, plastic ones are lovely. 3. DO, if you find you physically cannot hang something due to the nature of the item, feel free to fold it and place it somewhere near where it's meant to be, where I will find it and put it away properly.

I apologise for this I have been in the costume cupboard for nearly ten hours with a laptop a bottle of coke and a plethora of badly-hung costumes