Or so I thought. Turns out that while I wasn't looking Lori might have been sneaking a peek or two in other directions. Sure she paid attention to me while we were in the hospital, but as soon as I was discharged and it was time to leave, the truth came out. "You know, on the way here I noticed this great little store that I'd love to stop at..." What can I say? The girl never stops shopping.
The shop Lori spotted while I was racing to the hospital is called "It's A Wrap!". It looks like any other Salvation Army type clothing store, but it's actually a clearance house for movie wardrobes. After a movie or TV show finishes shooting the clothes that are worn during the filming are consigned to It's A Wrap for sale. It's A Wrap attaches a tag to each piece of clothing so it can be traced back to the film or show that it came from. Display racks have a header card on them so you know that everything on that rack came from the specified show.
This was far more interesting than most places Lori makes me stop. I've always thought that I have movie star looks, now I could have movie star clothes! I began searching for a shirt that might have belonged to somebody famous that would look good on me. Spying a rack of clothes from The Lincoln Lawyer I got excited. If a shirt could make Matthew McConaughey look good, imagine what it could do for me! I searched the rack but didn't really find anything and then it dawned on me. Silly Steve....Matthew McConaughey doesn't wear shirts in movies! What was I thinking.
I checked some other displays but apparently movie stars don't come in my shape or size. Denzel Washington's stuff from Flight? Too small. Nathan Fillion's Castle wardrobe? Maybe if I invested in a good pair of Spanx. There was some stuff there from Breaking Bad, but I'm really not hip enough to pull that kind of look off. And so it went until I found some stuff in my size leftover from an old Kevin James movie. Great....
Therein lies the problem with It's a Wrap. If you find a great shirt, you can't ask if they have it in another size. What the studio sends them is what they have, and while it's fascinating to look around, the odds of you finding exactly what you want in your size aren't super high. Unless of course you're a size zero supermodel, as I suspect a high number of my readers are. Then you might have a little more luck.
Speaking of size zero supermodels, Lori was having a lot more luck than I was (That should keep me out of the doghouse for a little while). Of course, she was spending all her time in the shoe section where $600 Manolo Blahnik shoes were marked down to $300. Carrie Bradshaw would have jumped at the deal, but fortunately for me Lori knows our budget limits very well. The only purchase we ended up making was a black, Nike jacket from the movie Juno for $7. It was supposed to be my jacket, but I haven't seen it since the day we bought it. I suspect that somebody has decided it looks better on them than it does on me. I can't say I disagree with them.
From a man who seriously dislikes shopping, It's A Wrap was a lot of fun. Even though you know most of the clothes came off background extras and minor cast members, it's fun to hold up things and try and remember if you saw a major movie star wearing it during their last film. Sure it was a little depressing that all Hollywood people are in better shape than me, but to be honest I kind of knew that anyways. Spending an hour or so sorting through their castoff clothing was a fun and (considering I had just come from the hospital where industrial strength pain killers were administered to help me deal with my shoulder) painless experience.
Written by Steve Pratt