Hey you! Are you a short fat wealthy man who wants to wear all manner of tasteless, yet ridiculously expensive, clothes that will raise money for charity? Has Elton John ever got an offer for you!
Elton John, the original short fat wealthy tastelessly-dressed man, is having a bargain clear-out of all his old duds. For five days only, anyone in the vicinity of New York can mosey down to the Elton's Closet store and peruse all manner of eye-shrieking garb that Elton John himself has worn and probably shouted at some foreign photographers in.
Elton John gets through clothes like Tom Cruise gets through sofas. Each year, recently hitched couple Elton John and David Furnish stage a giant boot fair of all their old threads in New York for charity. But this is Elton John we're talking about – a man who once was made into a chocolate statue, remember – so any clear-out of his isn't going to just be a couple of pasting tables with some jeans and a faded Megadeth T-shirt on them. Oh no – Elton John rents his own shop at the Rockafeller Center and fills it with 10,000 garments.
Shoppers at Elton's Closet can spend anything from $15 for a T-shirt to $5,000 for a full-length cashmere jacket, with all kinds of designer shoes and accessories thrown in for good luck, too. Highlight of the sale is perhaps the frightening Mr Blobby suit that Elton wore when he duetted with Eminem at the Grammys in 2001. The legally very polite Elton John has said of the sale:
"David and I had great fun collecting and wearing these extraordinary clothes, but it's even more satisfying to see them help raise money for the Elton John Aids Foundation."
That's right – the sale isn't just to help line Elton John's pockets so that he can buy more flowers or walk into HMV and buy seven copies of an Underworld CD like we saw him do on a documentary once; all the money raised will go towards the Elton John Aids Foundation, his charity which has raised more than $50 million in its time.
Which is a lovely thing to do, really. If he hadn't have helped discover James Blunt, we'd almost even like Elton John.
Read more:
Elton John clears closet for charity – BBC
[story by Stuart Heritage]