📙Part 2: Describe a piece of clothing you often wear

This episode's vocabulary

To associate (verb) - to connect someone or something in your mind with someone or something else.

To throw on (phrasal verb) - to put on a piece of clothing quickly.

Baggy (adj.) - (of clothes) hanging loosely because of being too big or having been stretched.

Branded (adj.) - made by a particular company and sold under a particular name.

To stencil (verb) - to draw or paint something using a stencil (a piece of flat material in which shapes or letters have been cut out, so that when you paint or draw over it, images of the shapes or letters that have been cut out will be left on the surface below, or the patterns or letters made by this method)

Capitalised (adj.) - written in capital letters.

Drab (adj.) - boring, especially in appearance; having little colour and excitement.

Loft (noun) - a space at the top of a building under the roof used for storing things and usually entered by a ladder, or sometimes made into a room for living in.

Fabric (noun) - cloth or material for making clothes, covering furniture, etc.

To keep hold of something (phrase) - to not lose something, or to not let someone else get it.

To degrade (verb.) - to spoil or destroy the beauty or quality of something.

Signature (adj.) - used to refer to the special thing for which a person or place is particularly known.

Questions and Answers

R: Well, I think everyone who knows me has probably come to associate me with my big black hoodie, to be honest. I have it on almost every day since it's so comfortable and easy to throw on. In more detail about what it is and looks like, like I said, it's a large size as opposed to my usual medium, so it's pretty baggy. I got it about 12 years ago when I was working on a marine research project in Fiji. The place that ran the project had these shirts. I should say, the organisation that ran the project had these shirts and other items of clothing that were branded and I liked the big hoodie the best, so I picked it up. It actually came in very handy since the island we were on got pretty cold at night. I make it sound pretty basic, but it's not just black, it has the project logo stencilled on the left breast area and a huge Manta ray design on the back. It's actually quite beautiful, though, the capitalised dive team slogan, probably isn't so nice to look at. But at least it's all in a nice light blue colour. So that breaks it up in terms of the, like, having only black... It breaks up the black colour or black shade, I should say, quite a bit. Otherwise, it would be pretty drab to look at. To say more about how regularly I wear it, I think I have it on nearly every day now. That didn't use to be the case. I kept it in a loft storage area for years and stumbled across it when I was moving house a few years ago. It was still wearable and the fabric was soft, so I decided I would keep hold of it and I wound up wearing it a lot after I moved because it was winter and the heating didn't work properly sometimes. I even wore it to work a few times for comfort and of course. I always wear it whenever we shoot episodes of the podcast now. In greater depth about what it's like, I think I pretty much covered the basics of how it looks, so I need to think... It's rather high-quality cotton, so it's very soft. I think if it had degraded over time then I'd just have thrown it out. I'm surprised it's lasted this long, actually. It's been over a decade now. In terms of my reasons for wearing it. It goes with just about everything, really. Aside from when I have a night out, which isn't often these days. It's easy to wash and then pull on before work and it completes my signature look of the casually organised professional (if that can be said to constitute a look). If I didn't have it I doubtless have found something else, but it might not be as interesting.

M: And what about your friends? Do they like it?

R: They haven't really commented on it, to be honest with you.