Colm Tóibín

There's a word in English called bolt, B-O-L-T.

The bolts of material.

I mean, bolts and bolts.

Like it's like, I mean, I've never seen anything like it.

And it's not as though they're all silk or they're all linen or something.

They're just basically cotton shirts.

But yeah, eventually I'm going to have to come clean and just take one home.

No, I never had any clothes I liked.

And I remember seeing things I liked, like a really beautiful, someone had a beautiful gray suit.

But no, I never had anything I liked, I don't think.

Yeah, you see, what was very fashionable then were polo necks.

I think they came in sometime in the 60s.

Not really, the older generation wouldn't wear a polo neck.

You know, the funniest thing that I ever owned, and I wish I had it again,

was not only a string vest, but a string underpants.

Oh my God.

And that was very fashionable in Ireland for men to wear a string vest.

I remember getting a slight suntan through a string vest.

But a string underpants was really something.

You never see them anymore.