Ghostbusters

Five Minutes. I gave it five minutes before I buckled.

“A beige boiler suit?” I asked myself. “How am I going to work a beige boiler suit into a blog dedicated to the already flimsy notion of finding high street clothes to evoke my favourite on-screen characters?”

So here it is, the Ghostbusters getup compromised to an Olive Green Military Style (£17.99, Surplus & Outdoors) coverall which is much more day-at-the-races than the plain beige from the film. My first reaction is to be amazed at what the boiler suit does… it makes an entire outfit, IN ONE GO! The hands are even in the pockets, meaning I don’t have to go sourcing and placing those. This could save me hours of research, I’m already envisaging the fat proto-Italian mechanic from Speed Racer, the garage scene from Grease, Dean Jones as Jim Douglas in the original The Love Bug.

This last one stops the self-indulgent rant; that Jim Douglas was a pretty cool guy. Watch this space.

My second reaction is that this is going to need some serious accessories. But first, to keep things stark, we are sticking in a pair of Black Doc Marten 1460 Boots (£90, Doc Martens). Hard wearing and iconic, they look close to what Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray et al. were wearing, and they are what I would want to be in if there was a danger of getting slimed.

Onward with the frivolities, I can let a boiler suit pass but up with skater’s elbow pads I will not put. It would be accurate, sure. But at the expense of making you look like you are in costume (which is definitely not what we are about here) or like you are on your way home from laying floor boards – obviously there is nothing wrong with the noble floor board laying profession, but this is your clothes money we are playing with here… if you want to look like that go and train up.

So the compromise is to round the corner where Ghostbusting Peter Venkman meets Parapsychology Professor Peter Venkman and sew on some Dritz Suede Elbow Patches in Beige (£4.12, Create For Less). And while you are in the creative mindset, you will also need to apply some belt loops to facilitate the wearing of an ASOS Suede Chino Belt (£15, ASOS).

Rather than gluing some egg cartons together and strapping them to your back, you can evoke the proton pack with a Shore Leave Black Canvas Backpack (£55, Urban Outfitters).

The notion gets flimsier.