| |
| Matthew Ashford, who plays
Bill in Mamma Mia!, is fitted for pants at Green Shag by owner
Victoria McPhedran. |
|
| Mamma Mia,
he looks sharp |
|
RITA
ZEKAS
SPECIAL TO THE STAR |
|
| Hunky soap sars like Matthew Ashford
(Jack Deveraux on Days of Our Lives) are more accustomed to
doffing their shits. But here he is at Gree Shag Bespke Clothier,
670 Queen St. W., trying on bespoke sirts and pants to wear
when he is not playing Bill, one of the prospective "dads"
in Mamma Mia! at the Princess of Wales Theatre. |
|
| Victoria and Neil McPhedran, Shag
owners, can assemble a ward-robe for a 96-hour trip that fits
in carry-0n. "A white T-shirt, a white shirt, a three-piece
suit, dark denim jeams and you have 16 different outfits,"
Victoria says. |
|
| The shop's tag line is "everyone
needs a shag." Why green shag? |
|
| "Victoria and I as children
had green shag rugs," Neil explains. |
|
| They deal from the underwear out: Boxer shorts,
ties and suitings in 216 fabrics from Italy, Switzerland and
Egypt. |
|
| Boxer shorts of shirting fabric are $40. Suits
start at $1,800; sustom shirts at $290, depedning on fabric.
Playful and/or subversive "cheat sheets" are available
on the shirt cuffs: Roll them down and read chessy pick-up lines
or wine lists. |
|
| Green Shag carries wonderful vests back with
silk Bemberg coot shirt fabric. Bemberg is the short fibre that
grows near the seed pood of the cotton plant. |
|
| "Orignally, the vest was
to hide suspenders because they were like lingerie for men,"
Victoria reveals. Cufflinks are popular Father's Day gifts at
Green Shag because you can design your own. |
|
| Personalized links are $280 a pair; three
for #380; five for $450. |
|
| They also make great groomsment's gifts. One
groom had (the groomsmen's) tattoos customized into cufflinks. |
|
| "We also do (add-on) stand-alone cuffs,"
says Neil. "We did some for Pamela Anderson." |
|
| Ashford is the sixth of eight children, born
in Davenport, Iowa. He has a B.F.A in theatre from the North
Carolina School of theArts and is wed to singer/actor Christna
Saffran Ashford. They have two daughters: Grace, 17, and Emma,
12. |
|
| Straight out of school, he moved to New York
where he snagged the role of Drew Ralston on One Life to Live
(1982-1983) and went on to play Cagney McClary on Searc for
Tomorrow from 1984 to 1986. He played Tom Hardy Sr. on General
Hospital from 1995 to 1997, serial killer Dr. Stephen Haver
on One Life to Live from 2003 to 2004 and dar, conflicted and
tortured Jack on DOOL on and off from 1987 to 2007 and is recurring
on the show. |
|
| Jack would love Green Shag. He wasn't a sweats-and-sneakers
guy. |
|
| "Jack was younger than most
of the people in the room so he dressed to impress," Ashford
explains. "He used wardrobe as armour." |
|
| Ashford's style is sport-orientate,
though he has an appreciation for bespoke. |
|
| "I'm casual, mostly, though
I like to shop in places like this. I get spoiled by beautiful
clothes," he says. "Big stores have too many choices
and I get overwhelmed. I like to go [to] places where they quickly
understand my needs. In Billy['s] Hollywood's [sic] Screen Kiss,
I played a male underwear model past his prime. I had the most
expensive suit on set; int came from Days." |
|
| Ashford belongs to the Interact
Theatre Company inn Los Angeles and is part of the production
company NGM Prodctions which produced the indie The Unlikely's,
in which he played the most famous soap star in the world and
his doppelganger, a hopeless jewel thief on the lam. |
|
| Ashford has been touring with
Mamma Mia! for six months. It closes June 28. |
|
| "My character, Bill, the
intrepid traveller, used to be Australian but they changed it
to American," he says. "I feel that Bill is a scam
artist. He is afraid of commitment. He can face wild animals
but not a 20-year-old girl." |
|
| |
| "I'm the guy you'd never
suspect (of being a serial killer),"he says, "I remind
people of their sons or I could be their lawyer. I'm not Joe
Six Pack. I may be wearing a suit but I may end up in a dress
and wig." |
|
| Or as Elvis. The costumes in Mamma
Mia! in the outrageous final production number are worty of
The King. |
|
| "They are Spandex and cost
$15,000 a piece because they are hand stitched. We are dressed
like Vegas Elvis, which Jack also did on Days. I was always
doing some crazy thing." |
|
| The ABBA music in Mamma Mia! is
infectious. If you aren't swaying to the music, check your pulse.
You are deceased. |
|
| "Mamma Mia is pure enjoyment,"
Ashford says. "I grew up with the Beatles, disco and "Styain'
Alive." I am steeped in Sondheim and musica theatre, but
I also listened to Jethro Tull, The Stones the Alan Prasons
Project." |
|
| What kid of busic would Jack listen
to? |
|
| Jack would probably listen to
Mahler or something grim. |
|
