The Large Cool Store

Themes
Class, illusions, clothes and fashion

Content
The poem describes a large store which sells cheap, slightly outdated clothes to those mostly of the working-class. Larkin clearly disapproves of the clothes and the people wearing them, who are trying to create the fantasy that they are a better person if they dress better and that they can have love through clothes.

Analysis

• The title itself is ambiguous as the word "cool" could be taken to mean trendy and fashionable or that the store itself is cold and uninviting for people of Larkin's better taste. It is clear that Larkin looks down upon those of a lower class.
• The fact that the clothes are "cheap" is good for those buying them as they cannot afford to spend considerable amounts and the "simple sizes" make the clothes "plainly" easy to find. However, these words also have negative connotations, suggesting that the people themselves are simple and plain and alliteration is used to reinforce the point that the clothes are not of good quality. There is no decoration or luxury.
• Larkin then proceeds to list the different types of clothes which all seem the same to him, whether they are "Knitwear" for winter or "Summer Casuals" ,as they are all bleak "browns and greys". The work clothes are mundane, dark and sombre-horrible to look at.
• From this, Larkin begins to imagine the people that wear them- the working-class who must rise at "dawn" to leave "low-terraced houses" (low in sense of physical position and status) for a day of hard work. Larkin appears snobbish and judgemental concerning those who work in the triadic list of "factory, yard and site". None of these destinations are appealing or attractive and so neither do the clothes need to be. For these reasons, Larkin describes the clothes as "heaps", suggesting that they have simply been thrown down without care or thought like a pile of rubbish-unpleasant.
• However, these boring and plain clothes are then completely contrasted with the "Modes For Night", with the point being emphasised through the end-stopped line. These lingerie are designed to make a woman feel attractive and seductive, with vibrant colours such as "lemon" and "sapphire" drawing attention to the nightwear and making a woman appear exotic and self-assured at night. The contrast between night and day could not be so stark. Yet Larkin must underline that these clothes are "Machine-embroidered"- they are of no quality and just a façade, only an imitation.
• "Baby-dolls" are fashionable and provocative bedclothes that flaunt a woman's shape and these clothes "flounce" in a girly attempt to attract attention in a frivolous manner. They are in "clusters" though, suggesting duplicates and imitation.
• The women that wear the nightclothes believe that they "share that world" of fashion that the upper class occupy but the use of "their" shows that they are still separated/alienated. Larkin is perhaps also trying to come to terms with how two so different types of clothes can exist within the same place and be worn by the same class. The working-class want an escape and the women find that in fashionable lingerie.
• Larkin then goes on to describe love and women as "separate and unearthly"-he (comically)does not understand the concepts and why people think that clothes make such a difference. Perhaps he is also hinting at the idea that women try so hard that they become unnatural. In youth, the "unreal wishes" of people mean that they cannot achieve what they desire but these wishes are also tacky and of no taste. Love and desires have become "synthetic, new and natureless". Larkin manages to make the neutral word "new" seem negative to imply that love is fake and cold-expectations are not met and people cannot just create the concept from clothes. However, they try to create the fantasy as it is the best that they have. Working-class society is one of impracticality and people trying to escape grim reality by wearing more fashionable clothes but ultimately, the fantasy disappears to reveal the fake nature of what people were trying to create.
• The ABABA rhyme scheme links to the monotony and simplicity of the working-class and their lives.

Links to other poems
'Love Songs in Age'-love as a let down
'Faith Healing'-escapism
'Toads Revisited'-the tediousness of work life and its effect on people
'Sunny Prestatyn' and 'Essential Beauty'-aspirations being a deception, hopes destroyed, clothes as a form of advertisement which ultimately fail in their purpose, contrast of real life with dreams
'Afternoons'-condescending view of the working-class

Academic link:http://www.allinfo.org.uk/levelup/largecools.htm