Police arrest their own garment manufacturers

The New York Times (we read widely) carried an interesting story about a police raid on a clothing factory that you can read in detail about here.

Interesting to note too that the factory they raided was one that made the very same garment the police were wearing; it must have been an odd moment. And having discovered the company that made the uniforms was also wanted by those wearing them the NYPD cancelled their contract with them.

The Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said that quality was the main factor in authorizing a supplier. “That is our primary consideration,” he said. “We are going to leave the other issues to the Department of Labor, which obviously they are addressing today.”

Aporkalypse

The swine flu thing is very odd. A bit scary too. As you've no doubt seen on the news, many people have taken to wearing masks to try and stop any particles of pig enter their beings, and, being the creative bunch of people humans are, many are decorating their masks with hilarious pictures - as you can see here.

Reality bites

David Hepworth, founder of Word Magazine and Q and other magazine based things (and so a favourite of Company Clothing), has written a blog post about his experiences with the myriad styles of dress and appearence in the NHS here after a recent trip to A&E following an accident.

It's very interesting to read what he has to say about the lack of a cohesive look in the hospital;

"I can't help but think that it looked slovenly. And when things look slovenly, they can often be slovenly. When you're thrown into this kind of environment, usually in some distress, surely it has to help if you can immediately work out who the people are, what role they fulfil and, also, who's in charge."

Which is a fairly damning indictment and one which carries some weight. After all, his magazine credentials aside, he's a member of the public and as such voices, eloquantly, the concerns many may have had too. While it's just one opinion, it would do well if the NHS where aware of such criticisms and made the appropriate changes. Are they on Twitter?

Friday Fun

The end of another week and to wind down towards the weekend here are two stories to keep you intrigued for a few minutes.

First off, a lucky stop this one, a woman was shot at, but saved, when the bullet hit the wiring in her bra. She still ended up in hospital, which isn't funny at all of course, but the injuries, were 'not life threatening', so hopefully she'll be okay.

Second - health and safety officers in Liverpool have told a clown he has to stop wearing his giant, novely, funny shoes because they are a health and safety risk - to be fair this was after he had fallen from a high wire while wearing them and broke his metatarsel.

Well, enjoy. Have a groovy weekend and if you're in or around the capital of London make your way down on Sunday for the marathon!

Suit up

We've blogged a few times before about really cheap suits - for £50 and £20 - but this is one that no one could accuse of being cheap - a suit that costs, wait for it, £70,000.

The suit is a one-off creation made from the finest fabrics in the world and has taken in excess of 80 hours to complete with over 5,000 individual stitches equating to £14 per stitch. What a world. In the middle of worldwide global financial crises stories like this rightly make you question - what crises? Clearly for some people nothing is beyond their wants.

Designer Alexander Amosu said the economic crisis had not completely stopped the demand for designer fashion: "Buying an Alexander Amosu suit is the ultimate in luxury. We create the finest bespoke suits using fabrics which emphasise character, style and individuality. I firmly believe that in the wake of the recession, there is still a demand for uncompromising quality. We might not be catering to everyone, but the people who buy Alexander Amosu want to wear the very best suits in the world."

Marathon effort

Those of you who have recieved the latest issue, and no doubt read it cover-to-cover, will have noticed that editorial assistant Dan Worth is running the London Marathon this Sunday. We've certainly enjoyed watching him suffer, train sorry, through the winter and seeing him hobble in to work each Monday after another weekend of training.

So if you can spare a few quid, please visit his JustGiving page, and sponsor him - he only needs another £231and it would be great if Company Clothing readers were able to help him reach this target!

Thanks!

Back of the net

We hope you don't mind us writing about sport too often - but it is a good source of interesting clothing related stories. Today's is that FIFA - the world governing body of football (lar de dah), is to launch a range of clothing that will use its trademarked logo.

Apparently this will definitely be cool - people love football right? - and will be on display at trade shows in the coming months. So keep a look out! Gooooooaaaaaaallllll.

What's up Doc Leaf

It's Friday, it's the weekend, it's Top of the Pops!! No wait, no it isn't. Sorry, nostalgia trip. But is Friday which means it's nearly the weekend so work is winding down (maybe?) and we're looking forward to a lie in tomorrow - why do you always need a holiday after a holiday?

This padding is partly to disguise the fact that, despite scouring the internet high and low, we haven't been able to find any amusing, interesting or...no, wait, what's this...at literally the eleventh hour (not literally the eleventh hour), we've been passed this story from Yarn Forward magazine:

De Montfort University in Leicester has developed a yarn made of stinging nettle fibres as part research project called STING (very good) Sustained Technology in Nettle Growing - fantastic coincidence. Nettles are stronger than cotton and far more sustainable and ecologically friendly and recently a dress made of nettles was worn by BBC presenter Kylie Pentelow who said it didn't sting at all and was in fact, 'lovely and warm to wear'. Using nettles in the textile world could well provide people with a more environmentally way of creating garments - how long until it enters the corporate clothing world though is another matter.

So, a last minute piece of news got the blog out of a potentially prickly situation.

What?

It's getting easier to be green

A suit for £50? Made from recycled plastic bottles? Yes, it's true and it's available from highsteet clothing store Debenhams.

In fact we've seen this sort of thing before with ASDA's £20 'credit-crunch busting suit' for woman that drew a couple of interesting points. It's great to see though that something that is made entirely from recycled plastic bottles can be remade into something that is both highly useful, but also that can retail at such a reasonable price.

If the cost of recycling the bottles and reproducing them can be covered by selling something at £50 then it suggests the costs of recycling are coming down drastically and that business will become more and more willing to follow this route if it helps save money. We've covered the business benefits of going green, so the more this sort of thing is promoted and done on the highstreet, the more it will continue in the long run; we hope.

In these economically uncertain times producing clothing that saves money for both consumers and companies and help them save the planet is surely a good thing?

Uping the Ante

When we started this blog there was never a time we considered we might get to write about the following - an anteater whose owner makes clothes for her beloved pet.

Words can't really do justice to this story. So just enjoy the picture.

Underpacked

A classic cliched joke in sitcoms is when a character has to sit on their suitcase to force in the huge numbers of clothing they are taking with them on holiday only for a second character to deliver the killer punchline of: 'but we're only going for a night' ( Ha hah ah hah hah hah hah, laughs the manical canned laughter).

In real life it must have been an easy spot for customs officials at Newcastle airport when they searched a Brazilian woman's suitcase only to discover it was full of nothing but lingerie and nightdresses. The suitcase would have been nice and light, not bursting at the seams or creaking - therefore indicating something was amiss.

Tie in

Credit crunch got you down? Struggling to make ends meet? Got a wedding coming up? (Bear with us)...you could sell advertising space on your tie! Seriously.

One enterprising Romanian man has decided that a good way to make some extra moola (not the currency of Romania) is to sell the space on his tie to the highest bidder - he's even set up a website and everything (how much did that cost?) that gives the breakdown of the tie advertising space rates.

€35 Euros though? Is that it?! He needs higher standards.

Grovelling apology

Sorry! In all the coming and going and general jiggery-pokery of producing a magazine yesterday's blog seemed to get overlooked. It's not to say we forgot about out (anyone who follows our Twitter will have seen our pleas for ideas) but when none were forthcoming we didn't really get much searching done ourselves.

Anyways, we promise a much better return today - we've already got a few things lined up and hope you'll enjoy them, or even just read them.

It's cool to be green

Company Clothing have always been ones to try and stay ahead of the curve, or at least on the curve, and as such for around two years now have had a dedicated "Green Room" section in each issue in which we look at green issues. In the past have included topics as diverse as a Colombian charity run by nuns manufacturing outdoor clothing, reviews of Fairtrade Fortnight and Arco joining the Ethical Trading Initiative. During this time we've seen how important ethical and environmental issues and standards have become.

Therefore we were not surprised, but were certainly pleased, to see that Mintel (a data analysis group that leaves you with fresh breath) have announced that the ethical clothing market is now worth £175 million

As the interest in our Environmental Initiative Award category showed, there is a wealth of companies in the corporate clothing world striving to do good through business and that customers and end-users are equally as keen to purchase clothing that has ethical and environmental credentials.

Our next issue will, of course, feature a look at more good work going on in this sector, including an interview with someone we met through Twitter, @freedomclothingproject.

Giddy up!

So the Grand National is upon us, with forty runners and riders ready for the off tomorrow afternoon, and across the land people will cheer on their nags, screaming at the television in the hope of winning any bets down, or the office sweepstake.

Of course clothing has little to play in this - unlike, say, swimming - but it's nice if the random gee-gee you've chosen has a rider in go-faster strips or something that looks good, it seems as if you have more of a chance.

Company Clothing wanted to pick Fleet Street (66-1) for obvious reasons, but instead has been saddled with Kilbeggan Blade (20-1), so perhaps an outside chance of victory.

Come on horse! Run!

Lifeguard hoodies to be pulled

Long-term readers of this blog may remember we wrote about the problem with hoodies in Cornwall that mimicked the design and look of offical Lifeguard clothing. This led to many people demanding the shops in question stop selling these garments, claiming they endangered beaches users who may believe more people were on patrol on a beach than there was in reality.

As a result the first shop that sold these hoodies has confirmed it will stop selling them in order to ensure 'they are working with the RNLI, not against them.'

Fashionable first lady

Apologies for the missing blogs over the last two day - we were in Birmingham - so access to internet was minimal to non-existant. Never fear though we're back and it's Friday and it's now British Summer Time.

Our first blog for today (we'll do two because we know how upset you would have been at missing out for two days) concerns that inspiring woman, Michelle Obama. Not content with delievering moving, passionate speeches to school children, she is also enthralling the fashion commentators (who are a tough bunch to please) with her stylish clothing choices for high-end functions, without ever losing the personnal touch that makes her so respected.

Tune in latter for our tips for the Grand National...