Suit Rock

News today has revealed the leader singer of popular youth band Maximo Park has his own tailor to make sure the designs of his suits are able to withstand his energetic leaping around on stage.

Paul Smith (the singer - not the designer), said, "He's really good at adapting to my needs because I jump around quite a lot - there's certain places on my outfit where there's some stretchier little knots and fabric."

Paul said he uses the outfits to stand out at heavier festival so crowds remember the band:"We've played at heavy metal festivals in Slovakia where nobody knew who we were, and I am wearing a white suit and a white hat trying to deliberately stand out."

He should just be thankful he's not Patrick Wolf whose cape (yes, cape) has gone missing, and he wants it back. These rock stars eh?

Running in heels (with eggs)

One thing that women often claim about high-heels is that they are 'impossible' to walk in. Well, men in China have been proving that's not quite the case, by taking part in a series of sprinting events wearing high heels - see.

A fantastic idea - take unusual or awkward clothing and see how fast you can run in it. The sack race only takes place at school and you never see it after that - but why? It's a fantastic race, testing a multitude of skills, mainly jumping, but also balance and, er, speed.

The egg and spoon race - another great race. Why do we do it? When else in life do you need that skills? Do children have an inherent love of running with delicate food? Odd world.

It was all white on the night

The England football team - never ones to do things by the book are they? Saturday saw them take on the mighty Slovakia in a world-ending friendly in which they won 4-0. Well done them.

The whole thing though was overshadowed by the unveiling of the team's new shirt and their 'anthem jackets' - so called because they took them off during the anthem in order to give the new shirt unveiling 'maximum impact' (a phrase which is surely copyright for the next Arnold Swarchenegger movie.)

Some people weren't happy with this, claiming it was too much of a PR stunt. Well it is 2009, what isn't a PR stunt these days? Still it's an interesting take on clothing and fashion launches, and when all's said and done the new kit does look really good; a hint of 1960s retro and nice clean, elegant lines.

Oh what a night!

Well...we hope your heads are recovering! What a great night though and wasn't Myleene ace? Such a pro. Thanks to everyone who entered the awards, came to the dinner, danced the night away, and marvelled at the wonderful design innovation challenge enteries, we hope you had as much fun as you seemed to be having!

Pictures will be forth coming in current issue, and to give you a nice chuckle on a Friday, an article on men wearing tights from today's Metro.

Until the next awards night...

The final countdown

So this is it, in just over 24 hours the Company Clothing Industry Awards will have started and those that are in attendence will be sipping champagne and looking forward to a celebration of the industry, all hosted by the very lovely Myleene Klass. Those of you that aren't going...what were you thinking?! We'll save you a slice of cake.

It promises to be a great night and culmination of much hard work by us, and by you in submitting the garments you worked so hard to create, and it's great that, especially in the tumultuous times, we are able to bring such a vibrant, diverse and creative industry together to celebrate and share in its achievements.

Fashion is so fickle and often unrealistic, but our industry clothes real people for real jobs, from train drivers to police officers to chefs and bank staff, and we hope the awards night will prove a great opportunity for you to all come together and bask in your achievements.

The blog tomorrow will probably go missing due in the coming and goings in ensuring every last detail is taken care of, but we look forward to seeing you there, and if you have any last minute queries check the website and if it's not on there, get in touch.

Fashion socks it to the credit crunch

As the Christmas party season hurtles towards us thoughts will crop up along the lines of ‘oh what the hell am I going to wear?’ But even though a credit crunch is biting (is it alive?), we’re still very much followers of fashion. Dedicated even, as The Kinks may proclaim.

Research figures from online business directory Scoot, shows that during October almost 30,000 people looked up fashion and accessory related shops on the site. Shoe shop searches reached almost 11,000 too. As Sue Barnes, the MD, notes, ‘Scoot searches tell us what sorts of businesses people are looking for, not what people re spending, but fashion remains high on our priority list, despite the credit crunch.’

Company Clothing is off to a Christmas party on Friday where we’ll sip champagne, make witty remarks in the spirit of Dorothy Parker or Oscar Wilde, and eat one too many cheese and pineapple sticks. The question is, what should we wear to make sure we stand out from the crowd?

Pants

You may remember back on Halloween we blogged about some of the spurious world records that had been broken that links to the clothing world. Well today we bring you another on of those - Friday certainly is the day for silly news.

Yesterday at St Pancreas station in London the world record for 'the largest gathering of people wearing underpants/knickers' was broken. It was all in aid of charity with money being raised for Pants to Poverty, a Fair Trade group, and was part of of Guinness World Record Day in which people all over the world try to break a world record. The best record of the day to be broken was surely the most skydivers at once - 71 - pictured above.

What other world records need breaking? Perhaps our industry could come together and earn ourselves a place in the record books...ideas using the comments button below!

The bright side of life

High-visibility clothing sure is versatile. Not only is it a widely used and vital piece of PPE, we've also seen it been turned into a kilt, and now, even more fantastically, it's been made into a little jacket for a dog. Why we hear you ask from behind your computer screens?

Well it all started because the landlord of the pub the dog frequents had barred the little terrier tearaway Hatty (pictured gambling) had a tendency to destroy beer mats. Around 50 a night!

Now though the landlord has relented and agreed to allow the dog to return, on the proviso she wears the high-vis jacket so he can keep an eye on her at all times. The landlord also said, "We were thinking of a hard hat and muzzle but that was going too far."

Perhaps some of our PPE workwear readers could suggest further items for Hatty, or other high-vis clothing for animals. Snakes in high vis tubes to make them easier to see? Surely you can do better dear reader?

Skin deep

Okay so it's not quite clothing, but this story is a fun example of the creative way in which it people can be made to look like their wearing clothing.It's not too dissimilar to the classic Pink Floyd poster - that you can see here.

Still, fun as this looks, perhaps it would better to stick with real clothing and leave this kind of thing to the, er, professionals?

Off with their heads

The Queen is off on another holiday (of sorts) this time visiting the people of Slovenia. However, her arrival has caused an unexpected problem – a chronic shortage of white ties and tails. As reported in today’s Metro, guests for the party in honour of the Queen’s visit have been forced to travel across borders in order to try and get hold of this elusive items.

'We don't have events like this very often, so who knows where to get all these complicated clothes? People here don't have these kind of things sitting in their wardrobes’ said one guest, showing a distinct lack of gratitude…

Still I’m sure a few Company Clothing readers do have these white ties and tails in their wardrobes and are no doubt looking forward to dusting them off for the Company Clothing Industry Awards in March.

TV Matters

The BBC are showing a new season of fashion based programmes this Autumn that certainly look well worth catching.