15 love?

Did you notice that when Roger Federer recieved the Wimbledon trophy on Sunday (for the sixth time...) he had a gold 15 on the side of his jacket? He must have been presented with it before the match by Nike in case he won. Which he did. Just.

As you can read in the link above, some people have seen this as a sign of arrogance, but if he was given the jacket and had it tucked away in his bag, to only be shown if he won, then it's hardly that bad, is it?

What do you think? Is a man who's won 14 grand slams allowed to preempt another possible victory, or would it be better to just be happy enough with another win, another title, another massive pay cheque, and leave it at that? Let us know below.

Star Trekking

As you will remember for the Awards back in March (can it be that long ago?) we asked companies to design Star Trek uniforms for the Design Innovation Challenge. They were all awesome, and were placed on display as guest entered the champagne reception - if you weren't there you missed out!

Therefore we were pleased to see the trend continued, with the recent story about corsets designed in Star Trek colours and piping. Have a look at a couple of pictures here on the Telegraph website.

Star Trek: reviewed

Space, the final frontier. Etc.

With the Design Innovation Award at our awards being based on the release of the new Star Trek film we thought today we would bring you our opinions on the new film, just released, and take a look at the uniforms on show.

First off it's fair to say the film is fantastic. Warp speed pacing, fantastic set pieces, good characterisation and a clever, intricate plot that teeters on the edge of ludicrious but just keeps its balance. The costumes too are fantastic. The aliens, of course, are eye-catching, but even the red, blue and yellow shirts of the crew look dynamic and funky, rather than simple and plain. No doubt given it's 2,300 they have some fantastic wicking properties too. Although if you ask us, the blue should be the top colour, not the yellow / mustard number.

All in all then we feel particularly pleased that the film / cultural reference point we choose for our awards has delivered with as much verve and aplomb as the enteries we received. Certainly well worth a trip to the cinema.

Photos!

So here they are - photos from the Company Clothing Industry Awards 2009. Yet more photos will be on display in the April edition of the magazine so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for that.

More swimming suit news

Well, after a weekend of recovering from the excesses of the Company Clothing Industry Awards, it's back to the grindstone and another story about the issue of swimsuits and how they are helping swimmers break more world records than is natural, 108 last year were broken. That is a lot.

The swimming body Fima has announced that "swimsuits should not cover the neck and must not extend past the shoulders and ankles" explaining that, ""Fina wishes to recall the main and core principle is that swimming is a sport essentially based on the physical performance of the athlete," said a statement from swimming's world governing body."

A very interesting development that underlines the growing rise of technology in clothing. Thing is though, if all athletes are able to use the same kit, doesn't that make it even, everyone's faster? Are the clothes part of the race? Like a fuel strategy in F1, or subs in football, or a runner pacing themselves? What do you think?

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.

Wearing clothes causes a riot

How on earth does this happen in a civilised world? From this story: 'A man who refused to take his clothes off at a raunchy party has been blamed for a mini-riot at an Australian nudist resort.' Taken straight from the files of 'You Couldn't Make It Up'.

It continues, 'Police were called amid threats of violence and ordered the Brisbane man and his wife to leave the "anything goes" party. The problem arose when the man was confrtoned by four naked female guests who, the organiser said, "felt uncomfortable with him eyeing them up and so I asked him to show some respect and take his clothes off."'

Company Clothing prefers parties involving top-class celebrities, fantastic venues, well-dressed guests and prizes being handed out, which is just as well, as it's the Company Clothing Industry Awards on Thursday night...we can't wait! See you there!

George announces fashion design winners

You may remember that some weeks ago we ran a story about George asking students to design a fashion range and now the winner's have been announced - pictured right (click to enlarge).

Students at Nottingham Trent University were asked to create a range of menswear collections for Autumn/Winter 09. They then had present their work - which included men's tailoring and casualwear - to a panel of George representatives, before the results were announced today.

Lucinda Bennett, Tahlia Goodwin, Liz Logue, Amy Tydeman and Jenna Harvey, all based in the university's School of Art and Design, claimed the top spot in the competition.

The group's collection included durable but lightweight waterproofs, tailored coats, twisted jeans, and a jacket with a fully-functional rucksack that emerged from a zipped pocket on the back. Using a directional but commercial colour palette of rusted oranges and steely silvers along with core colours of navy and charcoal, the collection incorporated aspects of protection and reinforcement which were used in both garment and print design.

Andy Burns, Menswear Design Manager for George, said: 'All the students approached our brief with a high level of creative professionalism and market focus. They produced finished packages that any final-year-student would be proud of, which is a huge compliment to the calibre of the course and the talent it is producing.'

The big 100

Today is our 100th blogpost! Wooo, celebration time! Biscuit? Don't mind if I do...Champagne? Oh you are too kind...A speech you say? Well okay then.

We'd like to thank all the people behind the scenes who have worked so hard for this success. The good folks at blogger, the inventors of the internet, the suppliers of such weird and wonderful stories, and of course to you, our fans (and those of you who have stumbled randomly across this page) for helping make this blog so much fun to run.

Not only this, it is now just two weeks to the day until the event of the year, the Company Clothing Industry Awards! With Myleene Klass hosting, a three-course meal at the Park Lane Hotel to enjoy, and dancing for afterwards, it promises to be a great night. If you haven't got a ticket you really have no excuses - click here and get booking.

In honour of 100 posts here is a selection of some of our favourite stories so far:

1. Straw Hat - lead to a blog on the Blackburn Labour website.
2. Flip Flops for drunken revelers.
3. Man smuggles pigeon in pants, leads to musings on ecology and the food chain.
4. The snow family in their underpants.
5. Terrible sport kits.

Here's to the next 100!

Little gold men

So the Oscars have come and gone, in a triumph of red carpets, gowns and awards, and thankfully no tears from Kate Winslet. Incidentally, did any papers go for "Kate Wins-it"? It's what we would use if we covered such events.

The Best Costumer Design went to the The Duchess - that period drama with Keira Knightley - but Slumdog Millionaire was the biggest triumph of the night - they must be raking it in...

Some nice frocks and gowns and so forth where on display too - a gallery of some of them here - we've yet to spot anything resembling a disaster, but no doubt they happened - if you saw any, or have any opinions on what was on show - dresses or films - let us know using the comments button below!

Stop the press

It is Friday, and we don't wish to raise too many hackles, but this BBC article, how not to design a work uniform, does make it hard to stay calm. It's all very one-sided and fails to bother to take into account the hardworking, creative and ingenious people in this 450 million pound industry. We though, do know about all this work, and this is exactly why we set up the Company Clothing Industry Awards, to celebrate the clever, interesting and sheer brilliant work that goes on, from fabrics to footwear to fashion design. If you haven't got your ticket yet for the awards on March 12 - get a move on!

As a final note in the next issue, with you shortly, we have an exclusive interview with the suppliers to National Express who gave us the full, updated and correct version of both the story including both the history behind the new contract and uniform as well as addressing some of the issues that came out in the national press. It's far more accurate than most of the mainstream media outlets managed. *Places trumpet back on floor, steps down from soapbox*

Enjoy the weekend!

Fame at last, or sorts

During the snow dump of last week we blogged about the hat fashion of Jack Straw - as you can see here - and today we discovered the very constituency that Mr Straw is from, Blackburn, have written a blog about a blog he wrote about the stick he got for wearing...the boots! Oh it's all so confusing.

Still, it's nice to see we're reaching the key movers and shakers in Westminster. Now if only they'd change our name to Company Clothing, rather than just the more powerful sounding, but incredibly vague, Company, we'd be on to a real winner!

Plus don't forget - it's one calender month today until the awards - if you haven't got a ticket for the event of the year, host by the lovely Myleene Klass, what on earth are you waiting for? The moon on a stick?! Go here, now!

Myleene Klass confirmed as hostess of awards

Here it is then, the news you have been waiting for. The fantastic celebrity fashion icon hostess of our awards is...Myleene Klass.

Her CV is endless and impressive. The star of Ten Years Younger on Channel 4, a model for M&S, former member of Hearsay, an author, a pianist, host of the Classical Brit Awards 2008, and she knows a thing or two about fashion - a bit talented this one. So if you haven't got your ticket to the Event of the Year™, then now really is the time to do so - click here. Now!

Not only that the latest issue of Company Clothing should be with you soon. They're all out there, making their way around the postal system, being loaded into lorries, cars, bicycles, and post bags to arrive, in pristine condition, chock full of fascinating features and interesting articles. Such as Colombian charity manufacturing, branded workwear and some behind the scenes reporting from our award judging. A very pleasent way to pass an hour or two for the purposes of business.

Are we good to you or what?

Space is cool

The news Red Dwarf is to return is certainly welcome - life on planet Earth sure is tiresome right now, what with recessions this and global warming that. What could be better than a bit of escapism in outerspace - although the synopsis for the show is that they do make it back to earth...doh!

However, it does show that space is cool (again). We knew this was the case already though, what with our Design Innovation Challenge that asked people to come up with new uniforms for crew in the new Star Trek film. On March 12 the winners of this, and all the other categories, will be announced at the lavish surroundings of the Park Lane Hotel - you can buy tickets here.

Keep an eye on your postbox because shortly the latest issue will be arriving which contains not only a special supplement with information on all the shortlisted entries to the awards, but also images of the entries to the Design Innovation Challenge (they are definitely worth seeing) and also news of our fabulous, top-notch celebrity hostess for the night...watch this space!

That was the year that was

So here we are, the last day of work (for us anyway), and we thought what better way to sign off in style than with our own review of the year...

It's been another varied and interesting year in the Company Clothing offices...

We've looked in detail at the problems with EN471 (the standard that covers high-visibility clothing), visited a tailoring factory in Portugal and a fabric manufacturer in Leeds, hopped across the Irish Sea to meet Allied Irish Bank and spent a day in the rain at a firing range (full report in January's issue).

We felt all scientific at the nanotechnology conference at the Royal Society and all fashionista when we covered a brief section of the London Fashion Week parade. We've meet buyers and suppliers covering everything from new uniforms at Edinburgh Castle to St John's Ambulance and looked at casualwear in all its forms - hats, softshells, and the great polo review too...

*inhales*

We've looked at PPE - fire resistant suits, electric arc protection and body armour. There's been product reviews of workwear covering everything from head to toe and ear and eye protection too. We traveled to exhibitions in Birmingham and Coventry, attended conferences in Rugby and Paris, a fashion show in Accrington and put garments from soft-shells to kilts through their paces in our rigorous road test column. We've even got to know about the people in the industry and their preferences on everything from Scrabble or Monopoly, to dream holiday destinations, in our 20 Questions column on the last page of the magazine.

And despite doing all this we've even found the time to arrange for the Company Clothing Industry Awards to take place on March 12 2009, organised the judging and hired a top swanky London venue all so the industry can celebrate its talent, achievements and success, and have a drinks or two as well.

All in all then we feel we've earned this break. But of course so do you. Because the reason we're off and about writing about such myriad topics and concerns, is because of the work you do day-in, day-out, creating the stories for us to cover. We hope you enjoy receiving our publication and the areas it covers - be they directly relevant to you, or merely an interesting read, and of course, don't forget the comments button below is your chance to say hello and tell us what you love and what you don't (don't worry we can take it!).

So, from everyone here, a very merry Christmas, a happy New Year, and here's to a weird, wonderful and downright diverse 2009. Who knows what it has in store...

As you read this...

...judging for the Company Clothing Industry Awards will be in full swing! Those that entered will be anxiously wondering how their entries are being received, but will have to wait until awards night to find out if they've won! Those of you that didn't enter (why not?!) can always come along on the night as well and not only enjoy the revealing of the winners but also the luxurious surrondings of the location and the quality menu as well as a bit of chatting and dancing.

So we hope to see you there!

Right, back to the judging...

Urgent!

Don't forget, next Wednesday, the 10th, is the deadline for entries for the Company Clothing Industry Awards - apart from the Design Innovation Challenge for which the deadline is December 18th. You can always use special delivery to ensure they arrive on time to be judged and potential win a prestigious and coveted Company Clothing Industry Award!

Body protection

In our November issue we covered the important topic of body armour and some of the issues surrounding its construction and end-use - you can read it in PDF form by clicking here. News then that the Scottish Police have signed an order with Tyronne based Hawk Protection for their body armour is of particular interest.

In our January issue will have a report from an event we were invited to attend where we witnessed body armour be put through its paces by being fired on by weapons ranging from shot-guns to uzis. If you don't get the magazine, make sure you subscribe to recieve it for 2009.

Plus don't forget, there's not long until the deadline for the Company Clothing Industry Awards closes so get those forms filled in, the samples gathered, the entry fee sorted, and get them to us asap!

Other than that, have a lovely weekend!

Awards deadline moves closer

There's only three weeks to go until the deadline for entry to the Company Clothing Industry Awards closes! To make sure you don't miss your chance to enter visit the website, have a look through the categories, and download the necessary forms for entry. There's an FAQ that should answer any additional questions you may have but you can always contact us if you are still not clear.