Kilt pride

We've blogged about kilts before and they've once again come on to our radar with the story that a man from Halesowen has designed two brand new plaid patterns for Halesowen and the Black Country to show his pride for his place of birth.

Far from just being a garment worn by the Scottish they can be found as far south as Cornwall or, as the story shows, in the midlands, and the fact people choose to show their pride for somewhere through their clothing is another reminder of why the right look is so important.

No pants on the underground

Would you go outside and use public transport not wearing any trousers? No? Of course not. At any time that would be ludicrous but especially at the moment considering the cold out there!

But consider the fact that this weekend hundreds of people across the globe, from New York to Warsaw to Sydney, spent the weekend travelling on underground systems not wearing any trousers - or 'pants' to explain the Americanisation of our headline.

Why? Well, just for a laugh really. Some laugh! The rules say you can't acknowledge you are taking part in an official event and that you have to make up an excuse as to why you have no trousers on - 'no clean pair', 'laundry day' - if anyone asks. All very strange.

Still, it does underline the fact people love to experiment with clothing and society's expected codes by subverting the norm for their own amusement...well a bit of philosophising on a Monday afternoon never hurt anyone.

Sweat shops in the UK?

Primark has once again made the news for all the wrong reasons - this time after claims were made that it has been selling knitwear made by a company called TNS Knitwear based in Manchester whose workers earn just £3 per hour working in conditions resembling a sweatshop.

TNS Knitwear have denied the allegations and Primark is looking into the claims and while it does so has agreed to remove all references to its commitment to the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI).

Whether the allegations are true or not the story underlines the difficulties of knowing what the reality is between what the label says and what the truth really is. Stories like this not only damage the industry at large but undermine efforts made by genuine, often far smaller companies, to encourage consumers to spend money on clothing that was made by workers being paid a fair wage working in suitable conditions.

Drowning in pink?

The BBC Magazine section published an interesting article yesterday on the pros and cons of promoting pink as the colour for girls. Also worth noting is that at the start of the 1900s, the prevailing thought was that pink should be for boys, and blue should be for girls:

The Women's Journal explained it thus: "That pink being a more decided and stronger colour, is more suitable for the boy, while blue, which is more delicate and dainty, is prettier for the girl."

DressMaker magazine agreed. "The preferred colour to dress young boys in is pink. Blue is reserved for girls as it is considered paler, and the more dainty of the two colours, and pink is thought to be stronger (akin to red)." Taken from the article.

Interesting how fashion changes. Any thoughts?

Credit Crunch claims another

Womenswear outfit Viyella has become the latest company forced to call in administrators after suffering at the hands of the big crunch. However, as the news story says, they are hopeful new owners will be found for the business.

In other economic news Sainsbury's posted positive growth figures, which included sales of its clothing range Tu, that now owns a 2.3% share of clothing sales in the UK, placing it eighth in the rankings by volume.

Simply Red

Virgin has chosen to celebrate 25 years in the biz by highlighting the impact they made to the world of air travel in their eye-catching red uniforms. Try here if your youtube is blocked.

The ad, which features 80s references a-plenty - miner's strikes on the front pages, massive mobile phones, Wimpy bars, and soundtracked by seminal hit 'Relax' - underline the impact a distinctive, eye-catching uniform can make. Indeed the other air hostesses in the advert are portrayed wearing drab, grey outfits that are completely outshone by their rival's red ensemble.

As we found when we covered the new Emirate Airlines uniform design and rollout, airline uniforms are a fundamental part of brand image and Virgin clearly know this, using theirs as the focal point for this ad campaign.

What are your favourite memories of 1980s nostalgia - clothing or otherwise?

Suits you, madam

The Credit Crunch has outstayed its welcome don't you think? It should move on now and let us all get back to normal. However, while it continues to hang around, ASDA have decided to capitialise by producing a women's business suit that costs just £20.

No doubt high-profile tailors, from all sectors, will be rolling their eyes, saying you can't get a good, proper suit, for such low money. But if people are strapped for cash it's going to be a popular choice you would imagine.

However, as we often cover in the magazine, it is important to know where such garments come from, how they are made, by who and under what conditions. Only last year Primark were found to be sourcing clothes from a company that was employing child workers and have since ended their business with them. It is probably fair to assume ASDA are producing these garments ethically but when the cost is as low as £20 for an entire suit, it's not unfair to raise the issue.

Hawaii (shirt inventor) dyed, oh

Over the Christmas it's fair to assume you may have missed the news that the inventor the Hawaiian shirt died. His name was Alfred Shaheen and he was the ripe old age of 86. His legacy will live on for even longer though as the Hawaiian shirt is one of those garments that never really goes out of fashion - perhaps because it's never in fashion?

Regardless, in honour of the man and his fantastic design, the latest Company Clothing blog poll concerns the ownership of Hawaiian shirts. It's anonymous, so you can tell the truth, without fear of reprisals. Or you can proclaim your love of the garment to the world and his dog (blog?) in the comments section below. The choice is yours.

Morris dancing for extinction?

The news that Morris dancers fear their dance could become 'extinct' because people are too embarrassed to take it up is a sad one. However, surely only the most ardent Morris dancer could deny that it might be because their outfit is a bit, well, ridiculous.

There's nothing wrong with that in principal of course, and in fact at some stages in history it was probably something fancy and outlandish. But now it is a bizarre mix of bells and braces and you can understand why some people may be reluctant.

Perhaps all it needs is a bit of a revamp, an update of sorts. Incorporate a hooded element, pockets for Ipods, that sort of thing. What do you think? Is the uniform to blame, or does the dancing have something to do with it as well?

Return of the Work

So here we are, back at the start of the working year. All that festive fun fading fast into the distance and the cold sharp shock of work waking us once again. Still though, it's not so bad - there's only so many film repeats you can watch or chocolates hanging off a tree you can scoff...

The blog returns to regular action today and will do now for many, many months - and don't forget, if you're already looking for an excuse to relive the indulgences of the past few weeks, you can come along to the Company Clothing Industry Awards in March - tickets here.