Flipping and flopping

Police in Torbay have spent £30,000 on flip-flops to provide drunken woman with an easier way of getting home, rather than staggering precariously in their high-heels.

Unsurprisingly the move has split opinion. As the story on The Times mentions the pressure group The Taxpayers’ Alliance criticised the scheme as an “idiotic waste of money”. However, club goer Danielle Bolton, 19, said: “It’s a great idea and I would wear them 100 percent. My heels hurt me at the end of the night so I tend to take them off. It’s a hell of a lot easier to walk with flip-flops than high heels.” Nice to see someone expressing themselves through medium of percentages.

Are there other forms of leisure wear that could be turned into useful drunken wear? It's that party we mentioned tonight so perhaps we could try it out? High vis to make sure you're seen?


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As a related aside on this grey Friday, don't for that at our awards in March there is a Footwear Innovation Award category, so if you have a product you want to show off, make sure you enter!

A bit tasteless

America is often the source of some of the more bizarre stories that crop up from time to time. This one is no different. High heels for babies. Yeah, we're not so keen either.

The US designers said they had 'fun, hilarity and glamour' in mind when creating the shoes. Are fun, hilarity and glamour a well known trio? Surely glamour goes with style and grace?

Cotton imports decline

Some serious clothing-related news for the blog now as it’s been reported that China, the world's largest cotton consumer, reduced its imports by 30 percent in October from a year earlier as demand for clothing and textiles slowed, according to China Cotton Association estimates.

Number crunching: China imported 96,200 metric tons, which is still down 30 percent from October 2007 and imports since the start of the marketing year on September 1 totaled 225,200 tons, down 39 percent from a year earlier, Bloomberg News said.

China's cotton crop may total 7.8 million tons this year, the association estimated. It produced 7.62 million tons last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

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?

World leaders in...ponchos?

Those of you au fait with the surreal fantasy comedy The Mighty Boosh will know from Vince Noir that "it's impossible to feel unhappy in a poncho". The world leaders of the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have been busy testing this theory as they dressed in Andean ponchos in honour of the location of the event - Lima, Peru.

The ponchos worn could have ranged anywhere between $100 and $6,000 according to reports and are made with materials from Alpacas. Alpaca, along with vicuna and llama, are the three camelids native to Peru. Their warm, dryable fibers were worn by the ancient Incas, who wove their fleece into royal robes on delicate hand looms. Descendents of the Incas still herd the animals and spin their coats into ponchos and ear-flapped caps.

Have you ever worn a poncho? Did it stave off the blues? Perhaps to beat the Credit Crunch woes the government could issue everyone with one? Perhaps not.

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!

Dog is new stationmaster

With the terrible news that John Sergeant is off Strictly, we felt a fun story was in order for today's blog entry. So we were pleased to come across the story of a dog being made stationmaster of a small railway station in Japan. As you can see from the picture there's something strangely commanding about him - you wouldn't risk jumping the barriers with him snapping at your heels. There's even a little video of the fella in action here.

Last week we reported on Hatty the dog being made to wear high-visibility clothing so it seems dogs in workwear - either PPE or corporate wear - is becoming something of a trend. What other jobs could dogs do, and what uniforms would they need to do them?

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.

Hoodwinked

A pensioner aged 71 was asked to 'take off her hoody' by a security guard in an Aldi supermarket despite it being merely a headscarf (and the fact she was 71)! The store has since apologised and offered to give her some complimentary groceries.

The fact though that a security guard felt compelled to approach a pensioner and ask her to remove what he believed was a hoody underlines the connotations the hoody has and how it has become something of a symbol of some of the perceived problems with youths in Britain. Other garments have reputations too though. High-visibility jackets are synonymous with construction workers or other official roles, for example.

Are there any other garments that bring about such strong opinions?

Dressed to shame?

Sir Ian Blair has brought a debate back to the fore that's been bubbling away for many years. He called for criminals on community service to wear uniforms so that, "people can see those people (offenders) have been sentenced to a community project."

However, as long-time readers of Company Clothing will know, this is not a new topic. In 2005 Hazel Blears called for a similar scheme and much backlash ensued, from MP Ann Widdecombe ("it might be worn as a badge of honour") to civil rights group Liberty ("degradation is no way of engendering a culture of respect").

In America this type of activity already exists, in a predictably bizarre way, with people being made to wear chicken suits to be shamed for their crimes. While it is obvious the UK would never take things to this extreme the question is still yet be resolved around uniforms for offenders on community service.

What do you think? Is this something that should be brought in or is it a step too far? What if the uniform was made to be tasteful and smart rather than designed to be bold and make them standout for the wrong reasons? Would that make it more acceptable?