British Army unveils new camouflage

The British Army has announced the introduction of a new camouflage design for all its soldiers in an attempt to limit the number of casualties in Afghanistan.

The move comes after complaints that the colours in the current uniform were not suitable for combat in marshlands and rural areas of Afghanistan. The new “multi-terrain pattern” is made up of seven colours, designed to help soldiers merge into a variety of terrains across the globe. The uniforms will first be used in Afghanistan in March next year but will be rolled out across all units from 2011.

Bob Ainsworth, the Defence Secretary, said: “This new camouflage will help our troops blend into different environments in Helmand Province to stay hidden from the Taliban. Patrols take our troops through the Green Zone, scrubland, desert and arid stony environments and it is crucial that the camouflage can work across all of them.”

Two weeks to get dressed?

According to new research commissioned by the Clothes Show Live, an average woman spends a staggering 312 hours preparing for the most important social event of the year: the office Christmas party.

997 women between the ages of 18 and 45 were surveyed to determine the amount of preparation involved for that all-important party. The study revealed that, on average, 72 hours were spent shopping for an outfit and 96 hours were dedicated to getting in shape, while 12% of respondents said they would hire a personal stylist for the occasion.

Managing director of the Clothes Show Live, Gavin Brown, said: "The Christmas party is the highlight of everyone's festive calendar - the place to be and be seen and it's no wonder women across the country spend hundreds of hours making sure they look their very best."

Londoners set to design their own tartan

A competition was launched yesterday, St. Andrew’s day, to give Londoners the chance to design the city’s first official tartan.

The Scottish Tartans Authority (STA), who opened the competition at Kings Place yesterday evening, would like the designs to reflect the colours of the capital, from the red of its famous buses, to the green of Hyde Park. Would-be designers will be able to submit their ideas via an app on the STA’s website.

Brian Wilton, of the Scottish Tartans Authority, said: “It is fantastic that tartan is getting recognised beyond Scotland’s borders. Every tartan is unique and we look forward to seeing what inspires the residents of London and the way they will approach Scotland’s most traditional textile.”

Two famous Scotts - actor Robbie Coltrane and poet Jackie Kay - will be on the judging panel.The winning tartan will be revealed on Burns night.

Label victims

According to a study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a pair of £8 jeans has been found to be better made and longer wearing than a £123 pair.

Sceptical? Well, ten pairs of ladies' jeans and ten polo shirts underwent rigorous testing in fifteen different trials aimed at judging the garments’ colour-fastness, seam strength, shrinkage after washing and resistance to abrasion.

In general, the cheaper items fared better than their more expensive rivals, with the £8 pair of jeans coming out on top and the £123 pair lagging behind in fourth place. Full marks also went to a £12 polo shirt, while the £85 shirt came in fifth place.

Andy Garbutt, retail expert at PWC, said: 'We didn't test for fit, fashionability or brand. We purely looked at the quality of the clothes, how well made they were. And it is clear that there is no longer a link between quality and price. It may not have been the cheapest clothes that won, but it was often the second cheapest.'

While a £115 saving might seem appealing in the run-up to a credit crunch Christmas, unfortunately PWC has refused to reveal the names of the retailers tested for fear of 'damaging relationships' with clients.

Your pants offend me

Do nudists hate pants? It's a serious question. The British Naturism society are having their annual meeting at Alton Towers (Where else?! - all those rides, the fresh air, the queues...eh?) but, bizarrely, the event is being sponsored by an underwear company called Kiniki. Unsurprisingly the naturists are up in arms.

John Walker of Kiniki doesn't understand what the fuss is about though: “We’re not trying to be cheeky or step on anyone’s toes here. We simply thought it was a great event to be a part of. I can see how people who don’t like wearing clothes could get shirty about us being their sponsor. You could say it’s the equivalent of a butcher sponsoring a vegetarian event." An interesting analogy.

Established in 1976, Kiniki has grown from a backroom business for mail order men’s underwear to a company with more than 30 million sales under its belt (if the naturists were offered belts a riot could break out).

Suit up!

Going for a job interview can be a nervous experience, and as such anything you can do to make it less daunting is surely a good thing? A good, professional, suit is a great way to give you that boost of confidence; after all, clothes make the (wo)man.

So, it seems understandable to read that Job Centres are handing out almost £10m a year to job seekers for vouchers to enable them to buy suits at high street stores to help them get jobs.

Certainly we've written many times about the work that goes in to making top quality suits and, while high street suits may not be bespoke, or suitable (no pun) for working in the Bank of England, for those looking to get back in to work, a smart suit is a great way to put a spring in the step as those at the interview stage sit down behind a desk to those familiar words of "So, tell me why you think..."

There goes the sun

So summer's been and gone now - clocks change next weekend, sob. It was a good one though...well better than it seemed it was going to be at one point. With the summer gone it seems strange a group of scientists should choose now to publishing findings that dark clothing is better than Hawaiian shirts for sun protection.

Although dark clothing is usually shunned in hot weather for light, floaty, bright colours, Dr Ascension Riva, who led the study - published in the journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry said, “The colour of cotton woven fabrics is a factor that has a remarkable influence on their protection against ultraviolet radiation." She added, "Clothing manufacturers could use information from this study to better design sun-protective clothing."

So, what are you waiting for, get to it - in time for next years heatwave!

iPhone Glove

Technology and clothing go together like a horse and carriage (to mangle a well-known phrase) and the latest advancement in this area concerns everybody's favourite iPhone (other mobile devices are available) and gloves. Yes that's right - gloves for your iPhone.

Apparently, these help you use the touch screen more accurately or use the phone in cold climates, like Scotland. One manufacturer, US-based Dot Gloves, said its version was aimed specifically at countries where winters can be notoriously chilly.

The problem for device users is that normal gloves are too cumbersome or slide over the glossy screen, designed to be activated by bare fingers. The new gloves cost £10-£30 a pair, depending on the design. Some, like Dot Gloves, incorporate three electro-static rubber "dots" in the fingertips to connect users with their screens even in the harshest of climates. Microfibre palm grips make sure they do not slip from freezing hands.

A spokesman for Dot Gloves said: "If you own an iPhone and are in Scotland you'll know what it's like using the iPhone on those cold winter days. The screen doesn't work with gloves on and trying to use that iPhone touch screen with cold fingers is not an easy thing to do, but the gloves are a way around this."

Quite - wouldn't make a bad Christmas gift for some people actually...oh no, we mentioned Christmas - forgive us please...

Fighting off Swine Flu while looking suave

As we head into the winter months the risk of Swine Flu returns once more. The colder conditions, people staying indoors more, all leads to the possibility of catching the dreaded disease. Fighting back could involve washing hands regularly, avoiding people who have had the illness and so on - but also you could wear this suit, which claims to keep the disease at bay.

On The Telegraph the story says, "The suit is coated with the chemical titanium dioxide, which reacts to light to break down and kill the virus when it comes into contact with it, according to Junko Hirohata. The chemical is a common ingredient in toothpaste and cosmetics."

The suit retails at £365 but with 4,100 deaths already confirmed due to swine flue around the world, it wouldn't be surprising if it found a fair few customers.

CARdigan

A car made from clothes. There's a novel idea. Well, in fact, it's been made. And in some style too, as you can see from this picture. The story on The Telegraph website gives some details of car's components: "The car is made from 1,999 items - including 1,682 t-shirts, 88 pairs of jeans, 64 pairs of shoes and 31 belts". Fan belts presumably?

A team of eight people worked for five hours at the Puma store in Carnaby Street, London, to turn the pile of clothes into a model of Kimi Raikkonen's motor. Black jeans are used for the tyres and red t-shirts give the car its classic Ferrari colour. Many fans have been visiting the store to see the car while a time-lapse video showing the team making the car has been watched more than 130,000 times on the internet.

Creative director Peter Hale, from GBH Design, said: "The Formula1 car was great fun to make and looks great.We worked like a pit crew when making it - each person piecing a different part of the car together."