Archive for February, 2008
To overcome Vista’s somewhat negative public perception issues, Microsoft Australia has put together an online Fact or Fiction quiz about Windows Vista. Everyone who enters gets a certificate of completion and, if you are an OEM system builder, you get Windows Vista Advisor polo-shirts too. The catch here? You may have to move to Australia and become an OEM system builder to qualify ….
Crew make embroidered linen T-shirts for women as well as polo shirts and short sleeved rugby shirts – they came into being in 1993, selling yachting kit to the rich, famous, deck-shoe wearing hordes who arrive on the Isle of Wight every Cowes week. To get your free polo shirts, all you have to do is join the England polo team, because Crew are the team sponsor. Where’s the catch? Well buying a couple of ponies and having enough airfare to fly around the world to play, right?
The Greg Norman Collection, which features golf shirts, polo shirts and other top of the line golfing apparel is sponsoring Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club Golf League. The first two hundred league members to enter a score in the 2008 competition ‘won’ GNC items while this year’s finalists will receive shirts from GNC’s Spring/Summer range. The league is open to all European and US based Virgin Atlantic Flying Club members and the season highlight will be a competition at St Regis Monarch Beach, California, in September. Now that actually might be something that many of us can attain to! So for more info, visit: www.flyingclubgolfleague.com.
Greg Norman image courtesy of DanPerry.com
February 28th, 2008
This Wednesday (27 February) most of the students, and teachers, at Catholic schools in Vancouver, Canada, will be wearing pink polo shirts to show their solidarity against bullies and bullying. In a heart-warming story, pink polo shirts have become an anti-bullying symbol after a student in Nova Scotia was harassed when he wore a pink polo shirt on the first day of school. A group of bullies accosted the boy, called him names, claimed he was homosexual, and threatened to beat him up.
Two older students, David Shepherd and Travis Price, were incensed to hear about this behaviour and went to a local discount shop, where they bought 50 pink vests which they handed out at assembly the following morning. The bullies were never heard from again. ‘I learned that two people can come up with an idea, run with it, and it can do wonders,’ said Price who is 17. ‘Finally, someone stood up for a weaker kid.’ The ‘pink polo shirts’ strategy spread fast, becoming a feature of dozens of schools across Canada. Now a national radio DJ has taken it to heart.
Wednesday’s Pink Polo Shirts Day is part of her on-air campaign to encourage an action plan about bullying. ‘We also want parents and teachers to understand how important a role they can play in helping kids who are bullied,’ the DJ Clark said. ‘It seems everyone has a story. So many people either bear the scars of being bullied, the shame of having been a bully themselves, or are dead scared it will happen to their child. Bullying and the harm it does can last a lifetime. Getting involved in Pink Polo Shirts Day fulfills our mission to help the innocent. It also lets bullies know their behaviour will not be tolerated.’
Pink polo courtesy of sometimesdee
February 25th, 2008
Butlins are rumoured to be considering a new uniform design. The first Butlins uniform was designed in 1936 and although there have been six distinct design evolutions since then, one constant has remained: the formal red coat. In 2004, rather than turn to celebrity designers, who have in the past included Zandra Rhodes and Jeff Banks, Butlins joined forces with The British Fashion Council to invite fashion students to create a new Redcoat image. The winning uniform was designed by fashion student Barry Jordan, from the University of Northumbria. Now it is said they may be ready to update their look again.
And gossip also has it that Bruce Oldfield may be designing the new Macdonald’s uniform. Oldfield, who is better known for creating dresses for the likes of Princess Diana, Siena Miller and Jerry Hall has said nothing so far, but if this is true it’s a striking new departure for a man usually dedicated to the glamorous side of fashion. The Sunday Times In Style magazine has reportedly seen the new uniforms which will be unveiled later this year.
Lothian and Borders Police paid £120,000 for new logo – but has it been a good investment? The new design will appear on uniforms, vehicles, posters and stationery over the next few months, replacing a crest that focus groups decided was ‘too obscure’. However, many police officers and politicians have said the exercise is a waste of money. The force paid tens of thousands of pounds to consultants who concluded that the public did not recognise their existing logo – a traditional crest bearing a saltire composed of blue and white checks, so it has invested in a logo which carries the words ‘Lothian and Borders Police’, with a curved design intended to combine the concept of protection and the force’s geographical area. A new motto, work with us, will also be adopted. This too has been criticised as sounding ‘desperate’ rather than confident.
Princess Diana photograph courtesy of Floyd Nello
February 21st, 2008
Simon Cowell’s belt notwithstanding, more and more men are hanging out their shirts and it’s not just polo-shirts or square-cut tropical and Hawaiian styles which are actually designed to be worn outside trousers but many men are revealing tapered shirttails that weren’t ever meant to appear public.
Why hang your shirt out?
While it’s the young who appear in photographs, with their formal shirts untucked and their bow ties untied, it’s a style that has clear benefits for middle-aged men, who need to conceal midriff bulge or the pot belly that too many business dinners and not enough gym time always deliver. So it does seem to cross the generations. But there’s another reason it’s been so popular too, and that suggests we might start to see a change on the fashion front.
Skirts go up, and shirts come out, when the economy is good
It’s taken as a truism that hem-lengths drop as we head for recession and get shorter when we’re in a boom – it’s very counterintuitive because it costs more to make a long skirt than a short one, but it’s been the case since the 1910s, that you can correlate the amount of leg showing in High Street fashion, with the level of economic spending. But what’s not so often realised is that shirts follow a similar rule. The last times we’ve had flowing tails were the 1960s (cheesecloth) and the 1980s (new romantics, loose shirts belted around the hips), both times of reasonable economic buoyancy. So while our iconic images may be of Mick Jagger in his loose shirts, or Adam Ant’s swashbuckling pirate gear, the fashion world could be on the cusp of change and, as a recession seems to loom, it may be time for men to put their tails away …
Shirttails photograph courtesy of Andrei Shevelov
February 18th, 2008
Charlie Porter is associate editor of GQ, the magazine for naughty but intelligent men. Writing in The Guardian, he says ‘Men are supposed to want things simple. Yet with clothing we put ourselves through the most complicated rituals. While women can zip themselves into a frock in seconds, men waste precious minutes clumsily knotting ties, or fiddling with the folly that is the cufflink. Most men can complete these dreary ceremonies with their eyes shut; indeed, it often looks as if they have. But the autumn/winter 08 menswear shows are offering a thrilling new solution to the male work-wear conundrum: the jumpsuit.’
According to Charlie, he fell in love with a jumpsuit designed by Miuccia Prada at this year’s catwalk menswear extravaganza and wears his stark blue Prada with pride, but it’s not the first time he’s succumbed to the desire to look like Elvis. He also has what he calls ‘a roomy, workwear one by Dickies’ that he wears ‘… on days when I want to feel amused by my clothes and don’t care what anyone else thinks’.
Hmmm, he’s a brave man, but I wish he’d call a jumpsuit by its proper British name – the boilersuit. If you think the ‘workwear as smartwear’ revolution is for you, then jumpsuits (or boilersuits) are on sale from Prada, Calvin Klein and Mulberry this autumn. Or just pull on the one hanging behind the shed door and tell people that it’s GQ’s latest tip.
On a totally different note, Totally Workwear in Southport, Australia have a defiant new item on sale – steel toe-capped flip-flops. They call them thongs over there, which leads to much hilarity on the beaches when you’re invited to ‘kick off your thongs’ – but the rugged Australian workman apparently wants to wear his flip-flops to work, hence the tongue in cheek (or strap between toe?) design.
Jumpsuits courtesy of badlogik
February 14th, 2008
Most people now accept that the climate change debate has shifted from whether we need to act to what we must do and how best to do it - and the clothing industry has been in the forefront of both innovation (organic and sustainable clothing) and criticism (sweatshops and carbon footprints). The Climate Change Summit 2008 is notable for the input that is being given by big hitters in the garment and textile industries. Taking place at the Regent’s Park Marriot Hotel between 12 and 12 February, the Summit offers delegates opportunities to explore the enormous changes that lie ahead and aims to help them discover how to make a virtue out of necessity.
Key topics include: climate initiatives that achieve both environmental and business objectives; designing climate change messages to win the support of sceptical consumers (in other words, how to communicate with your customers without being accused of ‘greenwashing’); a complete guide to using offsets and taking advantage of carbon trading; ways to report a company’s climate change objectives and achievements for maximum impact; and most crucially - how to manage the many risks of climate change. Speakers who have a major stake in the garment and textile industries include:
- Anabel Drese from Timberland
- Mike Barry, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility for Marks & Spencer
- Philip Charles Gamett, Director of the Continental Clothing Company.
National insights will be provided by:
- Jane Milne , Director of Business Environment at The British Retail Consortium
- Ellen Gladders, Manager for the Community and the Environment at Tesco.
Learn more at: http://www.ethicalcorp.com/climate/
International Conference Delegates courtesy of Oxfam
February 11th, 2008
Less than a year ago, Michael McDowell was entering his first season as a stock car driver. Now the 23 year old is taking a full-time place in the ARCA series. He says that his success is down to his approach to life, and clothing. ‘Since I was racing go-karts, I’ve always had [the mentality] that you show up at the track with your shirt tucked in and a nice polo shirt. You make sure you have media kits and [autograph] cards and you sign every autograph you can, and you stay an extra 10 minutes because that’s what it’s about. It’s about the people who are coming to see you [race]. It’s about the media that’s coming to cover you and it’s about the sponsors that make this all happen … I’ve always made sure I’ve performed on the track, but off the track is equally important.’
And in Silicon Valley, as Valentine’s Day approaches, the polo shirts make an appearance as Cupid’s Little
