Recently in fashion Category

Polyurethane swimsuits are again causing an uproar in the international world of swimming. The 50,000 members of U.S. Masters Swimming are divided over the neck-to-ankle polymer suits, and some members of the association are accusing their fellows of unfair propulsion and are pushing for a ban.

This follows the decision in July by the sport's ruling body, the Fédération Internationale de Natation, or the International Swimming Federation, known as FINA, that it would ban the suits as of January 2010 following pressure from coaches.

"The costume magically helps the wearer shed decades and seconds off the clock. The suits provide a kind of support that elite athletes never have to think about. They suck in nonaerodynamic paunches, flatten aging flab and bolster arthritic knees," according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.

(photo: Adidas)

Still on the plastic fashion theme, now you can have a stylish hooded poncho made from recycled potatoes. When you're finished with it, you simply bury it in the ground and seeds contained in the fabric will grow into a new plant, according to an article in yesterday's Austrian Times. The potato seeds are in little pouches, and the rotting coats provides all the raw material for the seeds to germinate.

Continuing the Blog's love affair with potatoes: Plastics from Potatoes; Heaviest Potato and my own favourite: Seriously Chemical Potatoes

(photo: Manolo Toledo)

Late into Thursday night, they were posting a string of photos of models wearing plastics and a possible journalistic first: an interview with a catwalk model on the benefits of wearing plastics.  

According to the American Chemistry Council's new website which launched today, plastic is the newest trend in couture, and to make the point the site will present the Gen Art "Fresh Faces in Fashion" Los Angeles Show on 29 October, hosted by actress Kaley Cuoco, star of the popular CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory.

"From Paris to Milan to New York, plastics are showing up in a variety of innovative and unusual ways on the runway including funky jewelry, 10-inch platform shoes and even sequined mini-dresses made from recycled plastic bottles."

The Blog was particularly entranced by this link to "How Many Bottles to Make a Handbag."

(photo: plasticsmakeitpossible.com)

These Calvin Klein ck USB shades fit the bill for the Blog for being both plastic and designed for business travel.  The right arm has a flash drive that can be plugged into a computer, so one minute you can be looking cool and the next hard at work, although pretty stupid if you try to wear them with only one arm.

The Financial Times has thoughtfully emailed the Blog an introduction to the new website for its "How to Spend It" weekend supplement. Full of gorgeous things, it comes just in time for those chemicals executives who spent the weekend sitting around with furrowed brows, wondering just how they were going to spend the worryingly large sums accumulating in their bank accounts.

Fortunately, howtospendit.com "is updated daily with sumptuous images and insightful writing from the magazine, as well as exclusive content and bespoke videos."

The ICIS Training team is in Philadelphia, USA, using the premises of the Chemical Heritage Foundation for the Introduction to Petrochemicals courses. Peter has taken a few shots of the delegates enjoying a tour of the Foundation's new museum, where they heard some interesting stories about the development of Bakelite, nylon and Gore-Tex. Peter was also rather taken with a wedding dress made soon after the Second World War from a nylon parachute, not to mention the stockings.

Lucy Craymer is rather taken with the new range of Lanxess leather-tanning chemicals ...

It's hard keeping up with the fashion. Maybe harder still if you are more at home with the likes of ethylene and propylene than with Dolce and Gabbana but chems company Lanxess is trying. The company is producing a "trend collection", which is a selection of tanned leather samples that show off trends for the fall/winter 2010/2011. It begs the question, will the company be including a white leather lab coat in the collection.

The Blog is in Edinburgh for the Festival and will be back refreshed.

Controversial polyurethane bodysuits, which helped win 34 world records so far at the Swimming World Championships in Rome, will be illegal from next April or May.

The slinky 100% polyurethane swimsuits, such as the Jaked01, Arena X-glide and Adidas Hydrofoil are more buoyant, stronger and lessen water resistance for the swimmers.

Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics wearing his Speedo LZR suit, itself 50% polyurethane, and 23 world records were set at the Olympics by swimmers wearing the LZR.

The question on the lips of the swimming world now is whether all the polyurethane-enhanced swimming records should be allowed to stand.