Recently in fashion Category

On a wintry January morning, standing outside in formal dress for hours making conversation is a chilly business, but the Blog can now recommend the sustaining properties of 94% polyamide, 5% elastane, 1% cotton tights, which proved equal to the challenge of Hertfordshire's most biting winds.

Dog raincoats are in high demand in Japan, in the aftermath of the country's nuclear disaster, according to articles in the Times and Daily Mail this week.

Sales of the doggy coats, made from nylon or PVC, have soared by as much as 50% compared to a year ago.

Vets have warned that because dogs are closer to the ground, and tend to forage in foliage and sand, they are especially susceptible to airborne radiation, which concentrates in places where rainwater collects.

Kimono photo: Gramercy Pets

What is it with men and T-shirts listing concert tour dates?

On the way to a John Mellencamp concert, there are men sporting tour-date T-shirts for other bands. They are saying, "Look at me, I've been to other gigs too."

Then in the venue itself, the crush around the T-shirt counter is greater than around the bar. These guys want to remember this special evening and show off to similar minded people about where they've been. They want to show that they are part of a defined group, a fan base. I'm never going to do this, but I do at least understand it. It's a souvenir, like an "I ♥ New York" T-shirt.

Strangest of all, some of the guys buy their T-shirts then put them on straight away to go in to the concert. What is going on here? They don't just want to watch the band, they want to BE the band.

Is there scope for petchem conference organisers to offer tour T-shirts: "Brussels, Brussels, Berlin, Brussels ..."

The long-planned levy by Wales on plastic bags is now coming into effect in an attempt to curb the number of bags in circulation.

From October 2011 the charge per bag will be 5p, instead of the original 7p proposed, but in a last-minute concession, the Welsh Government has announced that shops employing fewer than ten people will not have to keep records of the carrier bag levy.

Larger businesses will be required to keep track of how many plastic bags they sell, and to account for what is done with the money from the sale of the bags.

Wales is the first UK country to introduce a compulsory fee for plastic bags.

Meanwhile, conspicuously non-plastic collectible bags have been changing hands on eBay since Anya Hindmarch launched her iconic "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" bag in late 2007, followed by a slew of knock-off copies.

photo: poshaccessories

A fashion craze for extra-pointy cowboy boots is sweeping Mexico and picking up a lot of press coverage in the US and Europe. Apparently the men's pointy boots are great for dancing in, and make the wearers popular with the girls.

The Blog is asking all Houston readers to be on the alert for the first sighting of the pointy boots at an industry event. It is too late for the Southwest Chems spring golf outing, so we may have wait until the fall event.

 (photo: Daily Buzz Nation)

Celebrities and chemicals - it's hard to keep them apart. The Blog is indebted to a friend at Shell who recalled a memorable advert in which supermodel Naomi Campbell douses herself in Shell's Helix lubricant oil.

There are a few references online to this advert, in a Dutch newspaper and a Dutch treatise on communications, but all trace of it has disappeared from the Shell catalogue of adverts or Youtube. 

Clarks shoes are the must-have shopping item for any Chinese visitor to the UK, according to all the Blog's Chinese colleagues, and reported today in the Metro.

To the amazement of ICIS London editors, who can pick up a pair of sensible shoes any lunchtime in the Clarks shop on Sutton High Street, Chinese visitors flock to Clarks outlet stores and buy shoes for all the family.

At least one visitor last year had to buy a new suitcase to carry home all his Clarks shoes.

Now Clarks is cashing in by opening up a Shoe Museum at Street in Somerset, "the home of Clarks."  

Swedish designers have come up with a cycling "collar" which has an airbag hidden inside. In a collision, the Hovding airbag - made from a polymer bag, helium and sensors - inflates around the cyclist's head to form a helmet, according to an article in the Evening Standard.

All the commentary in the Standard and other publications has focused on how this is the perfect answer to cyclists who choose not to wear a helmet because it spoils their hair.

Readers with a strong stomach can watch a video of the airbag in action: