Archive for October, 2007
When you pull on that banana-yellow or bright orange T-shirt and head out for a night on the town, certain that you won’t blend into the background, give a moment’s thought to how the colour was achieved.
A hundred years ago, the fabric dye called Indian yellow (euxanthin)was outlawed because it was so cruel, and in fact, it may have helped to topple an empire!
Discovered in the 1400s, Indian Yellow was a popular pigment for paints as well as being a clothing dye. It was made from ground magnesium euxanthate, which is, bluntly speaking, dried cow urine and what made this yellow pigment so popular was that, unlike many other strong yellows, it could be both bright and quite transparent.
The dye was largely banded in the early 1900s because to achieve the bright yellow hue, the cows were only fed mango leaves (most were kept in a walled mango orchard to stop them widening their diet) and water and ‘milked’ for their urine into buckets.
The urine was was boiled for three days (lovely!) to produce a thick somewhat wet paste, like porridge, which was tipped out on the ground to dry and then ground up with a pestle and mortar. This highly specific pigment may therefore have been the result not just of the cow’s diet but also minerals in the local soil as it was only produced in one area of India. The way the cows were treated meant they couldn’t urinate naturally which may have contributed to their relatively early deaths. In India, where cows are sacred, this was seen as colonial cruelty and cited as one of the reasons to seek independence from the British Empire. A synthetic version was developed very swiftly but it lacked the high transparency of the original dye, which can still be seen in ancient cotton and silk saris and silk paintings.
Indian cow photograph by foxypar4, used under a creative commons attribution licence.
October 31st, 2007
After September’s London Fashion Week, and in advance of the spring event (to be held in February at the National History Museum) Ken Livingstone has made clear his support for a new report calling for substantial changes to the way fashion models in the United Kingdom take care of their health. “The fashion industry is important to London and it is important … London gets these issues right,” Livingstone said. “This report takes a long-needed step to ensure that the fashion industry takes its proper responsibility for the health and well-being of the primarily young women who work in it as models.” “While there are very many reputable agencies, many young women are allowed to work on the catwalks despite obvious ill health and with no infrastructure for their care or support,” he said. He went on to endorse the ban on under-sixteen who are not allowed to appear on the catwalks during London Fashion Week and wants to see a system of medical certification included in the Fashion Week process.
It surprises many people to find that models don’t live a life of pampered luxury but are often extremely young, usually underpaid, and find themselves ‘belonging to’ agencies who don’t have any regulatory framework – which can leave vulnerable young men and women open to many forms of financial, dietary and drug-related abuse.
Funnily enough Georgia Horsley, aka Miss England, who is five feet eight inches tall and a size 4, has just been asked by Miss World pageant organisers to try and put on some weight before attending the finals! Horsley the organisers want, “Their girls to be more voluptuous and womanly and curvy … rather than the stick-thin, size-0 models that you see around.”
Catwalk photograph by Peter Duhon, used under a creative commons attribution licence.
October 27th, 2007
There is a bewildering range of T-shirt styles and shapes on offer, and it can be confusing to find the style that best suits your figure. As you browse our site, here’s some ways to think about T-shirt necklines and decide which is best for you:
V-Necks The V-neck is a universally flattering neckline- the deeper the diagonal of the V, the more slimming its effect on your appearance. V-necks are more dressy than crew necks and can work better for evening wear or under a smart jacket for daytime business wear. V-necks also create maximum exposure, which lengthens short necks.
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A wider V-neck is flattering if you have narrow shoulders or a pear-shaped figure.
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Modest V-necks are ideal for distracting the eye from large busts because they break up the area of the chest, drawing the eyes to the face and collarbones.
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V-necks look good with detailing like a necklace, to give the eye a natural point of focus.
Crew-Necks The classic crew-neck has been a staple in women’s wardrobes since the T-shirt ceased to be an entirely male preserve back in the sixties, however, they do have their advantages and disadvantages:
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Crew-necks are not ideal for large chests as they can make breasts look like one large mass, rather like a shelf!
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Logos or graphics work well for small-breasted women as they draw the eye down from the neck, but women with large chests should avoid really big logos or designs as they may wrinkle or pull across the front, drawing attention to that area.
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Avoid crew-necks if you have a double chin, the shape just makes it look as if your chins are being repeated in the line of the T-shirt!
V-neck T-shirt image by Crysti, used under a creative commons attribution licence
October 24th, 2007
You see them every day – mainly guys (of a certain kind to whom the words geek and nerd can be applied) wearing a T-shirt with a logo and a list of dates on the back – yes, it’s the famous (or infamous) gig-shirt. I will admit to owning more than one myself (but I’m not saying who the bands are) and having reached the age of discretion, I no longer wear them out of the house.
But what does the gig-shirt mean – why has it become such an important phenomenon? Of course the first answer is that it celebrates a great concert or band. But for many people, it goes deeper.
The band logo and style, for the T-shirt wearer, actually denotes their state of mind. It expresses in a visual way the music and the emotional, spiritual or philosophical style of the band involved. And it makes the wearer of the shirt physically one with the band members who are now wrapped around his or her body like a cotton hug.
It also expresses a code – I am this (a punk, a thrash-metal-goth, a country and western fan) so unless you can identify this (logo, silhouetted figure) you and I are not alike and I don’t want to be hassled by you. If you can, then comment on my shirt and we are kin.
So what you wear on your T-shirt is really important in defining yourself and alerting others to you beliefs and preferences. Red Hot Chili Peppers shirt photograph by RileyRoxx, used under a creative commons attribution licence.
October 17th, 2007
A forklift driver who is claimed to have ‘threatened to undermine law and order’ in Peterborough by wearing a T-shirt printed with the message Don’t p*** me off! I am running out of places to hide the bodies has been warned he’ll face an eighty pound fine if he is seen again in the offending apparel.
David Pratt (yes, that really is his name) was photographed by street wardens as he and his wife waited for a bus, the BBC reports. The wardens (presumably like traffic wardens but for pedestrians?) told him the shirt “could cause offence or incite violence”, and issued a verbal warning.
Mr Pratt is having none of it, and is demanding a written apology. He said: “I really don’t see how the wording on my t-shirt could incite violence - it’s humour, that’s all it is.” Peterborough City Council states that “The incident is the subject of an official complaint to the council and is currently under investigation. However, using offensive, abusive, or insulting language is an offence under the Public Order Act, which also applies to such language appearing in print. In what was an amicable conversation, the street warden advised the gentleman concerned that his T-shirt could cause offence and if he was to wear it again he could run the risk of being issued an £80 on-the-spot fine from the police.” Forklift photography by Vitalyzator used under a creative commons attribution licence.
October 15th, 2007
In 1995, a Professor Wedekind of the University of Bern (that’s in Switzerland, in case you were wondering) asked a group of women to smell anonymous unwashed T-shirts worn by different men. Why? Well, what he discovered was that women consistently preferred the smell of men whose immune systems were different to their own. Believe it or not (and feel flattered or not) rodents have the same habits (although not the T-shirts, I’m fairly certain) of checking out how good their potential partners will be to fighting off disease, by sniffing their pheromones. Lovely. So perhaps what happens at speed-dating is nothing more than a sniff-test? And there’s some more evidence to back this up.
Over at the University of Chicago, a Dr McClintock conducted a different sweaty T-shirt study which reveals that women seem to have a strong preference for the sweat of a man who smells similar to their father. Apparently, a woman being attracted to her father’s genes makes sense. A man with these genes would be similar enough to her that their offspring would get a tried and tested immune system without the likelihood of any weird immunological conflicts from the two gene-sets, but he would still be different enough to ensure a wide range of genes for immunity.
It’s all fascinating stuff, but there are two questions left in my mind:
1 – how do they know which sweaty T-shirt smelled like a woman’s father (the mind boggles, it really does)
2 – why were both these tests conducted on women? Could it be that the only sweaty T-shirt test normally conducted by the male nose is the one that checks if a dirty T-shirt can be worn for another day before it needs washing?
Scientist cartoon provided by Robin Hutton, used under a creative commons attribution licence.
