Dear Wardrobe

Either-Or

Prime Ministers in Denmark have an existential choice, it seems.

It has to be a trench, who would dare to think otherwise, but for Birgitte it is:

Either dark navy,  three quarter length, single gunflap to the front, yoke to rear with a pleasing 2012 shape, pics don't do justice, sorry:

Or a rather naff white item:

Pic courtesy The Guardian

Never mind, it's the thought that counts.

And a really great series, isn't it? Have we ever had politics presented so intelligently?

Hazel

1st February 2012

Lots of cartridges emptied on Call the Midwife, story showing how humanettes were squeezed and hauled into the world in UK's nineteen- fifties.   Why oh why are viewers interested in all that slime and general awfulness, they ask?   When the answer is staring them in the face!   Ms Raine (yes) does nasty things with her belt, but still, all is forgiven: she (with a little help from her friends) gives us screenfuls of what the nineteen-fifties did best.

Even the nuns can't keep their hands off!

Pic courtesy Metro

Isn't Dennis wonderful?

Pic courtesy Hey U Guys

At last I've checked out The Iron Lady, only a year or two late.   Tour de force from Meryl Streep, I would have thought it goes without saying, but my goodness it is a completely magical piece of acting.   

Huge gripe though with those typically gross headlines which billed Jim Broadbent as reducing Dennis to a figure of fun.   In fact Broadbent is as brilliant as Streep in his way.   He gives us a believable character who is (a) nice and (b) fond and forgiving and sustaining a very difficult partner indeed.  

And (c), yes, does a little dance in what is almost convincing as a traditional UK riding mac, albeit in the most awful jaded orange. Just to cheer her up. We could wish more partners were prepared to do the same...

Hazel

I've been told that if I want to sell rainwear properly I have to twitter.  

And do Facebook, which seems to listen to Twitter automatically.

In the shop I've put a new stocklist up.   Pictures of Raj's new 'burnt orange' double texture satin coming shortly.

Sorry to quite a few generous people who have written great things or sent great pictures which I have had to hold over.   Up asap.

Even so, quite a few really interesting things, I think you'll agree.

LE

New Year's day 2012

Broadleaf (Autumn 2011, p7), the magazine of the Woodland Trust, tells us their Give it Some Wellie campaign did them proud in 2011: headtachers squelched into wellies filled with custard apparently, and at IKEA stores from Birmingham to Belfast "customers and co-workers were asked to put on their wellies before setting a foot inside".

Pic Courtesy We Love It

Meanwhile, Hunter Boot Limited, which has been thoroughly Burberried since the business got stuck in the mud and had to be rescued in 2006, has been taken over again, this time by an American private equity outfit, Searchlight Capital.

But this time it's because Hunter is doing so well, recording sales of £56m in 2010 and still striding ahead.

A bit unfortunate that the Dumfries factory was closed in 2008, but hey that's international capitalism for you. (H)

Reported by FashionUnited, 17:12:11

Don't know quite why I think this pic will do here... But we seem to be coming from a rocky place, under stormy skies, and there seems to be more of both up ahead.  Let's at least imagine the open bay in the distance, water, and a hint of colour? And we can keep the clouds...

The Editor of our Galerie Atwood has found a tiny clip of the 1969-1971 tv show Take Three Girls.   And short as it is, there is Liza Goddard in her pink Gangster mackintosh.   She is running, and her mac is tightly belted.   Could the word be 'iconic'?   I do believe it might be.

Next year anyway the President of the Rainwear Club promises to produce a tribute 'Gangster' style in his factory in West Bengal... He deserves to be Burberried himself...

News this morning of plans to build a highspeed railway to his factory, or at least to Kolkata, from Delhi.   But a short step then to link up with Eurostar and Lancashire and lots of cheap, planet-friendly macs for Manchester - where the factory of Charles Mackintosh and Son still stands at the Northern gateway of that rain-blessed city...

Until that happens, we will have to make do with good wishes and strong imaginations all round.   

LE

MacJames tells us we owe this tripleA picture of a latter-day bag lady to the Daily Telegraph, which uses it to illustrate the point that Burberry seems recession-proof (but I can't trace it myself...).  Hope the point is right anyway!   Burberry designer Christopher Bailey continues, collection after collection, to make rainwear interestesting and adorable. 

Trenchcoats now parade up and down the highstreet in battalions largely as a result of Bailey's command. "The trench is no longer the fashion choice, but the status-symbol choice," insists Jess C-M from the Guardian, "Christoper Bailey's Burberry has played a fundamental role in convincing British women that coats can be ultra-desirable, wishlist-topping pieces rather than simply something to keep the rain off. The droopy, perenially damp coat-cupboard staple your granny called a raincoat is now reborn as the vaguely transatlantic sounding trench, flatteringly cut and with a dynamic this-season hemline."

Jess Cartner-Morley, The Guardian, 09/11/11

If you really want the droopy thing, I know, that's there too:

Whistles, Alex Button Out Parka. Pic thanks to FashionBite.

1st December

Our own trench, the Mallik, double texture satin.

I have a new whirly thing on the page I have done to try and sell it to the highstreet...  Software not by me alas, but down to the brilliant flshow.

This month, it's a relief, and really interesting to me, to read from Albi Odd of a Mum who clearly and openly enjoyed having him wear rubber as a little boy, and of a boy, himself, who really enjoyed being made to wear it.   

What's not to like?   

Mums usually find an excuse, don't they?   

You've got to keep dry,
You've got to wrap up warm,
You must do your raincoat up PROPERLY,
You musn't get your feet wet,
You'll wear your sister's mackintosh then and that will be your punishment!

Don't they sound like excuses to you?

And there's another really cheering story come my way this month - one showing in a beautifully calm and collected way how an unusual pleasure can be shared and built into a brilliant relationship if the heart is there.   The signature is Hugh.

There are other nice things as well! Thanks to all.

Lorraine

Namrof has done another great gallery of photos for us.   Here's a proper pic of Raj's Camilla rainjacket, for example, the object of much visual and tactile attention in Somerset House... Cool or What ? Many more shortly on Flickr.

And fall-out from the Week continues in other ways , I'm delighted to say!   

Whosjack is an exploding website worth training your binoculars on.   They know how to make a magazine work 150% on screen.   Wonderful!  And they sure do know a good raincoat when they see one!   Thanks Tania.

Tania's LFW coverage

Thanks to Fashion Capital for noticing us too.   They offer a brilliant toolkit for the industry, 'the UK’s leading fashion based resource portal'

Charlotte Avent gives the Estethica project the thumbs up in Fashion156, and incudes a pic of our 'fisherman-style anorak', aka the Margot rainjacket.  

Charlie has a nice blog of her own, The Tin Box

Treehugger, a marvellous source of information and inspiration these days, is an admirer of Camilla.

1st November

Aquascutum offer a striking trench for the colder months: in neoprene.

'A shining example of the classic trench redefined; this double-breasted style has been crafted from a foam-like neoprene fabric that forms a design almost architectural in structure. The rose pink palette is juxtaposed by contrasting belt and cuff details and is a nod to the tonal colour blocking that is so key to the season. A playful, modern take on a wardrobe essential.'

A member sent me this - Jane Birkin surely, quite a while ago - but what's the film, please?

Latest report this month from Stormstroller in her bid to discover the Absolute Waterproof: check it out.

Hope you find something nice in the new things.   Thanks to those who are letting us share them!

LE

Really nice waterproof ponchos on offer from Rainwave, with a bonus vid of wellies and poncho enjoying Hampstead Heath in the rain.

I reached Rainwave through Fabiano Pio's great Street Style and Catwalk blog.

Our John was thrilled to meet Fabiano at the Fashion Week

And whose this making off with our Margot rainjacket?

Best mackintosh sequence I've ever seen: from an episode of Upstairs and Downstairs.  Thanks André!

1st October

"In this era court necessarily easy, butThrough the sleeve and form a unique feeling, froufrou, smell, attract professionals of the fashion industryHas."
From "Japan's No.1 Shopping Site", Rakuten.

Exactly.

The New Current

Through the Fashion week I've discovered great new things, eg The New Current, young fresh voices on big topics, and bringing serious thinking to small ones (like fashion?).   Anyway, their writer Patrick Wheatley took seriously what we are trying to do, rediscovering rubber as the world's most renewable resource. Thanks Patrick.

"In just over 2 years TNC has become a nationally recognised student media group producing unique and exclusive content as well as covering some of the worlds most prestigious film and music events."

Hope the update is OK, sorry to those whose pieces I'm having to hold over.

LE

Rajkumar's dinky rubber jacket graces the cover of London Fashion Week's Estethica magazine

and the inside too

Thanks to Margot Bowman who organised the shoot and who incidentally has a wild and wonderful blog.

And more thanks from Lakeland Elements to Camilla Scott-Bowden of the British Fashion Council for steering a sort of catamaran of very unusual design through sometimes choppy waters.   Many many thanks.

19th September

LONDON FASHION WEEK

John is there! He say:

Hi

Great thrill to be, at long long last, where it's at!

Somerset House, backoffice of the British Navy for many a long year, now cheered up no end, is organising a world-beating flotilla of cutting-edge fashion instead.

It's definitely better that way!

Vikas Banka, Hon President of the Rainwear Club and Captain of the good ship RAJKUMAR, steers a steady course for the empty column in Trafalgar Square, just down the road, his colourful, eco-amicable and totally waterproof collection of jackets and trenchcoats ready to keep the entire fleet protected and afloat.

We have lovely neighbours!

The Soil Association, flying the flag for environmentally aware production everywhere but  including the delicate and desirable legware of Monkee Genes in particular

Michelle Lowe-Holder with her brilliantly imaginative crafting of recycled materials into wonderfully ethereal adornments for the wrist and neck

Pachacuti,  the terrific hatter

Pic courtesy Pachacuti

and Lost property of London, who make gorgeous bags in their quest to reveal that 'eco-luxury' is no oxymoron

From pic courtesy Alicia in London-Land

And there's lots next door.

UK is alive with trenchcoats just now, don't you think?

There was a very stylish Art Deco one in The Hour, picked up almost alone by Melissa Fehr, shown above very much on duty.  Can't find a pic of it in its dry state, but on the screen it appeared brilliantly 1930s.   Perfectly at home in Broadcasting House, or Hornsey Town Hall, where I believe it was filmed. Congrats to the producer - much better match the building than the period, the Fifties of the Suez crisis which was surely dull as canal water.

And then there's a modern highstreet interpretation which hits all the right buttons and is to be seen (on this side of the pond) most nights on the back of the new(ish) landlady of the Rovers Return. (But haven't yet found a pic!! - Help?)

Emailer Brian has seen something else. Maria Conner, he says, has recently been wearing a red shortie mac. "We only get small glimpses of it," he says.   No picture, but its definitely there. Manufacturer, anybody?

Samia Smith, who plays the Corrie character, is anyway always good in a trench, whatever the make, whatever the colour, whatever's expected.

Pic courtesy Mirror Celebs

Samia can now, we understand, draw her belt tighter. Congrats!

MacJames thinks we might enjoy one of the latest from Aquascutum.   He is so right.

Pic courtesy Sunday Telegraph.

1st September

Hevea brasiliensis: bouncing back!

Biggest news ever: Rajkumar has been selected for Estethica, part of London Fashion Week, exhibiting in Somerset House this month, September 16th - 20th.   It's a show for retailers but the press coverage will be serious, so do look out. 

Somerset House, getting ready for Rajkumar

Rajkumar, getting ready for Somerset House

Meanwhile the fetish trend gets heavyweight support -again- from Tommy Hilfiger. Did you see his black rubber mac?

Pic courtesy Elle, September 2011

Or, for that matter, this is a 'rubber-coated' skating skirt from Asos sold at Everystyle.co.uk

Finally:

Having a bit of a sale to spring clean in honour of the Fashion Week success. 

The Sale

And do please enjoy the update.

LE

Thanks from us all surely to Rainy Brian who has completed a major update of his films listings.   Painstaking work, and a lot of it. 

1st August

Even more genius from the Namrof-Gillie partnership this month. 

They are all on Flickr, but I can't resist trumpeting them here as well.

Really good to have Abi writing to us again, enjoying her gaberdine and taking some one else along for a terrific fun outing!

And from Jim a pointer to something of the darker side our schooldays can sometimes have.   He points to another terrific set of pages on Flickr, illustrating in a poignant ' history of a child in care'.    Lots of gabardines, lots of rubber, the Wellingtons which were the sort of icon of the Children's Home in mid-century Britain, and, something completely new to me, the one-piece rubber suits that the youngsters wore for play in the wet.

Lots of the pics are on Flickr, but fascinating commentary is there as well on the Their History website.

Hope you find other things of interest in the update.

Lorraine

RIP

Peter Falk has died, he of the raincoat.   A much worn once-white mac was his trademark, introduced at the beginning, it is said, from his own personal wardrobe.

The mac Falk actually wore wasn't a real Mackintosh of course, just a grubby piece of whitish cotton with some limited kind of proofing.  It wasn't even a trenchcoat!

But there is a connection between the private dic and the tears of the tree.

You have to think footwear: the gumshoe. Investigators, especially ones in the private sector, got to be called rubber shoes!

Why?

Two possible answers (among quite a few!): because their job required them to creep quietly about, detecting undetectably: gumshoes, we are told, were early sneakers.

"To gumshoe," at the end of the 19th Century, Word Detective tells us, was "to sneak around quietly as if wearing gumshoes, either in order to rob or, conversely, to catch thieves. "  

The other theory is that gumshoes, in the form of galoshes or rubber overshoes, were necessary kit for a profession which had to spend its days pacing the mean streets, come rain or shine.   

It must have been good to have a mac with you as well.

There is a third theory, which is too unpleasant to detail:  but involves the thought that those mean streets, the working environment of the private dick, must be thought of as heavily littered with condoms.

H

1st July

Namrof has added a new set of pics to his magnificent display on the flickr site.   Gillie is the muse, and what a wonderful muse she is! Congratulations to the both of you!

Remember, if plastic is your thing, Suzie High is your helper.

Pic courtesy to Emily Druce

Glastonbury confirms my fears that you can see too much of a good thing.   I used to think wellies were completely wonderful, still do in a way, but you can get over-wellied?   (Was the Golden Age really so golden??)

MacJames, a bit of a gumshoe himself when it comes to ferreting out significant gummimagery, offers us this, among lots of other nice things:

It's a nice-looking rubberised jacket from Gant, though I don't think a current offering -? 

A friend asks me if I can point to any films or tv of the 1960-80 era which show off leather coats?   I know of Spotswood and Swordfish - but there must be lots more?  Any suggestions for the best?

Hope you find something nice in the update.

If you want a to receive the Newsletter, please ask.

LE

What's to transform?

Transformers star Rosie Huntington-Whiteley was named this month as the world's sexiest woman in FHM magazine.   

It just doesn't get more authoritative than that, but if you insist on looking for confirmation, go no further than the Mail Online: "Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is without doubt one of the world's most beautiful women."

Of course she wears a trenchcoat.

(Maxim magazine says she is actually the hottest woman. But for that she may have to switch to a proper mackintosh and button up tight.

Pic courtesy The Frisky

Rosie has of course modeled for Burberry, this week reporting a fantastic 39% march up Profit Hill.  (OK, some of it coming from bags.)  But that's terrific work, Angela!

Angela Ahrendts, Chief Executive Officer, Burberry, pic courtesy Burberry

H.

1st June

Time to pay tribute to Emma Spencer, I am advised (by David - thanks), for services to rainwear and its subjects beyond the ordinary course of duty.   Emma presents horsetalk on Channel Four Racing.

The race track has long been a focus for impermeaphile interest, not of course because of the horses, or their riders, but in pursuit of one of the final bastions of the rubberised mackintosh: the Riding Mac.   

A bastion long since fallen of course but around the stand and the enclosures the nose still prickles with anticipation and the ears still think they can hear the swish of the best that Ferguson's can offer. 

For David at any rate Emma plays her part in keeping the garden of remembrance tended by mingling with the horses and genufllecting to the hallowed double-texture through her own choice of rainwear.

Pic courtesy Channel Four Racing.

A note from Jim says he has discovered what marvels there are on FlickR now.   How right!  Wonderful stuff, and mountains of it, and free!  

Some of the best is due to our own Namrof (who does it, as I explained before, under my very own moniker), who contributes lots of his own enthusiastic pictures, especially of trenchcoats, and also curates a fantastic exhibition of some of the hottest rainwear pics you can get.

One of the most interesting is the portfolio of vintage rainwear ads presented by Mae'r Cwfl.   Wonderful!

So much to enjoy...so little time...

To everyone I am late in replying to - sorry.

And to lots of kind people who have sent in stuff I've not had time to handle - sorry, thankyou very much, will deal asap.

Hope you can enjoy the update even so.

LE

Tell me if you would like the newsletter.

Jim Broadbent plays Mr Thatcher

I love Jim Broadbent, the very best we've got, imho.   And if he takes the character of Margaret's husband for a bit of a ride that's OK by me.

Thanks for the prompt to MacJames

Ayshea and friend
seek the Rain in Spain.

And FetshX changes its name to RubberRainwear.co.uk [MORE]

And don't forget Irish Rainwear, offering Rajkumar styles and much more, on the green side of the Irish Sea.

Heartfelt cry from John:

Whatever happened to Fay, Abigail, Pauline and the rest of those very interesting people who wrote about their love for raincoats and wellington boots?

Maybe this note could prompt them to write in again?

1st May

What a disaster!

• A million people in the open air 
• April
• A Commoner with dress sense definitely pointing in the right direction >
• The Royal family with the best record in the world for their commitment to the serious rainwear of the nineteen-fifties
• The prospect of street photography on a Japanese scale
• Biggest Press coverage in the Milky Way

And we emerge, as far as I can see, without a single interesting image, without a single fashion statement of consequence.

(Pic courtesy
Chizmipan with chuva)

Tell me I'm wrong.   Show me I'm wrong.   Or leave me in a corner with all I've got, sweet imaginations of long ago, when people knew how to party:

H.

[H just had to get that off her chest... L]

Sorry to read that actor Elizabeth Sladen has left this world, and this time, having given exceptional service to Dr Who for three-and-a-half earth seasons during our 1980s.

As Sarah Jane Smith she made her finest appearance in a yellow pvc jacket in the third story of Season 12, The Sontaran Experiment.

Thank you!

Thanks to the BBC and The Tardis Index File

Wellies for Woods

Broadleaf, magazine of The Woodland Trust, tells us that in the first week of March there were masses of welly events , from welly sports days to welly walks and welly balls and welly fashion shows in places such as schools, village halls and people's front rooms.

Derby Uni's Welly Thing

(Pic courtesy Derby University)

Get  in on the action, they say, by registering for a fundraising pack from woodlandtrust.org.uk

Thanks to everyone.   Hope there are things to enjoy.

LE

A portrait has just been sold in an international fine art auction of a very great man, and one to whom we owe a good deal.   The problem is, which one?

Here is Thomas Hancock on the left and Charles Macintosh on the right

Which one is the subject of the portrait?

The answer is: 38 year old Thomas Hancock, according to John Nicholson's Fine Art Auctioners and Valuers, who recently auctioned the portrait, by Sir Henry Raeburn, under the Hancock title, for £11K.

Hancock was born in 1786 and so aged 38 when the painter died (in 1823). Macintosh was 20 years older.

Paintings of neither Macintosh nor Hancock appear in the list of Raeburn's works (Sir Henry Raeburn, RA, His Life and Works, by James Greig) published by the Connoisseur in 1911.

Does anyone know better?

Thanks to DE and JL.

H.

2nd April

Killer rainwear

Everyone goes on about her  woolly jumper, but come on, it's her rainwear that makes a good show absolutely mesmeric!  

True, she seems to miss an open goal to begin with, slouching about in a nondescript something and nothing, but when things get really tough, on goes the rainjacket. Neat, navy, no doubt Norwegian, forever slickly on the move, like Lund's forensic intelligence. 

And then the wellies!   They must have been navy too.  And they looked as though they carried the Hunter insignia.   Underplayed just a touch, I thought,  too much left in the Stygian gloom to the imagination.   But they were there, and there they stayed right until all that was to be revealed was revealed.

Pics thanks to Cool TV

Dominating the updates list this month is the last of an extensive portfolio of pictures from films.   There are some very lovely pictures here - they really do deserve the word in full.   Often a captured frame from a movie betrays its provenance! - ie you can tell!  But one or two here could hang still on the wall and radiate a steady warmth all on their own.

Warm thanks go to W.K. who has contributed much in the past as well.  

If you want the Newsletter please ask.

If you want to see the old ones, they are here.

If you want to see what Suzie has for you, check here.

Lakeland Elements and Suzie High Gloss have discovered each other! Suzie is big on plastic. LE is a bit fixed on rubber (have you noticed?). We are just starting - to talk, link to each other, share this Newsletter, share Rajkumar, lay plans ... Who knows where it will all end... Suzie has an Ebay site as well as one of her own. (You will all know this already, sorry, bear with me!)  Both sites beautifully done and very well stocked. Her rubber cupboard is a bit bare at the moment but you will find it there, ready and waiting ...

Lorraine

Suzie's says

Suzie

1st March

Are you keeping an eye on Namrof's wonderful work on Flickr? Besides mounting a galaxy of his own fine rainwear pictures  under the LE brand (am I getting the hang?) he has also assembled a magisterial collection of his favorite pictures taken by others. Over a thousand images, and if you watch via the slideshow you have an absorbing ninety minute show.   Of course if it gets too much from time to time, it is easy to stop and start when you have recovered, thus covering the ground in a series of 'short bursts', as Namrof himself explains.

Do go over - afterwards - and have a look. His own original photography work I can tell you continues to be massively appreciated.

Flickr is such a wonderful distraction these days, don't you think? Just discovered Mae'r Cwfl's diplay of vintage rainweear adverts - she promises there's more to come - a beautiful niche collection, close to my heart.

Pics courtesy Fashion Gossip (left) and Glass (right)

My favorite from the New York catwalk is Tommy Hilfiger, and not just for his "rubber-lined putty parkas" generoulsy noticed by Imogen Fox from the Guardian.   

On the left is the edgy glamour of a laser sharp proposition in light-scattering polywhatsit:   You-will-look-but-you will-NOT-touch.   On the right a serious parka, way-to-go for a new edition of Rajkumar's Minkymac, don't you think?  Those Barbourish bellows pockets - bring them on!

Rushed as usual.   Hope there is something for you in the update.    Thanks to everyone who helps make it possible!

Lorraine

Congratulations

to the spectacularly successful firm of Mackintosh, who used to win the Queen's Awards for Scotland and who now draw breath from the East.

They have moved their main retail outlet in Mayfair several hundred yards, from the Burlingon Arcade to Mount Street. Fantastic!!

We didn't get their press release, but from the reprints of the PR that appeared widely in the national press we learn that their new shop is "the first ever Mackintosh store".   Wow!!   Good new or what?   What did we do without them all these (200) years? (But I'm sure I remember, for example, WeatherVain, Hamilton Classics, Rainmac, and actually hundreds of stores, department and specialist, which have sold Mackintoshes over those two centuries.

Anyway, history aside, none of us have the right to sell Mackintoshes any more.    'The brand' is apparently now owned by Tokyo's Yagi Tsusho which bought Mackintosh Ltd in 2007.

Some versions of the story:

• Hilary Alexander in The Telegraph
• Reuters
• London Evening Standard
• Phoenix
• Daily Mail
• LibertyLondonGirl
• More...

1st February

Susannah York

will be missed.

I find Peter O'Toole beyond irritating, but Sussannah gives the Gangster one of its definitive outings in Brotherly Love, directed by J Lee Thompson, 1970:    then throws in a cameo presentation of a double-texture riding jacket at the very end.

Film critic Peter Bradshaw has been speaking well of Nicholas Roeg's masterly Don't Look Now, featuring the girl in a right red plastic mac.   He says some really interesting things about the symbolic significance of the red mac and its counterpoint the red cape worn by the muderer stalking the odorous canals of Venice, but I feel the main point is this: the innocent little girl wears a brilliant plastic mac, the magnitudinally challenged crone a rubishy cape made of grusome wool.  Christine is an innocent child who dies,  the crone is a serial killer.  'Nuff said.

And what about  Julie's wonderful trenchcoat?   Don't go there.

H.

Stormstroller has emailed to say she has been driven into the hills by the floods in Brisbane. - Report to come.

Great to have two contributions in the language of love this month: A French introduction to the Polish writer Marian Czuchnowski (The woman in a silky raincoat), and a great tribute to a classic French make of raincoat, la marque Vernon.

And plenty of other things.   Thanks to all.

LE

Best wellie pic in 2010, imho.   By Imogen C, brilliant fashion photographer, as featured in LookBook.nu

But not everyone loves wellies, I notice with horror.  "A lot of people have wellingtons on and I can't help but notice how totally inappropriate they are for winter weather," writes the blogger for Lo-Base Shoes shop in Edinburgh. "I think wellingtons look terrible," he goes on. "General black wellingtons are pretty bad, but women seem to think that yellow and pink wellies are 'fun' and 'reflect their cheerful personality'. Well, they don't. They look bad."

Ouch!

But then the lovely man redeems himself completely in giving us this sweet sweet picture that unravels it all:    He must be joking!

When he says wellies look terrible he must mean they loook absolutely wonderful!

Thank you! Not Lo at all!

1st January 2011

on the right:

Great Great Great Grandad's Brother

One of the most exciting things for me (just thinking of the website!) is when some celeb we've mentioned emails with a personal word of comment.   One of the biggest deals as far as impermeaphilia is concerned is one Thomas Hancock, the 19th Century inventor and entrepreneur who pretty much magicked out of nothing (well, out ofHevea brasiliensis of course) the objects of so much joy.   

David E has written to say that Thomas Hancock had a brother called Walter, and that Walter Hancock is David's 'GGGGrandad'! 

The original (pre-vulcanisation) rubber raincoats were really ponchos or Tarps, he tells us.  "They sold well for travellers on the outside of coaches but during the Summer the non-vulcanized rubber smelled worse than the horses."

But also, we have heard recently from Ros Drinkwater, one of the stars of the 69/71 BBC TV series Paul Temple.  Domino wrote on our listing that Ros's performance was brilliant.   Ros confirms Domino's information that despite some media reports, she is not related to Carol Drinkwater (Helen Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small).   "I much enjoyed your site," she says, "and thanks for putting the Carol misinformation right." I've now corrected the Wikepedia entry.

After Paul Temple and all that, Ros became a photojournalist. She retains, you will see, her sense for sophisticated fashion... Thanks Ros.

Ugh!!   I'm running late!   One or two people already emailing to say where is the Jan 1st update...   What a nice thing to do!  Jonathan, Paul, GTM, I love you!

So everyone, please enjoy the new things, and more important everything else in the new year!   May the  new decade bring stimulation and promise.

Lorraine

PS  Because I'm late I'll be doing my very best to put up more of the backlog over the next few days ...

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