Dear Wardrobe
On the town, New Year 1956
1st January 2009
Were there really scenes like this in that far off country of 1956?
Have you pored over those books of old photographs, piled high at knock down prices on the high street now near you - and found the high street of yesteryear jostling with citizens properly protected in what we like to think of as the traditional manner? The Golden Years?
If you have please please send them to me!
I pore and pore and pore some more: nothing! - Well, hardly anything.
I have to make some up instead.
That's all right. We can make a better past that way.
Maybe our imaginations will make a better job of 2009 too.
Anyway, I do hope the New Year , whether we have to imagine it or not, will be really good for us all!
LE
PS From one of out most generous contributors, André: Happy new year to all the friends of the site.
Carol singing
22nd December 2008
Happy Christmas
LE
1st December 2008
Do look at the Google Maps thing - shows where rainwear firms were in Lancashire in 1898. All I have to do now is to do the same for the rest of the UK, then for the rest of rainwear world, and then for all the years since 1823. Anyone can do it!
Thanks to everyone for finding/producing lovely things for us! I'm still behind, sorry, but thank goodness!
Special apology to Andy - still haven't managed to scan in your letter successfully, something I'm doing wrong with the OCR I think.
Lots of nice trenches still in the catalogues, don't forget.
Val's new story not to be missed, but only if you have a reinforced stomach.
Do please enjoy the last update of 2008!
22nd November 2008
Writer Val Offord tells me that she has just had a new story published on-line which has an impermeaphile thread...among others... The 'others' are all slaving and suffering, so may not be to everybody's taste... But the heroines are often wearing delightful-sounding little macs while they slave and suffer - so you might want to risk a glance ... If it's not for you look away now.
LE
Tony tells us about a commercial advertising a range of new fashion trenchcoats on YouTube. - Sorry for sitting on this, Tony - but it's still there ... -LE
1st November 2008
Lots of people in the trenches just now. MacJames identifies Edinburgh as a key battleground, and Next gets the award of most trenchant retailer.
Next trench on TV
Terrific stance being made by Max Mosley over privacy and things being wired into your brain. I don't think much of the politics of his father, and I'm not into Formula 1 but my goodness why is it so rare to get such clear and humane intelligence on sex and how to handle its complexities:
"... people don't really know why they like what they like. But why worry, as long as you're not hurting anybody?"
Feel my Pain, The Guardian, 20:10:08
Apologies again to those who have sent me lovely things which I haven't put up yet. I'm trying to catch up, but succeeding only in slipping further behind... This is good news really, because people are being very generous sharing their stuff - will redouble my efforts, honest.
Several things to like in what I've succeeded with this month! Hope it's OK.
LE
More to follow in the Thomas Hancock
Memorial pages.
Thanks to a wonderful anonymous donor.
2nd October 2008
Oh, so sorry, glitch with the ole machine just at the wrong moment, so late with the update.
Lots of stuff anyway I have had to leave over - I'll be trying to catch up over the next few days. Thanks so much to those who have sent in lovely things.
Most wonderful: an extensive collection of impermeabilia by post - two packages from an anonymous person. Hope s/he is reading this - so generous, a resource I will be drawing on again and again I know. The first tranch will be used to start a suite of pages dedicated to Thomas Hancock.
Lots of great things keep appearing on YouTube. Difficult to keep up! Thanks to Andre for suggesting this.
The new Bond film Quantum Of Solace features Gemma in this delicious predicament, playing 'undercover operative' Agent Fields. Only just undercover it seems.
Thanks to Macjames
11th September 2008
‘I had to wear a mac and boots with nothing underneath,’ says Gemma Arterton, according to The Mail on Sunday.
7th September 2008
A friend asks me to tell you that he is opening a new website for contact between enthusiasts for macs and boots. It's for singles, he says, who want to meet online - which should make it easier to meet offline, he hopes. He will have to charge, but if you register now and you tell him you come from here - Lakeland Elements - he won't charge. Nothing to do with me! But sounds like what a number of friends here have been asking for. It's here.
1st September 2008
Prompted by the newspaper of record, a friend asks:
In The Times Online review of the 100 Top movies, they sub-title the section 20 - 11 with "Jungle warfare, jungle capers, red shoes and a shiny red mac". If the shortlist is:
- Jungle Warfare,
- Apocolypse Now,
- Capers,
- Jungle Book,
- W of Oz
Which movie has the shiny red mac, does anyone know?
I wonder if the shortlist shouldn't include Nicolas Roeg's fantastic Don't Look Now? There's a key little red mac there...
... but also of course, a Burberry. Which I wonder do you remember most clearly?
Thanks to RM
A heartfelt email this month from Paul, who has been watching a slew of British TV exports in Australia. The rain is doing the decent thing in all of them, he says - bucketing down: but not a single riding mac is to be seen. Paul's question is this: What are Lakeland Elements' "staff and representatives" doing about this unacceptable situation?
And the answer is, clearly, not enough!
But if Paul is right, the other side of his sword should be cutting away at The Market... Markets are supposed to sort this kind of problem out: if there is a way of making a profit, people will always steam in and make it. It's supposed to be the way we live.
I'm afraid for the enthusiast this could be ghastly food for thought.
Cheval by Cathy Wilson
awaiting collection
... and so I see is this, not Tracy's bed, but one with terrifically rendered fabric: if only he would have a go at single texture ....
'Taylor' by Simon Nixon
Pics courtesy Luneside Studio
Vintage Grey Gab by Robert Hirst still looking for an understanding home. We now think it comes from the NineteenSeventies so have reduced the price to £150 (plus postage).
I know I've suggested this before, but isn't there another way of looking at it? If you have Tracy Emin's bed in your collection, do you bemoan the fact that noone else has it? No, no, no! It is its rarity that makes it so fantastically special! We must see our treasures like that. And maybe consult Rachel Campbell-Johnston's article 'The secrets of successful art collectors' in The Times.
Slave writer Val Offord says she is still prepared to accept commissions but it will be quite a wait!
Quite a few contributions this month that I haven't managed to get up - sorry! - But asap. Hope there is enough to enjoy for the time being.
LE
STOP PRESS
A nice video - thanks Kevin!
1st August 2008
An intriging offer: one of our contributors, 'Vo', has offered to write stories on demand! She is a profesional writer so will charge, but only at the recession-busting price of £5 a throw!
She has kicked off with (part I of?) a story about Training to be a Doctor.
Order your story from me!
28th July 2008
Tony writes with this YouTube link - Sister Rosetta Tharpe singing on a wet railway platform. Great music Tony - thanks!
Hello! What's this? - no not that Hello! It's a brand new rainwear magazine from Ayshea.
18th July 2008
Vintage clip of Françoise Hardy singing her sweet Tous les garçons et les filles in black pvc raincoat is here on YouTube. Thanks André
LE
Though mere accessories, like their £11,000 Alligator-hide handbag, make the running these days, Burberry still occasionally lay claim to their tradition of "dishevelled elegance." As a Kitmeout blog of 2006 makes clear.
16th July 2008
Did you see, Burberry is riding out the storm with a 22% increase in revenues over the last three months!
27th June 2008
I'm on a break from tomorrow so am doing the update now. Hope you like it. I've specially liked helping with the Leicester bit - hope it's not over the top. One or two lovely pieces from friends have arrived recently - I'll put them up asap once I get back 'on seat' (as I think the Nigerians say?)
LE
H reports:
One very nice thing - Morecambe has had its 1930s hotel, the Midland, restored, and its terrific! Not sure of the rainwear connection, but I have always imagined the thirties as a great decade for the single-texture, so that the bars and restaurants and foyers of a posh hotel would be aswish and a rustle the whole time and the atmosphere breathing that bewitching fragrance...
H
23rd June 2008
Serena Williams wore her favorite trenchcoat for her opening match at Wimbledon today. The newspaper of record reports her comments:
“It is a very lightweight fabric. It is woven so it has a little give in it as well. On the inside it is stitched with gold. It has a little give on both ways. It is very movable, it is very light, it is delectable...
It is definitely kind of retro-inspired; buckles on the wrist, the waistband tie. You can tie it or button it. Now I have a wonderful white coat I can wear on the court and also, you know, in New York for those rainy days...
I absolutely love trenchcoats. I mean, I love coats, and I don’t know why because I live in Florida, so it doesn’t really add up.”
Oh Yes it does, Serena, it adds up all over the world, wherever you are...
LE
17th June 2008
Can anyone help? June writes:
"I was a Dannimac devotee. Do you know whether Dannimac made any clothes other than raincoats? For example, did they make sports jackets and the like?"
Any Dannimac information, as always, gratefully received.
14th June 2008
Andy says:
"The goggle jackets you asked about were on sale at Sports Direct shops all over England last Winter. I saw some in the sale there a few days ago for £22. You may be lucky and find some still in stock.
The bigger Sports Direct shops are worth having a look in. You often find odd lines of hoodies. There are some hoodies to be found with face masks and they have sold several sorts of goggle jackets and balaclava-style long parkas in the past.
Keep your hood up
Andy"
Thanks Andy. Those goggle parkas don't stop you keeping your eye spot on the ball!
L
7th June 2008
I'm asked: "Could Andy
Chesterman let us know where she bought her Airmax jacket? I cannot
find one anywhere.
Thanks
George"
You there Andy?
Ayshea has been out riding you will be delighted to hear, and has more exciting kilobytes for you...
1st June 2008
STOP PRESS
Fire affecting the server used by the site (in Texas) has put us out of action for a couple of days and delayed the update. Now restored, nobody hurt. LE
Proper rainwear has been the big story from the Hay Literary Festival this year - the fact that only Jimmy Carter remembered to bring any. Otherwise it was give-away plastic ponchos and anoraks, says Hadley Freeman in the Guardian (Hay Festival Special, 27:05:08). But the pictures show quite a few wellies (if I've got the vowel right) in attendance, brightly coloured, says Hadley, so literary professionals can tell the difference between themselves and their children.
H writes:
But the rubber boots I like are sort of grown-up versions of the schoolgirl standby: black, or could be brown, always a little - or a lot - too small for you because they had to do for years while you were actually getting bigger. So they were always a struggle to get on, and when they were on they were tight, and when they had to be taken off, an absolute nightmare of pulling and twisting and pulling and sitting and pulling and standing and pulling again. And often, besides too small, they were hand-me-downs anyway, so as you pulled them on there was that frisson of excitement/horror that comes with borrowed things...
The boots in the picture maybe don't tick all these boxes - eg you wouldn't expect trainee accountants to buy their office wear second-hand. They look like Hunters, but I've never seen Hunters in black. And it's the black, plus the fact that they are being worn as part of their everyday office uniform by these young professionals that makes them so striking.
They're lovely, and I want a pair!
H
I think we've got the Kendalls story straight now - a major rainwear retailer in the mid 20th Century it sort of turned into NEXT in 1981/2. NEXT has had its ups and downs but is currently doing OK (though now might be the time to invest - its shares have been higher...)
And it still brings the world a mean trenchcoat.
Pic based on one from Wikipedia, with thanks. |
Hazel says, "This clarification confers the vaunted title of Rainwear Town on the often retiring city of Leicester, where NEXT has its HQ (as did Kendall's before it). Actually the office is in Enderby, but that counts as Leicester if we are talking a major British company in the centre of the Footsie 100."
So Leicester pics, memories, fantasies please.
Hope the update's OK.
Lorraine
French Trench Chic from Café Mode
A trenchcoat in the quintessential British rainwear fabric
1st May 2008
"The
real British raincoat", says Jess Cartner-Morley (The Guardian
Weekend 29:03:08), is the parka, the 'quintessential British
garment.' She submits in evidence the pic on the right.
And the trenchcoat, is... French, a point made sharp as the Eiffel Tower by the picture from Café Mode on the left.
Jess is always right I know but ... my own feeling is that the parka expresses not the British style but the British preference for putting other things above style - like comfort and convenience... If you want style, it's the trenchcoat every time and every place - and in the quintesssentially British fabric please.
JM asks: does anybody know any details about the Alligator Rainwear Co? A US company flourishing in 1949 I know, and advertising here in the fifties - and then producing a range of double-texture styles in the sixties as far as I know. Does anybody know more? Do please tell me.
And
a friend Kirsty asks if anyone can throw light on a
raincoat that has come into her possession with a label declaring
that it is styled by one "Chas. Macintosh". Operating one must
fear from the other side of the Wardrobe. Any info to
me please!
Amanda Holden in The Hunt
Can anyone help locate a DVD or video copy of Amanda Holden in the tv drama The Hunt. Somebody needs it badly! Tell me please.
10th April
Somebody just sent me a genuine Robert Hirst mid-century gaberdine, brand new!
The ticket still attached to the little chain at the collar says firmly: 'Get with Robert Hirst - TEENBEAT and Go!' which I'm sure I would if I knew quite how.
It fits Katrina. Will it get her teenbeating? I hope not.
Anyway, I'm to put it up for sale.
Why doesn't the Mermaid have a mac? Everyone else has, and they can go home if it gets really wet. Maybe people keep on stealing her because they want to bring her in out of the wet and cold? Can Latex Kitty or 3xL help?
1st April
Robin kindly reminds us not to forget
Welly Week
this month, 21st-27th April, when people are urged to host a welly walk
or wear their wellies to work. In aid of survival, basically. Walk tall!
More time - lots and lots of time - again this week on the Rainwear Guide directed specifically at impermeaphobes and at turning an honest penny to support the site. We get quite a few enquiries from people who are looking for fashion street rainwear - mostly Dannimac! Is it over the top? The rest of us don't need to take any notice of it - just make sure your bookmark opens directly onto the club foyer.
Very smart new rainwear blog has been launched by Latex Kitty & 3xL - do visit if you haven't already. Lots of vids, news, pics and polls. Based in Denmak.
______________________________
H says:
One of the few academic pieces of research into the history of the mackintosh is Levitt's 'Manchester Mackintoshes: A History of the Rubberized Garment Trade in Manchester', published in Textile History in 1986. Full of great interest, it unfortunately isn't available on line. But I have it from the publisher that there is a plan to digitise in due course and that meanwhile we have permission to quote from it from Lisa Johnstone of Maney Publishing. Terrific support for the project from Lisa- much appreciated. We have put up a sample couple of paragraphs.
LE
Les Bottes de Pluie
15th March
Another lovely French fashion blog, with these adorable little squashy boots en caoutchouc featured recently. The blog is Play like a Girl.
Favorite fashion blog: Cafe Mode by Géraldine Dormoy. French of course, but it's kind of fun trying to remember what a capuche is . And remember, "la mode ne se limite pas aux vêtements, c'est un jeu, une discipline, une Histoire, un art de vivre."Well, at least I understand the discipline bit.
1st March
A
lot of time this month putting the Sale
up in the shop. We have bought a mannequin, Katrina, and she has been
so patient! So different from taking pics of macs just lying there, or
hanging from the hanger, or from a photophobic body! You may like her
outfits even though you are broke like the rest of us.
I was really upset recently to find someone had pinched the old LorraineElement.com name and was making money out of it - putting up I think what they call a "link farm" and pretending it was mine. Illegal of course - passing off' I think it's called - but well hidden/protected so not much chance of getting at them. Anyway the response is: let's put up some links of our own, this time carefully chosen ones which may be helpful. Hence the Rainwear Guide, another timenibbler over the last few weeks.
So I've been searching the net for the best places to buy rainwear, not just the aphrodisiac kind. It's a good time to look, there are so many sweet neat little trenches about.
Some wonderful riding mac pics this month, courtesy a seventies uk tv show I hadn't heard of - the Strange Report. Strange maybe, but very lovely. And the trailblazing Nancy Drew, bang on trend in the US in the same decade.
Hope you enjoy.
LE
5th Feb
Whatever your approach to the rain, escape or celebration, Gucci has the solution.
Trainers £230
Wellies £160
2nd February
Ugh ... just to say sorry the update was late. My annual (6 monthly?) computer disaster happened. Now emerging from the rubble, enormous thanks to Wayne. Hope the update is OK. We were planning a sale to make some room on the rail but that will have to wait now. Enjoy the filthy weather.
LE
Ayshea writes to tell us that there’s only one thing better than wearing one mac when it rains, and that’s two ... [more]
1st February 2008
I've just caught up with the fact that John Loadman's brilliant website Bouncing Balls has been transmogrified into a brilliant book. It's mainly down to John that you can go to Stoke Newington and see where Thomas Hancock (St Thomas to impermeaphiles everywhere) used to have his house, and John's book, itself quite bouncy, is by far the most substantial of the 'histories of rubber'.
John Loadman, Tears of the Tree: The Story of Rubber--A Modern Marvel, 2005, OUP, and also available of course from Amazon
LE
PS. John has a generous pointer or two to our site on his, which doesn't half remind me of his generally superior judgement.
LE
21st January 2008
Pluviusuk alerts us to a great new book all about the Trench! Full of pics I'm told. Please let me have your reviews!
Nick Foulkes, The Trench Book, Assouline, and available of course from Amazon
A friend writes:
"I found your site while searching
for a short piece of erotic literature that I read in a bookstore about
10 years ago; possibly translated from French; the book was published
in Europe I think.
It featured a woman wearing a black rain slicker, and she was on some
rocks by the ocean; a man was approaching her, and it was possibly written
from his perspective. The description of the wet black rain slicker and
so on was very erotic. This story did not have a lot of action, it was
all in the description of the setting.
Have you come across this? I would love to find it.
Thanks for your interesting site."
Can anybody help? Tell me
New Year's Day 2008
Reasons to be cheerful !!
1. Trench mania still rules across the UK - anywhere
anyway where I am. They are so nice and almost practical I'm sure they
will be marching along the high street next Season as well... 
2. Lots of people sending lots of things into the site - and lots of people putting up their own sites.
3. YouTube: moving pictures of material significance piped into our living rooms. Who dreampt of that? (Well, OK, who thought it could actually happen?)
4. Melai and Mason tied the knot! Bound to happen I need hardly say.
5. There are now electrical devices which help with all sorts of aches and pains and longings.
6. 
Ayshea,
an electric device all on her own, making those
delicious movies, and not stopping.
7. The lubricious Wellington is the world's most urgent response yet to developing climate change.
It also makes lovely Festivals happen so we can stop worrying if buying wellies is really enough.
9. The Cumbernauld MACKINTOSH firm, their lovely website, their style and the way single-handedly they appear to keep Japan totally waterproof.
10. Tennies: for the sneakers person, 2007 has been quite simply one long spring in the step.
So...
Happy New Year!
LE
PS Special thanks to Sarah-Jane, H, John, John, John, Bernard, MacJames, Robin, David, Alan, Andre
PSS
After the Shooting, a new story by VO, appearing in a terrible place I know, well outside School, but still, we're on holiday. Google for "After the shooting absolute petrified silence."
"We stand, straining to keep still - trying to eliminate every last rustle of our noisy new macs - holding our arms up and clasping our hands behind our heads, like girls who missed their buses and arrived late for Assembly." From After the Shooting.
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