Dear Wardrobe

Friend of the site Alexander mcrobbie-Munro has refereshed his website offering handsome pics of the North Country.

13th December 2007

Anyone heard of the "Hillandale" label? A friend has a 40 - 50 year old mac with such! That's actually some age! British Museum stuff I would have thought... Daren't ask in what condition!

LE

10th December

H reports:

Berry berry (beret)

In today's Guardian, lovely portrait of a classical raincoat, worn for real by accessory designer Mimi Berry. "The mac is by Burberry," says Berry, so no surprise there. "I bought it from a car-boot sale about 10 years ago. I wouldn't buy a mac by anyone else." Is it by some Freudian homophone that Ms Berry has been wearing a beret with her Burberry for the very same period?

The interviewer clearly thinks otherwise, asking Mimi whether this style of hers 'is meant to be so French Resistance?' She answers enigmatically that "for the past couple of years I suppose I've been dressing like a cycling gamekeeper."

And then another idea strikes her, enigma giving way to purest obfuscation: "Maybe," she says, "my style is 'Margot goes golfing on a large estate'".

Finally she abandons all fine-grained analysis and admits rather sweepingly: "I cycle everywhere and I can cycle wearing anything."

H

Just spotted this as well:

Trenchcoat Fashions

LE

1st December

Is there anything better than a terrific downpour, when you can go out in it all done up in a proper mackintosh? I don't think there is. It was like that yesterday!

Hope you enjoy the update - lovely to welcome Fleetwood as a leading Rainwear Town. Any other nominations? The case of course would have to be made...

26th November

A friend asks us where you can get the cool pink raincoat on the left. Spotted on the internet but no clue as to where it might be obtained. Please let me know if you are prepared to say!

LE

Gérard very kindly tells me it can be obtained here:

http://www.gumpla-moden.com/shop/index.php

http://www.gumpla-moden.de/shop/product_info.php?info=p162_Change-the-World.html

Thankyou!

20th November

Just read properly some of the newspaper coverage I pointed to some time ago! It says that the Mackintosh firm of Cumbernauld was bought from Dunlop in the mid-nineties 'by the 31-year-old entrepreneur Daniel Dunko'. Sorry for saying it still belonged to Dunlop. Source for the Danco story is the Belfast Telegraph - which has some funny things to say about Hancock and vulcanisation, and has no idea that other people in the world besides the Cumbernauld firm are making traditional mackintoshes. But still I guess they are probably right about who owns what!

Eyre: Icon style of the Mackintosh Rainwear Company "A modern trench with clever detailing such as the micro-belted collar."

1st November

Warmest congrats to the firm of Mackintosh on another prestigious award, the Scottish Fashion Award for Accessory Designer 2007.

Maybe you have seen their ad campaign - "the first ad campaign the Mackintosh firm have run since 1823"!! - with the pic featured in the top mags on both sides of the pond (eg Vogue, Elle (sorry their site is so slow I've given up finding the link) ) and lots of coverage - eg in the Fashion Spot and the Independent, Belfast and otherwise.

One or two really nice things in the update I think: a new vignette from John, who is a most generous contributor, and a little story combining the talents of H, MacJames and a very lucky girl called Helen.

And others!

Hope you had a good Halloween.

L

Saw Atonement last night, with Keira first in the sleekit swim cap and later in a nurse's gaberdine raincoat (belt tied, however: Matron would have had something to say about that). Very recuperative. The pic though points to the movie that was trailed - Invasion - in which Nicole Kidman wears the most mouth-watering trench. The trailer is on YouTube.

3rd October

A friend sends us a link to a clip on YouTube of Kirsten Dunst in "Dick" (1999), running about town in a blue pvc mac, joined by a friend, also running, in a clear plastic jacket.

Cashmere trenchcoat by Burberry.

£1,995

Thanks to Guardian Weekend, 29:09:07

1st October

On the right, Jess' look for the Fall.

Think Military Academy, she tells us, not prep school.

With pleasure!

Military price tag too, however, like about what it must cost to build half a dozen submarines. And my guess is that cashmere is actually not that good at keeping out the rain?

Really pleased to say Margy has been in touch again, inspiring a bit of a reorganisation of some earlier contributions on the pleasures of anaesthesia. I have called the new page the Mackintosh in Healthcare, hoping it might stimulate other recollections that might soon, with the advance of the new Millennium, be slipping into irrecoverable oblivion..

In one of my periodic collapses at the mo - not the computer this time but bones. Pretty well mended now, but I see I've actually left out Margy's new letter! Lots of other things left out of the update, I'm afraid, and lots of emails unanswered.

Very sorry about all that, but here's hoping you like the bits that do appear.

LE

The sleekit rubber bathing cap is worn by Keira Knightley in her Oscar targetting film Atonement, quite a splash in Venice. The Daily Mail (20:08:07 p.9) says she smoulders, I say the smoke comes from the cigarette: from Keira herself nothing but steam.

1st September

Can one stretch a point? This is not rainwear. I don't see why it isn't, it would be very good indeed at protecting the head from the rain, but it isn't. It's a bathing cap, designed and used with water on the ground in mind. It could be the sea, a lake, a river, a canal, even the bath: but it couldn't be rain. No one would walk down the street wearing a bathing cap come shine or rain. This is a pity, because a bathing cap can be a very lovely thing.

But might we not admit that a bathing cap can be worn, without impropriety, in the shower ? And might one not, perhaps in tropical climes, step outside for a shower in the teaming rain?

This is enough for me. Sneakers got in on the grounds that they can speed escape from the rain. The case for bathing caps is not one whit weaker, and that's the top and bottom of it.

Enjoy the update! Don't miss Andy's deposition, or the letter about dressing for the dentist from Belinda, or ....

LE

Thanks to Zakkaliciousness

1st August

Such a lot of wellies about here in the UK, doing a wonderful job in all the filthy water and slime, but for my favorite I find I'm looking at a pair striding along the stone dry streets of Berlin!

Why on earth is that?

Maybe what I think deep down is this: she wouldn't be wearing them, surely, for her short walk to the café, unless she really really liked it...

Thanks to all who have sent things in - do please enjoy the update.

LE

More flood pics from Krypto and others on Flickr

News from Ayshea

22nd July

Well I guess we do understand now. Lots of misery in the middle and south of Britain at the mo, commiserations absolutely in order..

LE

Thanks to the BBC

1st July 2007

George H writes to say he just cannot understand why people are complaining about the weather: in the UK it's been all storms and rain and flood and more rain recently.

George, I am with you. I know there are tragedies here and there but everyone goes on about glorious sunshine despite the fact that thousands of people die of heatwave every year.

The old Egyptians had it right: first Nun and Naunet, god and goddess of water, and only then, from the island the two Ns formed (actually from an egg thereon) did the sun-god make his appearance.

Find some time in the breaks of the cloud to enjoy the update.

LE

Thanks to simpologist on flickr

26th June 2007

It sure was!

My nomination as the best Glastonbury wellies pic. I 've lost where I found it though! Would love to say whose it is - sorry.

L

< PS Rediscovered!

17th June 2007

Wise words on wellies from Jess I almost missed: don't mess with the flowery ones which are long since blown away, concentrate for Glastonbury on Hunters, with YELLOW the Nu Rave tip: " Hunters are the Rolls-Royce of wellies: expensive, comfortable, classy. You can't go wrong with a black, olive or navy Hunter, but the hippest welly for 2007 is a Hunter welly in old-school yellow, the colour of fishermen's waterproofs."

I'm not absolutely sure I know what is 'old-school' about rainjacket yellow, but hey I do look forward to finding out. Cross fingers Glastonbury will be a storm! (But I do know what old school yellow is without the hyphen - it's the ghastly 'magnolia' yellow they painted the gym walls with in 1977.)

LE

16th June 2007

Get a parka this summer, says Jess Cartner-Morley, and you're well covered. "An oversized hood is key" she opines. Be careful though: "many parkas are ruined by an overabundance of drawstrings, pockets and zips." Keep the look sleek however and you will be making a smart investment.

1st June 2007

The great thing about this update is that I've finished scanning and editing Hancock's Personal Narrative. Really boring for everyone else I know! But I got really interested in it and completely turned onto Hazel's history of the raincoat thing. From that point of view it's a really important document, and it's a bit of a contribution to the net to make it available. I feel quite puffed up!! If there are glitches, please let me know. When I can I will be putting it into different formats and doing a page of links to the different topics and maybe Hazel will do some footnotes...

You see how far I have gone: noticed the obit of Sir Campbell Fraser the other day. He was the guy who was Captain of the huge British Dunlop firm when it careered onto the rocks in the nineteen-seventies. That makes him by my calculation the guy who was responsible for the firm of Chas. Macintosh & Co., which was taken over taken over by Dunlop in 1923 (99 years after it was founded in 1824). I read that the factory in Chorlton-upon-Medlock continued to produce rubber stuff until 2000 and a factory in Cumbernauld still produces rainwear under the old name of Macintosh and sells the most stylish things worldwide, but most famously (a) in the Burlington Arcade and (b) in Japan.

Enjoy the update, please!

LE

Thanks to Rainmac

28th May

Womans' Hour (UK BBC Radio 4) had a story on Rainwear in the programme of Thursday last (24th May) featuring Rainmac , the wonderful Midhurst store, and some mostly accurate information about the early macintoshes, including Charles himself. Thanks to Al who told me she or he hoped none of us had missed it! I had, but fortunately at the time of writing at any rate the programme is available still on-line here.

5th May

Peter Davies tells me he is now offering a hairdressing service using rubber-lined capes. His service is mobile, UK based - but I'm not sure just how far he is prepared to go. You could ask him.

1st May

Kate's collection opens in TopShop today. We love her and not just because she wears Hunters with her legs bare. Quite determined to love her things! Surely a trenchmac or two?

Tomorrow will also see, dv, delivery of new stock of rubberised satin etc from Mumbai. It's been quite a while!

Hope you find nice things in the update.

21st April

The Daily Telegraph has some nice fashion galleries. Also some silly news stories! They have only just noticed that Burberry has 'bounced back'!

13th April

There's a nice Burberry going for a song at The Heather Trust. Open their catalogue, and use the search box to look for 'Burberry'. Thanks Rob!

9th April

Hadley Freeman has the coyest reference to properly waterproofed jackets in her Ask Hadley column this morning:

Light coloured tweed jackets and peacoats are acceptable this Spring, she says, and 'cotton coats with a thin protective, um, coating, are fine.' She adds: 'But don't be silly and get a waxy one or you will be mistaken for a deer-stalker...' Guardian G2 09:04:07

For the best of these, um, jackets see left. (Says me. You would have to Ask Hadley herself...)

In for repairs

Laura Knight

Oil on canvas, 1942

3rd April

Hope the update is OK - felt shy of putting April 1st as the heading.

Please note three SBR mackintoshes for men now on the sale rail!

At last acquired an intriguing pic in the Preston Art Gallery - hope they don't mind, I'm assured there isn't a copy to buy. It's of women mending barrage balloons in the 1940s I think - which were made of course out of rubberised cloth. The intriguing thing is that they are seen using the dinky little rollers (to apply the glue - 'varnish') that are still exactly the same as those used in the workshop today!

23rd March

Tardy congratulations to our good friends StormClouds on their recently revamped website, with lots of lovely things - to see and to buy...

21st March

Did you know MacRain - now mr-mcrain - is revamping his site on a different server? Under construction at the mo but promising to be even more terrific than before.

13th March

I don't suppose this will reach anybody who might find it useful, but the best address for the site is:

http://www.lakelandelements.com

Ie not 'lorraineelement.com' but 'lakelandelements.com'

It used to be under my name, but when I wanted to move the site away from Demon they made it so difficult we were forced in the end to buy another domain name and use that. Tried to warn people at the time, but obviously that didn't reach everybody. Later we at last succeeded in retrieving 'lorraineelement.com' and we piggybacked it onto lakelandelement.com. But now there is a terminal glitch in that and some people are not getting through. This also explains I think why for some people the Ask Lorraine messaging doesn't work/hasn't worked.... Very sorry about all that.

http://www.lakelandelements.com is alive and well thanks to everybody's terrific help, and this is it ....

L

Trench

Alexander McQueen at Selfridges, £ 1,115

Trash?

Aquascutum at Browns, £850

Thanks to The Mail Online

1st March 2007

A lot of trenches about in the UK at the mo - not all works of art, but plenty of really lovely ones too. Harry, looking on the lethal side, points to a few of the more collapse-prone in his Lethal links.

Net-a-Porter.com has some good pics.

Don't miss the new riding mac story, unless you think cardboard. If you do think cardboard, use your 'find and replace' to find 'riding mac' and put 'mac' instead. Experts tell me a riding mac can be made in single texture anyway, provided it is fully equipped with throat tab and thigh straps etc etc.

I've spent ages putting the film entries into a database so they can be searched properly. It works, but having put in all that effort I'm not sure it's been worth it! Doing PHP is a sort of horrible switchback of success and frustration.

The Institute has already had the builders in, with more pics to accommodate. Special thanks to Hazel.

One or two other things in the update as well. Hope it's OK!

LE

25th Feb

Ayshea is keen to make a DVD record of your rainwear collection. Ask me.

Taransay by Mackintosh

31st Jan 2007

Very swish update of their website by the Dunlop firm Mackintosh has appeared recently (OK, you noticed...). New website, new range of delectable rainwear. Not all of it in tradiational materials ('Kiwi synthetic'?) I am disturbed to note, but the treachery is offset a bit by their neat and pretty proper trenchmac in double-texture and with a Shakespearian (unimpeachably traditional) moniker. See those eyelets flash!

No prices I guess because they distribute through retailers.

Thanks Brian.

10th Jan 2007

I suppose we can look forward to lots of flowers coming out on wellies in the January rain, and that's OK, but actually I am so pleased the once- threatened Hunter is holding her own. UK Marie Claire has a lovely photoshoot just now where flowers have been given the boot as it were and pairs of Hunters strut their stuff. So ... so - what was that word? - lubricious, just like the girl said.

Stunning new image from Namrof.

1st January 2007

Please! I beg you! Have a lovely New Year!

My New Year Resolutions:

1. To think of myself and others as wonderfully expensive computers so I can think broke not bad.

2. To think of sneakers as a sort of rainwear, working on the principle they give you the idea of running home if you want to when it rains (and they have sweet rubber toe caps and neat rubber trim and rubber soles that make that terrifically exciting squeaking on the gym floor).

3. To learn to love sou'westers (and first to learn how to spell them) for the sake of MacJames.