We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

I am not making this up

Burton Roll Out ‘Arthur Scargill Clothing Line’ Inspired By Trade Unionist Leader.

Seen via what I intially thought was a first-class joke article in the Guardian. But the only joke in the piece is Aditya Chakrabortty’s gullibility regarding TUC “research”, for, verily, Burton menswear really is offering the discerning customer a ‘vintage-inspired fashion-aware range’, designed by Liam Hodges

…to include casual and formal design, woven and jersey, and knit, ‘accessible to the everyday guy’.

Hodges’ winning designs take inspiration from the miners’ strikes of the 1980s and took into account production practicalities – from factory capacities to UK-sourced yarns.

“I was reading lots about the miners and watching documentaries. What I’ve created draws on classic garments from that era, updating them with modern jackets,’ Hodges said.

The next step for the brand simply must be haircare.

14 comments to I am not making this up

  • Alisa

    OMG. Please tell me he is single?

  • So far as I know, Alisa, he is a widower. But don’t get your hopes up, for I suspect he is truly married to the Cause. Here is an article complaining that he went too far with his devotion to Stalin – from the magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

  • Could you imagine the reaction to a roll-out of a Margaret Thatcher clothing line? Would any company even think of the idea of having such a line?

  • RAB

    Careful there Alisa, your comment could be taken entirely the wrong way i.e passion! 🙂

    No he is not a widower, he’s divorced. Lately (2001) from his spouse, well there’s only so much you can take isn’t there? And rather earlier from reality.

    He is now in litigation against his own union over a grace and favour house plus pension in an industry that is practically non existent anymore in the UK.

    No wonder he thought this was a documentary…

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a9OAvqyjn0

  • RAB

    Oh for fuck’s sake smite control! Everything I’ve written tonight has been smited! Get a bloody grip!!!

  • 'Nuke' Gray

    Dear Smite Control- i object to the increasing use of the word ‘bl**dy’. It is a swear word, and you should smite any and all items which use this word.
    Thanking you in advance-

  • Scargill must be using Doctor Who’s dimensional stabilizer to hold that part in place.

  • As Claire Berlinski reminds us in her excellent There Is No Alternative, at the height of his power Mr Scargill was being chauffeured to buy suits at Saville Row. All while denouncing the “obscenity” of private property.

  • MakajazMonkee

    When I was a kid and coal miners still did coal mining stuff I always wanted a donkey jacket!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_jacket

  • As far as I can tell, the German Red Army Faction took revolutionary chic to the point where the actual revolution was beside the point (and wasn’t actually desired anyway). All that remained was the chic and the killing people.

    After that, anything in this vague direction is tired, I tend to think.

  • Alisa

    You mean one can actually go too far in one’s devotion to Stalin? Blasphemy I say, in the name of all that is just and social. Or is that ‘social and just’?…

  • Mose Jefferson

    This would appeal to urban hipsters over here in Portland, Oregon. Our least productive members of society always seem to take to the fashions of those who at least hint at working for a living. Dickies and Carhart are strangely popular brands for folks who would be better served by a nice bathrobe and some slippers.

  • Mose Jefferson

    Smited?! But I didn’t even say “bl**dy”!

  • 'Nuke' Gray

    A Canadian company is claiming to have developed a real invisibility cloak. If only this was cheap and available- think of the clothing possibilities. Maybe clothes that tweak your image, so you always look thin in them!!