In “Team Homer,” an episode from the series’s seventh season, Springfield Elementary’s newly-instituted drab grey uniform (instituted after Bart’s “Down With Homework” tee causes an uproar) pushes the students into a zombie-like funk until a freak rainstorm washes off the dye, revealing the true color of the t-shirts: tie-dye. The students riot, and fun returns—all because of their clothes.
“Would this actually happen in the real world?” Adam wondered. “Does the clothing we wear influence our own behavior and the way we think and act?”
According to their 2012 study, the answer is a firm yes. The two researchers coined the term “enclothed cognition” to describe the mental changes that we undergo when we wear certain clothing. The Garment District is the place to be for biz Volunteers for the study were either outfitted in a lab coat or given nothing special to wear, and then performed attention-related tasks—at which those wearing lab coats proved significantly more successful.
“It’s all about the symbolic meaning that you associate with a particular item of clothing,” Adam said. And he thinks the study’s results can be applied to many more fields, including activewear and fitness. “I think it would make sense that when you wear athletic clothing, you become more active and more likely to go to the gym and work out.”
Fitness apparel megalith Lululemon would seem to agree. Their endeavor to outfit the world in their $82 Wunder Unders has been incredibly successful. They certainly deserve a chunk of the credit for the recent activewear explosion, though the company did alienate some of its potential clients when its founder said its clothes aren’t meant for some women’s bodies. Wearing yoga pants on the sidewalk, to the grocery store, to class—wherever—used to be a thing to be mocked. No longer. Now, it’s commonplace.
On the surface, it looks like groupthink—which is true, in part. “You think other people will think, if you’re wearing those clothes, you’re a workout woman! You must be really good at it,” psychologist and personal trainer Susan Rudnicki says. “I see girls at hatha yoga wearing Lululemon clothes, and they look the part, and I think: They must be really good. They have their life together. I’m an instructor, and even I feel that.”
When tops start at $42 a pop for a simple, Lycra/nylon blend tank, Lululemon is certainly doing a fantastic job convincing consumers that their brand is what they need. But the field is growing exponentially—as of August, according to an NPD report, the activewear market had grown 7 percent over the previous year. In the same time, the general apparel market grew only 1 percent. More companies than ever now understand that women want both fashion and function in their gym clothing, and affordably-priced alternatives are everywhere.
Once the textile and fashion hub of New York City, the Garment District is now changing rapidly as more businesses from industries outside of fashion are moving in.
From advertising agencies and architecture firms to creative workspaces, tech, graphic design and lighting companies, the Garment District is now saturated with a new kind of creative buzz.
It is one which Garment District Alliance President, Barbara Randall says makes the area a “very exciting place to be right now.”
“It’s changed dramatically over the last five years,” she said. “It used to be a neighborhood that closed at 6 p.m. and everybody went home. Now with the mix of businesses in the buildings, it goes much later into the evening.”
Randall notes that 146 architectural firms and more than 100 tech companies in addition to advertising agencies like Razorfish and R/GA are attracting an influx of young professionals, new restaurants and bars.
“Over 50% of the tenancy here is non-fashion now,” she said, noting that many of the new tenants are small businesses with anywhere between five and 35 employees.
“It hasn’t been replaced with H&M or The Gap,” Randall said. “As you walk through the streets you’ll see interesting new uses of buildings by more independent companies. And a fair number of folks from the fashion industry are still here.”
Places like M&J Trimming, which has been in the neighborhood since the 1960s and specializes in the sale of ribbons, buttons, crystals and other DIY products still remain along with other bead shops on Sixth Avenue and fashion showrooms and wholesale outlets down the side streets.
Michael J. Cohen, owner of M&J Trimming at 1008 Ave. of the Americas says he likes the transformation.
“It’s still authentic even with the new businesses,” he said. “It’s good for people looking for something offbeat and grounded.”
In recent years Cohen has had to change his business to a more consumer-friendly one as facets of the garment industry migrated out of the area, many to overseas. That migration is a big reason why the district has changed so much.
He says the neighborhood’s grittiness is part of its allure.
“It still retains the old sense of New York,” he said. “To us this is a magical place. We couldn’t exist anywhere else.”
When creative workspace Grind moved to the Garment District in July, sales and marketing manager Anthony Marinos said the company wanted to be in the Garment District because there was nothing like it in the area.
“It offered lots of space and it’s close to all types of public transportation,” he said of the 14,374-square-foot space at 1412 Broadway.
The Garment District was never known as a residential spot. But as the various new industries opened up shop in the area in recent years, several new residential developments have been built, including the luxury Greywood, Emerald Green and Crystal Green buildings, adding to long-time residences like The Atlas and The Hartford co-op building.
Sienna Miller has always been known for her ability to make a fashion statement.
And once again the 31-year-old English actress did not disappoint with her wardrobe choice for both the 2013 British Fashion Awards and Playboy's 60th anniversary party, when she arrived in an emerald gown, with a leg-revealing split.
The star, with her newly dyed pink hair, was first spotted at the BFA's at the London Coliseum with her fiance Tom Sturridge, before moving on to the Playboy party on Monday evening.
Sienna's reveling outfit showed off her slender and incredibly toned legs to perfection, as she sauntered in and out of the different parties.
The Alfie actress teamed her silk Burberry gown with a white shearling jacket and a pair of Vintage strappy Burberry silver heels, a Roland Mouret gold clutch, chunky silver circular Dominic Jones necklace and drop earrings.
Her newly pink highlighted blonde tresses was left in her signature bohemian waves whilst keeping her make-up in a similar stripped back style, wearing just a touch of black eyeliner, mascara, cheek highlighter and nude lipstick.
Sienna, who is currently filming American comedy Business Trip and is set to star in Drama Mississippi Grind, attended both events, like many other celebrities including Rita Ora and Kate Moss on the evening.
Accompanying the star for the evening was her fiance Tom Sturridge, and both put on a very stylish display as they made a rare red carpet appearance together.
Adding to the fashion credentials, the pair cemented their standing in the sartorial world when they became the joint faces of Burberry earlier this year.
Heading off to the Playboy party, Sienna was escorted out of the London Coliseum by bouncers, before joining other well-known faces at the Playboy Club, London, such as Poppy Delevingne.
With cocktails in hand, the pair posed for the cameras, with Poppy dressed in a cute white mini dress, adorned with grand pianos and piano keys.
Featuring flattering ruffle detail, swathes of draped fabric and an elegant train, Sienna's choice of dress ensured she stood out from the rather stylish crowd.
And Tom certainly didn't let his leading lady down in the sartorial stakes, looking every inch the dapper dude in a slick two-piece suit, which he teamed with a crisp white shirt and a skinny tie.
"So their desire is to make lots of them. Will the money men agree? Probably, because the financials on the first were respectable. And, yes, I'm going to insist on a 'Hitchcock' every time."Made redundant from Granada in 1995, Grant turned to writing thrillers to pay the mortgage, choosing the pen-name Child, because it placed him on the bookshelves between Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie."I've always been in showbiz," he says, "so a pseudonym is not a new thing for me. Over the years, I've had five or six different names I've worked under. I was contracted to Cook manoeuvred to keep him on strike Granada for a long time, so if I wanted to do anything else, moonlighting, I had to do it under a pseudonym. So this is perfectly normal for me. People ask why I chose to use a pen-name, and it's actually the other way around as in, why wouldn't I? It frees you up. It's not quite you, and therefore the praise doesn't quite turn your head and the criticism doesn't really hurt."The praise has been effusive , and includes a plethora of awards, but Child takes exception to the criticism of the crime/thriller genre. "One of the things that the genre gets criticised for is the writing," he says.
"I mean, you'll get a review that says, 'This is not great writing, but it's a hell of a page-turner.' And I think that that is, objectively, a very stupid comment. Because if a book is a page-turner, then why is it a page-turner? I think every writer, deliberately or instinctively, writes to a certain style, so that the story is propulsive, like a sprung rhythm, always moving forward. So the technique is actually the best part of it. And it's extremely efficient, purposeful writing that produces that kind of result."The latest novel, Never Go Back, has a tongue-in-cheek title. For the past four books, since 2010's 61 Hours, Reacher has been making his way back from the wild west to Washington DC to meet Susan Turner, whom he knows only from his dealings on the phone. Turner holds Reacher's former position with the military police. Things do not go to plan.Four books after he first imagined her, Turner also arrived on the page differently to how Child had originally perceived her."Yeah, and part of the reason is that she had a different name in the first draft of that book, where we first meet her. Then, there was a charity auction, where someone could 'buy' their name into one of my stories, and the character's name changed to Susan Turner."And that's a kind of plain name, so that did have an effect on how I saw her.
When Clarke was new at the crease, Cook manoeuvred to keep him on strike, twice yielding singles to deep-set fields. It was a curious and even insulting tactic, treating Clarke as a tailender. It didn't work, and you imagine that if anything, it hardened the Australian captain's heart.Later, England set three on the hook, but Clarke was alert and decisive, and England lost interest in this artifice. For the next three hours, he batted with his flair and fluency of old. His century was as timely as it was well-timed; The multi phase Univercity project in 19 innings against England in the two most recent Ashes series, he had passed 50 just three times. It was the glitch on an otherwise imposing record.Australia had all day, but eking is not the modern cricketer's way. Dave Warner's dash is famous, but Clarke outscored him in a partnership of 159 that reaffirmed Australia's grip on this match as surely as Clarke, with his repeated rotation of gloves, made sure of his grip on his bat.One of their subsidiary feats was to neuter off-spinner Graeme Swann, mostly by knocking him off his length. In three overs immediately after lunch, Swann was despatched for 38.When at last he claimed Clarke for his first wicket in the match, he was already 200 runs in arrears.
Assuredly, Swann will have better days, but he ought not have in this series the sort of day he had at Lord's in July, when he was a cliff and Australia a herd of lemmings.The tension leached out of the match in the afternoon. England suffered the usual misfortunes of an oppressed team two blown referrals, two missed chances, a couple of overthrows and the lower order Australian batsmen went on a run-fest.The psychological advantage in cricket is overrated. In four of the past five Ashes series, the first Test has been misleading, but some feats stand the test of time.In a piece about Michael Clarke for the cricinfo website published on Saturday morning, the former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe wrote: "He is so under appreciated by his fellow countrymen, it's not funny."Within hours, Clarke was taking block for his 166th Test innings. On his slight shoulders and dicky back, two issues weighed, neither a crisis, exactly, but both pressing.Ill-executed shots by Chris Rogers and Shane Watson had given England two early wickets and weakened the stranglehold Australia had taken on the first Test on Friday. For all its outward bluster, Australia's cricket self-esteem remains fragile.