Lucy Vickery

Fashion

issue 07 November 2015

In Competition No. 2922 you were invited to invent new garments and provide definitions.

Thanks to the reader who, inspired by the emergence of the ‘slanket’, the ‘cardi-gown’ and the ‘onesie’, suggested this excellent comp.

It has been claimed that we have Sir Winston Churchill to thank for the onesie, which can be traced back to his siren suit. Britain’s wartime leader designed this all-in-one with practical considerations in mind, but ended up with quite a collection in a variety of colours, patterns and fabrics. He once wore one to the White House, and so impressed the president’s wife that she said she was having one made for her husband.

Both Brian Murdoch and W.J. Webster suggested dungaroos (a one-piece with a large pouch at the front to carry a baby). And C.J. Gleed and Frank Upton were thinking along the same lines with me-shirt (a garment adorned with the wearer’s banal jokes, vacuous loyalties or boring opinions/a tee with a personal data matrix, linking to the wearer’s social media profiles).

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