John O’ Groats to Lands End?

Rohantime are asking: How many Rohan Shops have you visited? as the stores cover pretty much John O’ Groats to Lands End (or actually Aberdeen to Jersey). Infusion members have visited quite a few, including Ambleside and Long Preston on the way to or from waking trips.

Win an iPad with Rohan

Rohan are offering their fans an opportunity to win an iPad over on the Rohantime website.

John Beatty on the Iceland volcano

In February, some of us caught John Beatty on his Wild Vision tour, sponsored by Rohan. Little did we realise that a month later he would be an eyewitness to the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland. He was subsequently interviewed by John McCarthy on Excess Baggage, the Radio 4 travel programme.

Carbon Fast: Make do and mend

Do you have clothes you could wear for longer if you gave them a little TLC? Spend some time doing old-fashioned mending. ‘1.2 million tonnes of clothing waste every year goes into UK landfills’ (UK government, Act on CO2). Methane – a potent greenhouse gas – is emitted in landfill sites. Reducing the quantity of clothes and other products we buy reduces the waste that ends up in landfills and also reduces emissions from manufacturing and transporting these goods.

Father God, please calm the unsustainable rate of consumption and transform us into people who are content with what we have rather than striving to own more and more. Amen.

www.tearfund.org/carbonfast

Bought the clothing – now get the franchise!

From the Rohan website: Lots of us have spent many happy hours in Rohan Shops, some of us may have dreamed of owning our own.

Interested? Please click the link & register your interest prior to the official launch of the Rohan franchise opportunity in January 2010.

Recycling clothes

Oxfam and M&S joined forces earlier this year to launch the M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange, the biggest programme in the UK to encourage consumers to recycle their clothes. The M&S and Oxfam Clothes Exchange was set up in January 2008 and has already raised a staggering £2m for Oxfam's charity work. Anyone donating an item of M&S clothing to Oxfam will receive a £5 voucher to use on their next purchase of £35 or more on a range of goods.

Did Jane Austen visit the Rohan shop?

Rohantime tweeted Did Jane Austen shop at Rohan? The story? Jane Austen's brother Henry was a partner in a bank at 10 Henrietta Street, which is now a Rohan shop. Henry lived for several years above the bank (where the green plaque is) and Jane would stay with him when she came to London on business.

Rohan Bags beat the RPI (or MBI)

Rohantime has been tracking the price of Rohan Bags from 1978-2009 against the Mars Bar Index. Why? It’s not often that an item of clothing can be tracked over 30 years because products change so often or are superseded, up or down graded. However, this is possible with Rohan Bags - soon be celebrating over 30 years of continuous manufacturing means that the Bags Price Index can be tracked over all those years. And the Mars Bar Index? Apparently the price of a Mars Bar correlates accurately with the change in value of the pound sterling since World War II.

The price of a Mars Bar has increased by 300% over the years. During the same period, Bags reveal a slightly smaller percentage increase. Read the full results.

Social networking through travel clothing?

Both Craghoppers and Rohan have recently launched "communities" to bring together people who wear their clothes. Strange idea? Well, I've certainly had discussions with other holidaymakers also wearing Rohan gear, and I often note the brands people wear when we pass each other on the hills. Check out the sites and see what you think:

• Rohantime: the place to capture the spirit of Rohan Clothing. Share your knowledge, experiences, stories of travel, outdoor life and Rohan Clothing on Rohantime… And you can even follow Rohantime on Twitter.
• Crags Community: less developed but offers competitions, photo gallery, blog posts and info on the clothing.
  

Would you wear recycled rubbish?

Using bottles that were destined for rubbish tips and landfill sites, designers at Debenhams have spent a year creating a 100% recycled women’s trouser suit for sale on the High Street. After being cleaned and having the labels removed, the bottles were melted down, then refined and woven into a soft, but hard-wearing polyester. Far from rubbish, the purse-friendly £55 suit - with single-buttoned jacket nipped in at the waist, subtle herringbone lining and modern boot-cut finish trousers – offers a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative for the office.

Can a fleece ever be fashionable?

The synthetic fleece is 30 years old and can be found in almost every walk of life - except the world of high fashion. The BBC took this humble, workaday garment to London Fashion Week last month to see what the style tribe made of it.

Despite its near total absence from the catwalks, since polarfleece first went on sale in 1979, it has become the nation's outerwear of choice, whether for pottering in the garden or out on a bracing walk. It is practical, cheap, lightweight, and dries quickly. But stylish it is not! However, the gratifying thing about a fleece - aside from the warmth - is that it simply never has to look good.

Shop till you drop?

Despite the credit crunch, new shopping centres keep being opened, including Highcross in Leicester (right). Here's some retail-related stories:

• Although shoppers are keeping a tighter grip on their purse strings, with the economy plunging into recession but shopping centres have always been one step ahead in getting the consumer to splash cash
• Charity shops are seeing a rise in sales
• Something for (nearly) nothing: accessories on the cheap
• The art of Swishing involves getting your friends together to swap clothes and party at the same time. Each participant must bring at least one good quality, clean item of clothing, or an accessory, that she'd feel proud to hand on.
  
• For ethical clothing browse the Lift the Label ethical directory

"I'll have those trousers in Earl Grey, please"

I received the new Craghoppers catalogue over the weekend and noted two features of interest: that one of this season's colour choices for clothing is Earl Grey, and that Craghoppers are now including a small range of Fairtrade clothing (trousers, shirt and fleece) - although this is only a option for menswear.

Lift the label - ethical clothing

If you are considering other Fairtrade aspects of life during Fairtrade fortnight, then you may be interested in a resource from TearFund. Lift the label - ethical fashion lists shops which stock "ethical clothing" - another way to use your consumer choices to bring about positive change in the lives of the poor. Just Fairtrade in Leicester stocks quite a large range of ethically-sourced clothes.

What's in your wardrobe?

There have been several recent news items on on "cheap" supermarket clothes that exploit the workers who make them. The Radio 4 Thought for the Day today was from Rhidian Brook (who is always worth listening to) on "the consequences of the dis-connect between the things we consume and the people that make them". That was a sobering thought this week as some us us contemplate the Craghoppers and Rohan sales and the possibility of acquiring new walking clothes....

Earlier this year I was struck when I heard Colossians 3:9-14 (from The Message) reminding hearers that Christians have a new wardrobe! The passage goes on to say that love is the "basic, all-purpose garment" that is indispensible at all times (rather than the latest gadgety rain jacket). If that's the case, then maybe we need to check that "every item" in our lives (and wardrobes?) is indeed "custom-made by the Creator, with his label on it".