Archive for October, 2006

Autumn in London

Queen Victoria St
It’s not too bad to say, with it being almost the end of October, that we are only just packing up the short skirts, sandals and the rest of our summer wardrobes. The weather certainly seems to have changed this week, and shops even seem to be selling those winter coats that mysteriously appear on the rails in August. And with the clocks going back on Sunday, it safe to say that autumn has arrived.

Although this time of year is often thought of as miserable and depressing, I think London really feels like ‘London’ when it’s dark and rainy and people are madly rushing around to avoid getting cold and wet! We certainly seem to have noticed the change here at Indigo, with the fleece, jacket and umbrella requests soaring above t-shirts this month.We managed to capture some beautiful autumn shots at sunset this week. The snaps were taken from Bucklersbury House, which has fantastic views over St Paul’s and the London Eye.

So with summer pretty much over (boo hoo!) we didn’t want you heading home with a serious bout of S.A.D, so we have put together our top five reasons to be happy this winter:1. You can get away with drinking gallons of coffee without anyone suspecting you’re hung-over.

2. You don’t have to worry about putting on a few pounds; you can hide it in your winter woollies!

3. The party season - an excellent excuse to spend money you don’t have on party frocks!

4. The potential gossip from the work festive parties!

5. And finally, Christmas is coming! When we find out who’s been naughty or nice! And there’s always the possibility it may snow, unleashing the child in you!

[Written by Jo Myronidis, Client Services Manager]

Raglan Sleeves

Rachel was watching University Challenge on TV the other day and came up with a good fact about Raglan sleeves being named after a British general. A dig on the net came up with the explanation:

Lord Raglan and the Raglan Sleeve

Lord Raglan lost an arm in the Crimean War. To make dressing easier his tailor made a short coat with a simple diagonal sleeve seam setting that extended from the neck to the underarm. It allowed much more mobility for Lord Raglan and so was called after him.

With its relaxed fit it is a favourite sleeve for the less able bodied and those with fuller chests or busts. The easy to shrug on sleeve style is used frequently on sportswear, jersey wear, knit cardigans and full length coats. Used on baby garments, stretch babygros and vests makes it easier to dress a small baby.

Source: fashion-era.com

Sports Performance Clothing

The Guardian has a good article today about performance, base-layer, sports clothing for elite athletes. I was reading it over someone’s shoulder on the train this morning on the way into work but the person annoyingly left the train at Clapham Junction so I didn’t get to finish it! Luckily the Guardian website is very good and has the article in full: Stakes raised in underwear that swaps perspiration for inspiration.

Super Mum

Kate Myronidis
When we had a request at short notice, to supply some promotional tees for this year’s Motor Show, we decided to put our services to the test! We had to turn the tees around sharpish for the fast approaching high profile press day.Now, like any company who uses couriers will know, there are always certain ‘uncontrollable’ factors that affect whether or not they actually do what it says on the tin. Traffic, weather conditions, you get the picture. Well we found ourselves stuck in one of these ’situations’ with the box of t-shirts being held at the depot instead of being sent to the client. What do you do in a time of need…. Cry to mummy? Well…. Actually… Yes! (minus the crying part).

Kate (mine and Vicky’s mum) jumped to the rescue, gladly donning an indigo tee, she made sure the t-shirts were delivered safely in good time! Phew! Many thanks to Kate from the Indigo Team!

[Written by Jo Myronidis, Client Services Manager]

Party Pics

Are now online on Flickr: Indigo Party, 20 Oct 06

Signed Arsenal Shirt

Arsenal Shirt
One of the raffle prizes at the Indigo party on Friday night was an Arsenal football shirt signed by all the players, which was kindly donated by Eleni’s (pictured right) uncle, who works at the club. The shirt was won by Pete (pictured left), one of Indigo’s key print and embroidery suppliers. Sadly Pete is a Spurs fan so the shirt may end up on eBay soon!

Other prizes that were generously donated were a flight over London in a private plane (thanks to Tim, pilot and raffle-master), a House of Commons bottle of wine (thanks to Kate), a meal voucher for two with champagne (thanks to Paul at the Bishop’s Finger), a box of t-shirts (thanks to Paul Collins) and a Innocent Smoothies goody box (thanks Innocent - you are one of our favourite clients ;-))

Top 100+ t-shirt stores on the web

Every blog seems to have a top-ten, top-twenty, top-etc. list these days, often in an attempt to get a good digg. I thought Indigo should do one considering how long we spend looking at t-shirts on the web:

  1. La Fraise - French t-shirt competition goodness (site is in English too and they ship worldwide)
  2. Oddica - new US store getting good press in the blogosphere.
  3. Threadless - an oldie but a goodie, Chicago-based t-shirt comp originals

…but then I got bored and instead I suggest you check out our del.icio.us tag for t-shirts where we have been bookmarking cool stores for ages: http://del.icio.us/indigoclothing/tshirts.

The day after the night before

Ouch, my head hurts today! Last night was Indigo’s (late) 4th birthday party (see email invite). It was a great night, thanks go to all those who came and those that bought raffle tickets for Get Kids Going, the charity Julia Parker (Indigo’s first staff member) is collecting money for whilst training for the ING New York Marathon.

Jo spent most of the night yelling out that she had, “just taken a great picture for the blog,” so come Monday morning we’ll get them online for everyone to see.

Google and T-Shirt Printing

Checking Google today, it is nice to see Indigo is in the number one spot for ‘T-Shirt Printing‘ and for ‘Promotional Clothing‘, the two big keywords for our printwear industry. Indigo’s rapid growth has been partly due to our Google ranking. We don’t employ third parties to help us (I can’t believe the number of people who ring up the office selling Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services) and everything we do is in accordance to Google’s guidelines. There is no ‘trickery’ going on, we are committed to building a large, usable and cleanly designed website. The good thing is, Google likes these kinds of sites too.

Indigo does help clients out with their SEO and web work should they have any needs, and equally we are happy to help non-Indigo Clothing customers out too. More about our website design skills can be found on the Indigo SEO page.

Chimp my Ride

Chimp My Ride is available on guys/girls Black tees, an Army zip hoodie, and a Black kids tee from US t-shirt store Oddica.

[Disclaimer: We like this t-shirt, we didn't print it, it is made in the USA]