I recently bought myself a bright orange zip-up "kag-in-a-bag" – essentially a cagoule that folds away into one of its own pockets and can then be attached to the owner (me) by a multicoloured fabric belt sewn into the lining.
It's very clever. The brand is K-Way and it's a classic of sorts. Legend has it the idea for the garment came to its inventor, Leon Duhamel, as he sat and watched passers-by struggle through a Parisian downpour one day in 1965. True or not, it's an excellent founding myth.
Today the so-called original pac-a-mac is so revered in France that its 40th anniversary in 2005 was met with eulogising articles in newspapers about how no "pique-nique" would be complete without one.
Typically, in this country K-Way is better known as a label favoured by 1980s soccer casuals – or, in its 21st-century guise, by Brick Lane hipsters on fixed-gear bikes. Clearly I'm neither.
It's a good example of a timely idea taking off, though, and Duhamel was lucky enough to have the funds available to put his cagoules into production. Not every budding fashion designer who has a eureka moment is as fortunate, however. So for them, websites such as Kickstarter are vital as they try to crowd-source their start-up costs.
I read this week about Nice Laundry, a company which raised funds on Kickstarter for a service offering a "curated" (don't you just love that word?) selection of socks for the more discerning ankle. They're one of the success stories but there are plenty more fashion ideas on the site which haven't yet reached lift off.
Take the 10-Year Hoodie, for example, which is designed for life, guaranteed for a decade and whose New York-based makers offer to mend it for free if need be. So if it rips they'll patch it up with zig-zag stitching to add even more character to the garment. It's their broadside against the built-in obsolescence which is a feature of so much "fast fashion" these days.
Or how about Sword & Plough, another American company which works with army veterans and uses "repurposed" army kit to make trendy totes and backpacks.
If that doesn't grab you, there are plenty others looking for cash and exposure: sport-utility bathrobes (whatever they are), patterned wellies, a fashion range for nerds designed by a quantum physicist and a neuroscientist, silk pyjamas printed with pictures of peacocks, bespoke jeans and skinny, no-frills jean jackets, The League Of Ladies' superhero underwear for women and, last but not least, a business offering screen-printed vintage T-shirts commemorating the "forgotten people behind great ideas". Their slogan is "We Rep the UnderRepped", which also happens to be the company's name.
I wonder if they do one for Leon Duhamel, inventor of the pac-a-mac? I hope so.
barry.didcock@heraldandtimes.co.uk
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