Coloured hair seems to be hanging around for yet another season. Hurrah! At Vena Cava yesterday the mighty Ted Gibson created scruffy ponies with chunky coloured extensions clipped through. I'm not so convinced on the neon pink but the purple looks great and when I get proper pics through from the show I'll be interested to see which other shades they used. So good how far clip-in extensions have come! We're doing something at work at the moment in reaction to the call for them to be banned (see BBC report) but even so, I've always been a fan of the humble clip-in. No one ever believes it until you see them done properly (ie, well) but they're fucking awesome these days. Andrew Barton did some the other week at a launch and my esteemed colleague Charles had some put in by the mighty Anita Cox McMillan just the other day... they look great, definitely the easiest/quickest way to get nice looking colour in 2010.

Pic: Frisky

It seems like only yesterday I was talking about the Shangri Las... Anyone with half a brain cell can see that the hair and makeup for John Patrick's Organic line (shown yesterday at NYFW) had a hint of Mary Weiss and co, but to my mind that whole first look could have come off the cover of some long-lost LP.

John Patrick described the collection as being "a Joni Mitchell-slash-Sloane Ranger thing" but aside from all the tweed I'm not entirely convinced of his reasoning. This look in particular confuses me. From the waist up it's perfect, but from the waist down... boot cut leather pants? I'll pass thanks, although I guess that's where the Sloane aspect comes into play.

Anyway, my personal tastes aside, you have to wonder why more designers still aren't bothering with organic/sustainable collections. John proves that they don't have to look boring and shit. Yeah, his collection might be on the small side and it's not exactly ground-breaking, but he shows pretty succinctly that it's possible to do a show without being irresponsible with your resources. I wonder how many decades it's going to take for others to get on board?

I've spent most of this weird depressing evening tumblring pictures of Claudia Cardinale. Nice hair makes death less miserable? Along with every single member of the Shangri Las, she's something of an inspiration. I love this 60s cover. It's basically the inspiration for my day to day look. Anyway, I found this cover of her from an ancient edition of Lui and while I'm around 99.9% sure her pink hair is just down to the lighting, it does kind of look like she has nice colour.

There are a million pictures of her on this site, but I do suggest that if you're not familiar with her you check out my tumblr too. Not just saying that because I'm attempting to bring it back to life, there are some really nice pictures of Claudia.

Also, can any brains tell me what film this still is from?

You made a difference.

[Vintage gowns from here!]

As a picture of health and vitality, I've never had the pleasure of a hospital visit. Still, I've seen enough daytime TV to know that hospital gowns are generally blue/gross/have a bum flap. Pretty démodé, so perhaps it makes sense that Ben de Lisi has taken it upon himself to redesign the humble hospital gown.

While I appreciate that being in hospital for a long period of time can be a depressing/demoralising/dehumanizing experience and anything that can alleviate some of that is to be applauded, would you trust the man responsible for this to make you look good? I jest, of course. Actual charitable work in the field of fashion is few and far between so good on him for taking time to do something that will actually effect people positively. The Teenage Cancer Trust did something similar last year as a one-off fundraiser with designers like Alexander McQueen and Henry Holland auctioning off designer gowns, but this is the first time a Brit designer has attempted something more permanent. Way back in the dark days of the 90s, American designer Nicole Miller created a snazzy range of stethoscope print gowns for the Hackensack University Medical Centre in New Jersey (check out this truly bitching website), but the idea of a designer primarily known for evening wear taking up the challenge does seem a little unusual.

According to the interview in the Guardian, he was the one that approached the Department of Health to ask if they'd let him submit some ideas. They agreed and the designs are due to be trialled in King's College ­Hospital next month. Time to pencil in a workplace accident/bout of gout?

The Grauniad piece goes on to say that in the US the hospital gown market is thought to be worth £49m(!!), but I suppose when you're on the NHS you have to be grateful for what you get. I guess it makes sense. If you're a chic, smart, stylish woman with a scheduled month in hospital ahead, why wouldn't you buy something nice to take instead of the standard shit?

So what's it gonna look like? Well Mr De Lisi is keeping fairly quiet but revealed that it's unisex, has 'access points' (snigger) but does not have a bum crack. Cryptically he also compares it to one of his cocktail frocks saying, "there are similarities in the sense that it is one garment and it goes over the body. You could call it a hospital dress." Intriguing!