Mumbai: Activists of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) turned moral police as they protested against ‘vulgar’ posters of a popular jeans brand put up at a showroom in Juhu and got them removed. MNS activists visited the Diesel Jeans showroom opposite Maneckji Cooper School and demanded that the posters, which are part of the brand’s advertisement campaign, be removed.

 According to MNS activists, the showroom management obliged immediately. They added that the protest had been organised as several people had complained to them. MNS office bearers also met Joint Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Rajnish Seth and requested him to take action against people putting up obscene hoardings.

 ”The Diesel Jeans campaign’s posters and hoardings are obscene and vulgar. We received several complaints about the posters from parents of children studying in the school opposite the showroom,” said Shalini Thackeray, president, MNS Cine Workers’ Union.

“The language used in the campaign, like ‘Smart gets the girl, stupid attends the orgy’ is vulgar. Some parents asked me what they should tell their children when they asked what that meant. We also met the joint commissioner. Seth told us they would definitely take action if we register a complaint,” she added.

 According to Thackeray, one can ignore something vulgar on television by changing the channel or switching it off.

 ”But if there is hoarding or a poster before you, you cannot avoid it,” she contented. Thackeray said the MNS is also planning to protest against a television channel which has a vulgar tagline for one of its shows.

 The showroom’s owners could not be reached for comment

Wellington, Feb 2 NZPA – The New Zealand Organisation for Rare Disorders (NZORD) is promoting 140 rare disease support groups in the lead up to its national awareness day.

NZORD aimed to give small groups with few resources an opportunity to raise awareness about their particular cause, executive director John Forman said.

“We have provided flyers, promotional material, and a ‘how to’ guide on our website so rare disease groups can easily set up fundraisers in workplaces, schools or clubs,” he said.

About 8 percent of the population suffer from a rare disease.

In the second annual New Zealand Rare Disease Day “Jeans for Genes”, on February 28, participants show their support by wearing denim and making a donation to a charity of their choice.

Alison Hewitt, 27 and from Patterson Park, didn’t expect a custodial sentence after she was unanimously found guilty of theft by a jury after a four-day trial at Londonderry Crown Court in December. 

On Wednesday, she appeared for sentencing without an overnight bag and unaccompanied by any of her family. But she was led away in handcuffs to spend three months behind bars. Ms Hewitt has a three-year-old daughter. The charges arose after she took three pairs of jeans into the changing room of a shop in Derry city centre in 2009. A shop assistant challenged her when she emerged with two pairs. Ms Hewitt left the shop and was arrested by police outside. A pair of jeans was found in her daughter’s pram. She denied stealing them.

 In court on Wednesday, the woman was visibly upset and wept as the sentence was handed down. Her solicitor immediately lodged an appeal, arguing for a community service order instead – due to the “detrimental effect” of a custodial sentence on Ms Hewitt’s little girl. The judge said that was a matter for the Court of Appeal. It’s estimated that Ms Hewitt’s stay in prision will cost taxpayers over £20,000.

 The appeal is now due to be heard on Friday

 How gross is it to wear the same jeans day in and day out, without washing them for over a year?

It’s actually not so bad, says University of Alberta student Josh Le. And, as it turns out, not so unhealthy, either.

After 15 months and one week of wearing his raw denim jeans, Le thought it was time to wash them. Just for fun, he and one of his University of Alberta professors, Rachel McQueen, turned it into an informal scientific experiment, taking bacterial counts from the pants, then tossing them into the washer, and doing the same thing again a couple of weeks later.

Aside from the psychological yuk factor, the bacteria load on the jeans was surprisingly harmless. Though the bacterial count was high, the strains found were not a threat to human health, said McQueen, a professor of textile science in the Department of Human Ecology.

“I expected to find some bacteria associated with the lower intestine such as E. coli, but was surprised to find there weren’t any, just lots of normal skin bacteria,” said McQueen, who carries out research in the development of odour and its relationship to bacteria in textiles.

As well, McQueen found that bacteria growth was virtually the same from the jeans after 15 months with no washing, compared to two weeks after being washed.

The counts showed between 8,000 and 10,000 colony-forming units per square centimetre in the crotch area of the jeans, 1,500 to 2,500 on the back and 1,000 to 2,000 on the front.

“This shows that, in this case at least, the bacteria growth is no higher if the jeans aren’t washed regularly.”

Le bought his pants in fall of 2009, taking a cue from a friend who wore a pair of raw denim jeans through Grade 12, as part of a growing fashion trend. “I decided to test for myself raw denim’s claims to perfectly fitting jeans and explore the trend,” he said. Le took weekly photos of his jeans to document the evolution of the garment as it took on its unique patina of wear.

He also wanted a pair of jeans that would mould to his body shape, and treasures every customized crease and fold.

Raw denim, also known as dry denim, hasn’t been chemically treated or pre-washed. After months of wear, the jeans will fade and crease to the wearer’s body. Washing the jeans removes the excess dye and makes the fading and creases more pronounced.

Le also wanted to find out if the impact on the environment could be eased by wearing clothing longer between washings, and that would appear to be the case, said McQueen.

Though McQueen doesn’t recommend waiting a year or more to launder garments, the trial findings indicate that going longer between washings doesn’t appear to pose a risk in the general population.

“Most bacterial organisms transferred into jeans come from the person wearing them, and providing there are no cuts or abrasions to the skin, the bacteria should not harm the wearer,” McQueen said.

While stringent laundering practices are important in many workplaces such as hospitals and kitchens, washing an everyday garment like a pair of jeans less often, “has greater potential benefits to the environment than to the potential risk of the wearer.”

Le wanted to “show the world that wearing jeans for a period of time isn’t that bad.” He had no problem wearing his form-fitting denims for more than a year, even sleeping in them sometimes. “You wake up and already have your pants chosen for the day. And I think I gained more friends and had more conversations because of the jeans.”

He wore them for five out of every seven days during the summer and more steadily over the winter, but aired them out three times a week “to let them breathe” and to keep odours at bay. He didn’t experience any ill effects such as skin rashes.

Le didn’t take long to put the jeans on again after they were washed, and was relieved to find that while the garment had shrunk a bit, it has again taken on its familiar feel. After all the use, he is giving them a bit of a break.

“I’ve appointed them my weekend jeans.”

Le was pleased with the experiment’s results.

“It’s encouraging to see that the raw denim movement isn’t dangerous for your health—in my case, at least. It supports the idea that washing your clothes less frequently isn’t as bad—maybe more frequently than 15-month intervals between washes—but maybe less frequently than after every wear,” he grinned.

He added: “If anything, I learned that I’m much cleaner than I thought!”

Provided by University of Alberta

DONNA IDA is hosting an event tomorrow which promises to solve your denim dilemmas. Paige Adams-Geller of Paige Premium Denim will be in Ida’s Westfield Store from 1-3pm, offering her expert denim advice and styling tips in a bid to help you find your perfect pair of jeans. If that isn’t enough, five lucky shoppers will be treated to a free pair of jeans – all picked according to individual size, taste and shape.

A former Miss California representative, Adams-Geller began her career as one of the denim industry’s most popular fit models before deciding to use her behind-the-scenes experience to set up her own label in 2005.

Canadian college student Josh Le has redefined distressed denim by turning his own pair of jeans into a science experiment, wearing them for 15 months without washing them.

“You break it in and it becomes a second skin,” Le said. “There’s no other pair like it in the world. You wear it like a canvas and paint it with your life.”

As Le headed back for his second year of study at the University of Alberta in September 2009, he bought a new pair of jeans for the new school year. Le paid $165 for a pair of Nudie Jeans. He chose a completely untreated pair of denim called raw denim.

Le certainly got his money worth. He wore the jeans 330 times without washing them between September of 2009 and December of 2010, he said.

While sitting in an introductory to textiles class, he got the idea to turn his denim into an experiment.

My professor mentioned that she researches on textiles and bacteria, so it piqued my curiosity there,” Le said. “I half jokingly said we should do a bacterial analysis on them [Le's jeans] and that’s where it sort of started.”

The dark denim jeans lightened, creases sprouted, holes popped out in the thighs of the jeans, below the pockets. The jeans had an adventure of their own, dealing with the freezing temperatures of Edmonton, Canada, to the heat of California and Mexico when Le traveled there.

“Wearing a pair of jeans every day, for one thing, it takes away the stress of what to wear in the morning, sometimes I even slept in them to help accelerate the fading process,” Le said.

Le documented the evolution of his jeans on Facebook and in a YouTube video.

The 20-year-old student carried around paper towels to dab out stains.

“One time I was eating grapefruit, I’d finished the meaty part and was drinking juice and spilled it on my jeans, my heart stopped for a second,” Le said.

He got the stain out and said it didn’t leave an odor. Still, Le knew that his choice to wear the same pair of jeans day in and day out might raise eyebrows

NEW DELHI: A strict dress code has been enforced at the ongoing 54th National shooting championship at the Karni Singh range here. The shooters are not allowed to wear jeans and sleeveless shirts. This new rule, brought in by the International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF), has been implemented for the first time in a national championship in India.

“The new rule was implemented in the World Cup finals last year. The ISSF rule clearly states that shooters cannot wear jeans and girl shooters cannot wear sleeveless shirts. Earlier, shooters would come wearing torn jeans, baggy jeans with loose pockets, half pants and sleeveless shirts which looked shabby and indecent. This rule will help maintain the standard of game and make the shooters look more presentable at the range while shooting. We turned back many shooters in jeans at the ongoing national championships. We asked them to come back in tracks,” Sunny Thomas, official coach of Indian shooting team, told TOI.

This rule has upset some shooters. Shimon Sharif, who has been on the circuit for a while, said: “This is my 15th national championship. I have always worn jeans, even during the World Cup. I feel jeans are the best outfit for shooters at the range. As a rifle shooter you need to wear a special pair of trousers and jacket. Jeans is comfortable.”

Rifle shooter Avneet Sidhu, who will be seen in action on Friday, said: “Frankly there is no problem wearing tracks as it is only required during the matches. We can change after the match and put on our jeans. I didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. As a rifle shooter we need to wear special jackets and trousers, so it hardly makes a difference. I guess it can cause problems for air pistol shooters. Sleeveless shirts were not seen on the ranges anyway, as it distracted other shooters.”

The team at Porsche Design have recently expanded the lifestyle collection for women and men with exclusive premium jeans for the Autumn/Winter 2011 season. The jeans are made in co-operation

with the Hamburg jeans brand Blessed & Cursed and, according to Porsche Design, only the best Japanese denim is used for production.

At the launch of Porsche Design Denim, the luxury brand presented a regular style model where the men’s jeans have a straight cut and women’s jeans have a moderately narrow cut.

The classic washes “Black Black” and “Blue Stone Washed” are available, as well as the exclusive “Mechanic Blue” model, which have been given a special vintage effect, making each item unique.

The fittings are also unique, as the pocket corners on the Porsche Design Denim look like screws instead of rivets. The Allen screw style of the luxury brand was simulated in the form of a rivet. They strengthen the jeans at the pocket corners and are also placed at the end of the outer thigh seam as a special defining feature.

In addition to that, a metal nameplate is riveted to the coin pocket. The jeans button and the zip puller are made in a high-quality carbon look. The product P numbers typical of the luxury brand decorate the back pockets in the form of 3D embroidery.

The Blessed & Cursed label, founded in 2007, quickly became the favourite of international stars such as Rihanna, Fergie, Bon Jovi and Michael Ballack. The brand designer, Nicola Eibich, is a “denim” specialist with over 20 years of experienc