| Fashion News Texas |
Texas prison guard fashion breaks out of the 1960s
11/29/2007
By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press
It's makeover time for Texas prison guards.
A new uniform featuring a short-sleeve, more casual navy blue shirt will soon be a wardrobe option for guards, in addition to traditional long-sleeve
gray shirt uniforms.
The reason: Additional flexibility and comfort for guards who wear stab-resistent protective vests under their clothing.
"When you wear your (protective) vest, it's a more manageable and cooler uniform to wear," said Nathaniel Quarterman, correctional institutions
division director for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
As Quarterman described the new apparel, three corrections officers modeled the old and new styles Thursday. Members of the Texas Board of
Criminal Justice looked on, offering a little lighthearted commentary about the nattiness of the new look.
The fashion-show-like presentation was a break in routine for the normally staid board meetings, where computer purchases, substance abuse
treatment programs and land transactions are also taken up.
Lighter and more durable than the old long-sleeve button-down uniform shirts, the new style resembles uniforms worn by some police departments
and prison guard uniforms in other states, Quarterman said.
Guards will be allowed to choose whether to wear the old or new uniforms, he said.
Officers use protective vests beneath their clothes depending on the violence level of the inmates in their prison unit and where in the unit their jobs
are located, said agency spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.
Even guards who aren't required to use a vest can purchase and wear one, she said.
Throughout the Texas prison system there were 67 serious assaults on staff members in the most recent fiscal year, up slightly from 62 a year
earlier, according to Lyons. A "serious" assault is defined as one requiring medical treatment beyond first aid.
There are approximately 25,000 corrections officers in the Texas prison system, which had 155,711 inmates as of this week.
The new uniforms, which include two gray pants options with the navy blue shirts, are being manufactured within the prison system from cotton
grown on prison land.
Production will begin in January, and the new uniform option will be phased in over the next two years for guards around the state.
"It's completely up to the officer which uniform they wear," Lyons said. "Some people prefer the classic style, some prefer the newer look."
Variations on the current gray Texas guard uniform have been in use since the 1960s. The last update was about 10 years ago, when seniority
slashes representing an officer's years of service were added to the sleeves, Quarterman said.
The new polo-style shirts won't have the slashes, which may discourage veteran guards from wearing them, said Brian Olsen, executive director of
the guards' union. Inmates often show more respect for guards wearing more experience on their sleeves, he said.
But Olsen, noting that guards served on the committee that selected the new uniforms, said the change is "a good thing. It gives them options."
The old uniforms were harder to wear with the protective vests, and the long sleeves were difficult "if an inmate chunks on you," he said.
College Station site for high fashion photo spread
11/23/2007
By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press
Let's say you're an editor at a London-based magazine looking for a glamorous spot to anchor the photo layout unveiling the Spring
2008 men's fashions from high-end designers like Versace and Armani.
Milan? Paris? Monte Carlo?
The winner is: College Station.
And that's no Aggie joke.
A photo team working for the British edition of Esquire Magazine spent much of this week in the hometown of Texas A&M University,
a school founded on farming and engineering and where one is more likely to see boots and jeans than Dolce & Gabanna.
"We do realize that," photographer Philip Toledano said. "That's part of the thing. It's a nice juxtaposition. Contrast is always
interesting, particularly in art."
Intended for use in the March issue, the photo crew, a hunky model and the fashion director of the magazine invaded the Brayton Fire
Training School, a renowned firefighter training site run by the Texas Engineering Extension Service at the far edge of the sprawling
A&M campus about 100 miles northwest of Houston.
With the goal of filling a 10-page spread in one magazine's largest editions of the year, Vancouver-born model Matt Gontier was
photographed as he perched on the edge of wrecked trains, scrambled through of piles of debris and dashed amid smoke from a flaming
tanker — a la James Bond — and all without rumpling one of the almost dozen $2,000 suits brought from London.
Even his coat remained buttoned.
"It's a journey though the apocalypse, I guess, or some form of it," Toledano said of his theme.
He could have been speaking about the previous night, when he and Gontier and some other members of the team ate dinner at a
barbecue chain called Texas Roadhouse, where chicken fried steak and catfish share the menu with a piece of beef smothered in onions
that's known as "Roadkill."
"All those waitresses were in a line dance," a disbelieving Toledano said.
Welcome to College Station.
Toledano, 38, born in London but now living in New York, was here about a year ago for a different assignment for another magazine
that brought him to the fire school, the largest live-fueled fire training facility in the world. He thought a fashion spread using the
training site as a backdrop would be terrific and pitched the idea to Catherine Hayward, Esquire's fashion director.
She was intrigued.
"I ran it by my editors," she said. "This is a big issue, March and September in the magazine world. It's the beginning of a new season,
with new-season tailoring."
The school, with a section of it known as Disaster City, offered "the kind of vibe we wanted," she said. "We also wanted something
quite odd and quirky.
"'Apocalyptic' is the word we've been using," she said, echoing Toledano.
Hayward did an Internet search for Disaster City, found a phone number, made a call and got approval.
"It's not a run-of-the mill fashion shoot, which can be a bit boring," she said as Gontier was enveloped in white smoke from a fog
machine. Flames from a burning tanker spewed black smoke behind him, all under the watchful eyes of a fire crew hosing the tanker
with water — and out of sight of Toledano's camera.
One bystander remarked the camera probably cost more than his pickup truck.
"How much polyester in the clothing?" the school's training coordinator Brian Smith cautioned Gontier. "Polyester melts."
The bigger question is whether a Versace suit even contains polyester.
"We've got to have lunacy," Toledano said, directing the model. "That's going to make the whole thing."
The idea of haute couture in College Station isn't that lunatic, said Cheryl Bridges, director of Texas A&M's Center for Retailing
Studies.
"Fashion shoots quite often are in the most unlikely places," she said. "It has to do with the feeling of whatever the designer or
photographer is trying to get. And very often they try to pick offbeat places."
Not that College Station is offbeat, she added.
"We're definitely a college town," she said. "And yes, the perception of a university town is jeans and T-shirts. And that is what you
usually see day in and day out."
Even on fashion models.
Gontier shed his gray plaid designer suit, with matching shirt and tie, and donned black jeans and a white sleeveless T-shirt. His closet
was the rear of a rented minivan. His dressing room was a dirt and gravel parking lot.
He'd change again, maybe into something from Savile Row.
A train wreck was waiting.
"It is really kind of absurd," Jay Socol, communications director for the Texas Engineering Extension Service, said. "But it's fun to
watch."
Designer has fashion sense for antiques
by Frank Vaisvilas
Interior decorator and antiques dealer Jo Hillberg is trying to convince people in the area why antique décor is the way to go.
She recently set up shop in the Olde Timers Antiques Centre, but had already been running Finishing Touches interior design. She
moved to Lake Holiday from Glen Ellyn with her husband about two years ago.
“I immediately started networking,” Hillberg said.
Her new sales space includes items, such as from the Chicago World's Fair, USA and McCoy pottery, vintage items from the '50s and
'60s, as well as antiques from the 1800s. Many items came from her parents' house in Texas.
“My mom saved everything,” Hillberg said.
Besides the aesthetic appeal of antique décor, Hillberg said antique furniture has practical appeal, as well. She said much of the
furniture was hand-made well and made of solid wood with dove-tailed joints.
“They lasted 100 years already,” Hillberg said. “They're going to last another 100.”
She added that buying such high-quality furniture as new would cost a lot more than buying antique.
Hillberg uses several pieces of antique furniture, herself, such as a down sofa, which she described as very comfortable.
“They just don't make them like that, anymore,” Hillberg said.
In addition to bargains in antique furniture, Hillberg said her interior decorating is very affordable.
“I learned how to decorate on a dime a long time ago,” she said.
Hillberg added that many people think they cannot afford an interior decorator, but most interior decorators are affordable.
“Everyone should have a beautiful home,” Hillberg said.
She added that people should not be scared to call her for estimates.
Hillberg has been an interior decorator for 24 years and had a very successful shop in DuPage County until the antique mall she was in
closed. She and her husband plan to retire in Lake Holiday and she hopes to continually expand her business here.
“I'm trying to build my client base out here,” Hillberg said. “... little by little, it's happening.”
Yet, she is looking for more exposure.
“I think it will help tremendously if I had a storefront,” Hillberg said.
She is currently looking for a place in the area with good parking. She believes Sandwich will become more a destination place,
especially when the new Best Western hotel, convention center and water park opens.
With that, she believes more people will move here and help grow business.
“That's what I'm hoping,” Hillberg said.
She believes there will always be a market for what she works with.
“There's always going to be a niche for antiques,” Hillberg said.
She added that the average homeowner redecorates every seven years, according to the American Society of Interior Designers.
11/29/2007
By KELLEY SHANNON / Associated Press
It's makeover time for Texas prison guards.
A new uniform featuring a short-sleeve, more casual navy blue shirt will soon be a wardrobe option for guards, in addition to traditional long-sleeve
gray shirt uniforms.
The reason: Additional flexibility and comfort for guards who wear stab-resistent protective vests under their clothing.
"When you wear your (protective) vest, it's a more manageable and cooler uniform to wear," said Nathaniel Quarterman, correctional institutions
division director for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
As Quarterman described the new apparel, three corrections officers modeled the old and new styles Thursday. Members of the Texas Board of
Criminal Justice looked on, offering a little lighthearted commentary about the nattiness of the new look.
The fashion-show-like presentation was a break in routine for the normally staid board meetings, where computer purchases, substance abuse
treatment programs and land transactions are also taken up.
Lighter and more durable than the old long-sleeve button-down uniform shirts, the new style resembles uniforms worn by some police departments
and prison guard uniforms in other states, Quarterman said.
Guards will be allowed to choose whether to wear the old or new uniforms, he said.
Officers use protective vests beneath their clothes depending on the violence level of the inmates in their prison unit and where in the unit their jobs
are located, said agency spokeswoman Michelle Lyons.
Even guards who aren't required to use a vest can purchase and wear one, she said.
Throughout the Texas prison system there were 67 serious assaults on staff members in the most recent fiscal year, up slightly from 62 a year
earlier, according to Lyons. A "serious" assault is defined as one requiring medical treatment beyond first aid.
There are approximately 25,000 corrections officers in the Texas prison system, which had 155,711 inmates as of this week.
The new uniforms, which include two gray pants options with the navy blue shirts, are being manufactured within the prison system from cotton
grown on prison land.
Production will begin in January, and the new uniform option will be phased in over the next two years for guards around the state.
"It's completely up to the officer which uniform they wear," Lyons said. "Some people prefer the classic style, some prefer the newer look."
Variations on the current gray Texas guard uniform have been in use since the 1960s. The last update was about 10 years ago, when seniority
slashes representing an officer's years of service were added to the sleeves, Quarterman said.
The new polo-style shirts won't have the slashes, which may discourage veteran guards from wearing them, said Brian Olsen, executive director of
the guards' union. Inmates often show more respect for guards wearing more experience on their sleeves, he said.
But Olsen, noting that guards served on the committee that selected the new uniforms, said the change is "a good thing. It gives them options."
The old uniforms were harder to wear with the protective vests, and the long sleeves were difficult "if an inmate chunks on you," he said.
College Station site for high fashion photo spread
11/23/2007
By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press
Let's say you're an editor at a London-based magazine looking for a glamorous spot to anchor the photo layout unveiling the Spring
2008 men's fashions from high-end designers like Versace and Armani.
Milan? Paris? Monte Carlo?
The winner is: College Station.
And that's no Aggie joke.
A photo team working for the British edition of Esquire Magazine spent much of this week in the hometown of Texas A&M University,
a school founded on farming and engineering and where one is more likely to see boots and jeans than Dolce & Gabanna.
"We do realize that," photographer Philip Toledano said. "That's part of the thing. It's a nice juxtaposition. Contrast is always
interesting, particularly in art."
Intended for use in the March issue, the photo crew, a hunky model and the fashion director of the magazine invaded the Brayton Fire
Training School, a renowned firefighter training site run by the Texas Engineering Extension Service at the far edge of the sprawling
A&M campus about 100 miles northwest of Houston.
With the goal of filling a 10-page spread in one magazine's largest editions of the year, Vancouver-born model Matt Gontier was
photographed as he perched on the edge of wrecked trains, scrambled through of piles of debris and dashed amid smoke from a flaming
tanker — a la James Bond — and all without rumpling one of the almost dozen $2,000 suits brought from London.
Even his coat remained buttoned.
"It's a journey though the apocalypse, I guess, or some form of it," Toledano said of his theme.
He could have been speaking about the previous night, when he and Gontier and some other members of the team ate dinner at a
barbecue chain called Texas Roadhouse, where chicken fried steak and catfish share the menu with a piece of beef smothered in onions
that's known as "Roadkill."
"All those waitresses were in a line dance," a disbelieving Toledano said.
Welcome to College Station.
Toledano, 38, born in London but now living in New York, was here about a year ago for a different assignment for another magazine
that brought him to the fire school, the largest live-fueled fire training facility in the world. He thought a fashion spread using the
training site as a backdrop would be terrific and pitched the idea to Catherine Hayward, Esquire's fashion director.
She was intrigued.
"I ran it by my editors," she said. "This is a big issue, March and September in the magazine world. It's the beginning of a new season,
with new-season tailoring."
The school, with a section of it known as Disaster City, offered "the kind of vibe we wanted," she said. "We also wanted something
quite odd and quirky.
"'Apocalyptic' is the word we've been using," she said, echoing Toledano.
Hayward did an Internet search for Disaster City, found a phone number, made a call and got approval.
"It's not a run-of-the mill fashion shoot, which can be a bit boring," she said as Gontier was enveloped in white smoke from a fog
machine. Flames from a burning tanker spewed black smoke behind him, all under the watchful eyes of a fire crew hosing the tanker
with water — and out of sight of Toledano's camera.
One bystander remarked the camera probably cost more than his pickup truck.
"How much polyester in the clothing?" the school's training coordinator Brian Smith cautioned Gontier. "Polyester melts."
The bigger question is whether a Versace suit even contains polyester.
"We've got to have lunacy," Toledano said, directing the model. "That's going to make the whole thing."
The idea of haute couture in College Station isn't that lunatic, said Cheryl Bridges, director of Texas A&M's Center for Retailing
Studies.
"Fashion shoots quite often are in the most unlikely places," she said. "It has to do with the feeling of whatever the designer or
photographer is trying to get. And very often they try to pick offbeat places."
Not that College Station is offbeat, she added.
"We're definitely a college town," she said. "And yes, the perception of a university town is jeans and T-shirts. And that is what you
usually see day in and day out."
Even on fashion models.
Gontier shed his gray plaid designer suit, with matching shirt and tie, and donned black jeans and a white sleeveless T-shirt. His closet
was the rear of a rented minivan. His dressing room was a dirt and gravel parking lot.
He'd change again, maybe into something from Savile Row.
A train wreck was waiting.
"It is really kind of absurd," Jay Socol, communications director for the Texas Engineering Extension Service, said. "But it's fun to
watch."
Designer has fashion sense for antiques
by Frank Vaisvilas
Interior decorator and antiques dealer Jo Hillberg is trying to convince people in the area why antique décor is the way to go.
She recently set up shop in the Olde Timers Antiques Centre, but had already been running Finishing Touches interior design. She
moved to Lake Holiday from Glen Ellyn with her husband about two years ago.
“I immediately started networking,” Hillberg said.
Her new sales space includes items, such as from the Chicago World's Fair, USA and McCoy pottery, vintage items from the '50s and
'60s, as well as antiques from the 1800s. Many items came from her parents' house in Texas.
“My mom saved everything,” Hillberg said.
Besides the aesthetic appeal of antique décor, Hillberg said antique furniture has practical appeal, as well. She said much of the
furniture was hand-made well and made of solid wood with dove-tailed joints.
“They lasted 100 years already,” Hillberg said. “They're going to last another 100.”
She added that buying such high-quality furniture as new would cost a lot more than buying antique.
Hillberg uses several pieces of antique furniture, herself, such as a down sofa, which she described as very comfortable.
“They just don't make them like that, anymore,” Hillberg said.
In addition to bargains in antique furniture, Hillberg said her interior decorating is very affordable.
“I learned how to decorate on a dime a long time ago,” she said.
Hillberg added that many people think they cannot afford an interior decorator, but most interior decorators are affordable.
“Everyone should have a beautiful home,” Hillberg said.
She added that people should not be scared to call her for estimates.
Hillberg has been an interior decorator for 24 years and had a very successful shop in DuPage County until the antique mall she was in
closed. She and her husband plan to retire in Lake Holiday and she hopes to continually expand her business here.
“I'm trying to build my client base out here,” Hillberg said. “... little by little, it's happening.”
Yet, she is looking for more exposure.
“I think it will help tremendously if I had a storefront,” Hillberg said.
She is currently looking for a place in the area with good parking. She believes Sandwich will become more a destination place,
especially when the new Best Western hotel, convention center and water park opens.
With that, she believes more people will move here and help grow business.
“That's what I'm hoping,” Hillberg said.
She believes there will always be a market for what she works with.
“There's always going to be a niche for antiques,” Hillberg said.
She added that the average homeowner redecorates every seven years, according to the American Society of Interior Designers.
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