At this time of year (in the UK), the mornings and evenings are dark and misty and commuters are well wrapped up, typically in dark, woolly materials. This combination of poor lighting and hard-to-see pedestrians results in carnage on the roads with pedestrians being slaughtered in their thousands.My solution to this is to make the smart pinstripes in the British businessman or businesswoman's work suit out of the retroreflective material used for safety clothing. In normal lighting this will look smooth and silvery, lending a touch of sharpness to the average suit. By night however, in the beams of a car's headlights, it will present a shimmering pattern of dazzling white lines, producing an effect reminiscent of the works of Bridget Riley.-- hippo, Jan 11 2006 Bridget Riley (in Tate Magazine 6) http://www.tate.org...ne/issue6/riley.htm [jutta, Jan 11 2006] Some Bridget Riley stripes (in colour) http://www.tamabi.a...sic/warks/riley.gif [hippo, Jan 11 2006] (?) Some more Bridget Riley stripes (in black and white) http://www.mishabit...anvas_70x68_1-4.jpgThis was closer to the effect I was thinking of. [hippo, Jan 11 2006] (?) How do retroreflective materials work? http://cms.3m.com/c.../ciuuiFQ/view.jhtmlAn explanation of how Scotchlite works, from 3M [hippo, Jan 11 2006] miasere's link? http://www.channel4...car/ontv/scrapheap/ [po, Jan 11 2006] (?) Lumatwills(TM) reflective tweed suit http://www.dashingt...lored-outfits-sub1/Dashing indeed! [jutta, Feb 26 2010] (?) another photo from [jutta]'s link http://www.dashingt...pe-bike-dayBlog.jpgCycling in the day [hippo, Feb 27 2010] (?) another photo from [jutta]'s link http://www.dashingt...bike-night2Blog.jpgCycling at night [hippo, Feb 27 2010] Another retroreflective pinstripe jacket on KickStarter... http://road.cc/cont...-jacket-kickstarter [hippo, May 10 2018] And of course, topped off with a luminous derby hat.-- skinflaps, Jan 11 2006 Sheer genius.-- jutta, Jan 11 2006 Although I did not search exhaustively, I'm amazed that there are no Google or Yahoo image responses for "reflective pinstripe suits", "photoreflective pinstripe fabric", "luminous pinstripe suit", or "retroreflective pinstripes". You seem to be mining a new lode again, [hippo]. +
[For the record, I was assuming you were proposing the standard navy, black or charcoal pinstripe suiting fabric, wherein the the pinstripe consisted either of a tinsel-like reflective thread or a photoluminescent thread which was probably pre-treated with a radium-like material that would only last a specified number of dry-cleanings.]-- jurist, Jan 11 2006 what jutta said.-- po, Jan 11 2006 very dashing (+).-- neilp, Jan 11 2006 [jurist] - something like that - a very thin (~1mm) stripe, but retroreflective rather than luminous, so not containing Radium.[jutta] I went to the Bridget Riley retrospective at the Tate which was absolutely incredible. Some of the paintings ofstripes in flat, dense black and while oil paint are huge (roughly 3m x 6m) and looking at them makes you dizzy. More links added.-- hippo, Jan 11 2006 Brilliant. Best idea in ages. +
What always gets me about Bridget Riley's stuff is how oh so simple patterns have these amazing effects on your vision.-- moomintroll, Jan 11 2006 People avoid reflective stripes because they're not fashonable, but surely they could be. This is one of those 'why has this not been done already' type ideas. No need to limit it to business attire. A skull pattern on a black leather trench coat would sell as well.-- Shz, Jan 11 2006 What [po] said.-- shapu, Jan 11 2006 What [shapu] said.-- DVineMissEva, Jan 11 2006 What [normzone] said.-- normzone, Jan 11 2006 I just bought a seriously sharp pinstripe suit that I *was* very pleased with. You've rather pointed out it's flaws now.-- wagster, Jan 11 2006 Ooo! hippo gets a [sheer genius] from jutta! Congrats!-- DesertFox, Jan 11 2006 "Excuse me, officer?" "No, I'm sorry, I'm just dressing stylish."-- RayfordSteele, Jan 13 2006 brilliant.-- soliloquy, Jan 13 2006 What waugs said, and what I said yesterday. Please send us a hippo.
I would love to see a bike rider at night, with all the bike's lights and reflecters, in this business suit. May open up a whole new market for nightime sunglasses.-- blissmiss, Jan 13 2006 [UB] No not really Op-Art suits - not as extreme as that. I just included the Op-Art reference to give a flavour of the dazzlingness of this suit in strong headlight beams.-- hippo, Jan 13 2006 I don't think anybody had 68000 €uros in the 1970s...-- daaisy, Jan 13 2006 oh, hang on, i see, you said FROM the 1970s, i stand corrected...-- daaisy, Jan 13 2006 Fantastic. Beware, though, using the somewhat fatter and more stockbrokerish retroreflective chalkstripes, which may constitute go slower stripes (qv).-- calum, Feb 13 2006 This would be very cool. Imagine the news report (on TV) documenting this, with strangely rippling people everywhere. Why does that occur?
Have a glowing bun.-- dbmag9, Feb 14 2006 [dbmag9] - //Why does that occur?// Something akin to Moire (Moiré?) interference patterns between the stripes and the strobing, lined scanningness of the TV camera/screen. (Anyone feel free to correct me if I'm on the wrong track...)-- neutrinos_shadow, Feb 14 2006 This is one of my favorites.-- blissmiss, Dec 03 2007 Finally! (See link.)-- jutta, Feb 26 2010 <dumbstruck>-- hippo, Feb 27 2010 Ah yes - I love those lumatwills. Now if only they were affordable <weeps into sleeve of charity shop secondhand suit>
//cost £85.00 per metre ... We can send cloth direct to you or your tailor//-- pocmloc, Feb 27 2010 Now don't go crying into that sleeve, that suit's on loan.-- rcarty, Feb 27 2010 random, halfbakery