STYLISH

cassette player with headphones but no record function wouldn't sell. Developed from Sony's Pressman Dictaphone, the Walkman did sell, however - in fact it sold in huge numbers, and became a youth fashion icon. Soon bus and rail travellers everywhere knew the 'tsk-tsk-tsk' sound of portable stereo headphones. In Britain, it was nearly called the Stowaway, because Sony thought we'd find the Walkman name odd.

Burberry London, New York and Paris are icons of the fashion world, and Basingstoke should join them. Don't laugh, we mean it. In 1856, the Hampshire town was home to tailor Thomas Burberry, inventor of gabardine - a breathable, waterproof fabric that revolutionised outdoor wear. During World War I, Burberry-designed uniforms were standard issue, and Humphrey Bogart wore a gabardine mac in 'Casablanca'. The company launched the famous 'Burberry check' pattern in the 1920s. It became a fashionable covering for 1960s luggage and umbrellas, and is still in vogue today on many high street clothes, although recently it has occasionally attracted the unkind sobriquet of 'Chav chic'.

Montblanc pen Montblanc, a survivor of the once-thriving German pen industry, began life in Hamburg in about 1909. In the beginning it specialised in 'safety pens' (fountain pens that