Just what the heck is chenile, any way? A synthetic fabric that's a favorite of the geriatric set?

@jpdanzig: It's an incredibly soft synthetic fiber. They make sleepwear, sweaters, slippers, and stuffed animals out of it. I have a chenille bathrobe I like very much.

It can be made out of recycled soda bottles, as far as I know.

It was more commonly used for bedspreads many years ago. It seems to have made a comeback as clothing. Chenille is french for caterpillar. It's a raised pile, kind of like carpet but thinner and in a stripe pattern (usually). It looks like an old bedspread made into a robe.

She looks like she was superimposed in this picture. Her posture has a, "hurry the f*ck up, I need to take a sh*t look to it". The sly smile is only a cover...

@jpdanzig: chenille can also be made of silk--- but these are not :)

Im sorry but Why are people starting on fire? If they fall asleep with a cigarette on them or on top of a electric heater isn't that their own fault? Are these clothes soaked in gasoline?

The folks at Haband (which offers very similar nerchandise) better take a 2nd look at all that corduroy they're selling.

On the other hand, someone who thinks he is the Human Torch can now have his delusions confirmed.

@meg9: Or cotton. I have a cotton chenille rug--very soft.

Wikipedia explains that it's a type of yarn and weaving process rather than the actual fiber source: [en.wikipedia.org]

@Laura Northrup: I always associate chenille with cheap sweaters. The material just seems really, really cheap to me.

Cotton is generally PREFERRED in occupations where setting oneself alight is a possibility.

How the hell did they manage to make 100% cotton flash flammable?

@bloggerX: It probably was photoshopped together. After a year and a half of making catalogs for my job, it's absolutely amazing how much of the photographs are just photoshop collages.

@TheOrtega: That's pretty much what they burn like. Several of the recent fatalities were cooking, so you can see how an errant sleeve might end up in the wrong place. There are actually very stern standards for flame-resistance in kids' stuff, but the adult standards are pretty loose; these may nonetheless fail to meet them.

Chenille is in general a pretty damn flammable substance--it's basically a blend of tinder and air.

@bloggerX: Actually, she looks like a mannequin. Or possibly just really drugged up.

@TheOrtega: I was wondering the same thing. I've managed to live a long and full life without my clothes ever once catching on fire.

I'm guessing it probably happens when people cook breakfast while wearing their robes, and reach across a hot stove burner?

@korybing: Here's the full-length photo as it appeared in the catalog.

It's a fuzzy lint type effect. FWOOMP... next thing you know, Grandma's doing her human Tiki Torch impression.
Honestly people, I can understand kid's PJ's and Halloween costumes really need to be fire resistant, but do we have to have this all the way across the board now?
Where's the common sense that says don't mess with the fireplace or the huge scented candles while you are wearing a loose floppy housecoat or robe?

Way #51 to leave your GILF lover!

OK, guys. I used to work in a fabric store. All normal clothing is flammable, including sleepwear. No clothing fabric is safe to wear in a fire. No normal clothing protects you from fire. The best you can get is wool, which often puts itself out, or glass fibers (which you would never wear to bed anyway). Flame retardant treatments reduce the burning rate of other fabric so hopefully your burns are not as severe.

More info: [www.fabrics.net]

@shepd: Nitric/sulfuric acid bath resulting in nitrocellulose, commonly referred to as gun-cotton or smokeless gunpowder. Pretty flash flammable...

@Gravitational Eddy: It's not that they catch fire--as you suggest, cloth is going to do that--it's the going up like a rocket that's a problem.

I used to know a guy who worked in the warehouse at this company somewhere in bumf*ck PA...oh the stories he told. There was this thing about the huge spider coming in the box of a shipment from south america; classic stuff...

I guess the lawyers want all clothes made from nomex? Gotta love the absurd legal system.

@DoctorMD: I think there is a reasonable gray area between "nomex" and "flammable chenille." I generally prefer that my clothing not catch fire easily, though I'm sure most of it would burn once it eventually caught fire.

@pecan 3.14159265: exactly, i have an old chenille sweater that was super cool to me when i was all gothed out because the fibers had shed so much it was like wearing a giant black fishnet sweater

@pecan 3.14159265: They "shed" everywhere! The crappy cheap synthetic ones do at least. I got a couple of those sweaters for Christmas one year, they were terrible. Someone must have gotten them from a cheap catalog.

Perhaps the silk ones that are well made stay nice and last a while.

@Laura Northrup: The face has to be a shop, at least. The hair looks very unnatural on the shoulder. Also, that foot looks out of proportion...

excuse me while i go submit this one to mythbusters. not because i don't believe, but because i just want to see it done on TV

@catastrophegirl: I searched YouTube in the hope that somebody had posted a demo that I could link to here. Alas, nobody had.

@floraposte: give it 24 hours. they are probably experiencing bandwidth throttling

@DoctorMD: @speedwell, avatar of snark: Remember that UCLA lab student who died recently when her synthetic sweater caught on fire? The chemical safety expert in the case said she was basically wearing solid gasoline.

I remember as a kid, back when everybody smoked, I'd get burned time to time by a careless smoker. I had a favorite shirt -- it was orange and had a cartoon lion on it -- that was ruined when I was about seven. We were walking around Marina Del Rey in Los Angeles when some woman slammed her cigarette into my shoulder and burned a hole though my shirt. Burned me, too. But see, it didn't engulf me in flames and kill me.

Saying all fabric is flammable is like saying we're all dying. It's true, but it misses the point.

@nstonep: Ah, good old Warren, Pennsylvania. Half my grandmother's wardrobe comes from there, because a lot of relatives have worked there over the years. Can't stand the stuff, myself.

From the Consumer Product Safety Commission website: "After this re-announcement, Blair received four additional reports of deaths allegedly due to the robes catching fire. Three of these victims were cooking and a fourth was tending a pellet stove; three of the four victims were in their 80s and one was in her 70s. All nine reported deaths occurred prior to the April 2009 announcement of the recall."

Look at the age group of these 4 victims - 3 in their 80's and 1 was in her 70's. That says a lot, especially the part about the pellet stove. I wonder if there was a gas stove involved in the other 3 deaths?

Some older people are pretty spry and sharp, while others can barely get around and their mental capacity is diminished. Plus, the elderly women I know are perpetually cold, hence the heavy robe. This is a very sad situation, and we all have to remember that most clothing will burn when exposed to flames.

@mxjohnson: Although, it would have been cool to see a Spiderman boy turn into a Human Torch boy right before everyone's eyes.
Ya gotta admit that...