You Ain't Nothing But A Japanese Haute Couture Designer

Browsing through the annual of The Hound Trailing Association is an instructive & illuminating experience. In particular, the lists of annual produce (puppies). Like horse-racing, breeding and bloodlines loom large here. I have no idea what constitutes a desirable pedigree in this world, but the hounds' names are evocative, quintessentially Cumbrian. Not just long-established names like Lady Dido, or Bendigo. But Green Ghyll Sally, Fell Mist, Belrigg, Lingbeck Thunder . . . they're names suffuse with a landscape and a tongue found nowhere else. So it comes as a minor shock to find puppies being named 'Calzaghe'* or 'Kewell' - the all-colonising cultural influence of the Premiere League has reached the world of hound-trailing. It must make for interesting scenes at the finishing post when owners line up with feed-tins and leashes and scream for their dogs from the depths of their lungs.
But what on earth does one make of a puppy named Issey Miyake? Presumably there are some extremely chic farmers' wives out there in the fells . . .
*Boxer of the Year 2001. Not a footballer at all, in fact. Null points on the starter, Sidney Sussex.