Well, a fashion designer has come up with a more colourful way for worried women to blend into a busy street to elude a pursuer.
We've had mini-skirts, skorts, pencils and midis. Now there's the vending machine skirt.
It's definitely not the real thing, but Aya Tsukioka's skirt doubles as a disguise to make the wearer look like a Coca Cola machine.
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Aya Tsukioka's skirt aims to make the wearer look like a Coca Cola vending machine...
Ms Tsukioka, 29, unveiled her design in Tokyo by claiming she hopes it will help ease women's fear of crime.
She lifted a flap on the skirt to expose a large sheet of cloth printed with the familiar bright red Coca Cola logo.
By unfolding the sheet and stepping to the side of the street, she showed how a woman walking alone could hide behind it to outfox a potential attacker.
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Aya Tsukioka unveils her design in Tokyo. She hopes it will help ease women's fear of crime
Her deluxe model even boasts four sides for a more complete cover.
The experimental clothes designer has already sold 20 of the £400 hand-sewn vending machine skirts and it hoping to market the design worldwide.
She says the idea was inspired by a trick used by Japanese ninja assassins, who cloaked themselves in black blankets so they couldn't be seen at night.
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Tsukioka lifts a flap on the skirt to expose a large sheet of cloth printed with the familiar bright red Coca Cola logo
If the fizzy drink machine seems a little elaborate, not to mention impractical, she has also come up with the 'manhole bag' which is supposed to look like a sewer cover when you put it down so unwitting thieves walk right by without noticing it.
For children, she has a backpack that transforms into a fire hydrant.
While British women might prefer to take self-defence classes, Ms Tsukioka said: "It is just easier for Japanese to hide. Making a scene would be too embarrassing."
She admits that making the switch from skirt to vending machine might prove a little tricky "especially when your hands are shaking".
But she told the New York Times: "These ideas might strike foreigners as far-fetched, but in Japan, they can become reality."
Tsukioka says the idea was inspired by a trick used by Japanese ninja assassins, who cloaked themselves in black blankets so they couldn't be seen at night
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below?
But what if your pursuer tries to obtain a drink from your skirt? You would be quite rumbled.
- Sarah, UK
The thing is you can't wear this everyday... and how does the vending machine take its shape? Does it require poles at the top? Anyone knows of any video demonstrating how to transform the skirt?
- Angeline, Singapore
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