We regret to announce that there will be a price increase on a number of styles on June 30^th. The styles affected are certain items of Fruit of the loom, Stedman and Gildan. This is a result of the manufacturers putting their prices up to a level which we can no longer absorb without it impacting our own. The manufacturers have announced these price increases as a consequence of the weakening of the pound against the Euro and the Dollar. Affected products will see an increase of approximately 5%.

Despite this small increase our prices are as competitive as ever and offer fantastic value. We have always endeavored to keep our prices as low as possible so as not to impact our customers and will continue to do so in the future.

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Polo-shirts for women are hugely popular in the United States and have increasingly caught on in the UK, especially as items of workwear. The most common place to see women wearing polo-shirts today is the sports industry, where lifeguards and tennis instructors, physiotherapists and aerobics instructors have all discovered the value of this kind of clothing. A women’s polo-shirt is popular with those involved in fitness because it is easy to wear, incredibly simple to wash and pack and looks as good at the end of the day as it does at the beginning.

Another place where women’s polo-shirts are turning up in uniforms is the healthcare industry where nurses are finding that the polo-shirt delivers wearability, washability and performance without the institutional look that tabards and tunics often impose.

Women’s polo-shirts may be long or short-sleeved although the latter is considerably more common. They usually have a two or three button neckline, called a placket, and a knit collar which can be worn ‘popped’ (turned up) or laid flat.

Usually polo-shirts are made of cotton or a cotton synthetic blend which is used to be more crush proof and to stand up to heavier wear.  Basically the lighter weight the polo-shirt, the more easily it will sag or lose its shape, but this is not always true of women’s polo-shirts, because they are cut differently, having less ‘hang’ on the hem, and because they tend to be smaller all round, they suffer less from the issue of sagging than men’s polo-shirts do. Look out for double-top stitching and a heavier weight if you want clothing that will last for a long time and can cope with winter temperatures, while single stitched women’s polo-shirts and lighter weight materials are more suitable for summer wear.

Worn with cargo pants, chinos or jeans, women’s polo-shirts look casual and cute but with a tailored skirt they can look professional and organised.

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As Wimbledon glues every Brit to their TV set, just as the summer happens (all six days of it) so that we’ve got the choice of cheering on our great white hope or getting rid of our white bodies in favour of a tan, the white polo shirt puts in an appearance.

There’s a good reason for this, apart from the classic link to Wimbledon and the formal wear of the early tennis tournaments which required men to wear long-sleeved shirts buttoned to the neck and women to wear ankle-length skirts.

A white polo shirt always looks good, whether it’s worn under a blazer or with a pair of beach shorts. It suits both men and women and it is just formal enough to past muster for the office and yet it’s perfect casual clothing for a barbecue or a day on the beach.

Keeping a white polo shirt white is easy too, because unlike other white summer clothing, notably linen, it barely creases and can handle a tough wash to remove those famous summer stains: grass from sitting in the park in your lunch break, ice-cream from the quick Cornetto you grabbed at the end of the day and barbecue sauce from the TGIF party your best mate threw.

Above all though, a white polo shirt flatters most figures – a short and less than svelte person looks just as good in a white polo shirt as the tallest, leanest, tennis player. So while you don’t have to be Andy Murray to get away with wearing this classic item of summer clothing, it might make you feel as if you were him!

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Yesterday was the longest day of the year, and fortunately, it was not too hot, but as the summer holidays approach more and more children will be exposed to the dangers of the sun by ignorant or even well-meaning parents.

Sun damage is for life and can cost lives. Even people with dark skins develop melanomas, which are skin cancers, and children are much more likely to burn than adults – and burnt skin is something that is often seen as a precursor of melanoma risk. Sunburn is painful and frightening to children and can ruin a holiday, so there’s no reason to allow your kids to be at risk of avoidable suffering.

The first thing is to keep them out of the sun when it’s highest overhead – say between 10 and 4 in the northern hemisphere – give them something more fun to do indoors instead.  And remember that the majority of serious sun damage occurs during daily activities, not on high days and holidays.

The next thing is to ensure that you protect kids from sun damage by shielding their skin from UV rays – to check if clothing will screen out potentially harmful rays, put your hand inside the T-shirt and check that you can’t see your skin through it.

Babies are a special case – they have much more fragile skin and because they haven’t developed the ability to produce melanin, they burn more quickly than adults or other children. Babies under six months must be kept out of the sun completely as sunscreen should not be used on them, so keep them under an umbrella or cabana or if they must be in the sun, dress them in baby clothing covers the body like a babygrow or long-sleeve T-shirt and leggings, making sure they wear a hat with a big brim too.

If the sun is really hot, keep your older child inside or in the shade, but when it’s not too baking outside, dress them in a long-sleeved shirt and trousers and apply sunscreen to exposed areas. Hats are essential for children of all ages too. Never allow kiddies to run around for long in swimwear, as exposed shoulders often bear the brunt of sunburn, instead pop them into a short-sleeved T-shirt as soon as they are reasonably dry.

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The long-sleeve T-shirt used to be the preserve of the Canadian joke (along with the long underwear with the flap at the back) which said it was so cold in Canada that even summer clothing had long sleeves!

Today though, the long-sleeved T-shirt has stepped out of the shadows and become one of 2009’s top sellers.

One reason for the long-sleeved T-shirt’s sudden popularity is the recession. People looking for work are being told by consultants and employers alike that certain things: piercings, tattoos, unkempt hair, can cost them a job at interview. And with it being a buyer’s market, even when an interview requires only casual wear, people are taking care to cover up tattoos when going for interviews.

Equally, once you get into the workplace, clothing is becoming more formal and this is again the effect of recession. When money is tight, customers like to be treated with courtesy and formality becomes more important. Long-sleeved T-shirts are becoming increasingly popular as work-wear because they give the impression of a more well-dressed work-force which in turn gives the impression of more politeness and – perhaps subconsciously – a greater investment in the company which implies a more substantial business in times where any straw in the wind can cause people to wonder if a company or organisation will survive the recession.

Finally, long-sleeve T-shirts have been popularised by bands like Kings of Leon, so they are considered cool as well as practical. And in a British summer, recession or no recession, that can be a good thing …

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This summer, it’s likely that every sixth or seventh person you pass on the street will be wearing an item of Hanes clothing. This won’t always be obvious to the naked eye, as Hanes are as popular for socks and undergarments (especially bras) as they are for their famous T-shirts and Polo-shirts, but even so, it’s evidence of quality counting in the long run.

And the long run is pretty long. The brand was created by J Wesley Hanes in 1901 when he set up Shamrock Mills to manufacture men’s hosiery – socks to you and me. And the pedigree extended through the new machines created to sell truly shocking items – two piece men’s underwear, because until 1902 or so, men wore all in ones!

The move into women’s underwear followed swiftly and then Hanes found it had developed unique skills in creating close-fitting, comfortable, durable garments and the brand’s reputation, and sales, both took of when the T-shirt boom of the 1940s and 1950s happened.

Hanes polo-shirts and T-shirts are often distinguished by the term ‘beefy’ to show how substantial, cosy and easy to wear the brand is, and that’s why you’ll be seeing a lot of it on the streets this summer …

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Whether you’re headed Woodstock, Big Green, Glasto or Wychwood, doing Leeds, Bath or Cornbury or even heading for Savannah, here’s what you need to do to look right, and feel right, in tentland.

Dress from the top down or the ground up

When aiming to look good at a festival think top to bottom or bottom to top;. There are three things you can wear on your feet: trainers, Wellington boots or flip flops and three things you can wear on your head: a baseball cap, a beanie hat or a sunhat. Anything else, at either extreme, will look very dodgy.  If you’re wearing trainers, any of the hats is acceptable. If you’re wearing flip-flops you can wear the baseball cap or the sunhat, if you’re wearing Wellies, you can only wear the beanie.  In between is easy once you sort the head and foot rule out. Jeans and polo-shirts can be worn with any footwear, T-shirts can be worn with trainers and flip flops and hoodies and woolly jumpers can only be worn with Wellingtons.  See? Easy.

Festival High Fashion

If you want people to applaud you as a festival belle, then you’ve got to lok better than right, you’ve got to look great: for women, this year, it means form fitting T-shirts tucked into fitted shorts, with or without thick opaque tights, depending on the weather conditions. Nothing floppy works, style-wise, this year.

Born to Fest?

Jes Cartner Morley, writing in the Guardian says ‘Neither tents nor wellies should have flowers on them’ but actually I think she’s wrong. Her point is that to fit in, you should look as if you grew up going to Glasto and honed your teenage rebellions on the Rock Ness grass, but I reckon that today’s festivalgoers aren’t that insecure – they don’t care if your Mum and Dad used to hang with The Kinks or not, they just want to have a good time, so if flowers are what you want to sport, sport ‘em!

One thing that shouldn’t be overdone is the grunge look – despite what people say, you can wear white (but only on the first day you arrive, when a white hoodie with a front pocket looks great and helps you file all your tent pegs and other bits and bobs while you get settled in) and the mud looks just as good (or bad) on white clothing as any other colour, but torn T-shirts and jeans and grimy cut-off denims are just not good festival wear. A smart pair of cargo shorts looks much better and it just as handy for carrying things like toilet paper around!

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Every so often things go wrong in the world of fashion. This year’s spring fashions for example, were all drawn out and made up as ‘forms’ that is linen models of the real garments, six months ago, when the first rumbles of recession were beginning. That’s why the spring catwalks still showed some non-austerity styles and colours, which are not exactly flying off the racks right now.

When recession bites, people tend to like flamboyant colours and styles – that’s why so many women’s clothes this year are floaty peasant styles, even though they take up so much more material than skin-tight summer wear that you might expect to be more popular when clothing prices increase.  Colours also dial up to the vibrant end of the spectrum, so expect a lot of bright green this year, but not lime, that’s so last year’s Lily Allen, rather it will be pistachio and mint green that predominate, along with pure yellows.

For men, the stripes that were predicted last autumn are very much in evidence – striped T-shirts, striped polo-shirts and quite a few striped shirts for evening are proving to be popular.  Colour is a surprise for men though, a lot of chocolate brown has turned up, along with strong blues, and so if you’re looking for something to make a fashion statement, a brown polo shirt could be just the right thing, or a T-shirt striped in two shades of blue.

If you work in an office where formal wear is necessary, avoid buying black. In a recession, black trousers or skirts can make you look like a temp, or even worse, the waitress who’s come to collect the coffee pot – you don’t want to give the impression you’re not necessary to the business, so invest in grey clothing instead, teaming it with the seasonal colours listed above, so grey trousers with a yellow T-shirt look both summery and professional for women, while men can wear lightweight grey trousers with a blue shirt.

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Buying for the summer can be a minefield, especially if you don’t have a vast amount of money to waste, but it’s easy to choose what’s called a ‘capsule’ wardrobe, where you make each piece of clothing do more than one job, and where all the pieces work together to give you enough outfits to take you through to autumn.

Sweatshirts – if you like to be comfortable, you’re the kind of person who loves sweatshirts. Two sweatshirts will take you through the summer, a white one that is ideal as outerwear on a chilly day, or to put round your shoulders on a cool evening, and a navy blue or black sweatshirt for wearing on Sundays or lazy days when you can’t be bothered with anything else: they also work brilliantly for sitting on at picnics and trips to the beach.

Polo Shirts – combine comfort and a bit more formality, they can be worn for work or home and for sporting events like trips to the golf course, beach or just for a sunny day in town. Striped polos look stylish but not too uptight, if you need something for an evening barbecue or outdoor party. For women, teaming a polo shirt with a pair of jeans is dress-down while the same shirt with white trousers is magically dress-up!

White T-Shirts – white tees have to be brilliant white, so you might want to get a couple of spares because everything from sun-tan lotion to burger grease can destroy their pristine style. Any neck shape or style is fine this year.

Shorts – make sure you have a pair of classic shorts that aren’t just cut-off denims, so that you can take part in football matches or jump in the river without looking daft. Women are best with cargo shorts as they are reasonably flattering to all figures. Men who really are lazy can get away with gym shorts as long as they are not too short-short.

Bright T-Shirts — staying in your comfort zone is bad in summer, so take a risk and buy some really jazzy T-shirts to show that you’re celebrating summer. This year’s top colours are bright yellow and aqua blue, but anything bright will help you feel the summer mood.

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If you’re one of the millions trying to get fit for summer, remember that it’s vital to wear the right clothes, not just because bad sportswear can be dangerous, but because it’s important for your motivation to look as if you’re taking your fitness seriously.

Baggy tops, long trackies that trail over your shoes or raggedy T-shirts can all result in injuries to your health, but also make you look, and feel, as if you’re a second-rate athlete.  You might be thinking that because fitness wear is going to get sweaty and crumpled you might as well wear any old thing, but that’s a way, psychologically of telling yourself that you’re not going to achieve your aims.

The gym is like any other aspect of life – if you don’t look good and feel good, you won’t have the right attitude – and there’s always the chance you’ll meet a potential boss or life partner in the weights room, or on a jog, and regret having made such a bad impression on them.

The easiest choice of clothing for the upper body is a T-shirt and there are so many choices that everybody can find something to suit them. If you’re already in reasonable shape and feel confident about your body, go for a relatively form fitting cap-sleeved T-shirt or even a vest. But if you’re a bit (or a lot) overweight or have other reasons not to wish to expose your flesh, choose something which is loose fitting and has short sleeves that will cover your shoulders and the top of your arms where flab is worst. Any teeshirt for exercise should constructed from light, breathable material, such as cotton or a cotton-lycra or cotton-bamboo mix. Avoid anything made entirely of synthetic fabrics as this will make you sweat.

Lyrca for women depends on their confidence, for men it’s pretty well a no-no. While a female who looks like Beyonce can definitely wear skintight sportsware, really, there is no man who looks great in form-fitting shorts or track pants. Instead choose something a little looser and that fits well on the waist. Half-mast jeans are fine for fashionwear but half-mast jog pants or shorts are a disaster waiting to happen. The classic look is cotton shorts an inch or two above or below the knee – they hide a multitude of sins for both men and women and can actually look quite smart.

Equipped with clothes that make you look confident, sporty and stylish and that will help you get the most out of your fitness plan, you’ll be looking and feeling summer ready in no time!

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