Archive for March, 2008
Recent research in the USA has suggested that, however bright and well-educated new graduates are, they tend to lack certain experience or instincts, that would help them find their feet instantly in the world of work.
The Recruiting Director at Ernst and Young offers some wisdom that anybody in the workplace can call on and one of his most valuable insights is into the work-wear. In both the UK and USA most offices and other workplaces are business casual, but like most things at work, he says, it’s best to err on the side of caution. Take a week or so to gauge what more experienced staffers wear, and then make your fashion choices accordingly. For those first few days men should wear dress trousers or smart chino with a long-sleeved shirt. Short-sleeved Polo Shirts might be fine, but don’t be presumptuous in those early days – wait to be sure that you’ve understood the whole office ethic before heading for the casual end of the spectrum. You might, for example, have started work in a week when the most formal senior executives are on holiday and so everybody is hanging loose until they return – everybody, that is, except you, who will be the only ‘dress down’ dweeb in the office on the following Monday when the honchos return.
Women, he says, should avoid wearing flip-flops, skin-tight tops or trousers, skirts above the knee or tops that don’t cover their midriff. For that first week they should wear trousers that rise to the waist, skirts that are no shorter than just above the knee and tops that have sleeves.
He also advises discreetly writing down the names of people you meet and their job titles. Most people won’t expect you to remember their names, and if you do, they’ll be impressed.
Office view courtesy of Iaruth
March 31st, 2008
In the world of fashion, men are generally also-rans. As impossibly tall and skinny girls waft along the catwalk, there are usually one or two impossibly tall and well-built guys among them, but they’re not the focus of attention. Nor are the clothes they wear. But that’s not the only reason that men don’t get a fashion look in – traditional male clothing is so classic that you can wear it for a decade before it looks dated – for female clothing the maximum period you can get away with such behaviour is eighteen months! This year’s top tips are strong colours (not bright colours necessarily) for T-shirts, polo shirts and dress shirts and an avoidance of pleated fronts on trousers which will date very fast this year. Cotton blazers are making a comeback and can be creased and rumpled but not with their sleeves pushed up above the elbow a la Rod Stewart!
Blue, especially navy, is a popular colour, but stripes and tartans are turning up in a lot of designer’s palettes. Lace up shoes, like tennis shoes are proving popular and while the white ones might appear on the catwalk, you’re better to buy in black, unless you’re willing to accept a certain amount of teasing from your mates.
Striped polo-shirt courtesy of liewcf
March 28th, 2008
Andrea Burns, a fashion writer based in Melbourne, is launching a crusade – against a certain kind of casual clothing. As she puts it, ‘a fluorescent sickness has descended on the city. Everywhere you turn, a neon relic from the 1980s is rearing its ugly head, assaulting the senses, burning the retina.’ She complains about any number of items that she’d hoped would never rear their ugly fashion heads again: ‘Ray-Bans with fluorescent arms, batwing shirts in assaulting bright shades, neon tights and rainbow pumps. Nightclub dance floors are swarming with enough colour to trigger an epileptic fit.’
In order to restore some decorum to Melbourne, and to save the damaged eyesight of those who have to endure the day-glo garments the city is addicted to, she offers a guide to who can wear fluorescent colours – it’s good enough advice for us to follow here to. Here’s her list of people who may wear fluoro:
-
DELIVERY drivers. If you are delivering something we want, you can continue wearing the bright yellow polo shirts. You are one person we want to see coming.
-
CONSTRUCTION workers and couriers. A safety vest in glowing orange is not a fashion statement, but a practicality. A bike courier flattened by a lorry is not tres chic.
-
PEOPLE competing in the Tour de France. Yes, it’s the one and only time grown men will get away with shaved legs and a day-glo lycra one-piece.
She finishes by proposing a mass bonfire of fluorescent garments in the city square because, as she insists - fluoro will never be the new black.
Neon clothing courtesy of alexdecarvalho
March 21st, 2008
Current research suggests that ‘The Facebook Generation’ has developed new skills, which include the instant pigeonholing of people, at first glance, from the clothes that they wear. This means that when you attend an interview or meet somebody in a work situation, those who are under thirty make a split-second assessment of your status, work role and education based entirely on your appearance and clothing, while those over forty will tend to wait until they have heard you speak and shaken your hand before deciding what they think of you. In other words, first appearances count for more than ever before. Interestingly, men are much easier to categorise than women, because they have a narrower choice of clothing to wear in work situations – while a woman can choose between dresses, skirts and trousers, a man (unless he’s a Scot in a kilt) is much more limited in his attire. Pet hates, as expressed by ‘Facebook Generation’ managers and personnel executives include:
-
Cartoon characters on clothing (Many cited Homer Simpson as a particular peeve, as he epitomises a lazy, work-shy attitude inappropriate in the workplace)
-
Unironed or crumpled clothing
-
Greasy hair
-
Any jewellery on men, jewellery that rattles on women
-
Shorts.
On the other hand, neutral well-presented clothing immediately gave the impression of competence and reliability, as did freshly-washed hair and good shoes. Uniform courtesy of globaljet
March 17th, 2008
It’s not just our sporting heroes who are struggling – the polo shirts and rugby shirt worlds are reeling today. Hot on the heels of the dropping of Johnny Wilkinson from the England team came the news that Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison, his co-bowler had been dropped as bowlers for the forthcoming cricket match! Woe, oh woe! For those who make their living from the production and sale of sporting shirts and memorabilia, this is a double whammy. Wilkinson shirts, in all their forms and sizes, sell more than all the rest of the England Rugby squad put together, and while cricket sports tops are not sold in anything like the numbers of their rugby and football counterparts, the dropping of two experienced bowlers in favour of two relative unknowns has meant that many retailers have been scratching their heads, having no shirts printed up with the names of the replacements. The only good news, possibly, is that while the second day’s racing at Cheltenham was cancelled due to strong winds making the tented village unsafe for spectators, there are almost no promotional horse-racing garments, so nobody is going to be losing a fortune – except the bookies!
Rugby courtesy of bombdog
March 14th, 2008
The pages of GQ, Maxim and all the other upscale men’s magazines are increasingly featuring … fashion. Okay, they haven’t got quite as far as having their own Trinny and Suzannah makeover team yet, but what to wear is obviously important to men today. So what does all the magazine advice boil down to?
* Well-fitting jeans – not skin tight, and not loose enough to show your boxers to the world.
* Leather belts - simple black and brown belts are valuable for getting trousers to fit perfectly, so you don’t have a sagging backside when you want to impress the ladies!
* Polo shirts - Polo shirts are great for everyday wear with khaki shorts or jeans, and can take you from the office to the pub, or out for dinner with the girlfriend without needing a change of clothing, but don’t turn the collar up, it looks ridiculous.
* Suits - well, a suit. You only need one, two button suit in black or navy – remember there are weddings and funerals, job interviews and court appearances (hopefully only as a witness) in your future, all of which need a good suit!
* White tailored shirt – that’s a shirt with tails, in case you didn’t know – you need it to go with your suit and it has to be fitted to tuck neatly into your trousers.
* Dress shoes - to go with the suit obviously. You know the joke about the man in a dinner jacket and black trainers? Well it’s not funny. A pair of dress shoes is essential to any sense of style – black is best, brown works too, but isn’t as versatile.
* Hoodie – yes, the garment that terrifies old ladies and gets banned from shopping centres counts as style because it’s great for weekend mornings, going to the gym and just lounging around in – but you need to pick the best quality hoodie you can get, in 100% cotton, or it will soon look like a rag.
* T-shirts - plain white and plain black T-shirts are like skin, without them you can’t feel comfortable! They can be layered under formal shirts, or polo shirts or just worn by themselves.
George Clooney courtesy of wave-rider
March 10th, 2008
Most British parents have to endure the horrors of shopping for school uniform, whether its in a high street shop, via the school’s own shop, or even online, and the necessity to purchase ‘branded’ items can be expensive, especially if they have taller or larger than average children, because only school uniform items that are sized for age fourteen and under are VAT exempt. This means that for most parents, there are at least two years, and in many cases, nearer six years, when they have to pay full Value Added Tax on items that are only used at school, such as PE kit or school jumpers.
The School wear Association is campaigning to change the law, so that parents can pay only 5% VAT on all school-specific items, rather than the zero VAT on school-specific clothing up to age fourteen and the current 17.5% charged on clothes aged fourteen and up. An early day motion is to be proposed by Nigel Evans MP and it has the support of MPs across party boundaries. In the meantime, an increasing number of schools are turning to wholesalers who can produce small (under fifty) quantities of school branded wear in larger sizes in an attempt to stave off parent criticism of the high price of uniforms and the limited range of outlets that are enabled to sell school specific clothing.
