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The old rule about ‘if it looks too good to be true, it probably is’ definitely applies in tough economic times, but many people are being caught out by counterfeit goods, especially clothing.
Until recently, counterfeiting wasn’t as prevalent in casual clothing as in high-end designer and fashion garments, but the global recession means that almost every brand and clothing line is being targeted by unscrupulous cheats, many of whom chose to sell their knock-off clothing online.
You can protect yourself against fake clothing vendors by following a few simple rules:
1. Buying clothing online can be a fantastic way to save money – but make sure you buy through a reputable online retailer. Counterfeiters choose to sell this way because it allows them to stay anonymous and the set-up costs of business online are low, so look for a company with a long history in retail and a good range of the kind of clothing you want to buy. While some retailers specialise in a single brand – especially of more expensive garments such as high quality jackets, shoes and trainers – and are perfectly genuine, an online store selling only one brand can also be a sign that a counterfeiter is using that website to offload fake goods, so be doubly careful.
2. Look at the details – detailing can often separate real goods from fake ones. On brand T-shirts, for example, look at what the company in question describes as its ‘signature’ or ‘classic’ styling, such as where brand labels are located, stitching styles and cut. Often, even online, you can see where a picture of the goods doesn’t match up to the company’s signature style, such as a garment looking skinny when the cut is supposed to relaxed or roomy, or a label being slightly different in colour, size or shape. Counterfeiters can produce garments that are almost identical to the real thing, but most are just trying to sell similar looking garments as quickly as possible and don’t pay as much attention to detail so you can catch them out by examining photographs carefully.
3. Ask for references – all good online shops have references and testimonials, but counterfeiters have become good at faking those too! Try googling the company and seeing what comes up: disappointed buyers often vent their fury on consumer sites or in online forums, while satisfied customers of online shops will also tend to enthuse about the good quality of their clothing, the excellence of the service and the speedy delivery. Use these online clues to help you decide where it’s safe to buy.
It turns out that employers and Human Resources departments are googling candidates for employment or promotion and checking out their Facebook pages to see what they say about themselves.
Uploaded photos are considered to be a good indicator of a person’s view of themselves, because that’s what they’ve chosen to show the world – so those dodgy pictures of you (male) in a mankini or (female) taking part in a wet T-shirt contest, might be doing you real harm in the career stakes.
On the other hand, smart casual clothing, a big smile and photographs in which you’re just one figure in a big group can all enhance your employment prospects because the right clothing, a happy face and a big circle of friends all tend to convince the viewer that you’re adaptable, popular and intelligent.
So what should you wear in your Facebook profile picture to get a job? A fresh polo-shirt and chinos is the favoured look for the under forty male, while the under forty female should choose a dress or skirt (the skirt should cover her knees and the sleeves of her top should cover her shoulders, but it appears any amount of cleavage doesn’t influence an employer).
It’s even more important for the over forties – men shouldn’t wear a tie because it looks ‘old and sad’ and should have their shirtsleeves, if long, rolled up a few inches to suggest they are active and practical, not stuffy and hierarchical – soft shirts are preferable to stiff starched ones. Women should ensure they don’t show bingo arms or appear in ‘mother of the bride’ type dresses – jeans are good for slim older women, and the more casual the clothing they can get away with, the better, so a contemporary T-shirt with well-fitting jeans would be ideal.
For all ages, it’s important to look fit and healthy, so pictures taken out doors in sports clothing, are a good idea, as long as they aren’t your profile picture – even a blurry picture of the back of your jacket as you walk the dog on a rainy day is enough to give a potential employer the impression that you’re dedicated to doing your duty.
If you’ve had to buy new school uniform items this year, you may be dreading the arrival of the spring and the demanded for new PE kit becuase it’s getting to be an expensive business!
Uniform is good for children’s sense of community and for ensuring equality between those who have a lot of disposable income and fashion sense, and those who lack one or the other, or both. But it’s not a cheap option, whether you’re buying in a high street store, via the school’s own shop, or even shopping online. And if you have a child who is already in adult sizes, as many thirteen year olds and up are, these days, you also end up paying VAT on their ‘children’s’ clothing.
There are some ways to save money if you’re canny:
1. Ask the school to consider wholesalers who can produce small orders (say under fifty items) of essential uniform clothing in larger sizes – this might be embroidered polo shirts or logo-printed sweatshirts, which can then be sold to parents whose children are classed as ‘outsize’ by other suppliers.
2. Consider swap shops for outgrown clothing – often a PTA committee can be organised to set up exchanges of informal jackets worn for school events held in public or specialist clothing like cricket togs, which are swiftly outgrown and yet still wearable by a smaller student, perhaps in a lower year.
3. Request that essential items such as white T-shirts worn for PE and sporting activities be non-branded – this means you can buy the cheapest available, or even persuade the school shop to bulk buy them for you. The school logo could be kept for items like kitbags that are not going to be outgrown, and still give a sense of uniform when children are taking part in outdoor events.
Once again, lots of catwalks featured nautical style clothing – for women in particular this took the form of white trousers. When you’ve got your trousers, and they can be wide-leg, chino or skinny fit, team them with a striped T-shirt, Breton style, in navy and or black and white. For men, this look is turning up as striped long-sleeved tops combined with distressed jeans and boat shoes.
Also, for women, the safari look is still strong – Paul Smith had leopard print clothing worn with brown and black striped accessories and Marc Jacobs went for a more Native American theme, complete with face-paint like Adam Ant. To make this look work, it’s best to pick a colour and then combine prints and stripes in that shade, so tiger stripes work well with black trousers and a lightweight jacket in orange or yellow.
Orange and yellow turned up strongly in menswear: Dolce & Gabbana were offering dayglo orange hoodies and Louis Vuitton took egg yolk yellow and put it in everything from polo-shirts to socks. Summer shorts were much in evidence, and they were much more tailored than in previous years – worn with citrus coloured polo-shirts and crumpled blazers and those deck shoes again.
High fashion that it will be hard work to pull off this summer includes the harem trousers on offer for both men and women – while it’s a bit tempting to think that these loose waist, low crutch garments will hide a multitude of sins, what they actually do is suggest you have something (a big belly, a low-slung bum) to conceal, without actually hiding it. Wear them with care, and make sure they are darker than the top you choose, so that they offer something of a slimming effect.
The 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver have revealed a new, sporty but coordinated, sassy yet streamlined, sense of winter fashion. Whether it’s the sportswear disguised as denim worn by Shaun White or the kooky headband of Chemmy Alcott, winter fashion is big!
It’s also cost-effective, because while the USA Olympic team has been dressed by Ralph Lauren, you can create the same vibe at home for a fraction of the price, by shopping around for casual clothing and a few key sporty items to make the outfit work for you.
To get the look for yourself …
1. Go for primary colours – red, white, blue and green are favourites. Nothing should be pale or faded, apart from denims. Bright winter jackets in yellow and green are likely to be big sellers in the next couple of weeks, as are skinny fit ringer T-shirts with contrast trims.
2. Polo shirts need to fit perfectly – too tight looks silly and too loose looks like a hockey player who’s forgotten his pads.
3. Hats are big – but their size is small – tiny beanie hats and close-fitting billed caps should be worn with winter jackets to get the look right.
4. Tight T-shirts are likely to be spring’s big hit for women: wear a skin-tight red or pink round-necked T-shirt under a white or yellow jacket to get the look that’s been turning up on the Olympic medal podiums all week.
The world of work is a tough one this year, but if you start planning now you can make sure that if promotion is on offer, you’re in the right place and condition to get it. Just follow this 3 point guide:
1. Be prepared – understand your company’s goals, even if they seem to have nothing to do with you. When your chance comes, show how what you are doing, or plan to do, meets those goals.
2. Dress the part – it’s not just about fitting in, it’s about dressing up. If you currently dress like everybody else in your department, you may not be looking like a promotable person. If your colleagues wear T-shirts, you should wear smart polo-shirts because a collar gives the impression of greater age and seniority. If the standard for your department is a casual shirts and jeans, stick with the shirt but buy some hardwearing work trousers because it hints that you’re looking for a more serious role. Where your team all come into work in sloppy old clothes, keep your look casual but invest in a new sporty jacket that’s also smart, because it gives the impression you have hidden depths outside of work and that implies you could, and should be doing more.
3. Don’t be lazy – dirty mugs on your desk, crumpled clothing and piles of old paperwork imply you’re not up to your current job, so why should anybody promote you? Clear away your desk debris and iron your work clothing so that it’s crisp every morning. You’d be amazed what a difference it makes to the way people see you.
And when the chance comes, remember to be nice to those who remain below you in the workforce, because they know how to drag you down again!
The dream most people have is that they could keep the wisdom they’ve developed over 50 but get back the energy they had at 20. That’s not possible, but as our sense of our age largely depends on how other people respond to us, we can feel more youthful by looking it!
Dressing to give the impression of youth is easier than you think, as long as you don’t become a slave to fashion. Most of us have found a style that worked for us and stuck with it. Nothing is easier to put a date on than somebody whose clothes reflect the fashion of a decade ago.
Begin by looking at what’s fashionable. This year we’re seeing a lot of fashion clothing that’s based on workwear: for men that means a heavyweight shirt, solid work boots with thick comfortable socks turned down over the boot top. While for women it’s thick tights or leggings teamed with short textured skirts and a white hoodie or sweatshirt.
Decide on just one fashion item that you can wear – if it’s the shirt, don’t go for the boots as well, if it’s the leggings, pick a different kind of top, because most people over forty can only get away with one fashion pick per day in their wardrobe.
Take care with colour – as we age we lose the intensity of colour we have in our skin and that means that strong colours can overwhelm us. If you’re going to wear a red T-shirt, team it with a pair of classic black trousers rather than another bright colour, so you don’t ‘vanish’ into what you’re wearing.
If your hair has begun to grey, you may do better in light pale colours such as a light-blue hoodie or a grey polo-shirt as they don’t wash the colour out of your face. Alternatively you can always remove the grey – but go to a salon and get some expert advice on how to do it, as strange hair colour from dyes that ‘hide the grey’ are as aging as the grey hair itself.
Two things are making the rugby shirt this summer’s most exciting casual clothing item:
1. Clint Eastwood’s film Invictus, showing South Africa’s World Cup quest has won critical acclaim; it’s the ‘Best Movie for Grownups’ according to AARP The Magazine catering for the 50+ audience in the USA, as well as being popular with rugby players themselves. Starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, the film is likely to be one of the most popular historical dramas of the year.
2. The Six Nations Rugby, ahead of the 2011 World Cup, promises to be a more equal, and therefore more exciting, European tournament than for many recent years. And for England fans, Jonny Wilkinson is back in the frame for both the Six Nations and the World Cup.
So how should you wear your rugby shirt to be in with the latest fashion?
• This item of sportswear is likely to be more popular in a solid colour than in the traditional hoops of colour in 2010.
• Never, ever, tuck it in.
• While rugby shirts have been worn a lot with jeans in the past, this year – because of the links to the film, Invictus – they will be most fashionable worn with sports shorts especially white ones.
First, know your budget and stick to it – don’t just decide how much you have to spend on clothing, because it’s easy to blow the whole amount on one cashmere sweater or a fashionable jacket. Instead, divide your budget between different forms of clothing: basic T-shirts are pretty cheap, but leather jackets are not, so allocate a percentage to every form of clothing you need to buy.
Aim for quality not quantity. Beware of very cheap clothing that simply gets worn out before you’ve worn it a few times – flimsy shirts that begin to bag and stain after a couple of wearings are not a bargain. A good quality cotton or poly-cotton shirt will last several years and can take hard washing and still look good – it’s a much better bargain than a cheap top that falls apart. Equally, try to stay way from knock-off imitations because (a) they tend to look cheaper as they generally copy a design and maybe its logo but not the quality and (b) who are you fooling? Anybody who knows you has a pretty good idea if you can really afford Armani suits or not.
Avoid posh shops and boutiques when purchasing, but use them when deciding what to buy – look at the brand name fashions in store and then go home and shop online, spotting the same trends for a fraction of the price. Also, check out the clearance offers when shopping online, discontinued items can be up 50-75% lower than the original price.
Mix and match. You can team T-shirts with blazers and shirts with cardigans to extend your wardrobe by giving your clothes a new look. You can use accessories to ring the changes too – invest in some cheap belts and gloves and hats that you can use to make your base outfit look completely different.
The coldest winter in recent history is all but behind us, and an uncertain spring looms ahead, so how can you dress to be smart, warm and comfortable?
Begin by replacing heavy sweaters and the kind of scarf that you mum knitted for you with something a little more stylish – both give you a rotund appearance that is less than flattering and don’t really allow for layering. Instead, invest in some long-sleeved T-shirts that can be worn with slim-line jackets and the new lightweight scarves that add warmth without bulk – because they are so much lighter, these scarves are still comfortable to wear in spring, especially with a sleeveless fleece. Go for hats, scarves and gloves that tone with each other, rather than a matching set, which is a little old fashioned – a pale blue hat with navy gloves and a blue and grey scarf gives the right impression without over co-ordination.
Vests are great items to layer, and can be worn over or under long sleeved T-shirts or short sleeved ones to add warmth without making you look fat. As the summer approaches, reduce your layers to a polo-shirt under a fleece or if the weather is so cold as to need long sleeves, try a sweatshirt with a knotted scarf around your neck.
Trousers for the year ahead are likely to be straight cut and often worn, by women, tucked into boots well into the spring. If you’re wearing a layered top look, stick to smart black trousers that don’t distract the eye from the complexity of the garments on your upper body.
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