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Researchers at Southampton University have revealed their plans to develop clothing fabric that generates electricity through wearers’ movement and body heat. At it’s current level of generation, the technology is strong enough only to power individual items such as MP3 players but could soon be developed enough to support wireless health-monitoring systems such as those used in people with sleep apnea, epileptic fits or heart conditions.
One place that it might be used once is reaches a level where it can be aggregated is universities, to power campus equipment.
In the meantime, and before your university offer depends on your electricity generating status as well as your grades, if you’re one of the lucky teens who got a university place this year, what clothing should you be packing?
• Sports socks – Not smart but warm and cosy. Worn with the ubiquitous crocs they can provide full protection against the cold and the lurking nasties to be found on communal bathroom floors.
• Jog pants – The ‘tracky’ might be low-grade but it’s ultra comforting: on days when you don’t have to appear in public, like essay deadline days, they can be what you wear from waking, through faking, to breaking and calling the campus helpline in tears.
• Hoodie – Wonderful item, practical, fashionable and totally annoying to lecturers. Don’t invest in the university shop ones though: they mark you out as a fresher and a fool because they cost about twice as much as from anywhere else.
• Beanie – Great for shoving on when you haven’t washed your hair and you don’t want to give the grunge vibe. Also good for when you decided at 2 am that it was a good idea to shave/dye/straighten your hair and it didn’t work.
The ‘back to school’ aisles of the supermarkets are bulging already – in fact the very day that schools break up, the shops seem to put up posters reminding their parents that the next term is less than two months away! With cuts being made in school budgets, it’s likely that parents are going to be asked to find more money and that probably means buying more school kit and equipment, more funds for school trips and events, and less free services. Save money by using the opportunities on offer now to buy well in advance. Students can also save big money by focusing their attention on what’s available now.
Buying school uniform can be expensive, and ensuring your child is always properly dressed can be stressful but you can improve your chances of making school days easier by investing in some ‘substitute clothing’ such as plain polo shirts or cotton shirts in the same colour as the ones with the school logo so that if none are put out to wash, you can shove the delinquent into a similar enough piece of clothing to probably get away with it for one day.
Sportswear isn’t just a tick box on a list. Getting enough T-shirts, polos, vests, shorts and track trousers can really make the difference between children taking part in healthy activity and sitting on the sidelines. Whatever the suggested amount of sports clothing, buy double, that means there’s never any ‘my PE kit is in the wash’ excuse for your kids! It may seem harsh, but getting the exercise habit may be one of the best investments you can make for your children.
If your child is entering university, treat them to a formal shirt and jacket for open days and careers fairs. We’re told that there are fewer jobs for graduates and that there will be ever more competition for them, so giving your student offspring a chance to dress their best for the days that they might meet and impress a potential employer could save you many years of having them lounging around at home on Job Seekers Allowance!
Even the most gormless person can manage to fold a T-shirt, although the fashion-conscious have leaned the triple fold rather than the half fold, to make a T-shirt look better when you take it out and wear it. But packing a polo-shirt can present a little more difficult because of the collar. Here’s a simple guide to the triple fold and the polo pack too.
Triple fold
• Lay your T-shirt with the front down, on a flat surface
• Fold one shoulder in until it reaches one third across the shirt, turn the sleeve back so it lays across the fold – your shirt should now be two thirds as wide as it was before and the sleeve should have its open end facing out, not facing into the body of the T-shirt. This is especially important for long-sleeved T-shirts
• Fold the other shoulder and sleeve the same way. Your shirt should now be one third as wide as when laid out flat
• Lift the bottom of the T-shirt until it reaches the neck, persevering the two folds you’ve already made.
• Pick up and turn over. Perfect triple fold achieved!
Polo fold
• Button the collar of your polo and pull the collar so it’s folded down neatly before putting the polo-shirt face down on a flat surface
• Grip the shoulder seam in one hand and with the other take the corresponding sleeve and fold it into the middle of the shirt so that the fold makes a perpendicular line from the shoulder seam to the bottom of the shirt. Fold the shirt sleeve in half
• Repeat with the other side of the polo shirt. Smooth out wrinkles as you fold
• Take hold of the bottom right and left sides of the folded shirt. Bring the bottom edge of the shirt up to the bottom of the sleeves. This divides the shirt into thirds.
• Bring the folded edge to the top edge of the collar. Turn the shirt over and put in your suitcase
• To preserve polo-shirt collar shape, you can tuck other items such as clean socks, underwear or swimming togs into the neckline to hold the neck it its rounded shape.
There’s still time to order a polo shirt for your Dad! But which one to pick? If you want to choose something your father will love and wear often, put a little time into thinking about his life and preferences and you’ll get the perfect gift for him.
If your father is sporty, make sure you choose a well cut shirt that gives him a chance to move and flex his body, so nothing too tight, especially around the upper arms. On the other hand, if your father is one of those men who has a real interest in fashion, he may be more in favour of one of this year’s more lightweight polo-shirts in the summer’s hot colours of orange, sky-blue or yellow.
Patriotic dads, especially with the World Cup going on, will love red, white and blue shirts, but if he’s not a football fan, why not get your dad a polo-shirt that matches his eyes? It sounds like a cliché but women are always advised to wear clothes that pick up their eye colour: men rarely are, but it’s just as flattering for them too.
And if Dad spends a lot of time outdoors, why not go for a Father’s Day hoodie? They are the most practical item of clothing and work just as well for fishing, gardening, watching football or going shopping …
There’s a Bank Holiday coming up which means that British men up and down the country are hoping to hit the beach or park to catch a few rays and maybe – if they’re single – catch the eye of a pretty girl. But a recent survey for menswear retailers reveals that women think British men are the worst dressed men on holiday, so impressing a potential partner with your summer clothing is important to making the right first impression.
What to avoid: heavy metal band T-shirts, anything so faded that the design can no longer be made out, baggy shorts and un-ironed track trousers. These, along with baseball caps worn backwards, are the worst beach fashion crimes men can commit according to the single women surveyed.
What to wear: pressed shorts – cargo shorts and neat chino shorts, with sandals or trainers but no socks – that’s what impresses women, apparently. You’re your smart shorts with a crisp white T-shirt or, if you’re the kind of man who isn’t confident about keeping a white tee clean all day, with a grey or navy blue one. Black T-shirts were described as ‘player clothing’ by many women or ‘dandruff monitors’ but others, and you don’t want either label!
For barbecues and evening drinks, shorts are out – men should wear smart casual trousers or dark jeans, and either a neat polo-shirt or a sweatshirt or hoodie. Wearing a Hawaiian shirt is a way of remaining single as the female sex say that men in bright baggy shirts are not romantic.
Everybody wears cotton clothing – babies are popped into it from birth because of its softness, its breathability and the way that it can take heavy laundering (therefore its absolute cleanliness can be guaranteed). Baby clothing is, quintessentially, cotton clothing.
Once we grow up we move into the kind of rugged cotton clothes that our mothers can wash and wash and wash – whether it’s sports gear for the budding footballer or gymnast, or short-sleeved T-shirts for the incipient artist or junior trainspotter. This cotton wear is wash-and-wear style, in bright colours and is often the kind of garment that a child will fall in love with and insist on wearing all the time. It’s a good thing it’s tough!
And as we become adults, we moving into our own fashion preferences: brilliant white shirts worn for interviews, brand new black T-shirts to impress the opposite sex at the weekend, comfy hoodies for weekend meet ups.
Caring for Cotton
While cotton is robust, you can do quite a lot to keep it looking better for longer. Deep colours benefit from being washed inside out – especially if they have transfer designs on them. Light colours take almost any amount of laundering, but be careful not to wash them with anything dark, or they are likely to pick up a tint of the darker colour.
Cotton or Poly-cotton?
The choice isn’t as simple as you might think. Pure cotton has advantages – it becomes more comfortable the more it’s worn, and you can iron it on a very high heat without destroying it. It holds its dye colour well too. On the down side, it does crease quite badly.
Poly-cotton doesn’t crease nearly so badly, but it does have a tendency to pill, which is where the fabric makes tiny bobbles over time. Also it can’t be washed on as high a temperature as 100% cotton can.
This is the time of year to sort out your clothes and get yourself organised so that you save time and space and always look good.
If you have a wardrobe with shelves, put your jumpers, sweatshirts, T-shirts and hoodies on the shelves, organised either by colour (all blue together, all grey together etc) or by purpose (casuals on one shelf, sportswear on another, smart tops on a third etc). Take any clothes that you haven’t worn for a year and try selling them or swapping them with friends – they do no good in your wardrobe if you’re not going to wear them!
Buy new clothes in colours that are guaranteed to work together – blue, grey, black and khaki are the colours most worn by men, while women can add red and green to the list. Pick a base colour and buy all your ‘key’ garments in that colour: a blue summer jacket tones with any shade of blue shirt and T-shirt, and can be worn with jeans or navy chinos.
Hang ties and scarves on the same hanger with the smart shirt or blouse that they coordinate with – this saves a lot of time in the morning, looking for the right accessory. Similarly, only buy black or grey socks and all the same kind, that way you never have to put them in pairs!
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.
While you might not give a lot of thought to your jacket, apart from recognising that it keeps you warm and protected from the wind and rain, it’s one of the most versatile items of clothing around.
While a jacket can be worn over almost anything from a smart shirt and tie – when it looks formal, to a casual T-shirt, when it looks relaxed, other items of outerwear, like long coats, can look decidedly strange if worn over less formal clothing.
A high visibility jacket made of reflective material or simply with reflective strips is a good choice for the foggy and rainy weather of late winter and early spring, and is vital if you ride a bike, or are working outdoors or travelling on foot along busy roads.
The colour of your jacket says a lot about you.
• Yellow and orange jackets suggest a sporty personality and look better on people with a tan or with darker skin tones as the yellow can wash out pale skins and make them look unhealthy.
• Red is an exciting colour and suggests energy – it works better with casual clothing than formal.
• Blue is the classic colour for jackets and can be teamed with almost any other item of clothing from a printed T-shirt to a monogrammed shirt.
• White was traditionally the colour of yachting jackets so it suggests sport or smart-casual clothing. White jackets look best teamed with a strong colour and shape such as a green or brown collared polo-shirt to offer contrast.
• Black is the colour of a smart jacket and often looks formal or semi-formal – a black jacket sometimes has a bit of a funereal feel and to get away from this solemn impression, it’s best teamed with a red or pink shirt.
There’s nothing like a cosy sweatshirt to give you the Christmas feeling – cotton clothing is always comfortable and easy to wear but the special styling of a sweatshirt is uniquely designed with comfort in mind. The elasticated cuffs and hem ensure that there are no chill breezes to blow inside the clothing and drop your body temperature, but the weave of the shirt allows heat to radiate away if you go from outside to in and suddenly find yourself in an uncomfortably warm situation.
Ideally a sweatshirt should be roomy enough to allow you to fit a vest or camisole underneath for really bad weather, but not so roomy that it is difficult to wear a winter jacket over the top. Because different manufacturers have different styles, it’s a good idea to find the style and size that’s right for you and invest in a few sweatshirts in a range of colours. Those with lower necks are even good to fit a shirt underneath, so that you can really layer your clothing!
Because a sweatshirt is a solid colour, it’s really important to get the right shade for you – blue suits almost everyone, but those with pale skin might want to steer away from yellow and grey which can make them look pallid, while rosy cheeked types can find red sweatshirts make them look a bit too pink in the face for comfort.
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