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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.
Why not do a lot of your Christmas shopping online this year? You can grab some bargains as well as making your friends and family happy, and with the time you save trawling around the shops you can put your feet up and have some ‘me’ time.
While money is still tight and the recession still looms over us like a big black cloud, buying clothing online for family and friends is a brilliant idea for Xmas.
Why not get your allotment-loving father, or rugby-mad son a quality, comfortable fleece? You can choose one with sleeves for the man who spends all winter outdoors walking the dog or digging up his garden, while the sleeveless variety is great for standing on the touchline, especially if you’re hoping to be asked to play, as it keeps the core muscles warm while allowing plenty of body movement during the warm-up while you wait to be called onto the pitch.
If you’ve ever worried that your fashion mad daughter or wife doesn’t dress properly for the winter, then buy them a really good winter jacket, one that’s designed for performance, but also has enough style to be fashionable. Look out for the latest hoodies, which are incredibly popular with younger women and that are warm and comfortable enough for a winter walk or a few hours spent wandering around the High Street looking at the New Year Sales.
While you might not think young children would welcome clothing, if you get them all a nice plain white T-shirt or sweatshirt, and some fabric pens so that they can spend Christmas afternoon ‘designing’ their own clothing – it’ll give the grown-ups a bit of peace and quiet, allow the children to express their creativity and – who knows – you might find you’ve got the next Banksy or Armani in the family!
All these gifts can be purchased from polo-shirts.co.uk – they’ll be delivered to your door and you can stop worrying about Christmas before most people have even started.
If you’re heading away for a winter sports holiday, it can be difficult to work out what to pack for the trip. Of course the dedicated sports clothing is easy, whether it’s ski gear, snow-boarding, or a bit of winter shooting, but it can be hard to guess what to take for evening wear.
Winter holidays seem to be requiring a little more effort and attention than summer holidays, when flip-flops and a pair of shorts over your swimwear will get you through all but the most formal occasions. But don’t get carried away – the cable-knit sweater and scarf ensemble can look a little Lord of the Manor. Long-sleeved T-shirts under a wind-deflecting fleece or jacket will keep your core body temperature up for drinks on a snowy but bright day, and polo-shirts beneath a smarter jacket manage to straddle the smart/casual divide with ease.
Make sure you’ve packed something for silly times like making snow angels or digging a stuck car out of a snowdrift –a pair of jog pants and a loose hoodie are idea as you can put them on over more formal clothing just in case you need to walk somewhere that you’ll want to look a bit smarter when you arrive.
Because winter days are short, brighter colours have the effect of making you look better than pale ones, so choose red, pink and bright blues and greens, but stay away from yellow shades if you’re feeling pale and weedy, as anything yellow in tone will make you look yellow too. A red sweatshirt or hoodie will give colour to your cheeks until the winter sunshine tops up your tan, and blues will bring out the whites of your eyes to suggest that you’re in top holiday form, so choose a blue jacket for outdoor trips.
Cotton has been used to make cloth in areas with tropical climates since around 12,000 BC and is now the largest clothing contributor in the world
Why is cotton clothing so popular?
• From the day a baby is born, it is dressed in cotton clothing like all-in-ones or T-shirts because it’s a non-allergenic fabric which doesn’t irritate sensitive skin or create allergies. This also makes it the most popular fabric for underwear and cotton socks and undergarments are still the first choice for the world’s sporting legends.
• Because cotton is adaptable it can be blended with other fabrics such as polyester to make easy wear, easy care shirts or with lycra to make clothing that fits snugly. It’s also a very good taker up of dye, which means cotton or cotton blend T-shirts and polo-shirts have richer colours that those made entirely of synthetic fabrics.
• Cotton is more durable that finer fabrics such as silk, so cotton casualwear has a longer life than many other garments. Cotton is also able to take up 27 times its own weight in water, making it the ideal fabric for clothing such as jog pants and sweatshirts that need to absorb sweat without leaving the wearing feeling uncomfortable.
• Organic cotton is particularly suitable for people with sensitive skins as it is produced with none of the insecticides or chemicals that can remain as a residue in standard cotton – this is why organic cotton clothing can often feel a little softer than other cottons and is popular for comfort garments such as sweatshirts and casual tops like vests that are worn next to the skin.
A traditional rugby shirt, often referred to as a jersey, was a shirt worn by players of rugby union or rugby league. These days, players shirts tend to have short sleeves, but the fashion garment worn by people who don’t play rugby, almost always has the traditional long sleeves.
What distinguishes a rugby shirt from a polo-shirt? Two things, the first is the longer sleeves, the second is that although both have a button front opening, the rugby shirt tends to have a stiffer collar.
The sports version of the rugby shirt usually has a logo on the chest and the player’s team number on the back, but fashion versions may have an imaginary logo and no number on the back at all. While traditional designs usually had five or six hoops (stripes travelling horizontally around the body) but modern fashion rugby shirts are much more likely to be a solid colour with a contrasting white collar. They are also more likely much more likely to be made of pure cotton, while the sports-based rugby shirts are often made of a blend of cotton and synthetic fabrics for lightness and ease of wear.
A rugby shirt is a durable and extremely comfortable item of casual clothing that maintains its classic status.
Jacket comes from the French and means an outer garment that is shorter than a coat, and the original jacket was worn under a coat, rather than instead of it. The coat would be long and thin and the jacket beneath it would have padding to add warmth.
These days we wear jackets instead of coats because they are smaller and lighter in weight but also because modern clothing technology means we can be just as warm with a slim jacket as our ancestors were with a thick jacket and a topcoat over it.
Choosing a winter jacket seems easy, because there are so many around, but getting the right one for you requires a bit of thought. A jacket should fit, suit your body shape and lifestyle and work with the rest of your clothing.
Fleece jackets are practical and lightweight but don’t keep you dry, so some jackets have a fleece lining and a waterproof outer layer to combine the best of both systems. Any fleece should fit comfortably around the body but allow enough room for easy movement.
More substantial winter jackets may have hoods and waist and wrist fastenings to exclude wind, rain and snow. These jackets should fit more snugly so that you can achieve a weather-tight closure at waist and wrist.
For women who are pear-shaped, a jacket with collar and shoulder details can even out the body shape and make you look less bottom heavy, while those with a more angular figure might like to choose a jacket with a belt or a drawstring waist to add curves to their form.
Always choose a colour that works well with the bulk of your wardrobe and if you’re going to be out at night, think about high-visibility jackets or a vest that you can pull on over other clothing so you can be seen by drivers.
Autumn is that time of year when you can’t tell what the weather will do, but, unlike spring, you can always assume the worst.
At this point in the year, we need clothing that is warm but not too hot, keeps the rain off but isn’t too bulky or clammy, and looks good.
A hoodie fits the bill. Wearing a hoody over a T-shirt gives you the chance to shrug off the outer layer if the day warms up, and just tie the hoodie around your waist or stuff it in your bag for the cooler hours of evening. If the day turns even nastier, as it often does, you can supplement your hoody with a scarf to keep your neck and chest warm.
The great advantage of a hoodie is the hood. It can either be pulled up over your head to keep drizzle from your hair so that you don’t look like a drowned rat, or it can be snuggled around your neck to add extra warmth and comfort on a chilly day.
Hoodies with front pockets allow you to tuck your hands inside to keep them warm before the weather gets cold enough to carry gloves, and a hoody with a drawstring at the neck also allows you to stop draughts attacking your face and neck and chilling your whole body.
Choosing a hoodie in a bright colour, like red or yellow, can also have the psychological effect of making you feel warmer, so that you stride out more and that, in turn, actually heats your body up so that you are genuinely warmer.
For a lot of people, T-shirts are a form of communication and what you wear can be as effective in expressing your lifestyle as your conversation, the places you visit and the music you like.
But the value of the printed T-shirt goes much further than that. In Australia, a young man who had been unemployed as a graphic designer for over a year was hired after the CEO of a design company saw him wearing a T-shirt he’d designed himself, on the street. There are many ways of promoting yourself, your business or your belief system through printed clothing and it can be as effective as taking out an advert in your local paper!
If you or one of your friends is a talented artist but struggles to get exhibitions or commissions, a short run of their most attractive or striking design, printed on a T-shirt, can draw public attention as well as validating their talent and making them feel that they are valued. If you are the artist, why not try to get half a dozen of your paintings, sculptures, photographs etc printed on T-shirts, and wear them to public events – many people find it difficult to promote themselves but if you’re wearing your art on your chest, it can be much easier to find a way to open the conversation about your work and maybe even make a sale or win a commission.
T-shirt printing is a cost-effective way to test the waters if you want to move into the creative industries. You don’t have to rent a shop and hire staff so the risk can be reduced. You can simply set up a cottage business selling your T-shirts on etsy or Folksy to build up a following. If you’re a naturally artistic person you’ll probably find it easy to choose the right images and T-shirt blanks to give the best impression, but it’s still worth listening to your T-shirt printer because they often have long experience in what actually works on fabric, and what doesn’t
Bands and musicians in particular benefit from having a teeshirt that promotes their name and music and allows their fans to show their loyalty to the next chart-topper.
Athletes can also show their aims and successes on teeshirts. If you’re running the London marathon or aiming to sail round the world, get some T-shirts printed with strong attractive images and a short text on the back of the tee, or underneath, saying what you are going to do – it’s a great way to pick up support and funding.
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