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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!
In Mansfield Ohio, a new detailed dress code has been drafted for court staff – it’s meant to ‘inspire confidence and respect from the public, create a professional image and install a sense of pride in city government’.
So municipal employees will be denied lip piercings and excessive tattoos. Jeans and T-shirts will be limited to Friday only in office areas.
In the USA any rules about dress codes must be careful not to infringe on First Amendment rights and religious freedoms and Casual Friday has become a contentious issue, because it’s a test of what is acceptable or not – can you wear a shirt, tie and smart jacket on Dress Down Friday if you’re Mormon or is that seen as a non-team choice? Can you turn up in a T-shirt with an overtly religious or controversial sporting message or is that somehow also against the spirit of teamwork?
This is why many companies prefer to impose casual uniforms which are usually a soft-collared top such as a polo-shirt, worn with the employee’s choice of skirt, trousers or jeans. This allows issues of gender, age and cultural equality to be balanced with health and safety issues.
For the first time in five years, what you wear might be influencing the way people think about you politically. Nick Clegg’s sudden popularity boost may be welcome to the Lib Dems, but, as ever, the political commentary has been at least partly about the colour of the tie each candidate was wearing.
Politicians complain about this frivolousness, but the colour of each political party is an important part of political identity.
• Red has been the colour of the Labour Party since its inception in 1900 because it reflects the radicals of the French Revolution.
• Traditionally, the Tory party used all three colours of the Union Jack: red, blue and white, but when Labour came along and annexed red, it settled for blue alone, which is the colour many Conservative groupings worldwide have also chosen.
• The Liberal Dems seem to be going for gold this time around, although in the past they’ve chosen the brighter shade of orange, both of which hark back Liberal Party from which the new Lib Dems have developed.
• And then there’s the party named after a colour – the Green Party which links its cause to the environment by choosing a colour as its title.
So if you are seen around the workplace in a red tie, people will subconsciously assume you’re a Labour supporter, while your smart blue work shirts suddenly carry an unexpected freight of Tory hinterland. The green spring-like T-shirt that you bought a few weeks ago is no longer ‘Shrek-like’ but suggests environmental associations and your Dad’s favourite shorts in canary yellow are likely to be viewed as his emergence as a nascent Cleggite. If you want to be politically neutral until after 6 May, stick to grey, black and white – grey trousers and a black shirt or jeans and a white hoodie will keep you free of party affiliations.
It’s becoming more difficult to find a job, so here are three top tips on how to survive the world of work:
Pen and paper, not mobile
Write down the names of people you meet and tasks you are given. Nobody will expect you to remember everything. But don’t use your mobile or laptop to check your email or surf the web, or even to store the names and numbers of your new colleagues – many companies worry about the way staff use the web now and looking like a net surfer in your first week can suggest you are not serious about your new job. Leave your phone and laptop in your bag and only use them when you are out of the office at lunchtime.
Dress Code
Remember what you wore for interview? Make sure you have enough clothes to dress similarly for your first week of work – this should be smart trousers with a short or long-sleeved shirt for men, and a skirt and shirt for women. On Friday a lot of people may dress down into polo-shirts or T-shirts but don’t assume that dressing down is your right – it’s better to ensure that you are over rather than underdressed in that first week, and also, over-dressing allows you to be dressed formally enough to cope with anything that’s thrown at you. It’s quite common for companies to take on new staff in weeks when the senior managers are all on leave or at conferences and that can mean that everybody relaxes their dress code. Come Monday, you might be the only person who is casually dressed and the returning bosses will not be happy!
Scent
Remember to avoid wearing perfume, aftershave, or body sprays that might affect others – in your first week you’ll probably have other people hovering over you a lot of the time, checking how you’re doing, and if your scent irritates them, you’ll soon be an unpopular colleague.
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.
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!
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.
Sales at shops catering to teenagers have dropped sharply in recent months, partly because so many teens are finding it tough to get the part-time jobs that were funding their clothing addiction. In the USA in November, shops specialising in clothing and accessories for teenagers were the worst-performing sector in retailing, with a nearly 8% drop in sales, while established stores (those open for more than a year) had a double digit sales drop compared to November 2008.
Teenagers and young adults hare coming to terms with issues of money, budgeting and avoiding impulse buying when it comes to clothing. Their habits are very bargain savvy – many have used high street shops and stores to try on clothing such as trousers and jeans, and then gone online, knowing the right size and style, to find a bargain that will fit perfectly.
Many are also turning away from fashion to focus on quality. They say they don’t mind spending £30 on a polo-shirt if it will last them all year, but that they wouldn’t buy such a garment on impulse to wear to a party, as they would have done a year ago, because they want to plan their spending and be sure that what they buy will be of good enough quality to survive hard wearing for months. A cheap polo-shirt is not a good investment either, because it will sag and fade too swiftly
Young people are also proving to be much more practical than their parents may have thought. One university student said, ‘I’ve just bought some hooded sweatshirts to go over all my old T-shirts. That way you can’t see how faded and tatty they are underneath. Last year I would have got new T-shirts too but I don’t need them. My old gear will last until summer and I can use the money on other things.’
Some teens have even decided to go for part-time jobs that offer uniforms because it means that they don’t have wear and tear on their ‘good’ clothes while they are at work.
The UK’s Border Agency staff are getting bonuses this week, and one of them is a slightly revised uniform – new polo shirts. Why has the polo-shirt become the clothing choice of every form of security work, from the nightclub bouncer to the border patrol? Because it’s so versatile.
When people have to combine looking professional with being able to move in a hurry and engage in strenuous activity, there is no clothing that is as useful as the polo-shirt. T-shirts allow a similar range of movement but are less smart and shirts are smart but rather constricting to wear. The polo shirt combines comfortable wear with demanding situations perfectly.
Polo shirts also look good – they give an impression of fitness and physical strength without looking scary or overly confrontational. As an item of uniform they work just as well for car valets as for doormen and because they aren’t very much different to the polo-shirts the average person would wear on an evening out, they calm situations and look reassuring.
Because polo shirts are cotton or cotton rich, they allow those wearing them to feel comfortable whether the weather is winter chilly or summer hot and with the right colour/style combination a polo shirt can look very formal and dressy or utterly relaxed and casual, meaning that it fits into any situation and any kind of gathering, which makes security staff feel comfortable that they don’t stand out as targets.
If you’re about to get a job, or change jobs, work trousers are probably not top of your list of priorities. This is especially true if you have an office-based job, where smart trousers or a skirt are all that you require, but in other professions, where some level of protection and performance is required from you clothing, such as working in a shop or factory, in an office connected to a manufacturing or sales outlet or where you are required to demonstrate products for sale, then investing a bit thought in your clothing choices can be important.
Perhaps those to whom this is most important are the self-employed and those working for small firms or family businesses. In these circumstances, the right clothing makes a real impact and defines the way other people see your company. A smart and professional appearance could help you secure more work but looking sloppy or even as if you can’t afford new clothes, can convince potential customers not to rely on you and that’s business disaster.
There are many kinds of work trousers, each suitable for different work situations. Trousers that work for a carpenter wouldn’t be right for a driver, while a plumber needs completely different work-wear to that worn by a computer installation engineer.
Those involved in building, construction, fitting and maintenance will benefit from trousers with lots of pockets for tools, gloves and other accessories. Durability is also important as you may be kneeling, squatting, bending and stretching and you need trousers that can take such a range of movement.
Drivers and delivery people need trousers that are comfortable to sit in all day but still look good when you present yourself at the front desk with your delivery.
Many jobs require waterproof and high-visibility clothing, including trousers, to enable you to remain warm, safe and dry as you work.
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