A recent show at Imperial College, London offered vanishing dresses (using a blend of polymers that dissolve when exposed to H2O), hoodies that actually clean the air as you walk through it, thus leaving the street cleaner than when you found it, and special underwear that makes you fitter.

Within five years we may see full-body compression underwear that allows even ordinary gym goers to run faster, lift more and punch more strongly. Also on the cards is a sports bra that shapes itself to the wearer, and most interestingly to many women, ‘clever’ undies that use the body’s own heat to generate tiny electrical pulses that activate the muscles so that you become slimmer the more you wear the garment. This technology could also be used in socks to help frequent flyers and those who stand all day, by returning blood to the upper parts of the body, thus reducing the risk of clots, thrombosis and varicose veins.

Photo-catalytic clothing is already being tested. It involves cotton clothing treated with a chemical layer that reacts with light to break up water in the air and create radical molecules that neutralise pollution – fitted into the jogging bottoms of running groups or the jackets of street workers this layer could actually make our cities cleaner and safer at no cost to us.

For men, New York has much more effect on street fashion than Paris, although London still generally carries the day with male tailoring. So for next spring, guys will be finding their partners trying to get them into double-breasted leather jackets and coats (think DI Gene Hunt) and quite a bit of khaki worn with striped shirts. Desert boots are back and Tommy Hilfiger has a massive number of new polo-shirt colourways. Michael Bastian has a James Dean influenced collection, including motorcycle jackets, of course, with rain-washed striped shirts and T-shirts, aviator sunglasses and surf shorts (?)

There was a focus on quality with relaxed styling being crucial – polo shirts flapped more at the waist than in recent years and trousers were bulkier too, with less skinny legged jeans appearing in the casual sections of the collections.

The road trip look turned up in the Nautica show too, so board shorts and leather boat shoes alternated with a lot of smart blue and white, referencing the navy, and some exciting bad weather jackets in surprising shades of yellow and orange, like the snorkel parkas recently only seen in South Park animations.

According to Richard Sutcliffe, writing in the Yorkshire Post last week, chat in Sofia city’s bars after the England match covered three topics, the match, the price of beer (dirt cheap!) and ‘the mess the new away shirt looked’ with complaints suggesting the watching fans thought it was ‘more like a polo shirt rather than a team shirt’.

Really?

This came as something of a surprise to me, given that the last time I stood on the terraces (admittedly, back in the days when Alan Shearer had hair) men did not discuss fashion. Even sports fashion.

So I went looking for some evidence of this new discussion subject, and found it almost straight away: Nick Carbone writing in Time magazine points out that the language used to discuss men’s fashion is not very masculine. The idea of a ‘murse’ as seen on the catwalk this year (man+purse = murse) is apparently cringe-making to the average chap.

He also points out that market research group NPD claim that men’s clothing spending rose 4.6% in the first half of 2011, while women’s spending dropped 0.8%.

So it’s a subject of discussion (vocabulary allowing) and a big share of the market, but what are men really focused on?

Clothing that makes them look fit is the key requirement, apparently. Which is why the new football strip was such a disappointment. Each time there’s a new strip, it give the average man a change to wear some new styles without admitting to fashion interest. V-necks for example sell in much greater quantities whenever England are in the World Cup, as it legitimises ordinary men to wear a long-sleeved, v-necked top without feeling embarrassed. Similarly, long socks, snoods, gloves and short shorts all get purchased and worn much more readily when Beckham, Rooney, Ferdinand etc have demonstrated their usefulness on the pitch.

This summer’s newspapers seem to be full of older people who aren’t managing to look casual, whether in their attitudes or their clothing. Rupert Murdoch and Prince Charles might not seem to have much in common, but the inability to dress for comfort is a characteristic they share. Rupert, in particular, has an odd habit of being photographed with his wife, Wendi Deng, when she is wearing casual clothing and he’s in a suit and shirt, although his concession to informality is to remove his tie for evening interviews on TV.  Prince Charles has always been lampooned for his obvious discomfort in casual clothing and photos of him with a jeans-wearing Prince William continue to highlight the heir to the throne’s love of the formal.

It’s not impossible to dress comfortably and look good in casual clothing, no matter what your age.
1.    Choose a colour: for older men, pale blue is usually very successful – it tones down red in the eyes and skin and gives a hint of youth without looking stupidly flash. Wear a darker colour below the waist, such as navy shorts with a blue polo-shirt because it’s slimming.
2.    Choose a fit: relaxed fit works well if you are on the larger side, but if you are one of those people who is getting thinner as they get older, don’t think ‘relaxed’ will work for you, instead you look lost inside your clothing. Pick a more tailored style, perhaps a long-sleeve T-shirt to hide scrawny arms, or a slim fit hoodie that will flatter your trim waist.
3.    Choose simplicity: T-shirts with logos and slogans are risky because you may not understand the connotations. Super skinny trousers suggest you are a fashion victim and rarely suit the older man as well as a pair of neatly-pressed cargo trousers. Simple fabrics like cotton work better than shiny surfaces if you’re over fifty, just because the seem more classic and therefore give you an air of confidence.

One of the biggest changes to the workplace has been the way that the different generations have absorbed, and adapted, the rules of workplace clothing. While we probably can’t identify the subtle differences (called signifiers in sociology) that tell us how old a colleague is, we can all spot them.

All this really matters if you’re an older person wanting to stay in employment but feeling like you’re being put on the shelf, or a younger person who feels ready for promotion but gets passed over – in both cases, the way you dress might be sending signals to people that you just don’t understand.

The four workplace generations

The Disciplined Generation – Those who entered the workplace after the Second World War are often considered to be the most disciplined employees ever. They recognise authority and enjoy structure and many of them will have either worked in the same organisation all their lives or built their own organisation, team or department from scratch early in their working careers. Their clothing is conservative, and often uses colours that were popular when they were young, navy, forest green, battleship grey and camouflage beige – in other words, the colour of uniforms worn in the war.

Baby Boomers – This term has become common in the UK, although it’s American in origin. Many Boomers are heading more or less happily for retirement or semi-retirement. They were the first generation to rebel against clothing norms and often express their sense of self by either dressing very casually (hippy) or by flaunting designer labels and sharp styling in a reaction against the previous generation.

Generation X – Sharper in dress than their Boomer parents, the Xers like to keep their rebellion for outside work. They work hard and play hard and bounce from job to job rather than sticking to any one company. Personal expression is important but an Xer is more likely to have an individual style arising from tattoos, a unique haircut or distinctive make up than from clothing choices. Generation X is the T-shirt generation and more than any other will wear a mixture of casual and smart in the workplace.

Generation Y – This generation are the workplace babies – and they are often deeply quirky in their clothing choices, opting to express Emo, Goth, Skater or other alternative lifestyles through clothing, to focus on fair trade or recycled clothing or to buy individually tailored or previously worn or vintage items.

If you’re a Y and you want to be taken more seriously, tone down your clothing but opt for a sharp haircut – it adds a couple of years to your age and makes you look like an Xer. If you’re a member of the Disciplined Generation and you want to hang on to your job, jettison your usual clothing colours: move into black if you have to wear a suit and tone it with a maroon or golden tie which drops you straight down into the Boomer model – if clothing choices are more relaxed, look at wearing polo-shirts in colours that give you warmth: russet, pink, orange. Allow your shoes and belt or bag and shoes to be unmatched – coordinating shoe colour, belt colour, bag and earring colour together is a clear sign of age that can pin you down as an older man or women to any viewer.

Golf is both a hot topic and big business. Tiger Woods apart, the world seems to be full of talented young golfers and many people want to get into golf.  It can be an expensive hobby though, so here are some tips to help you get started without a massive financial investment.

Golf Essentials

1.    A good set of clubs the right size for you. The absolute minimum is a driver, a putter, at least one iron (7 iron is the best choice if you can only afford one) plus a wood for the fairway. And a bag, of course. Tees and balls are necessary, and a newbie needs a lot more balls (excuse the pun) that a more experienced golfer. A budget choice is cheap or ‘refurbed’ balls, they can usually be purchased at your club and save you a fortune in lost balls as you find your swing.
2.    Easy to wear shoes and clothes. They need to be comfortable and to meet the dress code at whatever club you visit. Remember that if you’re travelling around local clubs to find one that suits you as a base, the dress code may vary. Virtually no clubs allow vests or sleeveless T-shirts, and many privately-owned clubs are much stricter about the rules, some insisting on shirts with full-length sleeves and ‘golf shoes’ rather than trainers or loafers, for example. Polo-shirts work well for nearly all golf clubs.
3.    Accessories. A good hat is really necessary – something that shades your eyes but doesn’t catch your arm on the swing, so nothing with a brim that sticks out sideways from your head. Most people wear some variety of the baseball cap. Gloves are often seen as optional but for beginners they are close to vital, as they improve the grip and protect you from blisters. Remember that sun cream may be necessary but a good water-resistant jacket is more likely to be of long-term value!

You might not know what it is, and we weren’t too sure either, but apparently one of the hottest trends for this autumn and winter is the move from formal to casual at all levels. Stylesight trend forecasters say we’ll all do it. For example, knitted T-shirts are going to be office wear (although we don’t recommend being the first person in your company to try this out in the boardroom!) and leggings will replace trousers when being worn with jackets. Hmmm.

Getting the look

There’s no doubt that certain kinds of sportswear are being tipped for massive success in the next year or so: shorts like a cross between cycle shorts and scuba wear have been on the Hong Kong catwalk – they are like ‘fat pants’ for both men and women and act as compression clothing to completely change the contour of the lower body while, it’s claimed, helping to improve circulation.

Other top tips are polo-shirts in red, which has been seen as the winter’s big colour. Apart from red, most colours will be muted and cool, offering the crimson sportswear as the key item in a wardrobe that will probably mainly feature grey, ice-blue and charcoal.

As companies the size of Wal-Mart rely on Stylesight’s trend-spotting, the forecasting firm must know their business. We’re really not convinced about the knitted T-shirts though …

87% of men surveyed by Land’s End thought that the polo shirt was the male equivalent of the little black dress. Over recent decades it’s slipped from being the famous clothing of famous sportsmen (like Fred Perry) to become the clothing worn by men watching sport! But it’s still a top garment for men, and combines comfort and luxury, style and sporting endeavour in a way that almost no other casual clothing item ever can.

The polo shirt is also a favourite gift, as it’s so easy to buy for a husband, son or boyfriend as the small, medium or large sizing means anybody can guess at the right size to give as a present.

And while companies seem to be stepping back from casual clothing, the polo shirt is holding its own. In 2004 nearly 48% of American companies allowed T-shirts and jeans in the workplace, by 2007 this had dropped to 37% and at the beginning of this year it had declined again to 28%, but the polo-shirt has remained as popular as ever and isn’t being classed as too casual, just as ‘smart casual’ so it meets a man’s needs for fun and career prospects.

The author of a website called Style Girlfriend has revealed that she recently discovered a new name for a formal shirt with a contrast collar, it’s called a Jerk Shirt.

She hates the whole concept and said so, but the men she was talking to all had one … and had good reasons for wearing it.  One man said he wore his jerk shirt on the occasions he had to meet his finance team because it made him, ‘seem stubborn and hard to deal with – like them.’ And another said that he wore it to meetings where he was the youngest man present because, ‘It helps me be taken more seriously.’ So the contrast collar shirt might make you look a jerk, but in the world of business it has strategic value that can’t be discounted.

Rugby shirt

However, the contrast collar rugby shirt is an entirely different animal. It’s seen as cuddly, sexy, wholesome and suggesting an approachable man with sporting tendencies.

So long live both kinds of contrast collar – and the resonances they raise in the minds of those who view them!

Most of us have a few pieces of wool or wool-mix clothing in our wardrobes: it might be as simple as a woolly hat, or a couple of cardigans, a pashmina or smart jacket or a wool-blend suit for interviews, but in recent weeks wool prices have double and this is pushing up the cost of many kinds of wool clothing, with the price of a man’s suit expected to rise by up to 15% in the next few months. Apparently this is being driven both by the cost of raising sheep and by a desire from wealthy Chinese people to own wool suits!

There are a number of ways to keep costs down: you can buy alternatives to wool such as the 100% synthetic fleeces that are as warm as wool, easier to wash and not itchy; change your look eg by wearing hoodies instead of cardies, and you can learn to take better care for the wool you do have.

Caring for Wool Clothing

1.    Give any wool item 24 hours between wearings to give the fibres a chance to expand back to their original shape, this stops them pilling and/or compressing to become flat.

2.    Buy padded hangers for wool or wool-mix suits and other items and hang them with buttons and zips fastened.

3.    Use a soft brush to take dust and dirt from wool clothing before putting it away.

4.    When cleaning, check the label. Most clothing manufacturers recommend dry-cleaning, but some garments can be hand-washed and a few can even be machine washed. All wet wool should be dried at room temperature away from direct heat.