The weather is unpredictable and driving can become unpredictable too … whether we’re a passenger or a driver, it’s vital to be prepared for changeable weather and poor road conditions, particularly because traffic police suggest that during bad weather the majority of collisions would have been preventable with better preparation.

The first thing is to remember that speed limits on road signs are maximum ones, set for ideal road conditions when the surface is dry and the temperatures are warm. Slick surfaces require a longer stopping distance and poor visibility can result in collisions.

Top tips for safe driving include:

1. Checking road and weather conditions before departure and, if necessary, postponing travel.
2. Ensuring the vehicle has enough fuel to reach the destination with some to spare for detours.
3. Taking a mobile phone, blankets, food and water and sensible clothing is essential – remember that you may need layers to keep you warm and then allow you to cool down as temperatures change.
4. A winter jacket in a high vis colour may be a life-saver in poor weather if somebody has to leave the vehicle to put out a warning triangle.
5. If you do have to leave a vehicle, and it’s never recommended, then keeping warm and dry is vital: warm hats, high visibility clothing and gloves and socks with good thermal properties will allow people to keep their body temperature at appropriate levels while out in the weather.
6. Take a clockwork torch so that you can use it if you have to leave the vehicle, and remember to pack a first aid kit in the body of the vehicle so that any small problems can be taken care of without having to pull off the road and open the boot.

Starting today and running until 30th October 2011, the British Ski and Board show is taking place at the Birmingham NEC. It includes an amazing amount of interactivity, including an indoor skill slope with expert instructors and a climbing challenge on two specially constructed climbwalls with fake ice. There will be a winter film festival, several trick shows and a fashion show too.

If you’re looking for bargains in ski-wear, you can balance fashion with frugality by investing in base clothing that supports winter-sport outerwear without breaking the bank:

1)    Thermal underwear is vital because it transfers moisture out to the next layer of your clothing and keeps your body warm and dry.
2)    Ski socks – like other work socks, have two functions: to keep the feet warm and dry and to protect feet against hard impacts such as knocks and bouncing. The thicker and more padded the better as far as socks are concerned, as long as the socks fit comfortably inside your ski boots.
3)    Fleeces, whether jackets or jumpers, are the second layer of protection after thermal underwear – they need to be lightweight but a tailored fit so that they are snug against the underlayer and don’t bulk up between the thermals and a specialist ski jacket or salopettes.
4)    Ski boots need to be specially designed to work with bindings or boards – getting them specialist fitted at a ski show is a good way to make sure you have boots that work well for you and keep you safe.

As Gok Wan produces the ‘perfect’ flattering dress for Sainsbury’s and M&S claim theirs is even more perfect, spare a thought for the many women who don’t get to dress in a particularly feminine fashion at work. It’s still possible to look great and dress for practicalities, with a few tips on how to choose casual clothing:

1.    Buy the best jacket you can afford – a badly fitting one looks like you’re wearing a sack. If you work in an environment where you have to move around a lot, choose a jacket with sleeves that can be zipped off to make a gilet for warmer moments. Reversible jackets allow you to ring the changes on your appearance at no extra cost.

2.    T-shirts make a work wardrobe special – stick to bright clear colours and set them off with antique brooches if you’re allowed to wear jewellery – this gives an impression of class without cost.

3.    Where possible, colour-coordinate your scarf, hat, gloves, belt and shoes. Brown leather is the absolute gold standard for classic dressing, and can be teamed with a bright scarf, hat and glove set to give a fashionable look for little cost.

Many women find themselves struggling to make good clothing choices when they are juggling home and childcare, and given that it’s just been revealed that women are still paid around £500 less a year than men, and many are also having to provide support to elderly relatives, it’s even more important to get the best from a clothing budget that has to go from home to school to work and back again.

No pressure buying

Buying online is a great way to be able to take your time. Rather than dragging the kids round the shops, or feeling pressured to make swift choices so you can get back to do childcare or elder supervision, shop at home with a glass of wine and only buy when you feel ready to do it!

No sweat choices

Choosing navy blue or grey or black as a base colour and then picking three coordinating colours to go with that base, means everything works together. Pick a simple dress in your base colour, and then choose a V-necked long sleeved T-shirt to go over it in one of your three coordinating colours. Add a pair of leggings or thick tights in your second coordinating colour. Choose a scarf and belt in your third colour. With the addition of black tights, a black T-shirt and a white short sleeved shirt, you’ve got six outfits all based on the same basic dress. For more ideas see the Uniform Project where one dress with accessories is taken through 365 days.

Nimble clothing

Lay out your outfit the night before you want to wear it, including the shoes and underwear you need. Then put beside it a cold weather option (scarf, pashmina, cardie) and a hot weather option (sunhat, sunglasses, sandals instead of boots) and whatever happens, you will be ready to rock in good time for the school run!

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.

This is a Glastonbury year, and it coincides with more people taking holidays in the UK. It’s partly because of the recession and partly because environmental or political hot-spots around the world have made the cheap package holiday seem a riskier prospect, but in both cases it’s meant that casual clothing has become key to a happy summer.

Glamping is gl(amorous) (c)amping – and it’s the big thing for the under thirties in 2011.  Dressing for it is a bit like putting up a tent: complicated without instructions.

For men straw hats are really big this year, teamed with loose tops in shades of cream and beige. Chavvy trilbies are the biggest hit, followed by straw fedoras. If it rains, the top of the hat crop is a navy blue or grey beanie hat. For women, floppy straw hats are popular but it if rains (and when doesn’t it?) turban-style scarves are the headgear of choice.

Capri pants and tailored shorts are everywhere, worn with espadrilles or crocs (but be prepared for hostility if you’re seen in crocs at Glastonbury – there was a trend to steal crocs and hang them up as toilet paper holders in 2009).

Layered tops are popular for both men and women when glamping: try a white vest or camisole with a cream coloured T-shirt and a white shirt over the top of that. Three layers allows for lots of putting on and off to cope with the British weather.

British retailers are reporting a zoom in sales of sportswear, particularly the items being seen in the 2012 Olympic adverts on TV (interestingly, there seems to be a surge in purchases of red hair dye too, since Phillips Idowu has been seen sprinting through a shop to buy his signature flame red brand!) but how does should average or less athletes approach the idea of looking good in sportswear.

Obviously your saggy old kit isn’t going to do the job. Most of us would benefit from an upgrade: our baggy T-shirts replaced by crisp new V-neck tees, our old trackies boosted into stylish shorts, but be careful – some styles work only for the ultra-fit. Lycra cycling shorts should be left for those who are at medal status: most of us look better in something that has a more generous cut like mid-length shorts. Running vests and tank tops look fantastic on both men and women too, but only if you have toned arms and abs, otherwise it’s better to cover your deficiencies with a short-sleeved polo-shirt that is kinder to your wobbly bits.

Remember to wear a hat and to wash it regularly so it doesn’t get a sweat ring. Baseball caps are best for sunny weather but those who work out early in the morning may find a snug beanie hat more suitable.

Public figures and their clothes have been totally in the spotlight this week. Piers Morgan has admitted that he’s become ‘much more conscious’ of his appearance since he took on his CNN show, which is suffering poor ratings. The former newspaper editor claims that it doesn’t matter how well the interviews on his show go, people ‘come up afterwards and say, ‘What was going on with your hair?’’

It’s probably time for him to look at his fitted suits and formal shirts and consider a more relaxed look of crisp chinos and a polo-shirt as Americans seem to find him ‘stuffy’.

Kate and Wills showed us that they can do the formal look as well as their more relaxed casual appearance with baseball hats and sweatshirts. Pippa Middleton’s bridesmaid dress wowed the crowds, but it wasn’t a new look – Cameron Diaz wore the same Alexander McQueen gown in public in 2009, except in red.  And Pippa’s  casual capris and soft shirt outfit, photographed on leaving the hotel the day after the ceremony have already sparked a run on the shops …

Casual royals courtesy of nothingtoomuch1

Increasing numbers of businesses are choosing to provide business clothing to their staff, partly as an investment in employees but mainly as a service to clients.

Looking look smart and professional is one reason for this choice, but another is the desire to present a coherent image across the company from website to business literature to staff on the front line.

Now that business workwear is more flexible, it can do much more than carry the company logo. It offers the opportunity to display contact details, convey special offers and deals or just to allow a staff member to be picked out as a distance.

And what about employees, how does this affect them? Many people are keen to move into uniform at times of recession as it decreases the amount they need to spend on work clothing. The most popular uniform clothing with under 30s is the hoodie, closely followed by the T-shirt, while over 30s tend to favour the polo-shirt as workplace clothing and are somewhat more dubious about casual clothing as uniform, with baseball caps being the most disliked item in their wardrobes.

If you want to look casual and chic at the same time, invest in making a capsule wardrobe so that your clothes give the impression that you’re a polished fashionista with a thousand looks. Here are five tips to capsule wardrobe success for winter:

1. Buy the best coat you can afford – a badly fitting coat makes you look terrible before you even get into the room, let alone reveal the perfect outfit you’re wearing underneath. Go with a long coat for winter, either trench or flared, and a shorter jacket that can be worn with jeans and leggings – choose a light-coloured jacket and dark coloured denim to have a slimming effect.

2. T-shirts are classic if you pick muted colours and funky if you go for bright colours and bold patterns – always team bold tees with flat shoes: heels with prints look too eighties for style success.

3. Add interest to a basic outfit with a skinny belt: leopard-skin works with navy and black, zebra with cream, grey and yellow and natural leather with all other colours.

4. Scarves, hats, gloves and belts all add interest but need to be coordinated with care – anything too bright can look clownish while dark colours are liable to look like uniform wear.

5. Accessories rule the fashionista wardrobe: buy jewellery, antique scarves and other fun items on ebay, etsy or from art students and craftspeople so you don’t look mass produced.