If you’ve been inspired by the new Stella McCartney uniforms and want to dress in the same streamlined style as Britain’s Olympic hopefuls, here are a few tips to help you get the look and to get the fitness, if not of an Olympian, at least of a contender!

1. Focus on navy – Stella McCartney chose a dense shade of navy to be the background of many of the uniform components, to create an effect of strength and solidity. Navy blue T-shirts and vests are great for showing off well-sculpted arms, and if you’re aren’t brilliantly developed, try some fake tan to help give definition to pecs.

2. Combine tight and loose – soft flowing jog pants look good with camisole tops for women, while men can benefit from skin-tight cycling shorts worn with loose polo-shirts: the contrast in shape and form can help hide major problems such as a pot belly.

3. Red shoes – McCartney put her athletes in red training shoes, and that’s likely to be a keynote of this year’s sporting looks in the UK, so if you can’t get red shoes, try for socks that are solid red or have a red band to them, red gloves for winter running or football training and red hats or baseball caps for summer training.

4. Hoodies are definitely very much part of the focus, and the lighter the fabric weight the better, as layering sports clothing is going to be crucial for our athletes this year, in the UK’s changeable summer climate.

The UK’s current weather forecast suggests that we are in for a continuing deluge – so how do you dress for spring rain and still look good?

Rain is depressing – you can lift your mood, and create a different vibe through clothing that is much brighter than your usual choices. Steer clear of warm tones though: light clear blues, greens and primrose yellows give a greater effect of light and space than oranges and egg yolk yellows which can become garish looking through the amount of grey in the ambient light.

Boots are essential – you can even wear boots with shorts, these days, as long as you have rugged enough socks (and tuck the socks down, don’t pull them up your legs until they look strained) but anything else looks silly in a rainstorm. For women, slouch boots and a short cotton skirt work well with a bright hoodie for rain days, while for men, long shorts, desert boots and a sweatshirt under a showerproof jacket give a jaunty image.

Hats work too, but baseball caps don’t look as cool in the rain. A knit cap shrugs off the rain and looks great. If you have long hair, wrap it around your head before pulling on the hat and when you take the hat off, hang your head upside down to shake out the kinks.

With jackets, suede and denim are non-starters as they both look rubbish when wet and suede can be permanently damaged. Fleece is okay but good shower-proof jacket fabrics are even better as the look good, breathe in the wet and preserve the integrity of the clothing underneath.

Fake clothing, bags, DVDs and cigarettes are to be found all over the world, but particularly in established retail locations where students and tourists congregate, such as California. Current confiscations there suggest that the ‘underground economy’ could be costing the state around $8 billion annually. The people making the garments are poorly paid, and the lack of tax paid on them means jobs are not created and local services are not funded. Lose-lose all round.

The goods are often sold in markets or as part of festivals, and a key feature of the new black economy is the creation of ‘second-hand’ counterfeit clothing from brands such as Hilfiger (jeans) and Lacoste (polo shirts) which are less liable to such close inspection as new clothing. Just because it’s not new, doesn’t make it genuine!

And in the UK, fakers are costing the economy, and individuals, a great deal. A recently sentenced man was found to have more than 6,000 fake designer clothing labels in his possession and to be running a factory scale counterfeit operation that was producing several hundred garments a month.

So why not buy a fake? In terms of casual clothing, it can look like a good deal to buy a knockoff pair of jeans or a counterfeit hoodie but in the long term, casual clothing brands work hard to maintain their quality and the longevity of the garments they offer, so cheap versions of top of the range clothing may last no time at all and may warp or twist, fade or even tear where poor quality fabric is placed under stress to match high quality originals. Even if those things don’t happen, counterfeit garments usually collapse very quickly, becoming saggy and bobbly – giving a clear indication that they are not the real thing. While the bargain looks enticing on the market stall, if it doesn’t hold up to continued wear and laundering, it may be an expensive mistake.

A professional networking coach in the USA has come up with a fascinating way to help graduates get a good job.

Her theory is that the current generation of college students have spent so much time on their mobiles or computers that they have lost the ability to network effectively and so they miss out on chances to obtain employment.

Her idea is to equip students with a simple grey T-shirt that bears the legend netWORKing on the front and on the back a printed ticklist of careers such as engineering, technology, sales, insurance … and then a dotted line that allows the individual to fill in their career aims or specific skills with an indelible marker, supplied with each garment.

It seems to be popular: orders have been placed by half a dozen American colleges already.

Any innovative graduate, class or college could undertake something similar – a white hoodie with an overprinted message about the skills of the wearer could be just the thing for a job fair, and a band, group of collaborators or ensemble could print T-shirts with their key skills and availability on them.

Researchers at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, have found some interesting features of workplace clothing that are revealed in a recent issue of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Not only can our clothing influence the way other people think about us, it can actually influence the way we think!

According to the research, “ …cloth[ing] can have profound and systematic psychological and behavioural consequences for … wearers,” – what that means is that work-wear that is generally associated with attentive and careful behaviour, such as lab coats, will actually make the person wearing them more attentive and careful.

Of course this theory is individual specific – so if you associate T-shirts with creative endeavour, you may feel more creative when wearing a T-shirt to work, but if you associate hoodies with lounging around the house at weekends, you may find that wearing one to work actually decreases your productivity. Adam Galinsky, a co-author of the paper, calls this process of being influenced by clothing “enclothed cognition”.

For workplaces that don’t have a dress code this may be an incentive to reconsider their stance, and for individuals preparing for interviews, it may be worth considering which colours they associate with positivity and confidence and which shirts and trousers (or skirts) make them feel assured and dependable, as those are the qualities that they may gain from their clothing during the interview itself.

Asda has been conducting research – and it reveals that 68% of shoppers spend money on clothing to cheer themselves up, and that the clothing they choose tends to be brightly coloured. According to Asda, women will reach for red, purple and yellow to boost their confidence on a bad day.

So how does it work?

Medically speaking, colour therapy is not a science but there are several forms of sensory ‘therapy’ that give a person experience of specific colours either in their clothing, or in their environment, or sometimes in the way their home or office is lit: the efficacy of this as a medical treatment is unclear, but the effect of certain colours is long known to have been powerful in influencing others: that’s why monarchs or rulers have always chosen red and purple, which connote majesty and power (and maybe, sexual power too, as red is the traditional colour of sex workers) and spiritual leaders have always chosen pale blue and white, colours seen as being ‘pure’ and full of hope and life.

Yellow is a fascinating colour that falls in and out of favour: many men like to wear yellow in summer as they see it as being sporty – so yellow polo shirts and yellow or yellow checked shorts tend to start selling well around Easter. Women wear yellow in times of optimism, but reject it in times of pessimism, so if yellow is a big colour this year, it’s likely that people will be feeling positive about the economic climate.

If you want to look positive and attract others, the best colour to wear as a man, apparently, is a bright light blue so a turquoise jacket or hoodie would be ideal, while for women, it’s a small amount of red with pink or white, so a white and red ringer T-shirt with pink Capris or a white long-sleeved T-shirt with a long red and white gingham skirt would be perfect. And if you think those colour combinations sound like something out of a Rock Hudson/Debbie Reynolds movie, you’d be right … because those are considered to be amongst the most upbeat films around!

There’s a good article on how Fashion Week fashion ends up on the high street over at MSN and it’s important because for those on a budget who want to, or have to, look good, understanding the process from catwalk to casual clothing helps pick out what counts, and what doesn’t.

If you’re in an industry where fashion matters: fashion itself, media, graphic design, art etc, what you wear can say a lot about you and how you fit in. So recognising key details such as colour and cut can help you pick out trends to invest in that mark you as a trend setter, not a slouch.

Colours, such as this year’s hot tip of mustard are crucial. But you don’t have to invest in a new mustard coloured leather jacket like those seen at Prada’s show – just get a mustard coloured vest or T-shirt and wear it under your existing shirts, zip up hoodies and jackets: instant trend for a few pounds rather than a month’s disposable income.

Watch hairstyles too – if every male model has slicked back hair, you can bet that the look is going to be appearing in soap operas and teen band videos in within weeks, and then in your local barbers before the end of the year.

One of this year’s big features is sportswear with sports hair – that means technical clothing in bright colours and tousled hair that’s also ‘bright’ in other words with strong outdoor colours such as racing blond highlights, diver-style wet look curls and boxing ring razored back layers worn with grey hoodies and sweatshirts.

While we’re shivering in the icy blasts of winter, the fashion industry is ready for spring and this year’s top tips for casual fashion are mint, colour-blocking and parka jackets, so maybe winter is still with us!

Mint

Pale blue-green, icy in shade and crisp in format, mint is the colour for summer. For many of us, it’s a difficult shade to wear. Top tips are to combine mint with navy for a simple smart appearance, so a mint-coloured polo-shirt combined with navy shorts or a skirt would work well. Mint shades also look better with a tan, so if you’re feeling a bit washed out, fake facial tan (or a tinted moisturiser for women) will help you balance its ice-cream coolness with some summery warmth.

Colour Blocking

This is the technique of combining colours that usually clash. It’s not for the faint-hearted and many men, in particular, find it tough to create this look with confidence. If you have doubts about solid blocks of colour, combine a colour, say coral or orange, with a neutral such as stone or grey. A fuschia T-shirt with grey leggings for women, or a yellow polo-shirt with stone coloured chinos, for men, is less risky that the full on effect of colour blocking that requires two clashing colours, such as purple and yellow or green and red, to be set against each other.

Parka Jackets

This look, typical of mods, was seen a lot on catwalks towards the end of last year, but the new parkas are lighter in weight, and brighter in colour. It’s not a look for men who are narrow shouldered, and if you feel you may look weedy in a parka, it may be better to go for a long-line sleeveless fleece, which allows you to bulk out your build underneath (maybe by wearing a mint hoody?)

As businesses continue to look at opportunities to cut costs and reduce expenditure, the relationship between business casual clothing and business productivity is being reassessed by many companies – and the subtle changes in requirements are catching out many employees who are finding their clothing choices are being highlighted in their annual review. Knowing this, here are the new rules for business casual and personal success:

1. Understand your organisation’s requirements. Some kinds of casual are more casual than others: a brokers office will have a different requirement to an oil company headquarters and a firm that manufactures bicycles will have different standards to one that creates bespoke furniture.

2. Remember that there are different standards within clothing: a pair of jeans that are pale and worn almost to the threads is a completely different prospect to a pair that are navy-blue, crisp and tailored. A white polo shirt with a crisp collar, worn with smart trousers is almost a business shirt, while a creased polo shirt in orange, worn with those faded jeans, is almost barbecue garb.

3. Don’t flash or flaunt flesh: for women in particular, too much skin on show is unhelpful – bare midriffs and deep cut tops or camisoles that reveal the cleavage do little for promotion prospects and may even cause a lack of unity in the workplace as the mixed messages can be detrimental to harmony and productivity.

4. Avoid anything that can cause offence: T-shirts with words or images can easily be misinterpreted, shorts and sandals may reveal areas of the body that other cultures, or even other individuals, would rather were kept covered.

5. While casual is open to interpretation, it’s important to bear in mind that the workplace is where work is done, and while you may be at your most productive in an old hoody and a pair of sweatpants, your clothing choices may disincentivise those around and could affect your chances of receiving the recognition your work deserves.

This year is Olympic year and there’s no doubt that London will be packed with people wearing sporting gear, even if they are not, themselves, sporty. Designers are clearly being influenced by the combination of Cool Britannia and sporting fever, and designers such as Lacoste, Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors are all getting hot under the collar.

Performance fabrics, such as poly-cottons or poly-elastic-cottons are very much in evidence along with sports styling such as ultra-long vests worn over leggings for women and layered T-shirts in primary colours for men.

A lot of dropped crotch cotton trousers turned up on the catwalk again in the spring collections, and it will be interesting to see if they actually make it into the high street this year – last year the harem pant style was very much in evidence in the collections but not very prevalent in the shops.

One difference this year is in colour. While male luxe sportswear is still focused on bright colours, the female palette is much more subtle, with bronze, grey, heather, cream and stone appearing as basic tones. This makes dressing in luxe sports clothing much more accessible to the average women both financially and in terms of body shape. While most of us can’t contemplate pearl coloured leggings and a sheer panelled vest, we can imagine wearing a gold or silver vest or camisole, under a grey zip-up hoody, with dark jeans or leggings. To get the look, focus on a good leather slouch bag, or even better, a leather backpack which looks properly sporty and consider jogging bottoms worn with heels, ‘sporty’ hairstyles like pig-tails tied with wool, gymnast-style, and neon detailing like earrings and shoe-laces.