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.

Business casual versus business productivity is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

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.

Sports Luxe – get the look is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

Starre Varten, author of the Eco-Chick Guide to Life, writing at Mother Nature Network poses the question – is it acceptable now to wear pyjamas all day?

Surely not. And yet the trend for stay at home mums to turn up at the school gate in their nightwear is increasing, and teens have been seen shopping on Sundays in their PJs.

Of course the trend towards casual clothing has accelerated, and women now feel completely comfortable to walk around all day in leggings and yoga pants, where a few years ago such clothing would have been gym attire only. And as Varten points out, casual clothing breaks down class and income distinctions and allows everybody to be treated equally. In the days when rich people dressed one way and poor another, social distinctions were clearly made on sight – now that we all wear jeans and T-shirts, even the President of the USA (on his days off) wears hoodies, we’re told – we all have the opportunity to interact without barriers created by clothing judgements.

On the other hand, there’s no doubt that overly casual attire will still lead to social isolation. The mothers who don’t get out of their sleepwear to collect their children from school may struggle to obtain employment or other opportunities when they seek them if their habit of dressing down has become ingrained because it can suggest to others that these are people who have no interest in achievement and little desire to emulate others.

So where do we draw the line? The answer may be simple – don’t wear your PJs in the street, instead, wear your streetwear to bed! A camisole top and shorts, for women, or short sleeved T-shirt and shorts for men, can be as comfortable as nightwear and if you really can’t be bothered to change your clothes, allows you to leave the house without earning yourself a reputation for idleness.

When is casual clothing too casual? is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

Many of us have to fly for business, and it can be quite difficult, as a new traveller, to get to grips with how to pack and what to wear, especially if you have to get off the plane, sometimes after a long flight, and get straight into a meeting, conference or negotiation.

Here are a few tips to help the novice business traveller look right and feel right and hit the ground running:

Carry your jacket onto the plane. It’s difficult to keep a formal suit looking good on a long flight, but certain kinds of jacket were made for business travel: tweet is pretty well uncrushable and looks great with a smart white cotton shirt. When you take it off and put it in the overhead locker, make sure you fold it carefully and lay it on top of your case, not beside it, or your jacket will end up crushed at the back of the locker by somebody else’s bag.

Wear a shirt with a top pocket – this can hold your passport and travel tickets but never put pens in shirt pockets because they tend to leak under cabin pressure and that’s the end of a good shirt and the way to make yourself look like a geek in a business meeting!

Put a plain white T-shirt in your carry on luggage. On a long flight you can take of that good white shirt and pull on a plain T-shirt to travel in. That means your shirt, neatly folded into your hand-luggage, stays fresh and you can relax and drop your meal down the front of your T-shirt without worrying that it will be seen by the people meeting you at the other end! And if the worst comes to the worst and you are trapped in an airport, you’ve got a change of clothes with you.

Wear zip up or slip-on boots. This means you can get your boots on and off easily for security without the hassle of laces for trainers. They look good enough for a business meeting too.

Care in the air – how to dress for business travel is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

A-list actors took to the catwalk for Prada’s menswear show this week. Gary Oldman, was the show closer (and show stealer) but Adrien Brody, Jamie Bell and Willem Defoe also got up and dressed up for the catwalk show.

It opened with an outfit that will define the autumn look – a black coat (think Sherlock Holmes – Cumberbatch, style) worn with a white shirt and under that, a lightweight white polo-neck in silk. Lots of suit jackets, sharp tailoring and masculine detail were evident and key colours were black, white and red.

If you can’t see yourself, or the man in your life, wearing a white silk polo necked sweater under a shirt, consider going for a fitted white polo-shirt with a lightweight white T-shirt underneath. Same look, one notch down in power dressing.

But power really was the theme and high collars – even popped collars on polo-shirts and modern tailoring were very evident. Suit style jackets were often double-breasted and worn with badges or studs to make them less formal.

A recent report by Bain & Co claims that luxury menswear is currently the fastest-growing area of the clothing market with double the growth rate of luxury women’s wear and the trend towards evening dressing is set to continue. Cashmere scarves and monogrammed shirts are keynotes for everyday dressing in the year ahead.

Prada says man is power – this winter’s key items is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

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.

Winter warmers is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

Two nations divided by a common language – and by clothing. As part of our New Year’s Resolutions many of us decide to smarten up and Esquire had a clothing guide for men that made us laugh, cheer and scratch our heads.

Some of the items on their list we had no argument with:

7. A rugby shirt is the most masculine thing a man can wear.

For sure. And a rugby shirt is always acceptable socially.

And then there’s:

22. Always tuck: polo and dress shirts that hang below your hip. Never tuck: sweaters and turtlenecks. Everything else is negotiable.

Really? I don’t see many British men tucking in their polo shirts these days – and do you know what? I wouldn’t want to. It’s a shirt that’s made to drape, at least in this nation’s eyes, and drape is what we let it do.

Of course the Americans have Texas to contend with, and it comes up more than once on their clothing list – so a ten gallon hat and cowboy boots are okay, but a hoodie is only acceptable occasionally? Somebody should tell those boys William and Harry – you know the ones, the heirs to the British throne … the ones who actually play polo, not just wear the shirts?

So maybe the rules are slightly different depending on your accent, but the basic guideline is the same – high fashion only works if you really work it, and most of us don’t have the budget or the body. Stick to the classics, buy good casual clothing and keep it clean and neat and you’ll get by.

Clothing Rules: Esquire versus Britstyle is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

We seem to be cycling through a pattern of snow, rain, snow, rain … it can be difficult to know how to dress in this weather, particularly if you’re planning a long winter journey and/or needing to take part in social events when you get there. Other people’s houses often seem too hot or too cold to us.

While it’s appropriate to dress for comfort and safety, it’s also important to ensure that your clothing works for the situations you may find yourself in.

Car journey – make sure old and young have layers of clothing that they can put on and take off. This allows them to keep warm without overheating. Gloves and a hat and scarf really help them to balance their temperature during a long journey. For yourself, wear something comfortable and rugged like jog pants, so that if you have to get out of the car you can get wet or muddy without ruining your clothes. Remember to put your good trousers or skirt somewhere handy so you can change as soon as you arrive.

Trains, planes and coaches – once again, layering is vital. Remember that you may be delayed so you should pack a spare clean T-shirt to put on for sleeping etc. Smart-casual polo-shirts are a better bet than t-shirts for mass travel, because if there are upgrades on offer, there’s a psychological trait in all of us that makes us more likely to upgrade the more smartly dressed individual.

Cycling, walking – a fleece jacket is one of the best investments you can make. It has wonderful insulation qualities, is reasonably waterproof and lightweight.

Casual clothing for bad weather is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

Hoodies don’t work for everyone. Your gran might not be comfortable in something that she associates with heavyweight fighters clambering into the ring for televised boxing matches. Your teenage nephew may have strong ideas about what a hoodie should look like: and given how easily kids become mocking or outright hostile if clothing doesn’t fit perfectly into the current style, he may be right to worry.

On the other hand, a sweatshirt is uncontroversial. From cute girls, to crusty elders, it’s eminently wearable. It’s warm and comfortable and the elasticated cuffs and snug hem ensure that cold winds don’t invade the garment to cause chills and discomfort. But because it’s not bulky, a sweatshirt still looks good under a jacket or fleece. And when you head indoors, the weave radiates heat away from your body so that you can cool down rapidly, unlike a wool sweater that can remain uncomfortably warm and sweatily prickly.

When choosing a sweatshirt for another, the colour is really vital. Blue works for almost everyone; black is good for teenagers and if you’re confident about colour, you can push the boat out and choose something that enriches winter skin, such as a rosy red shade for pale redheads, a rich tangerine for brunettes or even a fuchsia shade for those with greying hair.

Choosing Christmas Presents: The sweatshirt is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog

The party season is here and whether you love or hate it, you have to show up and show willing with your colleagues. It’s becoming more and more popular to offer the clothing guidance ‘business casual’ – but what does that mean for a party?

For men it means trousers, not jeans. Chinos are acceptable with a formal shirt but not with more casual clothing such as a jumper. A jumper can be worn with formal trousers though. Polo-shirts and T-shirts are not usually acceptable for men to wear for a ‘business casual’ party or dinner, but ties are not necessary and shirt sleeves can be long or short. Jackets are usually formal, not casual, and worn with scarves and gloves and overcoats if necessary.

For women it’s a huge problem because it can vary between a casual (cotton) dress and leggings to formal dress and pearls, from suit with silk blouse through to smart black jeans with a sparkly top. A skirt can be worn with a T-shirt and either long boots or enclosed shoes but not sandals or peep-toes. Clever women will put a dressy scarf, pashmina or shrug in their handbag along with hairpins and a sparkly hair accessory so that if they arrive and feel underdressed they can run straight to the ladies and smarten themselves up with an up-do and posh wrap.

Women’s jackets for business casual events should be fitted or fun-fur, more casual jackets are not considered acceptable. Of course if the venue has a cloakroom you may be able to get away with your warm but casual fleece.

The Casual Christmas Party and how to dress for it is a post from: Polo Shirts Blog