Jubilee fever is here, in case you hadn’t noticed. It’s a particularly British kind of fever though, and the symptoms include grumbling, head-shaking and negative comments. If you’re not a Brit, it would be easy to believe we’re not looking forward to the Jubilee and the Olympics, but that’s just the way we show our enthusiasm along with queuing and complaining about the weather. We love it really.

And red, white and blue are everywhere. Union Jack biscuits, dip-dye haircuts and waistcoats abound, so how does the average stylish individual cope with this sudden desire to dress like a deckchair on acid?

The answer is coordination. For men, this year’s big deal on casual clothing will be white. Spearheaded by the David Beckham underwear phenomenon, layered white clothing will be big for guys: aim for a white vest, under a white shirt or a white polo-shirt with white jeans and a navy jacket. Don’t attempt this look with very short hair though, as it can easily start to look like you’re an escaped mental patient, especially if you’re slim built. The hair look that goes with white clothing is longer than in many recent summers, tousled and shiny.

For women this year the trend will be into the navy end of the spectrum, picked out with a lot of bling. For casual wear, try mixing it up with a blue skirt and hoody with platform trainers and a big diamante brooch, or jeans, a striped blue and white shirt, pearls and a sleek updo finished off with a red, white and blue bow or rosette.

More formal wear is looking Olympian with blazers for both men and women being worn over pastel polo shirts. Taffeta skirts are around for women, worn with a camisole and beaded cardigans to allow for the changeable British weather. Umbrellas are de rigueur and of course the only acceptable brolly colour this year is red, white and blue!

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.

As businesses increasingly invest in uniforms for staff, more and more people are trying to look good in workplace clothing that wouldn’t be their personal choice of attire.

If your employer wants you to look smart and professional, it’s one thing. But if the workplace uniform is a colour that makes you look ill, or fits you badly or just doesn’t sit well with your personal clothing style, it can become a source of tension and even stress.

There are a number of things you can do, to prevent this being a problem.

1. If you get to choose your uniform from a catalogue, ask for samples. The manufacturer or printer of company clothing will usually be able to provide pieces for you to look at and that will help you assess the fit of the clothing and how it will be to wear. That helps you make wise choices about what you opt for.
2. Examine the fit, where possible, by looking at the existing uniform worn by colleagues. It is always better to buy a size bigger and pay a little to have your clothing fitted to your form, than to buy too small and cram yourself into something uncomfortable for an eight or ten hour day.
3. If the colour is bad for you, look at what you can do to accessorise your workplace uniform. There are often restrictions on what you can wear over uniform but not under it, so a black polo-neck under an unflattering yellow or red polo will ‘take down’ the strong colour, or a pink camisole under a white shirt will add life to a colour that kills your complexion.

It’s claimed that America’s competitive industries are becoming more stylish as competition for scarce resources hots up. The trend has started in Hollywood, where the stars my have an unlimited budgets to dress themselves but those working in the film industry are needing to look smart or risk being seen as having not enough smarts (or resources) to make deals.

The Hollywood Reporter suggests that deal makers in America are moving away from their casual, Silicon Valley garb of polo shirts and jeans because the tough world at the box office (and especially with John Carter reported to be the biggest flop of Disney history) means that stylish dressing and power appearance are vital to looking serious.

Baseball caps and hoodies are out, and formal shirts are in. While suits are universal, they are definitely making a come-back and casual clothing is being reserved much more for ‘in the office’ days.

For women this dress sense often means dresses – tailored ones with long-sleeved jackets, or smart trousers with tailored shirts. Monogrammed shirts are big in Hollywood right now, and as monogramming adds little to the price of a shirt but can be a make or break in closing a deal, it’s definitely a discreet way of pegging yourself as a winner.

According to a Mintel report into American men’s clothing choices, many men want to be more fashionable than they are – in fact a quarter of them would love to be able to be fashion conscious. A senior retail and apparel analyst at Mintel claims that 85% of men who say they shop just for comfortably clothing would be willing to step out of their ‘clothing comfort zone’ if they knew what looked good on them.

So how can a man get to be fashion conscious and clothing comfortable?

One way is to use the support of social media. Many more men are learning to try on clothing and then send a photo to their friends and family members for an instant vote on whether to buy the garment or not.

Another way is to create outfits online, using new platforms like pinterest, to pull together clothing boards for special events or to plan holiday packing lists, and then get others to have input to the suggested choices. This is proving increasingly useful for men when shopping online, as it allows other people to contribute to their boards by adding items that would work with existing clothing. For example, when planning clothing for a weekend away, a man may have a pair of trousers and a hoodie that he particularly wants to take along. He uploads picture of them to his board and then others add items to build capsule outfits. The hoodie, with a striped T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops for the beach, then the trousers with a casual shirt, boots and unstructured jacket for the Saturday evening and finally the hoodie with a black polo-shirt and the trousers for a trip to the pub on Sunday lunchtime. Other accessories such as caps and scarves, belts and even jewellery can be suggested and accepted or rejected and then, for the chosen items, searched for online to get the best price.

Most men would say no. But what they say and what they do may be different things. Called mantyhose in the USA, it’s claimed (somewhat tongue in cheek) that men are getting into tights in a big way.

Several role models are referred to, or maybe blamed, for this phenomenon. Captain Jack Sparrow is definitely in the frame for eyeliner and the unbuttoned ruffled shirts sported by Russell Brand, while Usain Bolt and other sprinters are considered to be driving forward the trend towards men wearing skin-tight leggings, or maybe even tights.

Men tights cost around £12 to £35 and come in matte colours with diamond or skull patterns. They are also specially designed in a more breathable fabric to allow male reproductive regions to be cool enough, given that tight trousers have been held responsible for low sperm counts.

Behind the giggles though is a serious situation – male hosiery is most popular in cold countries where it’s being worn under trousers to act as an insulation layer in winter. And there’s another reason too – men are using tights to act as girdles (or mirdles, as they are called) to hold in flabby bellies and love handles.

So if you’re not willing, or able, to wear tights, how can you get the fashion look?

First, make sure your underwear fits sensibly. If you have bulges or sags in your foundation, they just get magnified as you add layers over the top – good underclothes help to give you a smooth silhouette.

Buying trousers a size smaller than you really are just forces the evidence up over your belt-line. It’s better to wear well fitting larger trousers than too tight ones, for your health as well as your appearance. If you want to look slim, buy straight fitting polo-shirts in a heavyweight weave and a light colour and don’t tuck them in. Then invest in some dark trousers or jogging pants: the pale top and darker trousers have an instant slimming effect. Ringer tops also perform this illusion of making the body taper from the shoulders to the waist.

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!

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.

Clare Balding, BBC presenter, has said in the Radio Times that, ‘Female faces will dominate the British medal haul in 2012’ in reference to the London Olympics. Balding pointed out that women’s ability to take part in codified competitive sport is nearly 900 years behind that of men, but that women are likely to lead the medal tables for Britain.

The impact of sport on wider society is easily seen through sports clothing: the hoody, once the preserve of boxers, the rugby shirt and polo shirt and jogging bottoms or trackies, worn originally by track athletes, have all become part of mainstream casual clothing.

This new freedom to play sport and wear sporting clothing has given many women a new freedom to invest in their bodies as competitive instruments and that has led to a change in their approach to clothing. Many more women now wear what is called Sports Luxe and it is a key feature of the West Coast Cooler Fashion Week in Belfast. Sports Luxe is clothing with a dual purpose: looking good and feeling good in times of activity. Designers such as Marc Jacobs, Hugo Boss and Philip Lim have made this particular style their own by using rich colours and unusual fabrics: plum coloured jogging pants or tuxedo shirts that wick away sweat, for example.

For those who can’t afford designer clothing a stylish women’s polo shirt worn with jeans or jeggings and a pashmina, or casual trousers or leggings teamed with a cashmere top and designer trainers both work as Sports Luxe statements.