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.

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.

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.

The Rugby World Cup will be held in New Zealand this year and the uniform worn by volunteers has just been revealed. It’s a light blue and silver design of track suit, polo-shirt, baseball cap and T-shirt (but, surprisingly, no rugby shirt!) all adorned with the distinctive mangopare (hammerhead shark) and koru (fern frond) designs that incorporate the Maori traditions of strength and fellowship.

Around 7,000 volunteers will wear the kit, and it’s specially designed to help each member of workforce ‘feel they are part of one great team delivering something unique’ as well as being distinctive enough for rugby fans to pick out the volunteers at a distance when they need assistance.

Most volunteers seem pleased with the uniform and keen to wear it when the Cup starts. Volunteer uniforms need to be:

•    Distinctive
•    Comfortable
•   Available in a range of sizes
•    Suitable for all cultures
•    Easy to wash
•    Durable
•    Able to express something about the cause they support.

Now contestants have moved to the judges’ houses, there’s a lot of press attention on the audition clothes.  Cher Lloyd performed Get Your Swag On but a lot of attention was focused on her jeans rather than her voice, and she’s admitted that her gritty urban look was a personal achievement: she ripped her jeans herself!

According to the Daily Mirror, Matt Cardle had the winning voice for his amazing rendition of The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, but some people think he let himself down on the appearance front in a cap and check work-shirt, or as the newspaper put it ‘Next time, he might even change out of his work clothes’.

The contestant whose clothing drew most criticism, along with her lifestyle, was Chloe Mafia, who’s been kicked off the show and is now doing the rounds of TV shows defending her behaviour. The Daily Mail says that she appeared on breakfast TV wearing a ‘tacky pink bra-top and matching tracksuit bottoms’ but that was better than her last TV appearance where she was seen rolling up for a day’s rehearsal, wearing the same clothes as the previous day and apparently reeking of vodka.

This year’s contestants were definitely in dress-down mode for the most part, some of the boys wore cargo shorts for the call-back, which was a new departure and there were many striped T-shirts on show during the dance segments. Girls still went for the little black dress a lot, but Gamu Nhengu rang the audition changes with a waistcoat over her T-shirt and a flower in her hair: if she carries on being a favourite, you can expect to see lots of this look in the High Street. Women can try it themselves with a white T-shirt under a sleeveless fleece and a silk rose in your hair or stitched to each end of your scarf.

Beijing artist Li Xiaofeng makes ‘porcelain clothing’ by sewing together shards of pottery recovered from China’s thousands of archaeological digs and fixing them onto leather garments. The fragments date from the song, ming, yuan and qing dynasties and are stored in dustbins in the artist’s studio. Li had his first exhibition outside China in 2009 and has become one of the many Chinese artists working with major fashion designers on ‘artfusion’ or ‘artketing’ – a blend of art and marketing.

Li has been working with Lacoste, where he constructed a porcelain polo shirt with the classic Lacoste logo, and went on to design a limited edition polo shirt with a signature image of blue and white porcelain pieces scattered on the garment.

Li is not the only Chinese artist to get into the casual clothing world: Comme des Garçons invited Ai Weiwei, to design a special-edition T shirt to commemorate their new store in Hong Kong – the T-shirt couldn’t be sold in China because Ai Weiwei is so controversial there.

If you want to get into the Chinese fashion vibe, but can’t afford the small fortune required for one of the limited edition pieces, focus on the colours blue, white and terracotta for your casual clothing and combine casual polo-shirts or T-shirts with jade medallions worn on a leather thong: a very traditional Beijing look!

The recent burst of telecommuting is damaging fashion sense, according to a number of fashion pundits. They blame the ability to work from home for the way that both men and women have been letting their clothing standards drop.

Some supermarkets have taken to banning customers in pyjamas from shopping because it can offend. They claim that it’s because customers have got used to shopping online in their pjs and now expect to be able to do the same in person.

It’s just one sign that business-casual is devolving into ‘anything goes’ but for those who hope to travel up the career ladder it’s a dangerous path. Companies have taken complex dress codes and turned them into ‘use your best judgement’ but for savvy employees, owning a good pair of trousers or a skirt, a smart shirt and a decent pair of shoes is still the minimum requirement. If your CEO suddenly turns up in your home town and the company want you to drop off some papers or take him or her a memory stick, then you need to look right. And for those who work in ‘back offices’ it may be tempting to wear shorts, flip-flops and casual teeshirts but if you tend to look sloppy and unprofessional, you may fail to win promotion.

Find a middle path by wearing polo-shirts instead of T-shirts, lightweight casual trousers instead of shorts and simple pumps or even this year’s fashion winner, high-top trainers, instead of flip-flops.

Apparently, men are more body conscious than they were a decade ago.  The evidence is in the mannequin: Homme Nouveau have a shop window dummy that’s just 33 inches round the chest, and Burberry’s new window man is similarly spindly. All this in a time when the average Brit man has a 39 inch waist – yes, waist, not chest!

So how do you manage to look like the slender chaps whom fashion is designed for?  It’s the same problem that has beset women for decades: clothes are not designed for average sizes and are modelled by genetic rarities who are taller and slimmer than 90% of the population.

1.    Skinny jeans work for almost all men, even the extremely chunky, but you need to make sure that if you are less than slim, you cover up the waist, which can look porky, with a loose fitting V necked T-shirt which slims the body even further

2.    Hoodies with a zip rather than a front pocket are slimming and elongating – pick navy blue, grey or black if you’re not the slimmest chap, but go for red, white or beige if you are skinny and proud of it.

But if you are proud of being a big chap, don’t despair. It seems that a ‘robust’ body shape is more popular in times political uncertainty or economic stress – because culturally we are more likely to value men who look as if they can take care of themselves and of others too. Play up your beefy status with bright polo shirts and round necked T-shirts with stripes or ringer details to show off your bulky beauty.

There’s a Bank Holiday coming up which means that British men up and down the country are hoping to hit the beach or park to catch a few rays and maybe – if they’re single – catch the eye of a pretty girl. But a recent survey for menswear retailers reveals that women think British men are the worst dressed men on holiday, so impressing a potential partner with your summer clothing is important to making the right first impression.

What to avoid: heavy metal band T-shirts, anything so faded that the design can no longer be made out, baggy shorts and un-ironed track trousers. These, along with baseball caps worn backwards, are the worst beach fashion crimes men can commit according to the single women surveyed.

What to wear: pressed shorts – cargo shorts and neat chino shorts, with sandals or trainers but no socks – that’s what impresses women, apparently. You’re your smart shorts with a crisp white T-shirt or, if you’re the kind of man who isn’t confident about keeping a white tee clean all day, with a grey or navy blue one. Black T-shirts were described as ‘player clothing’ by many women or ‘dandruff monitors’ but others, and you don’t want either label!

For barbecues and evening drinks, shorts are out – men should wear smart casual trousers or dark jeans, and either a neat polo-shirt or a sweatshirt or hoodie. Wearing a Hawaiian shirt is a way of remaining single as the female sex say that men in bright baggy shirts are not romantic.

Everybody wears cotton clothing – babies are popped into it from birth because of its softness, its breathability and the way that it can take heavy laundering (therefore its absolute cleanliness can be guaranteed). Baby clothing is, quintessentially, cotton clothing.

Once we grow up we move into the kind of rugged cotton clothes that our mothers can wash and wash and wash – whether it’s sports gear for the budding footballer or gymnast, or short-sleeved T-shirts for the incipient artist or junior trainspotter. This cotton wear is wash-and-wear style, in bright colours and is often the kind of garment that a child will fall in love with and insist on wearing all the time. It’s a good thing it’s tough!

And as we become adults, we moving into our own fashion preferences: brilliant white shirts worn for interviews, brand new black T-shirts to impress the opposite sex at the weekend, comfy hoodies for weekend meet ups.

Caring for Cotton

While cotton is robust, you can do quite a lot to keep it looking better for longer. Deep colours benefit from being washed inside out – especially if they have transfer designs on them. Light colours take almost any amount of laundering, but be careful not to wash them with anything dark, or they are likely to pick up a tint of the darker colour.

Cotton or Poly-cotton?

The choice isn’t as simple as you might think. Pure cotton has advantages – it becomes more comfortable the more it’s worn, and you can iron it on a very high heat without destroying it. It holds its dye colour well too. On the down side, it does crease quite badly.

Poly-cotton doesn’t crease nearly so badly, but it does have a tendency to pill, which is where the fabric makes tiny bobbles over time. Also it can’t be washed on as high a temperature as 100% cotton can.