In the past year, Indian shoppers have got into buying clothing online in a big way. The division by gender is around 70% male to 30% female, with retailers focusing on social media to reach out to women who are a growth market for all forms of retail in India. Global clothing companies are rushing to get into this market, especially to bring their retail expertise to many customers who live in small towns, villages and the hamlets or rural India.

Casual apparel has the second highest seller online in India: ahead of books and DVDs. India’s ‘internet population’ has moved into e-commerce with ease: the nation has around 10 million online shoppers, a market that is growing at 40-45%, compared to the global rate of around 8-10% growth. eBay India retails a garment every seven minutes – many of which are sports shoes and clothing with Adidas and Reebok featuring highly in the popularity stakes.

Children’s wear is also a rapidly growing market with Indian mums investing in clothes and shoes, along with feeding bottles, buggies and toys. Menswear is growing too:one company that sells work shirts at under 900 rupees each has sold 2,500 shirts since it launched in August and is expecting to sell 5,000 collared shirts a month in 2012.

Personalised workout clothing is a big seller, with monogrammed hoodies and polo-shirts being a regular purchase by individuals and as presents or to commemorate work events such as promotions or anniversaries, which are popular celebrations in Indian culture.

Budgeting for clothes is difficult: one person may feel it’s worth spending half their income on new garments, another may think that less than 10% of their take-home money should go on clothing. For some people it’s important to have a lot of clothes and always look in fashion – if you work in retail or the media, for example, it’s really vital to look like you have a fashion pulse! For a geek, a classic wardrobe of jeans, T-shirts and a polo-shirt for visits to grandparents may be the entire outlay … and that’s cool too.

What’s important is that clothing be durable, comfortable and pleasant. That means pleasant to wear and pleasant for those who see you wearing it: saggy, baggy, stained and smelly are not pleasant, so clothes that lose shape, hold stains and odours or are too expensive or complicated to launder really don’t fit with a limited budget. Cotton clothing, whether in the form of smart collared shirts or simple plain T-shirts, is an ideal choice.

Cotton garments are easy to wear and always easy to wash and dry – whether you’re a fashionista who presses everything with starch or a casual dude who simply takes stuff off the line or airer and wears it, creases and all.

Cotton clothes are also very versatile. Shirts can be teamed with contrasting T-shirts to get a wider range of clothing choices and hoodies can be worn over T-shirts to give a soft, relaxed feel.

Hollister has become synonymous with twilight retailing: and teenagers seem to love buying casual clothing in such dark conditions that they don’t actually know what colour their new garments are until they’ve got them out of the store. According to the Daily Mail, parents are complaining about not being able to see the true colour or the price of what they’re buying, and even of losing track of their teenagers in the store.

The ‘greeters’ whose six packs are on display even if there is snow on the ground are also viewed with suspicion by some parents who feel they are tacky or maybe even that the young men are being exploited.

Even so, the Hollister experience seems to be a popular one, so what can parents learn from it about teenagers and shopping?

1. Casual clothing needs special focus – because teenagers spend most of their time in jeans, joggers, hoodies and trainers, these, not party outfits, are the focus of their attention, and the party atmosphere of Hollister can make them feel they are getting more for their money. To get your teen to shop in less expensive outlets, or even online, arrange for one of their friends to come round, let them play loud music and lay on pizza, snacks and multi-player gaming in between bouts of online clothing browsing. This makes them much more likely to engage with the idea
2. Colours matter – Hollister are coy about the number of returns they receive but it does seem to be the one part of the shopping process that disconcerts teens. Point out that online shopping allows teens to look at all the colours, sizes and options, to do comparison shopping and even to google potential purchases and see reviews on their wearability. This encourages a picky shopper to realise that they can spend as long as they like debating a black T-shirt versus a red one, online but in the shop it gets annoying to family and friends!
3. Feed the senses – Hollister spray perfume around their shop and on their customers to make the experience memorable. Do the same for your teen shoppers by squirting the room with their body spray before they start shopping – believe it or not, psychologists say that a favourite scent can  prejudice us in favour of an experience by up to 46%.

A new study in the peer-reviewed Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE suggests that our perception of clothing may actually influence our judgements about race.

The study required participants to classify each image that appeared on a screen as being either a black or white person, but the images were randomly computer assigned clothing that was either considered to have low social status (a caretaker’s uniform or jog pants) or  something high status such as a business suit or formal shirt.

Interestingly, most participants were heavily influenced by the clothing worn by the computer generated image, and clothing stereotypes literally altered the way they saw people – the ethnic race of each face was deliberately ambiguous so the participants relied on clothing cues and many decided that people in high-status clothing were white, regardless of the ambiguity of the face. While the results of the study challenge a widely held belief that perception of race is a simple judgment, based purely on a person’s facial features, there is also fascinating information about how clothing influences the judgements that we make about individuals.

As an example, the Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Steve Jobs once thought about getting all Apple staff to wear a uniform like Japanese companies do. Despite being persuaded against this by the almost universal rejection of his idea by his workforce, he went on to establish a personal ‘uniform’ of jeans and black turtleneck sweater which has gone on to become an industry standard with around 70% of IT people adopting the dress code of chinos and polo-shirt. The new CEO of Apple, Tim Cook, is fitting right in by wearing dark-collared polo shirts for the cameras, making clear his identification as a ‘geek’ rather than an ‘exec’ which allows Silicon Valley to embrace him as Jobs’ successor.

Britain’s dress code changes in autumn and many people get caught out by this: particularly in the workplace. While summer’s relaxed clothing allows everybody to feel comfortable together, the colder temperatures bring new clothing rules and as middle managers start to look at their teams and weed out the slackers, clothing can be an indicator, in their minds, to commitment. T-shirts start to suggest to the cynical mind that somebody isn’t really bothered about looking good at work and wrinkled clothing can even hint that it was picked up off the floor on the way to the door.

Polo-shirts, especially those with a front pocket, usually pass the test in all but the most formal organisations, but to be on the safe side, paring them with a smarter than summer pair of trousers or a non-denim skirt will bring such garments into an acceptable smart casual range.

Short-sleeved shirts and trousers or skirts are a safe bet: they suggest serious-minded effort without the desire to get the boss’s job, which is nearly as unattractive, to a nervous manager, as outright laziness. While many self-improvement books used to suggest it was important to ‘dress for success’, recent behavioural psychology studies suggest that dressing too much like the boss can cause colleagues to think you are not a team player and to resent your superiority complex! Suits should only be worn if your immediate manager wears one, and ties shouldn’t be sported unless they are worn by people doing the same job as you within the organisation.

For women, power dressing can be much more subtle, but labels matter, and ‘out-labelling’ your supervisor may be a counterproductive move. Keep Gucci and Prada for the weekends, unless your immediate boss is a brand wearer too.

The New Straits Times reports an interesting fact – Japan’s energy crisis, following the earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster this year, has been partly addressed by changing the country’s dress code!

Replacing the traditional two- or even three-piece suit generally worn by both men and women in Japanese offices, instructions were given to all staff to dress casually as there was not enough energy to allow air-conditioning systems to run in offices. Government departments led the way by having ministers turn up for work in cotton trousers and polo-shirts. Amazingly this may save between 40-60% of the energy costs for an office building, as that is the level of energy required to cool a building to acceptable levels for formal clothing wear.

It’s not unusual to walk into a government building in the UK and find it uncomfortably chilly, as the air conditioning is often set to formal wear and staff can be seen wearing cardigans or fleeces over their clothing because it’s so chilly. Perhaps many organisations could take a leaf out of the Japanese book and consider offering their staff the chance to wear polo-shirts in summer, and jumpers in winter so that cooling and heating systems aren’t put under such strain and company profits aren’t eaten away by controlling the building’s environment unnecessarily. This could save the organisation money, and allow individuals to spend less on clothing by wearing casual items that are more appropriate to the daily weather conditions.

According to Richard Sutcliffe, writing in the Yorkshire Post last week, chat in Sofia city’s bars after the England match covered three topics, the match, the price of beer (dirt cheap!) and ‘the mess the new away shirt looked’ with complaints suggesting the watching fans thought it was ‘more like a polo shirt rather than a team shirt’.

Really?

This came as something of a surprise to me, given that the last time I stood on the terraces (admittedly, back in the days when Alan Shearer had hair) men did not discuss fashion. Even sports fashion.

So I went looking for some evidence of this new discussion subject, and found it almost straight away: Nick Carbone writing in Time magazine points out that the language used to discuss men’s fashion is not very masculine. The idea of a ‘murse’ as seen on the catwalk this year (man+purse = murse) is apparently cringe-making to the average chap.

He also points out that market research group NPD claim that men’s clothing spending rose 4.6% in the first half of 2011, while women’s spending dropped 0.8%.

So it’s a subject of discussion (vocabulary allowing) and a big share of the market, but what are men really focused on?

Clothing that makes them look fit is the key requirement, apparently. Which is why the new football strip was such a disappointment. Each time there’s a new strip, it give the average man a change to wear some new styles without admitting to fashion interest. V-necks for example sell in much greater quantities whenever England are in the World Cup, as it legitimises ordinary men to wear a long-sleeved, v-necked top without feeling embarrassed. Similarly, long socks, snoods, gloves and short shorts all get purchased and worn much more readily when Beckham, Rooney, Ferdinand etc have demonstrated their usefulness on the pitch.

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!

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.

In a few weeks everybody will be heading back to school: for some it will be the first school day of their lives, for others it’s a familiar routine that still causes stress and hardship, but for all there are simple tips to help prevent the September blues.

Save money

•    Look out for Buy One Get One Free (BOGOF) offers on everything from school stationery through to shoes. Even if you can’t use the supplies in your own family, you can save money by buying with another parent or student and splitting the cost. Uniform clothing can be a real cost, but shopping around delivers real savings. You’d be surprised what you can find: quite a few shoe shops are even offering BOGOF deals on trainers in August so planning ahead can save you quite a bit.
•    Look at the extra-curricular activities you want to do, or your child is interested in, and work out what supplies are needed. Find out if you can buy in bulk for things like art activities, when an order for aprons, paper, paints and so on could be placed on behalf of half a dozen students, leading to free delivery and major discounts on cost.
•    Sort through your wardrobe or the child’s wardrobe and pick out what can be used again; put what is too small through the free small ads in your local paper to try and make a bit of cash, and anything worn out can be taken to a charity shop. This makes room for new clothing and might even raise a little cash to put towards it.

Save time

•    Get hold of the school calendar (often to be found on the school website) and note down all significant dates: first day of term, inset days, parent/teacher days etc. Add them to a family calendar so that you all know when you need to be together for certain events and also when you need to be around to cover days off school. Work out your back-up plan for illness (yours, the teacher’s, that of a child in your care).
•    Plan your morning and afternoon school runs. It can be good to organise a library stop one day a week so the student can use the reference section/internet/borrow books – doing it the same day every week can mean it becomes a habit that means a bit of extra homework/project work gets done without needing to nag or self-motivate.
•    Make a plan for storage: some material that comes home from school needs to be kept as coursework that will be marked at the end of the year; some needs to be kept for sentimental reasons (like those first big paintings that every parent treasures); and some probably has to be quietly jettisoned so that it doesn’t clutter up the house. Having a storage box, a scrap book and other necessary filing organised can mean you don’t have to worry about where the right stuff is months down the line.

Simple plans and money-saving ideas can make returning to school simpler, cheaper and much more fun!