Clothes on the Cheap

Just a few thoughts on the homogenous cheap virus that’s taking over our high streets.

In Asda they’re selling £5 men’s shirts and £5 women’s outfits, the rise of Primark seems unstoppable.

They’re not doing you a favour, which is how they love to present themselves. Think about it, a blouse and a pair of trousers on the rails in Asda for £5. How? How did they get there from China, Hong Kong, Vietnam for £5? How can 2 garments be made, all the fabric and components bought, it be packaged, shipped halfway round the world, distributed to the right store, labelled, photographed, advertised and everyone involved in this long chain make a fair profit for £5? Something has to give.

I wrote to Asda’s customer services recently asking them just that question while they were busy plugging their £5 women’s work outfit. What happened? Nothing. They didn’t even grace me with a reply. What does that tell you?

If you want to find out more, have a look at these websites:

http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/

http://www.cleanclothes.org/

The Spring accessory: Tights!!

At this in between time of year, attention grabbing tights and sensible long socks are a good way of starting to shake off winter. Wear a pair with your new sandals or even last year’s sandals. Guaranteed to make you smile.
There’s a sad lack of choice in the hosiery department in the shops so check out these websites;

www.mytights.com
www.tightsplease.co.uk

A few little hints:

• Avoid super sheeny shiny tights unless you are very confident and have perfect pins. They have a tendency to make legs look like sausages. Not a look to aspire to I don’t think. In the same vein avoid loud patterned tights if you have anything less than legs eleven.

• If possible choose tights with the highest possible natural fibre content (ie. cotton/wool). I know it’s not always possible with hosiery but trust me, the more natural they are, the less you will sweat.

• Falke do fantastic quality hosiery as do Wolford.

The return of the waist

So full swishy skirts with tight belted waistlines are set to be all the rage this summer. Good news if you have a waist, bad news for those of us that don’t! Where there’s a will there’s a way though.

• All but the perfectly waisted should avoid full gathered skirts in heavy fabrics ie. denim. They’ll make you look like a tent. Go for light cottons or linens, maybe even layered skirts.
• Big bold prints are good but make sure you pick out one of the main colours in the print with a solid coloured top. The darker the better.
• Waists that aren’t born can be made. There are loads of big belts around. If you’re not blessed with a shapely waist never ever wear a waisted swishy skirt without a belt, you need to be wearing it with a nice wide belt – the wider the better, which will reduce the width of your waist. Avoid skinny belts like the plague unless your emphasising a teeny tiny waist.
• Length is also crucial with this one – above the knee is not for the faint hearted. Your best bets are just on the knee or just below (usually the thinnest part of your leg). Longer lengths are best kept for swishy cocktail party type affairs.

The waist is also making a return on trousers. Quite a hard one to pull off, look for the following to make those high waisted trousers a big hit rather than a hilarious miss:

• Deep waistbands.
• Absolutely no way choose tapered or skinny leg shapes.
• If they’re wide legged they need to be a snug fit around your waist, hips, bum and the very top of your thighs otherwise they’ll look like clown trousers.
• Curved front pockets will break up the long expanse up to your waist.
• Be careful with back patch pockets, the wrong shape or the wrong size and they could end up making you look like the back end of a bus.
• Best to look for a yoke at the back.

Happy waisting!