When you see celebrities getting off a plane, they never look like the shambling dishevelled wrecks we are when we fly. Going first class helps, but celebs are also clever about what they wear on flights. Boldy printed T-shirts are a top choice for two reasons:

1.    You can dress them up or down
2.    They are easy to transport

And a third reason, that might not matter to Paris Hilton or Victoria Beckham, but does to the average traveller – they are economical to buy and clean.

There’s really only one downside – T-shirts do tend to  wrinkle. Here’s how to get rid of the creases before wearing a T-shirt when you don’t have an iron handy:

1.    Put your T-shirt in a tumble dryer with a slightly damp towel – after fifteen minutes the towel will be dry and the shirt free of wrinkles
2.    No tumble dryer? Hang your T-shirt on the shower rail and run the shower as hot as it goes – after a few minutes the creases will drop from the T-shirt. If your wrinkled garment is a screenprinted T-shirt remember to turn it inside out before putting in the tumble-dryer to prolong its life.
3.    No shower? How about this – dampen the most wrinkled parts of the garment, and then dry them using a hair dryer set on medium – put your hand between the front and back of the T-shirt to allow the air to circulate faster – this literally blasts the creases away.

Polo shirts can also be perked up using this method, especially if they are the 50/50 cotton/polyester polo-shirts which tend not to crease anyway. In winter, heavyweight sweatshirts have the same appeal, but if you want to wear one that you’ve packed for a flight, don’t fold it in your carry-on bag, instead, roll it up with the sleeves crossed over the front – that way you don’t get any square creases that are obvious when you wear it.

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The good news is that the weak pound has caused a surge in export orders, meaning that the manufacturing sector in January saw its swiftest growth for  a decade and a half according to the PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) but while that may mean a quicker lift out of recession, there are still tough decisions to be made in business.

As everybody tries to limit spending, whilst wooing new customers or trying to persuade existing ones to increase their order books, corporate gifts and promotional items can play a substantial role in helping create an atmosphere of growth and hope. There are three steps to creating a cost-effective promotional scheme:

1.    Be sure about the target audience – you need to identify the right people (CEOs or purchasing managers? Mid-level decision-makers or top level executives?) and then choose a promotional item that meets their daily needs. High level executives will not use promotional pens but might see value in a top quality printed bag bearing your company details, while frontline staff will use all the pens you can supply them with but giving them bags would be an over-investment that probably wouldn’t bring enough return on your expenditure to be worthwhile.

2.    Refine the message you wish to project – and bear in mind that this isn’t just the slogan you use, but the medium that carries it: an organic fair-trade T-shirt tells a story about your company’s values and aspirations even before you label it with a message. Baseball caps convey speed and youth, so if you’re in the business of fast service, giving embroidered baseball caps as promotional gifts could be an excellent idea.

3.    Set your ROI and measurement systems – how will you know

•    Who received your promotional item?
•    What use they made of it?
•    Whether it converted into a new or enhanced income stream?

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It’s fascinating to realise that many people will judge your company or business by the promotional items you give away.

There are two forms of judgement – rational and emotional.

1.    The first is when people decide if your post-it pads are cheap and nasty or smart and useful, whether your brand-printed baseball caps are stylish or tacky. It’s largely value-free and based on facts.
2.    The second kind of judgment happens when they use their emotional intelligence to estimate your company by nature of the promotional items. For example, do they feel flattered or insulted by your offering?

This is particularly important when opening new business contacts and relationships – if you give them a mug with your business details on it, are you saying they are the kind of person you expect to be always stuck in the office? Alternatively, does a vest imply that they are sporty and maybe slack off work to go running or to the gym? Does the screen-printed bag you gave them suggest they are a valued customer or are you saying that you think they are the kind of person who walks around with a rubbishy plastic bag they should replace with your gift?

When picking out the perfect promotional product for a certain occasion, you need to consider the emotional intelligence that your clients will bring to bear. Some items: key rings, pens and calendars, sweatshirts, and memory sticks, are emotionally neutral while others: intimate garments, literature, cosmetics etc are very personal and may carry a heavy emotional load.

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The England team have revealed their new 2010 World Cup strip, which is based on the 1966 World Cup winning shirt. It’s a red jersey with the standard Three Lions logo which has above it a raised red embroidered star, to celebrate England’s one World Cup victory.

Using embroidery in this way is a classic style that adds intricacy without making a garment look too fussy. Standard uses for embroidery include:

Promotional wear – like the England strip described above. Because embroidery has a long pedigree, it carries echoes of tradition and ceremony. But as contemporary embroidery is designed and carried out using computer technology, there is no limit to the size, shape and colour of the text that can be sewn to a garment and still be legible.

Brand images – company logos  and monograms are commonly used on work clothing – where a personalised uniform may carry the staff member’s name as well as the company logo.

Monogramming – famously, young women embroidered their initials on sheets and pillowcases in their ‘hope’ chests and then, when they found a husband, rushed to add his initials to their monogram before the wedding. Today monogramming is seen on everything from plush towels in a spa through to the pockets of the smart shirts worn by City traders.

Embroidery is one of the most durable ways to decorate clothing, as well as being one of the most impressive looking, which is probably why the England designers have chosen to embroider the single red star, for the 1966 win, so elegantly over the England symbol on the football shirts they hope will be worn in another victorious final.

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Most of us are familiar with the kind of promotional clothing used by fun runs and other events, like concerts. Right now the internet is packed with a variety of T-shirts that have been designed to raise funds for the victims of the Haiti earthquake. But many items of promotional clothing, like printed or embroidered T-shirts, have more value than just their fund-raising potential.

•    First, these items of clothing commemorate an event or person – this gives them a sentimental value.
•    Second, if they are well-designed garments, they also have a chance of developing ‘collector’ status – this is where something that was designed to recognised a current event ends up becoming a nostalgic emblem.
•    Third, items like embroidered caps or printed messenger bags have recently developed cult status: this happens when the design is iconic and much copied, but the original item is coveted for its rarity and brand status.

A business can’t necessarily aim to develop these kinds of value in their clothing, but it can always aim to choose designs, colours, styles and qualities of clothing that might help it achieve added value in its chosen staff uniform or promotional clothing.

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Starting in San Francisco, but taking the world by (quiet) storm at present, what Americans call workwear is the big fashion story at present. The kind of clothing that was worn by cowboys and farmers, factory hands and forestry workers has become a huge fashion statement.

It seems that fashion responds to our primal urges and what most people want now is a job, or at least to look as if they’ve got one, and that means that the basic uniform of the manual worker or tradesman has become one of the most popular fashion looks around.

What’s hot

If your staff wear high-vis clothing, then green is the new black, the bright lime-green used in High Visibility vests was all over the catwalks at the beginning of the year, but glowing orange was nowhere to be seen.

Caterpillar and other work boots, worn with thick cushioned work socks turned down over the top of the boot cuff, were also much in evidence.

The old blue-collar of blue collar workers is trending as a huge hit. Work shirts in shades of blue are outselling other colours three to one in Japan! Worn with the sleeves rolled up, these durable work shirts are not in factories but in the bars and clubs frequented by Japan’s students.

What’s not

Anything too light or lightweight has been ruled out – chunky sweatshirts and heavy boiler suits are in, as are thick work trousers with cargo pockets but right out are thin cotton trousers, slip on shoes and skinny jackets.

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The Hen Night of the noughties is going to be a completely different animal to that of the first decade of the new century. Why?

•    Brides are older
•    Pockets are lighter
•    Second marriages are more common
•    Same sex ‘weddings’ are the biggest growth market in the wedding field.

So how do you organise one of the ‘new’ Hen Nights?

First, the traditional Hen Night on the evening before the wedding is dead – anything from two to five weeks before the big day has become standard, to allow everybody time to recover.

Day is the new night – daytime activities have become much more popular, especially with older brides and same sex couples – and a lot of these activities are charity related: sponsored swims and runs etc. If you incorporate a ‘doing good’ component in your ‘feel good’ Hen event, get some printed caps showing the name of the bride and the charity she’s raising money for. You’ll often find you get a lot of public support from passers by which is a lovely way to celebrate. Daytime fun also means that your group doesn’t get too drunk too fast which is good, and allows everybody to get to know each other better.

If you’re organising a pamper day or spa weekend, why not have some personalised items? Personalised bags containing inexpensive supplies of nail varnish, face packs, massage oil etc are fun to share – if you pick a different theme for each bag (hair, feet, fingernails, eyes, lips, legs etc) you can each carry out beauty treatments for the rest of the group.

The drinking part of the party is always fun, but make sure that you carry a fully-charged mobile and everybody has your number – it’s really easy for people to get separated, especially if they’ve had a drink or two and then you have the hassle of tracking them down. One hen party had the organiser’s mobile number embroidered in tiny letters on their celebration t-shirts – it meant that even if somebody got lost (or passed out) the organiser could be contacted.

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There are a few basic rules to choosing uniform clothing:

•    Consult your staff – they are the ones who have to wear what you select, and they may not feel happy about wearing something too outrageous.

As an example, Air New Zealand’s newest uniform look has been criticised by staff who say the flamboyant pink dresses makes them look like drag queens.  The new uniform is due to appear in 2011. An airline spokesman the new look as ‘contemporary’ and offering ‘greater expression of femininity’ but a flight attendant who spoke to New Zealand’s Dominion Post said ‘The flight attendants look like drag queens’.

•    Consult your clients – they are the ones will think well or badly of your business depending on the uniform you choose.

In 2008, Thames Valley Police replaced some traditional helmets with an embroidered baseball cap to meet the demands of modern policing. But it turned out to be a failure – comments on the hats included the suggestion that it was ‘inappropriate to be in a baseball cap when having to tell a relative that a loved one had died’. And other commentators said the caps was ‘too similar to other uniforms, such as Burger King’. So the new kit has been replaced by the old kit, and everyone seems happier.

•   Consult your budget – buying complicated uniforms can be expensive, especially if they don’t work out.

Instead of following Air New Zealand’s example, start by adding a  pink T-shirt with a DTG printed image on it. If your staff and customers are happy with that, you can expand the uniform line, adding a cap, then a jacket with an embroidered logo etc, but if it doesn’t work out, the experiment isn’t too costly and doesn’t result in a public relations failure.

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Clothing carries a lot of social symbology – the hoodie, reviled as the clothing choice of anti-social youth, is also the garment of choice for the boxing fraternity, in fact it’s hard to find a picture of Amir Khan clothed, where he’s wearing anything else!

T-shirts are seen as the casual clothing chosen by those who are relaxed and out to have a good time, which is why Durham City Council has chosen them as a reward for good behaviour over Christmas.  When drinkers in city pubs by food or a non-alcoholic drink, they are being offered a black T-shirt with an image that resembles a rock band logo, saying Best Bar None, and the hope is that it will cut alcohol related crime by reducing binge drinking. Carol Feenan, Durham County Council Best Bar None Manager, said, ‘The free T-shirts are proving extremely popular amongst both customers and staff alike.’

So if clothing carries such strong images, what does your company’s uniform say about you? Would a new style polo-shirt improve your image of efficiency and calm, or perhaps smarter shirts with an embroidered monogram would help create the air of upmarket service that you wish to convey? Maybe your casual friendly attitude would be better conveyed by a slimline fleece than your current bulky jackets? Choosing uniforms that convey the right social symbology can really help your business generate the right impression.

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This week a trio of celebrities: choreographer Arlene Phillips, girlfriend of Arsenal star Theo Walcott – Melanie Slade, and fashion designer Tracey Boyd, revealed their take on classic white T-shirts.

Their designs are part of the Race for Life 2010 collection – raising money for Cancer Research UK. Always a summer wardrobe necessity the collection of white t-shirts comprises three very different styles which will earn money for the charity.

This kind of celebrity/charity tie-in is high profile, but it’s easy for a small business to develop a similar public profile – why not ask a local school or design students from a local college to create a T-shirt for your staff to wear for a sales promotion? Run it like a TV competition, with T-shirt face-offs where the designs are modelled by local dance and drama students, and a voting system and involve the local press in publicising it. You can give the winning T-shirt designer a prize and make a donation to a local charity of their choice to further increase your public profile. Then get the most popular T-shirts printed and worn by your team, it’s a positive investment in your business and a boost to local talent too.

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