‘Karl’ is an online fashion collection which will be offered to net buyers for a month before it is made available in shops.

It’s an increasing trend which analysts identify as being part of the move towards rejuvenation of the fashion industry via the web. Online clothing retail has become a large growth area in otherwise moribund economies, and brands like Versace have seen it as a way of maintaining exclusivity for differing areas of their clothing empires, for example by having an online brand specifically targeted at preteens that doesn’t impinge on their established brands for adults.

In the ten years from April 2001 the overall value of online clothing retail grew by an astonishing 3,200% according to a report by the Interactive Media in Retail Group. This may be in part due to the fact that better-off individuals are more likely to buy named brands and also less likely to be suffering the effects of the recession. Mid-range branded clothing is also growing comfortably through online retailing and group purchasing has increased, suggesting sports teams and small companies are focusing on the benefits to be gained from buying uniforms or team clothing online with free postage, easy returns and discounts for larger orders.

Burberry and Coach have also moved into the online retail market which offers several other benefits, including the ability to discount more heavily. Sports brands such as Nike and Adidas in particular are keen to expand their access to new markets and this is likely to mean that online shoppers benefit from bargains in the months ahead.

A few weeks ago, clothes2order.com received an urgent call from the renowned haute couture hat and handbag designer, Philip Traecy. He needed a design printed on a T-Shirt within two days as it was going to be used in a photo shoot for Selfridges ‘The Shoe Galleries’ campaign.

The campaign’s aim is to encapsulate the moment when a little girl tries on her mother’s shoes for the first time, showing the experience from the child’s perspective. With the shoes being too large and in a variety of colours they appear almost cartoon-like. This idea led the creative directors to come up with the Shoeper hero who solves any shoe crisis and fulfils your shoe dreams. Philip Traecy had to make this concept a reality and designed a T-shirt for clothes2order.com to print in time for the shoot.

 “I can’t thank you enough for doing such a fantastic job for me. I really appreciate it”

A few weeks on and the Selfridges campaign has been printed in the Autumn issue of The Sunday Times Style magazine with the Shoeper hero and his T-Shirt taking centre stage. We are really happy with the results and a big thank you to top desinger Philip Traecy for choosing clothes2order to help deliver his vision.

Many companies, or even colleges, end up as brands.  Laurie Essig, over at True Slant, is bemoaning the way the college she attended, Franklin and Marshall, has become one of the most wanted casual clothing brands in Europe and Japan, without the actual clothing line having anything to do with the college at all!

At the same time, HMV are hoping to turn around a declining market share by creating an ‘entertainment-inspired’ clothing range that launches in June. The line will feature rock and film imagery on music themed T-shirts aimed at the 18-30 male market and checked shirts and scarves for ‘festival-chic’ women. It’s the spearhead of a strategy that will move the company away from its traditional lines of CDs and DVDs into more ‘lifestyle’ sales.

So while your business might not seem to lend itself to establishing a strong clothing brand, it’s worth considering if the next Caterpillar boots trend or the rapidly building craze for cowboy hats could launch from, or help support, your business.  There’s a current desire for retro style aprons which any catering or hardware company could tap into, by creating branded pinnys for sale. And skinny leg jeans are being supported by husky work shirts, which is a great chance for engineering and trade businesses to put their workforce into fashionable uniforms that can also be sold or given to clients as a goodwill gesture.

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.

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.

Meryl Streep courtesy of Adonis Chen

There have been a series of articles about the vintage hotties who are currently wowing the world: Sharon Stone and Helen Mirren, Susan Sarandon and Meryl Streep, all of whom have had major cinematic hits at a point in their lives when female movie stars used to become almost invisible. Their clothes have garnered as much attention as their performances – with Sarandon’s red dresses and Streep’s swing coats turning up on catwalk models half their age or less. But one thing few of them have been photographed in … is a T-shirt.

That doesn’t mean women over a certain age shouldn’t wear T-shirts – two of the UK’s finest talents: Judie Dench and Julie Walters, both made red carpet appearances in formal-style T-shirts this year, and Meryl Streep brought the long sleeved jersey T-shirt back into high prominence in The Devil Wears Prada, but it does mean there are new rules to be aware of.

Midriff baring is best left to the under thirties who have abdomens of steel – even the faintest wrinkle or bulge will look glaring if your skin peeks out from under your T-shirt.

The arms matter. In cap or short sleeves, you have to be sure that there isn’t some arm strangle going on – sleeves should be relaxed, not clamped around a body area that does tend to show one’s age at the best of times. For spaghetti straps, make sure you don’t end up with a back fat bulge – it’s not seemly. And while the very young can probably get away with three or four straps on each arm, for vintage ladies it’s probably best to just wear one set of straps and a good supporting, strapless bra.

Oversized T-shirts (Dawn French apart) are not good for public appearances unless you’re on the beach. It just gives the impression that you’ve surrendered to your age, or that you’ve had a senior moment and pulled on your hubby’s T-shirt by mistake. A fitted T-shirt is alluring, especially one that’s specially shaped to the female figure

T-shirts with clever slogans are great, but if you’re over twenty, you need to step back and ask if the message is so important that you want it across your chest. What’s cute in a teen can seem like a brash statement in somebody with age and authority on their side – Katharine Hamnett may have made a career out of T-shirt messages but be very sure that the words you wear really do define the person you wish people to see.

Everything is up in the air: banks, recessions, hemlines in Milan … but Dior rocked Paris fashion week with an upbeat show that looked like Paris Hilton meets the Colombia Pictures Lady with the Torch.  A lot of the appeal came from a kind of fusion-tribal theme: snakeskin skin jackets and corsetry – often with embroidery, clinging T-shirts with studs, and short, transparent pleated skirts a la cheerleader. Dresses continued the theme, they were sheer silk, very draped and heavy with crystal embroidery.

When Americans go to vote, they need to watch out for the fashion police.  Anybody wearing an Obama or McCain T-shirt to the voting booth can be fined, removed from the area and possible even held by the state police.  There are several states where any form of advertising for the candidates is classed as electioneering (trying to persuade others to vote in a particular way) but Kansas has the strictest laws, including specific guidelines on what not to wear and that includes T-shirts.  You can’t ‘wear, exhibit or distribute labels, signs, posters, stickers or other materials that clearly identify a candidate in the election or clearly indicate support or opposition to a ballot question’ all of which are classed as ‘Election Crime’ The no-electioneering bubble extends to 250 feet in a circle around the door of the polling station and people turning up in T-shirts with election slogans or candidates’ faces on them are usually asked to turn the T-shirts inside out before entering the 250 foot zone.

Election crime T-shirt courtesy of jurvetson

Or has it?  Only a few months ago, every T-shirt you saw had a sarcastic or offensive message. Divas were seen in T-shirts that said Dump him, while Big Brother contestants sported tops saying, I stole your boyfriend, and of course guys were wearing MILF emblazoned T-shirts to school sports days.  But now it seems we’re becoming nicer.

Why?

One theory is that election years (USA) and potential elections (UK) bring out our desire to share positive messages rather than negative ones, or in other words, to persuade people to our way of thinking, not shock them with it. Regardless of the reason, many of the T-shirts being shown alongside this year’s skinny-leg jeans are ‘happy’ message or ‘higher purpose’ ones.

Happy ones show self-esteem or support for a positive cause eg ‘vegetarians have happier days’ while higher cause ones seek to make people think about something bigger than themselves.  John Lennon wouldn’t have been surprised by the Love & Peace T-shirts being worn in LA last week for the teen fashion festival, nor by sweatshirts begging us Give Earth a Chance. The key feature of these T-shirts is that they are not ironic or clever – just simple, sweet and somewhat retro – either featuring rainbows or the current fad, tattoo-style printing.

So are we all getting nicer, or are we just saving our nastiness for the elections?

Love myself T-shirt courtesy of cgparkhouse

What is it with Australians and their T-shirts? Back in May Dom Rebel put the most expensive T-shirt in Australia on display ($1000, a diamond studded skull design) and now, a beaded and frilled T-shirt featuring a print by Del Kathryn Barton is going on sale at $400 as part of Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, starting in Melbourne tomorrow.

It’s not what you expect of the average Aussie, is it? Given the national identity with grunge clothing, sport and rough-and-ready humour, this predilection for pricey T-shirts is peculiar to say the least. However there is some method in the madness. The expensive T-shirt was commissioned by Sydney label Romance Was Born as part of a ‘Limited’ exhibition of specially commissioned T-shirts which will be sold to the public after a presentation at the GPO shopping complex in Melbourne. Other designers include Alpha 60, Ksubi, Rainer and Bassike, who all contributed custom-designed T-shirts to the Limited project. One of the organisers of the event said, ‘We wanted to celebrate the humble T-shirt, because it’s where a lot of Australian designers have their beginnings … most people wouldn’t pay that much for an average T-shirt, but this one is special, it has become a work of art.’

Alexi Freeman show, Melbourne, courtesy of fashionistar

The area, which gave a start to many a famous name from Bernard Gant of Gant shirts through to Calvin Klein, and is home to the Fashion Walk of Fame, is shrinking fast. Fashion designer Anna Sui wants to save it, and she’s trying to do so by using fashion to save fashion – along with scores of other names in the fashion industry she’s exploiting the high profile of New York Fashion Week to get the message out. And the message itself is carried by a classic black T-shirt stating Save the Garment Center.

The problem is that new zoning laws have changed the way buildings in the district are classified and many landlords are hoping to turn what have been factories into luxury lofts and chic hotels, nice for them, with rising rents but not so nice for small fashion contractors who will have nowhere else to set up their small but essential businesses. Sui, Vera Wang, Nicole Miller and others are encouraging their fellow Council of Fashion Designers of America members to help promote the T-shirt which also bears the email addresses of New York City officials who can be petitioned to change the zoning – those rather less than stylish addresses are on the back of the fashion-statement T-shirt, by the way! And if Sui has her way, those details will be seen on the backs of many a model as she does her catwalk turn …

Anna Sui courtesy of Budjit