The Harris tweed jacket worn by Matt Smith as the current Doctor Who has caused a local storm in the Hebrides – the original tweed design was ‘swapped’ for a similar jacket that is made partly from an acrylic fibre.

The handwoven tweed was apparently not ‘warm enough’ for outdoor filming and the new jacket, which is an exact copy of the 1960s original, is both warmer and lighter.  But the weavers who make Harris tweed are deeply unhappy about this slur to their product and also somewhat confused that the copy is more expensive than the hand-made original! A replica of the replica will be available for fans to buy from October 2011, and to the complete confusion of the Harris tweed industry, it will cost £360. A genuine Harris tweed will cost … £250.

But there’s a wider question about what can be worn in the workplace. Inappropriate clothing causes accidents, which can sometimes be serious, and suitably designed and made clothing doesn’t just prevent problems, it can make the working day easier and more enjoyable.

Acrylic mixes may not be popular with the tweed industry but in school uniforms, for example, they provide a crease-resistant, stain-rejecting fabric that allows parents to spend less time washing and ironing and more time supervising homework and having fun with the kids!

In the USA, we’re constantly told, they are facing a workplace epidemic of obesity costing $168 billion every year – which is 17% of all medical bills in the States.

Dealing with this isn’t easy, especially for employers, and in the UK, large companies are looking to their US counterparts to see how they can best manage the issues surrounding workplace obesity and welfare.

It seems that Americans may be recognising that they need to lose weight and that many are focusing on ways to get slimmer and fitter at work. According to a survey of nearly 6000 workers, 18% claimed they had lost weight at work in 2011 compared to 16% in 2010. But 43% admitted that they had gained weight in their current job.

Reasons for this increase include comfort eating as a result of the increased stress of a recession; longer work hours leading to more time spent seated at work and a tendency to buy the cheaper (and therefore less healthy) options in work canteens and from fast foot restaurants.

28% of American employers say they provide gym classes or gym membership as an employment benefit and around half of those say that they provide places for people to change into sportswear or casual clothing so they can take part in classes or even go for a jog in their lunch break.

But around half of the companies also say that they are concerned about the additional costs of larger workers, ranging from extra time off sick through to having specially made clothing for those who exceed even the XXXL size in which many items of workplace clothing are now made.

There are some concerns in the USA about the role of uniform clothing in spreading disease in hospitals. The item of concern is scrubs, the overall style clothing worn by nurses and support workers in healthcare and the fear is that without proper guidelines, staff may spread dangerous bacteria like Clostridium difficile and MRSA.
The problem may arise when people wear their uniforms outside of hospital settings – such as on their way to and from work. This would permit outside infections to travel into a hospital setting on the clothing but also give these transmittable conditions the chance to leave the hospital and contaminate the outside world.

Many institutions insist that people do not travel to work in their uniform clothing and leave it behind when they depart so it can be specially laundered to destroy any bacteria, but some do not and this is what is worrying health specialists.

Prince William had a different concern when choosing the uniform to wear to his wedding: he didn’t want to be suffering from heat-stroke! The tailor who made his uniform says that William ‘knew all the cameras and lights would make it very hot in the Abbey’ and they worked together to ‘get the look he wanted while using material to absorb the heat and make sure he didn’t pass out in front of two billion people across the world.’

In designing the outfits, which were hand-made, a special pocket was included to hold the ring so that Prince Harry couldn’t lose it!

Maurice Harary, a 23 year-old New Yorker spent last Sunday night building a website on which he was ready to sell T-shirts commemorating the death of Osama bin Laden by 4am, New York time, on the Monday morning. In 48 hours he made more than £60,000 in sales. That was more than 10,000 teeshirts selling for around £6 each and featuring slogans such as ‘Obama killed Osama’ and ‘Osama’s back – not!’ Zazzle too has had thousands of orders for merchandise related to Osama Bin Laden’s death. A spokesman for Zazzle said that American feelings had been ‘… boiling up for 10 years and this is the moment where people can finally express this sentiment.’

But while Osama bin Laden T-shirts are popular, they are not universally so. Many religious and cultural leaders across the USA have suggested that the T-shirts may inflame racial hatred and cause reprisal attacks.

In the UK, campaigning Labour leader Ed Miliband walked into a controversy when he was photographed with a Nottingham Labour candidate sporting a T-shirt claiming ‘A generation of trade unionists will dance on Thatcher’s grave’.

The matter was raised in the House of Commons where it was described as being extraordinary and ‘in appallingly bad taste’. However Mr Milliband has said he didn’t read the T-shirt and deplored the message it contained and his apology for any offense has been accepted.

While thousands of items of clothing in a Huddersfield warehouse have been destroyed by fire, it may not all be bad news. The fire on Saturday in an Oxfam warehouse was so intense that a structural engineer was called in to advise the fire fighters on the risk of building collapse. It took fire crews eight hours to bring the blaze under control and thousands of tonnes of clothing and other textiles donated by the public have been destroyed. The warehouse is run by Oxfam Wastesaver, the arm of the charity that grades the donations received to be sold in the UK, exported as second-hand clothing, or recycled.

But tonnes of second-hand clothing delivered to Miyagi Prefecture, one of the areas hardest hit by the Japanese earthquake, have been left uncollected and are now being destroyed. Not only clothing but blankets and nappies are being disposed of by the authorities who are struggling to distribute goods to the disaster-hit zones. The unwanted donations include wrong-sized clothing, garments that are not appropriate to the climate in the area and textiles that are too old or worn out to be useful The problem seems to affect around 80% of charity donations in some areas, and is often the result of boxes being sent by church or school groups – often sending uniforms and work clothes – rather than by charities which understand the need for sensible, long-lasting clothing.

Also, many Japanese not affected by the quake and tsunami have chosen to give large amounts of clothing to those who are, so donations that have familiar labels and sizes are being preferred to foreign garments. Now many cities are listing the items they still need on municipal websites to prevent unwanted items being sent. Many people still need tinned foods, bags and toiletries.