Next time you move house, the removal men might make you an offer you can’t refuse: to take away your unwanted good quality clothing and shoes for free!

The items donated on moving days will go to a Pickfords warehouse where the NSPCC’s recycling partner Clothes Aid will pick them up. For every tonne collected, Clothes Aid will donate £300 to the NSPCC.

The new national fund-raising partnership is a first for the removal and storage firm and will allow the NSPCC to raise awareness of its helplines and other support systems via the removal teams who visit homes and businesses throughout the UK.

The linkage of national firms and national charities is becoming almost commonplace now, but local charities can also benefit from links to local businesses and your firm might organise something as simple as a packed lunch day once a week, when staff donate the money they would have spent on buying lunch to the good cause, right through to sponsoring clothing for charity workers that bears the logo of both company and charity.

One of the problems with smart business suits is that you tend to have to stop wearing them long before they are worn out. There’s nothing worse than somebody wearing the same suit week in and week out for years, or seeing the same shirt being washed and worn for months on end.  But what can you do with discarded clothing that still has months of good life in it?

In the USA, college students are being given the chance to ‘inherit’ smart clothing to wear to interviews. In 2009, a Kentucky college received more than 700 donated items from the community and outfitted more than 100 students. The so called Career Closet provides clothing from smart-casual polo-shirts and chinos for work placement interviews and career fairs through to fully formal skirt suits and laundered shirts for graduate level academic interviews.

The Closet also helps past graduates build a business clothing wardrobe for their first job, so that they don’t have the extra expense of buying new clothing as well as moving back home and job searching.

The claim being made in the USA is that many students show up for interviews looking unprofessional, because they either can’t afford dress clothes or don’t know how to look the part. This can be especially true of students who come from a family or culture where business clothing is not familiar.

In the USA, the students who take clothes are given the choice of leaving donations and that money is then passed to a shelter for the homeless. Many do leave money in return for their new wardrobe and others volunteer to help sort and organise the clothing that is donated.

In the UK, many colleges are trying to find ways to help their graduates through the lean years after graduation – perhaps your company could contact a local centre of further education and see if they would be interested in holding a ‘Business Wardrobe’ to which your staff can donate their worn, but still wearable, clothing?

The credit crunch has delivered a new way of doing fashion to those of us who don’t have much disposable income to devote to clothing. It’s called ‘slow fashion’ and it’s like the slow food movement.

What it means is clothes at disposable prices have lost their appeal and ‘made to last’ garments are taking their place as people make fewer and more carefully planned purchases.

Things to look out for are:

•    ’Trans-seasonal’ clothes such as gilets and sleeveless fleeces that can be worn over T-shirts on a cool summer day or over sweaters on a really chilly autumn or winter one
•   Organic fabrics which are considered to last longer, and damage the environment less
•    ‘New’ fabrics such as bamboo, which are long-lasting and tend to come from sustainable sources
•    Classic styling – things like Breton stripes, classic white T-shirts, enduring standards such as pale denim and navy jackets all keep their value and doesn’t suffer fashion ‘fall out’ whatever might be currently popular.

To make the right choices for a slow fashion wardrobe, ensure you pick one or two colours only and that everything you buy can be tied into those colours, focus on traditional styles rather than extreme fashion cuts and colours, and choose the best quality that you can, so that garments last longer and look good for their whole life.

A firm based in Halifax, Yorkshire, has undergone a rebranding and as a result, it’s helped fund the Yorkshire Air Ambulance (YAA).

Casual clothing saves lives

The construction company had dozens of bags uniform clothing with the old logo, ranging from health and safety wear, through to fleeces and hats and casual clothing – and it recycled them all through YAA which works with a partner to actually sell all donated clothing overseas. This process raises up to £250,000 for the charity to fund the flying ambulance service which helps save the lives of people like distant hill farmers and those stranded by weather or accidents in Yorkshire’s picturesque but remote areas.

Back to school for teachers

On the other hand, uniform could be a painful issue for schools. The new Education Secretary Michael Gove wants a dress code for teachers because he thinks both parents and pupils respond better to a smartly-dressed teacher.

But while headteachers can establish a dress code they are not able to impose clothing rules that could be considered as sexual, racial or religious discrimination. And that’s not the only problem – in 2008, a maths teacher was fined after insisting on his right to wear trainers and tracksuit bottoms rather than a suit. His argument was that he had taught at the school in question for a decade and a half without discipline problems and should be allowed to continue as he was. While the matter was resolved, it doesn’t bode well for the future – we expect children to try and contravene rules about uniforms, but not teachers!

The staff of a DHL depot have received an award after adopting an army platoon that was serving in Afghanistan.

The depot staff raised funds through a range of events and workplace competitions which was then used to purchase MP4 players and iPods, magazines, sweets, biscuits and other dry foods and even wholesale casual clothing to help make the lives of the soldiers a little more comfortable.

In 2009, they raised over £20,000 for a variety of causes including the Ava platoon, demonstrating how workplace initiatives can really help, not only by raising funds but by boosting morale and creating relationships that sustain people coping with extreme hardship.

The depot has been granted the Royal British Legion’s Friends of The Forces corporate award for its “extraordinary” work with the soldiers and DHL Droitwich’s Community Liaison Officer said, ‘At the end of the day, you may think you’re having a bad day at the office but it doesn’t compare when it’s hot, you’re getting shot at, blown up and you’ve got sand in every crevice of your body … If all firms could do what we did it would do a lot of good.’

Workplace charity initiatives range from supporting local playgroups by donating leftover paint and paper for creative play through to massive fundraising campaigns by national organisations to fund hospital units or mentoring opportunities offered to individuals ranging from potential athletes to disabled young people to ex-offenders or those recovering from serious illnesses.

Earlier this week, two schoolgirls, dressed in Edwardian clothing, buttonholed David Cameron on the steps of Number Ten.  They sold him a rose, continuing a tradition that has run for nearly a hundred years – since 1912 when Queen Alexandra started the Charities’ Charity by selling a rose to the Prime Minister of the day, who put it in his buttonhole.

The two 16-year-olds attend Francis Holland School sixth form, and were chosen for their exceptional charity work – both have been both volunteers and fundraisers for charities while studying at the school. They wore the traditional white dresses, pink sashes and straw boaters that have been the hallmark of the Charities’ Charity since it was set up by the Queen to sell silk roses, made by London flower girls to raise funds for her preferred causes. Today the recipient gets a rose pin made of enamel and Alexandra Rose Charities help  more than 250 other charities, many of which are very small and local.

The Charities’ Charity may have been one of the first to use specialist clothing to raise funds, but today nearly every charity with a national profile has charity-branded clothing such as slogan printed T-shirts, hats with embroidered logos or even ‘gimmick’ clothing like Pudsey Bear’s spotty bandana.

In the past week or so, literally thousands of fake football shirts have been pouring into England, but they haven’t been reaching their purchasers.

Counterfeiting experts and representatives of the major clothing companies are working with the staff of the international mail sorting office in Coventry to intercept fake replica shirts and T-shirts that have been manufactured in China, Thailand and Malaysia and sold online. It’s a multi-billion pound illegal trade that doesn’t just leave fans out of pocket: it’s been linked to drug trafficking and child labour.

Faked national and Premier League football shirts, cost anything from £9 to £30 from online counterfeiters while the genuine article, this year, costs between £35 and £58.  In 2009, over 50,000 counterfeit replica shirts, worth over £1 million, were seized in the UK, leaving a lot of disappointed customers and with the World Cup starting this week, that figure is expected to double in 2010.

What to look out for

•    Check that logos are real – even online you can often spot that a logo has been reversed, or isn’t entirely accurate.
•    Check that the website you’re visiting is legitimate – where possible, buy from retailers and services you know already or have been personally recommended to you.
•    Make sure you know the trader’s full address – especially if the company is based outside the UK. Don’t assume an internet company is based in the UK just because its web address has ‘uk’ in it – check out the physical address and phone number.
•    If the item or service is over £100 then consider paying by credit card this gives you some protection in the case of non-delivery or seizure by customs etc.
•    Look for websites that have a secure payment system (known as an encryption facility) – usually shown as a padlock image onscreen when you reach the payment stage.

Until very recently, there were rules that everybody stuck to when it came to clothing, especially in the workplace: men wore suits and women did too, unless they were secretaries, in which case they wore cardigans.  But now the clothing rules have broken down and in many places, new rules are being set and challenged.

In Singapore there is a law that says that ‘it is an offence to intentionally cause harassment, alarm or distress to another person through the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or display of writing, signs or visual representations’ – conviction could lead to a maximum fine of $5,000. While the law is not generally enforced, a complaint about vulgar or offensive images, graphics or text on a T-shirt could be considered as grounds for prosecution. Then there’s the Sedition Act: Chapter 290 of the Statutes of Singapore which says that anyone who produces, sells, circulates or imports publications and utters speech or produces words that incite hatred, contempt and disaffection towards the Government, as well as promoting ill will and hostility between different races or classes, is liable on conviction for a first offence to a fine of up to $5,000 or a maximum of three years’ jail.

Many young Singaporean students buy cheap T-shirts in Bangkok to wear on campus when they return home. Inverted crucifixes pentagrams and imagery that could be seen as misogynistic are all common on Heavy Metal T-shirts which are worn by students and could be subject to either of these laws. Recent publicity for the laws suggests that there may soon be a clamp down on clothing that doesn’t satisfy the national rules.

In the USA the Urban Outfitters retailer has also had a brush with controversy. A vest bearing the legend Eat Less in white lettering was being shown on their website, modelled by an extremely waiflike young woman – but only a couple of days after it went on sale, it was withdrawn without any explanation. It seems that a deluge of complaints from people with eating disorders and from the parents of young women who felt the slogan could lead to anorexic behaviour caused the disappearance of the item.

During its heyday, punk clothing was seen as disposable and anti-fashion, but this week a T-shirt worn by Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols, is to be auctioned, with an expected price of £10,000. The bass player was filmed wearing the T-shirt during the ‘documentary’ about the band entitled The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. It was designed by Malcolm McLaren, who was the group’s manager at the time, and bore a swastika. It features in some of the last photographs taken of Vicious before his death the following year – he succumbed to a heroin overdose at a party thrown to celebrate his release on bail in New York in 1978. He had been charged with murdering his girlfriend Nancy Spungen who was discovered stabbed to death in the bathroom of their hotel room. He then attempted suicide, assaulted a fellow musician, was arrested and bailed again before dying after he was released the second time.

Punk fashion became synonymous with buying clothing in bulk and personalising garments – often creating clothing that could not be reworn because it could not be washed or was too torn or damaged for sustainable use.

The dealer who is offering the garment on behalf of an anonymous seller says that the piece of clothing ‘sums up everything that punk and the Sex Pistols stood for: rebellion, controversy and provocation’, which may be true, but it’s definitely an unexpected twist in the history of punk rock to find that one thing that sums up the Sex Pistols is ‘good investment’!

Buying clothing online is a great way to save money, particularly if you can buy in bulk, for a sports group or children’s club, but it can also be a little daunting at first. Here’s how to make the best decision and buy the best bargain:

Buying for yourself

•    Before you begin to browse, get a good friend to help you take your own measurements – you need to know your chest, waist, hips, arm length and inside leg (which is the length from your crotch to the hem of your trousers) in both inches and centimetres. If you’re a bit shy about your inside leg – find a pair of trousers that are exactly the right length and comfortable in the fit, and measure them!

•    When you’ve got your measurements, browse the various styles and sizes offered online, because different manufacturers offer different cuts and styles and working out which suits you best can ensure your clothing looks great.

•    When you’ve found an item that suits you, why not order several different colours at the same time to avoid paying extra postage? If you get free shipping when you spend a certain amount this can essentially mean getting ‘free’ clothing instead of paying for postage.

Buying in bulk

•    Ensure you purchase from sites that give loads of pictures, and detailed information about size, fit and colour. The more you know about the clothing, the better informed your choice will be.

•    It’s a good idea, when placing a bulk order, to contact the retailer by email or phone explaining what you require and what your current first choice from their offering would be. Sometimes the retailer can offer you a better deal or simply point you to a garment that you had overlooked or disregarded – because they deal with so many people, online retailers have a vast experience of wholesale clothing purchases, how they are used and what works best for the buyer.

•    Make sure you know how the return policy of the retailer works – if you’re buying for a group you’re taking responsibility for ensuring that if you need to send stuff back, you aren’t going to incur a fortune’s worth of costs.

•    Check the privacy policy and online purchasing policy – a good online shop will have a secure system to keep your credit card details and personal information safe, and will also give you the chance to opt in, or out, of marketing information sent by them or by others.