Clothes can peg your colours

Growing up, the phrase "the clothes maketh the man" was an injunction to eschew jeans for chinos and T-shirts in favour of collared shirts.

- Kevin Ritchie

There's a lot of truth to it; try getting an upgrade on a flight when you're in slops, PT shorts and a slogan T-shirt, versus a suit and tie, or going to the boss to wheedle an increase.

But just as the clothes we wear tell the world a little about who we want to be seen as, we've got to be careful of being condemned by association.

For a while in the '80s, khaki clothing – the old tough cotton pants and button-up shirts beloved of farmers and boarding school pupils alike, was rendered toxic because of its association with right-wing extremism.