Available for both men and women, the collections range from masculine boyfriend silhouettes through to skinny fit, with additional features including pleated waists and semi slim hems to create a sharp, clean, casual style.

CHINO

UNIQLO chino’s are offered in tapered cropped, long roll ups and shorts to offer a variation of lengths with neat, fine finishes including metallic donut buttons, roll seam and herringbone rear waist. The UNIQLO chino reflects the traditional roots and authenticity of the style, offering an original workwear look.

Genuine vintage style fabrics are used in the production, staying true to the chino tradition. Resin treatments are applied to high quality 100% cottons to produce a taut finish with a soft washed look.

CARGO

The new cargo pants offer a smart-casual look as well as the introduction of satin stretchable materials which offer an elegant sheen whilst retaining a well defined slim silhouette.

Details include smaller cargo pockets which have been re-sized to maintain a slim and sharp look, accentuating the sides with an emphasis on the fine details, such as stitching and zippers.

Seam detailing extends sharply down the leg to create a slimmer silhouette, emphasising the leg and drawing attention away from the hips. UNIQLO cargos are designed with the aim of highlighting the elegance of the leg line.

Using a stretch twill fabric, the trousers are presented with a pre-wash finish with fading introduced in a variety of shades including dark grey, hues of browns, khaki and dark green.

The UNIQLO Chino and Cargo collection can be found in the women’s clothing and men’s clothing sections of all UNIQLO stores and online at www.uniqlo.com/uk.

Cashmere women’s clothing options

Cashmere jumpers and sweaters are the obvious choice when looking at buying something soft and warm, but there’s a whole host of other items to think about. Perhaps the most luxurious is a cashmere blend coat or jacket, which transforms the scratchy wool that is sometimes synonymous with winter coats into a smooth, beautifully textured feel. Another key item for the remainder of winter would be the cashmere dress. Nights out become a lot warmer when you’re wearing a cashmere evening dress that hugs your figure and is super soft to the touch.

However, cashmere goes even further than just core items like cardigans and v neck jumpers, it’s also delved into the fair-weather footballer’s wardrobe with cashmere snoods flooding the internet this Christmas. However, it’ll struggle to beat a classic cashmere scarf for looking good while keeping your neck warm on frosty mornings on your way into work. Another option for this is going for a the cowl neck sweater, which is like a turtle-neck or roll-neck sweater, but not quite as tight to the neck, so you won’t feel like you’re being choked.

Lastly, there’s the world of cashmere underwear. While this is largely confined to sock and thermal underwear like cashmere long johns, but there’s plenty of scope for utilising cashmere blends in more day to day underwear.

What to wear with women’s cashmere clothing

With so many women’s cashmere options to choose from, you’re going to need to know how to wear them and what to match them up with. Firstly, cashmere isn’t like denim, where it has historically been seen as a taboo, until recent years, to wear more than one item of the same material. You could easily get away with wearing a cashmere dress, belted at the waist, underneath a pure cashmere scarf and cashmere blend coat. A jumper or cardigan could also be paired up with a blended pencil skirt and coat, along with a scarf for added warmth.

Cashmere jumpers and cardigans can be worn with a shirt or t-shirt underneath, or by themselves. A tight fitting black v neck sweater looks very classy on its own with a single pearl necklace, a thigh length skirt, dark tights and boots. They also look great casual with a pair of jeans, or smartened up for work with a shirt underneath.

How to keep your cashmere safe, sound and long lasting

By far the most important aspect of cashmere care is how you clean it. Obviously, in an ideal world you’d all be wealthy enough to have all your cashmere clothing dry cleaned at the drop of a hat, as long as the care label says it’s OK. However, this isn’t massively necessary, because cleaning cashmere is actually a lot easier than some people fear. The majority of cashmere clothing usually has hand-wash instructions. If a product says that it should be specifically dry cleaned then that’s your only real option if you want to keep it looking great, but for all other cashmere products you can simply wash them in warm water with a little mild soap or shampoo.

Wringing cashmere products is a big no no as it will weaken the material over time. Instead you should roll the item up, ideally in a towel or another dry cloth material and squeeze it gently until the majority of the water has been removed.

Drying your cashmere clothing is also important. Drying flat should be favoured over hanging as it will prevent the material from stretching. Always use a covering material between the item of clothing and a lukewarm iron to get rid of any wriggles that might have appeared from washing.

UV-blocking capabilities have been added to the fibres of the UV Cut collection to help protect the skin from ultraviolet rays. The function has even been added to stretch broadcloth shirts, despite the fact white shirts normally allow a lot of light to pass through the fabric.

As well as women’s t-shirts and shirts, UNIQLO have developed knitwear with the function, whilst keeping the soft texture of the fabric.

The UV Cut collection will be available from late spring in the women’s clothing departments of all UNIQLO stores and online at www.uniqlo.com/uk.

Available for both men and women, the collections range from masculine boyfriend silhouettes through to skinny fit, with additional features including pleated waists and semi slim hems to create a sharp, clean, casual style.

CHINO

UNIQLO chino’s are offered in tapered cropped, long roll ups and shorts to offer a variation of lengths with neat, fine finishes including metallic donut buttons, roll seam and herringbone rear waist. The UNIQLO chino reflects the traditional roots and authenticity of the style, offering an original workwear look.

Genuine vintage style fabrics are used in the production, staying true to the chino tradition. Resin treatments are applied to high quality 100% cottons to produce a taut finish with a soft washed look.

CARGO

The new cargo pants offer a smart-casual look as well as the introduction of satin stretchable materials which offer an elegant sheen whilst retaining a well defined slim silhouette.

Details include smaller cargo pockets which have been re-sized to maintain a slim and sharp look, accentuating the sides with an emphasis on the fine details, such as stitching and zippers.

Seam detailing extends sharply down the leg to create a slimmer silhouette, emphasising the leg and drawing attention away from the hips. UNIQLO cargos are designed with the aim of highlighting the elegance of the leg line.

Using a stretch twill fabric, the casual trousers are presented with a pre-wash finish with fading introduced in a variety of shades including dark grey, hues of browns, khaki and dark green.

The UNIQLO Chino and Cargo collection can be found in the women’s clothing and men’s clothing sections of all UNIQLO stores and online at www.uniqlo.com/uk.

Styles range from skinny, straight and loose fit in selvedge denim for men’s jeans, to boyfriend, tapered and jeggings for women’s jeans, always with an emphasis on shape, cut, and design details.

From fit through to fabric and finish, every element of UNIQLO UJ denim is defined by the quality, design know how and technological adventurousness that defines UNIQLO collections as a whole.

Experimenting with 3D fabric, KAIHARA developed colour retaining fabrics and the latest dyeing technology, ensure UNIQLO denim continues to set the pace in the denim market.

The UNIQLO UJ jeans collection will be available in all stores and online at www.uniqlo.com/uk from January 2011.

Leggings Combinations

Leggings have heartily proved their worth in fashion and they are one of the most versatile items of clothing that you can have in your wardrobe. Couple up a pair of brightly coloured leggings with a skirt that can be short or long depending on the look you are going for and you can get a trendy 80s look that was reborn in the 2000s. While wearing a cashmere jumper with a pair of black or plain-coloured leggings is a whole different look that has a rather more conservative appeal.

Check out these common leggings combinations that offer completely different looks:

• Leggings plus mini-skirts, knee-length skirts or shorts
• Leggings plus casual cashmere jumper
• Leggings plus smart blouse
• Leggings plus knee high or ankle boots
• Leggings plus trainers

Many choose to use leggings to get a casual look by wearing trainers and a vest top when they go jogging while others use leggings for a very sexy look that can be had with the use of knee high or even thigh high boots. Plush cashmere cardigans or loose jumpers can be worn with leggings to create a relaxed style but what you accessorise with can also make a massive difference to a look.

The Timeless Appeal of Jeans

Jeans are another fabulous item of clothing that can be used to create various looks and styles, from tight jeans worn with boots for a sexy style through to baggy jeans worn with a t-shirt for a cool surf-chick style. Mixing and matching jeans with various styles of footwear, tops and even accessories can make entirely different styles and it is easy to use different colours to make even bolder fashion statements, so if you are looking for a wacky look, buy a pair of orange jeans and team them with a green top and pink flip flops…

Accessorise, Accessorise, Accessorise

Mixing and matching clothes is an easy way to form new styles but you can go even further with the mix-and-match trend by using various accessories as well. Hats are a fun way to jazz up an outfit with baseball caps giving a sporty look, while a trilby hat offers a fashionable edge to an outfit.

Here are some of the most common accessories available to make different looks for different outfits:

• Bracelets, necklaces, earrings and rings
• Hats and belts
• Bags and shoes
• Hair clips and bands
• Toe rings and anklets

The style of your accessories will determine the overall style of your entire look. If you wear casual jeans with a delicate cashmere cardigan you will be rocking a fairly conventional look, but if you choose to fold your jeans up, wear a pair of sexy ankle boots, carry a designer handbag complete with endless silver jewelry and a chunky belt, you will create a far more modern style.

Being fashionable is mainly about personal style and the idea behind mixing and matching is that you get to avoid being type cast or labelled as conforming to any one particular style. Rock your leggings and cashmere sweater with flat shoes and no accessories one day and change your whole style by wearing the same clothes with dangly earrings, sexy thigh high boots and a funky hat the next.

Mix and match your wardrobe and have fun with your style…

Early Uses

In the 14^th century, down was used in bedding but it was reserved for the very rich, however, by the turn of the 19^th century down bedding and clothing was a far more common sight. These types of beds were originally called feather ticks and were valuable possessions, often passed down through many generations through family wills. Geese and ducks became popular farm animals as their down was highly sought after and the increase of kept birds made down more affordable to the average person. By the 19^th century, many families used down jackets but the first recorded use of down in clothing came in the 1500s when a rich Japanese ruler showed off his feathered jacket.

The original use of down in clothes and bedding took copious amounts of time to prepare and until the 20^th century people had to air down in the sun and wind in order to reduce damp. Some chose to store their down in warm, dry spaces indoors but this preparation time is now handled by machines. For hundreds of years, eiderdown was tightly quilted by hand and what was labelled as being eiderdown was often actually goose down. This practice no longer happens as tighter laws prevent companies from false advertising and machines usually handle the stuffing of the down to create down jackets, bedding or other clothing.

What is Down?

The majority of down jackets or coats are made from duck or goose feathers and down is a specific type of feather that baby birds have before they grow their adult feathers. Down creates an insulated layer of soft feathers beneath the outer layer of the adult feathers and 90% of down is a by-product of birds that are killed for their meat. The most sought after type of down comes from a duck called an eider and these ducks live in cold climates such as Iceland. Currently, around 70% of down comes from China while Siberian goose down is also popular.

Down outerwear is used by men and women and thanks to today’s vibrant fashion world, down jackets are available in a wide range of sizes, styles and colours to ensure everyone can look great and feel warm and cosy at the same time. Many companies pad their down jackets out with non-down feathers or synthetic materials but the best down jackets will contain around 90% of down feathers for the best insulation. Down is a light material that is perfect for keeping warmth in without carrying a lot of excess weight from a large puffy coat.

Down Outerwear and Other Uses

Down coats and outerwear items have been around for centuries and they are now commonly used in a variety of other things as well. Here are some of the most common:

• Sleeping bags
• Pillows
• Bedding
• Duvets
• Down coats and jackets
• Body warmers

Down coats have been popular ways to stay warm against the cold elements that Mother Nature often throws our way for hundreds of years. However, the last two decades has witnessed a big transformation in the technology used in down coats and other outerwear as companies increase their offerings from simple down jackets to down jackets that are generally more lightweight and use special heat technology. These types of clothing are popular with people who reside in cold areas around the world but they are also ideal for explorers looking to climb mountains or spend time in unusually chilly regions.

Everyone hates the winter denim conundrum; you want to wear your favourite pair of skinny jeans with your new boots, but can’t face the chill through to your skin. Developed in partnership with leading fibre manufacturers Toray industries, HEATTECH fabric is made with a high-tech rayon mix that actually absorbs the moisture generated by the body and converts it into heat, keeping you super snug warm during the winter months.

HEATTECH jeans and trousers are the perfect way to fight the cold and stay stylish, from top to toe.

The UNIQLO HEATTECH jeans and trouser collection for women are priced at £29.99 and available in all UNIQLO UK stores and online at www.uniqlo.com/uk.

About UNIQLO: UNIQLO have teamed up with Toray Industries to produce innovative, heat generating men’s and women’s clothing to keep the country warm throughout the cold, winter months.