Label victims

According to a study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers, a pair of £8 jeans has been found to be better made and longer wearing than a £123 pair.

Sceptical? Well, ten pairs of ladies' jeans and ten polo shirts underwent rigorous testing in fifteen different trials aimed at judging the garments’ colour-fastness, seam strength, shrinkage after washing and resistance to abrasion.

In general, the cheaper items fared better than their more expensive rivals, with the £8 pair of jeans coming out on top and the £123 pair lagging behind in fourth place. Full marks also went to a £12 polo shirt, while the £85 shirt came in fifth place.

Andy Garbutt, retail expert at PWC, said: 'We didn't test for fit, fashionability or brand. We purely looked at the quality of the clothes, how well made they were. And it is clear that there is no longer a link between quality and price. It may not have been the cheapest clothes that won, but it was often the second cheapest.'

While a £115 saving might seem appealing in the run-up to a credit crunch Christmas, unfortunately PWC has refused to reveal the names of the retailers tested for fear of 'damaging relationships' with clients.

Whiter than white

When you've got a tan the best thing you can possibly do, to annoy those who remain white as a sheet at least, is wear a white shirt. Showing off your healthy, glowing skin (you've sun creamed and after-sunned correctly, etc) is augmented with a nice crisp white shirt.

And, perhaps that's why one shirt seller has reported a massive 50% increase in the sales of white shirts in 2009. Others though, suggest it's a way to appear professional (or go unnoticed) during these tough economic conditions. But other shops have reported no sharp increase. So why has this happened? Any ideas fair readers?

Football shirts = money

This time last week fans of Manchester United were rueing a, let's be honest, pretty terrible display from their team in the Champions League final. While their detractors were of course smiling from ear to ear.

Still, no point wasting time dwelling on such defeats, thought the board, and promptly secured a deal worth £80 million over four years for the next shirt sponorship, with financial firm Aon. Isn't that amazing? A brand can make £80 million from selling space on their shirts. Only sport could provide such power to a brand to be able to secure such huge revenue - indeed this is the largest ever football sponsorship deal, vastly eclipsing Bayern Munich's £56.5 million pound deal from a few years ago.

But, whatever the value of the space, it can't help you play any better. As Barcelona proved - they let Unicef use their shirts for free.

Behind every great man...

So despite what we all thought, that Obama was a snappy dresser and so forth, it turns out, from his wife of all people that, 'he knows nothing about fashion'.

This is a wonderful extract from the story, from Michelle Obama: "He's always asking: 'Is that new? I haven't seen that before,'" she said, revealing that she replies: "Why don't you mind your own business? Solve world hunger. Get out of my closet."

The idea of Obama mooching in a closet, idly running his hands down some clothes, wondering if something is new, before being admonished to 'solve world hunger', is a bizarre one, but it's nice to know the Obama's have their cute domestic moments too.

Hawaii (shirt inventor) dyed, oh

Over the Christmas it's fair to assume you may have missed the news that the inventor the Hawaiian shirt died. His name was Alfred Shaheen and he was the ripe old age of 86. His legacy will live on for even longer though as the Hawaiian shirt is one of those garments that never really goes out of fashion - perhaps because it's never in fashion?

Regardless, in honour of the man and his fantastic design, the latest Company Clothing blog poll concerns the ownership of Hawaiian shirts. It's anonymous, so you can tell the truth, without fear of reprisals. Or you can proclaim your love of the garment to the world and his dog (blog?) in the comments section below. The choice is yours.