How to shop for work clothes

Clothes shopping is usually a nightmare unless you take a series of important steps in your planning. Because the key to clothes shopping is the planning. Make sure you know when the shop or shops you want to visit are going to be as quiet as possible.

Usually a weekday morning, first thing is a good time to go buy new clothes. That's it; you got to the shop entrance at a quarter to nine and wait. It's worth the wait because as soon as the doors open you'll have the place to yourself, or at least nearly to yourself, for a good hour before anything resembling a crowd walks in and starts getting in your way and blurring your focus about what to look for. Crowds of noisy, elbow shoving and equally single-minded shoppers are not particularly helpful when you need space and time to get the right clothes.

The same could be said for shopping for work clothes. Except if you go to a specialist work clothes store, they always seem to be reasonably quiet. I was out trying work clothes the other week - trousers and a new jacket were the items of protective clothing I needed to replace.

Given I can wear them comfortably all day, I'm glad my job is in the building and carpentry trade. Because I rarely wear the sorts of clothes you'd buy in a conventional clothes shop, and thus rarely have to go through the struggle of finding the right style and fit amongst an array of ‘fashion' clothes that probably would fall apart after two hours of the type of work I do. You don't want to have a jigsaw going through your hands.

What I like the most about buying protective work clothing is the ambience of the store. Everyone there is there for a purpose, and it's not some vanity or style reason, it's because they've got a job to do and recognise the other customers are more or less one of them. So there's a bit of solidarity, and certainly no pushing or shoving, and hopefully no screaming kids.

I tried on a jacket, and then another, and another, until I found one with the right sized pockets, quality and components. I already knew what pair of work trousers I was going to buy - the same as my present pair. I tried a pair on anyway just to make sure I had got the right fit.

Then for the clever bit of my buying work clothes activity: at the end of the clothes section was a range of casual wear. So in the peace and quiet of the shop I tried on a shirt and another pair of jeans. No shoving shoppers or loud blaring music. The casual clothes I tried on were not too fashionable or stylish; they just looked presentable and well made.

I walked out with some new protective work clothes and by getting some casual clothes I had saved myself a trip to the high street. Obviously the owner of the shop and I are on the same wavelength.

Sarah Maple writes about power tools and hammer drills.