How much do we spend on workwear?

The first nimby

Who coined the term ‘nimby’? 

— The expression, from ‘Not In My Backyard’, entered the political sphere in Britain in 1989 when it was used by the then environment secretary Nicholas Ridley to describe people who were in favour of house-building in general, just not near where they lived. He was later ridiculed when it emerged that he had objected to a development next door to his own Gloucestershire home. 

— But the term originated around a decade earlier in the United States, when it was applied to people who were opposed to the dumping of nuclear waste near their homes. The first mention has been traced to a piece in the Daily Press in Virginia in 1979, quoting a member of the Atomic Energy Commission saying that the ‘nimby syndrome must be eliminated’.

Suit yourself

We don’t all get our work outfits for free. How much do we spend on workwear? 

Last year, the UK workwear market was worth £15.07bn