A SPILT drink.... badly slurped soup... a jogged elbow.... And that's another dirty mark on your suit and a £10 cleaning bill. How much easier to let it all come out in the wash.

Washable suits have been with us for a few years now and for men who have to be suited and booted for a day at the office, they are an absolute boon. The good news is that they are more widely available and cheaper than ever. But do they hack it for style? And how well do they really wash?

ASDA

Cheapest washable suit: £30

Jacket £23, trousers £7. And, sorry, these looked it. Cheap and shiny and, when our guinea pig tried the jacket on, it was very unyielding.

MATALAN

Cheapest washable suit: £40

Subdued stripes at £30 for the jacket and £10 for the trousers, up to jacket at £45 and trousers at £20 - but at that price, you get one of the proper big bags in which to wash the suit. Looked and felt quite decent too.

PRIMARK

Cheapest washable suit: £28

Just one style and colour.

TESCO

Cheapest washable suit: £30

Charcoal grey at £23 for the jacket and £7 for the trousers. Lightweight and shiny - as though it should have a company logo embroidered on the pocket - but actually hangs nicely and doesn't look too bad until you get close to it.

There's a choice of about four different materials, all fairly subdued and the most expensive is £35 for the jacket, £14 for the trousers - definitely worth that bit extra. With the most expensive suit you get a cheap and cheerful suit carrier. Buy the cheapest and it gets stuffed into a couple of carrier bags like the baked beans.

MARKS & SPENCER

Cheapest washable suit: £129

£80 for jacket, £49 for trousers. These are mainly a mixture of wool and polyester and a bit of Lycra for stretch. Not only can these be machine washed, they can also be tumble dried. These were the most expensive washable suits we found and they look it. They have a high wool content so don't have that polyester sheen which is a bit of a giveaway on the very cheap suits. They look very good, hang well, keep their shape. A number of styles and materials - none of them desperately adventurous but not deadly dull either - and a huge range of sizes.

These were the most expensive we looked at and clearly the best.

Marks also do a washable evening suit, plus a washable white, one button Tuxedo in white at £120. Easy enough to risk a white jacket when you can wash it.

GREAT UNIVERSAL

Cheapest washable suit: £49.

Jacket £30, trousers £19. Three lengths, four colours.

ADDITIONS

Cheapest washable suit: £24 (special offer)

Jacket £18, trousers £6. Three lengths, four colours.

BURTON

Cheapest washable suit: £99

Just one style and colour.

HOW DO THEY WASH?

Well, no, it's not just a case of slinging them in the machine. Some of the suits come with a washing bag, which is a bit like a suit carrier, only as though made out of string, with lots of holes. You have to fold the suit very carefully inside it.

They wash at 40 degrees. And the trick is to get them out of the machine as soon as it stops. Some just have to be left to dry. Others can go in the tumble dryer, where again, the trick is to get them out immediately and hang them up before the creases set.

One of the suits - from Bhs who now don't seem to do them any more - was in a sorry state before it went in the washing machine. Very grubby and, having been shoved any old how into a bag, a mass of creases too. It came up brilliantly, the creases fell out and it didn't need even a touch of the iron.

VERDICT

Washable suits are here to stay. They do not yet come in the high fashion styles, but ranges are getting better all the time. And they really do wash with no trouble. They are absolutely ideal for work. And it's strange that they haven't really caught on. By now you'd have thought that most of the mass market suits would have been washable.

The bonus is that after washing, they smell much sweeter and cleaner than a suit that's been dry cleaned. And you've saved yourself a small fortune in the process.

BUYLINES

Valentine's Day is the cheesiest day of the year and Morrisons want to crank the cheesiness up a gear in 2006 with an exclusive Fancy a Date cheese. Creamy white stilton filled with sweet dates and passion fruit, a marriage of flavours creating culinary matrimony.

Well, it's sweet - very sweet - and it's different. Morrisons say their Fancy a Date cheese is perfect for Valentine's Day, being fragrant, fruity, with added passion (fruit). £6.99 a kg - but maybe you'd better get the red roses as well.

YOU'VE drunk the coffee, eaten the chocolate... now you can wear the T-shirt, when Marks & Spencer becomes the first mainstream high street retailer to stock Fairtrade clothing.

The 100 per cent cotton garments are made from fibre sourced in India, will bear the Fairtrade logo and will include include men's and women's T-shirts costing £8 and £7 each, and packs of socks priced at £5 and £4. The range may be extended to include children's and babies' wear. The Fairtrade-certified cotton used for the M&S clothes comes from small-scale farmers in India. In order to quality, farmers must meet certain standards relating to their working practices and environmental approach. In return, they get a guaranteed minimum price plus extra to use in developing their business or to put towards the community. The range should be in stores next month.

www.thisisthenortheast.co.uk/features/