So If the High Street shops are listening to MN, what would you say to them?

[AnnabelleDarling]

After yesterday's revelation that PRs are stalking the board to see what we think, I have decided to get something off my chest

Why, why, why do shops show clothes in ads and at press days that never make it into the shops? This has driven me mad for years, I remember a leather top from Wallis years ago, and for the last month I have been searching for 2 items which I'm now fairly certain will never be available to us mortals. One is a TopShop sweatshirt I saw on a few blogs which has never been on their website and a sales assistant told me today that several people have asked for it but it has never come into any of the stores she is aware of. The second is a bomber jacket from Miss Selfridge that was in last months Red and despite daily checking of their site and scouring the shops, I have never found it.

Stop doing this! If you advertise an item them make sure that it is actually available for purchase

[lucyintheskywithdinos]

Sort out your buggering sizes.

[Doshusallie]

Please make things in a size 11

[AnnabelleDarling]

YY Lucy, although I love the thrill of fitting into UK 6 jeans in Gap ignores the fact that their sizes are ginormous

[QueenOfThorns]

Maternity wear in store, not just online, please. I'm talking to you, Next!

[RockMummy]

Stock some colours other than black. It makes most people look older than they actually are!

[PeazlyPops]

Yes please to a a size 11!

Also, what's with the tiny hems? They are a bastard to iron, please bring back proper hems on the bottom of t-shirts/tops.

I've also noticed that tops are getting shorter. I'm petite, but even "normal" tops sit a little too high for my liking, I wan tops to come below the button on my jeans, not above!

[Ikeameatballs]

Sizing, sizing, sizing.

Nice, simple well cut clothes.

I am also sick of sheer/holey tops!

[ViviDeBeauvoir]

Sizing!!
Enough of the vile polyester, patterned shit.
Cut and quality are v important.
When you are pregnant your sense of style does not leave you entirely, therefore trying to sell me badly made, badly cut polyester, garishly patterned shit or something with a 'witty' bump reference on the front, which is only available online is going to piss already hormonal me off.

[BelindaAllWorkedOut]

Size consistency is important - the high st is wasting our time and their money (cost of returns due to customers ordering multiple sizes).

More natural fibres. Realistic prices for polyester.

Banana Republic - please update your suiting. We have moved on from wide legs. Slimmer, cropped suiting is needed. Please make some properly small sizes. I should not be wearing size 6 in your items, when I am a 10 at TopShop. Where are the small people meant to shop?

Jigsaw - you need to update your pieces. Mango are doing better, cheaper cotton suiting. Be afraid.

Warehouse - easy on the polyester, eh? We miss your silk items.

Oasis - you found a cotton supplier - well done! How about some half sizes in your shoes? Please.

Mango - you have some gems, but my god it's hard work finding them! Fab jewellery, though. You need to do leather handbags, by the way.

[ShoeWhore]

Yes sort out your sizing please.

Not all of us want to wear high necked tops. They do the well endowed of nork no favours at all.

More natural fibres and less polyester please

[BelindaAllWorkedOut]

Btw please don't make your silk tops and shirts so thin. Except for you, BR, your monogram silk shirt is super.

[BelindaAllWorkedOut]

Wow - we speak with one voice in this thread.

[Lottapianos]

Right!

Women come in all shapes and sizes. Very few of us are built like beanpoles with no boobs and no bum and no hips so please stop acting like 80% of us are.

The average bra cup size in the UK is now a G. So please stock decent bras for a proper representative range of sizes, not just those below a D cup. Us poor buggers have to go to 'specialist' bra shops which, while well worth it, costs a flaming fortune

A wider range of sizes is a great idea. Having lost some weight I'm now a size 13, where 12 is just a bit too tight and 14 looks way too big

Use proper quality fabrics. I don't expect to pay 20 for a cotton t-shirt and then have it go bubbly after the 3rd wash

Better range of flat shoes please - cool ones, not hideous ones. Ditto trainers - women want a range of colours, just like men have, not just pink sparkly crap

Stop selling ridiculous and insane stuff like crop tops, microscopic skirts and shoes with 6 inch platform. No-one looks good in them and no-one in their right mind would choose to wear any of them if they weren't sold as being 'fashionable'

Ah, that's better!

[SinglePringle]

Zara, you are brilliant at creating interesting, fashionable clothing. I really really like your stuff.

BUT.

In the last year, your quality has gone to shit. Seriously. I bought a dress, seam frayed. Exchanged it. Same seam fraying. Hems are falling down on skirts and shirts and buttons fall off on the first wear. Embellishments fall off after one wash. And I do buy the appropriate size!

Oh and also, Zara, a size 12 is not 'large' as was demonstrated on the label on a pair of jean I bought recently.

[Lottapianos]

'Not all of us want to wear high necked tops. They do the well endowed of nork no favours at all.'

Completely agree. And for the love of sanity, please make more high waisted trousers. Lots of high waisted trousers please. With pockets. Very few of us have washboard stomachs and 'hipster' and 'low rise' are hideously uncomfortable and flash your knickers to all and sundry.

[Dozer]

Most British women are not slim enough for most of the clothes!

Where are the nice basics in natural fabrics and range of colours?

[squoosh]

More knee length dresses with sleeves please.

[StrawberryCheese]

YY to more bra sizes. We really need to move on from stocking a ridiculous amount of 34" back. Bring it down to 28" please!

[SinglePringle]

Jaeger, please rethink your decision to ditch Jaeger Boutique. I bought 4 dresses over the past 2 years. Expensive, yes (around £150-£200 each) but beautiful quality, young enough for this 40-something but not too young and timeless classics. I still wear them all and shall continue to for years.

I will pay good money for good classics. Please don't ditch this brand.

[DebbieOfMaddox]

Sleeves. Sleeves are nice. And, given that low-rise trousers appear to be here to stay, tops that are long enough to not leave a midriff gap whenever you raise your arms above shoulder level. And if you sell bras, measure people properly (not like M&S with their weird randomness) and stock a proper range of sizes.

And I expect to be able to wash things more than twice before they fall apart or start looking like shit.

[TeaAddict235]

please sell REAL leather items and stop the faux crap that rips by the time I get home!
more normal lengthed trousers, we are not all scandanavian models with legs to heaven.
also looser underarm tops so that my pits can breathe.

[SinglePringle]

Oh and M&S, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, stop putting bright coloured trims on your black / white bras.

Here's the thing - if I want a black bra to wear under black clothes, I don't want it to have a white, pink or red trim. They might show through, see?

And ditto that x a million with white bras.

STOP PUTTING COLOURED TRIMS ON WHITE BRAS.

Thanks.

[McFox]

Maternity clothes need to be in the stores, and be much, much better. I didn't lose all sense of style because I got impregnated! Bugger off with the endless horizontal stripes and slogan tshirts. And while you're at it, dispense with under bump jeans/trousers - they don't stay up on anyone!! Also, not every pregnant women was a skinny Minnie before, so can we have some clothes that suit size 16 upwards too please instead of skinny (under bump) jeans and tshirts?

M&S - why go your nursing bras only go up to a size DD? What is the bloody point in that?!

Large size belts should actually be large. If I can't get it round my waist, or onto any hole other than the 1st, then it's clearly not large at all. Or should women over a size 12 not wear belts?

Dorothy Perkins - you do some lovely dresses, but the material is a nightmare for going static and crawling up my legs. Having to readjust every 5 steps is not a good look, please sort this out.

That was liberating

[borninastorm]

Clothes designed for real women who have curves and lumps and bumps and boobs. Perhaps have them designed by women rather than men, as men don't know what it's like to have boobs and to feel constricted in clothes that just don't move in the right places.

Sizing - can we please have real sizing for all clothes. I'd like to be able to buy a top or trousers that are measured for my sizing, eg not a size 10 (which is a different size in every shop) but actual measurements like 34" chest, 30" waist, 28" leg. I'm fed up buying clothes that have to be altered to fit me!

Please remember that none of us are standard sizes, we're all individuals with individually shaped bodies and your poorly sized clothes make us feel bad about ourselves.

I actually wrote a blog about my struggles to find a dress for seriously 'dress to impress' event, Size is Everything, hope it's ok to link to it?

[ReginaldBlinker]

Make your tops longer.

Sell tall sizing in stores, not just online. To the (5') Saleswoman who told me that, I could try on the jumper for the effect, then just imagine it longer, erm, no. It doesn't work like that.

Sort out your bloody display racks. If I wanted to shop in a jumble sale, I wouldn't be on the high street.

Educate your sales people. Nothing worse than asking someone in a shop for help locating something, and them just staring blankly back (or worse, just lying to say they don't have it so they don't have to do any work).