Fuming with M&S and high street clothes shops in general

[tectonicplates]

I've just found out that M&S petite clothing is now online only. You can't even get it at the big M&S in Oxford Street any more.

As a petite woman, I'm sick of being treated like a second class customer. I'm sick of everything being moved online when I specifically went to the shop to try things on. I'm sick of places like Next who'll make knitwear in ten colours in the regular length, but only black, white and grey in the petite length.

But I'm also losing patience with this whole "decline of the high street" thing in general. Every time I try to go clothes shopping, the shops are full of crap, bad quality clothes that don't fit. And then they complain that nobody is buying anything. I don't really know why I'm supposed to feel sorry for shops when they don't sell anything we want.

I really hate the material that’s used for clothes all the time now; this clingy ultra thin polyester that shows every lump and bump. All the shops use it, can’t get away from it. No linings either for many tops, skirts and dresses- you have to buy another chemise top to wear underneath to stop your bra and tummy showing or a petticoat to prevent skirts and dresses clinging with static or being see through. Ok for summer I suppose and I have many sheer tops for when it’s hot but it really gets on my nerves that clothes are not made from thicker materials for other times of the year which last and don’t fade so quickly. Primark is fine for basics in my view but their dresses are hideous! Some are so incredibly old ladyish and might look fine when you’re 20 but not when your 50. Just an absolute dearth of styles for women over 40 on the high street. More online of course but they do get expensive like Jo Browns. I use charity shops, eBay etc (although I use eBay less now as you can’t return second hand items if they don’t fit or you don’t like) I think many of the clothes in Next are hideous and plain. No quality bags either unless you spend £200 plus. All these cheap PVL bags ( is it pvl or Pu?) from the shops that look terrible after 6 months and break. Awful for the environment as they get thrown away to landfill once the top surface comes off and the colour has worn away My girls at secondary school go through them quickly, so unless I spend hundreds on Michael Kors for them I’m stuck with these bags that I have no idea what to do with once they are pretty scuffed. Same with shoes- awful quality that don’t last. Prices are high so I shop in supermarkets and occasionally M and S for my kids. There is just so little choice in shops and yes I agree we all being pushed towards buying online instead. The whole high street experience is pretty grim and I hate many of the styles and choices on offer. It’s either young and overly sexy at ages 16-30 - extreme ripped jeans and cropped tops or over to frumpy slacks and boxy shirts in that smooth horrid polyester for maturer women. I could rant for ages! I have to alter many clothes I buy with shoulder straps often too long so the dress hangs off my boobs but fits me around the middle so I cut the straps and lift the dress up as I’m apple shaped. Fashion has totally lost it’s way at the moment and my 15 year old agrees; she finds it hard to find clothes she likes, plus all this environmental damage our insatiable need for clothes has become. Anyone who is tall, short, plump ( like me!) or not 20 anymore is really struck with online shopping only or some supermarkets. Very depressing really. Rant over!

Yep same with plus size stock often online only. Nothing at all in our local John Lewis. Likewise the n London Boden shop last time I wasted a journey

I think a lot of women don’t shop in the petite section even though the clothes would fit them better. I get tired of telling my mum to get jeans and things from the petite section, and even though she’s around 5 ft 2 she refuses to think of herself as petite as she thinks she’s not thin enough.

My local (very small) Dorothy Perkins has petite and tall sections you could try there.

I am 5 feet tall and live in a small city. There are only three places that sell petite clothes now.

There is a tiny Wallis petite concession in one of the department stores. Next has a petite range. I buy from both when budget allows.

Top Shop might also have a petite range, but it’s always full of young students and teenagers who tower over me, so I end up feeling too untrendy to go in.

Most clothing from other shops makes me look out of proportion and tends to fit one part of my body but not another = not flattering at all.

Another one here who also has a tall friend who laments the lack of tall ranges.

And good post RupertBear15

Agree with people saying the same applies to being tall. Most shops don't stock the longer lenght trousers in store anymore and direct you to their online service and I won't mention trying to find long sleeved tops that go over your wrists..

And well said RupertBear15

Kazzy that’s why I was so cross with M&S the skirts are plastered everywhere a new line, yet completely sold out.

Some of the Monsoon stuff is nice and different, and not wildly expensive. I think they do petite.

Tell me about it OP. While I know I should be sad about the 'failing high street' and people losing their jobs is awful, I also feel a sense of schadenfreude as a 5'2'' woman who is very hourglass shaped.

Don't even get me started on the lack of petite (or indeed tall) maternity clothes. There seems to be an assumption that one you have conceived you immediately become average height.

Monsoon stopped making petites a few years ago.

I agree with you totally. I work in a city so I go into the shops often. I am small and can never find any of my sizes in the shops. Everything has to be ordered online. And I used to size 8, now I’m a few kg heavier and size 4 or 6. You never can find these sizes in the shops:(

There are gaps in the market.

Can't find anything to buy myself.

Nor do I see many people around wearing anything I would want to copy.

Personally I think the trouble is the price point. Clothes used to be much more expensive and we kept them for longer and took care of them. We have got used to cheap clothing now. It is not bespoke anymore.

Have you looked at Madeleine online and they send out catalogues. They do a range of sizes and all in Petite. Beautiful but more expensive than the high street.

Madeleine clothes look lovely - I have never quite justified the expense though! I did send for a couple of cashmere jumpers last year but was disappointed in the quality. I like Pure Collection - you can often find discounts and offers with them. Cashmere is beautiful.

I can't see any petites on the Madeleine site.

Same for the curve range in Dorothy Perkins- core range return to store easily money back in a day or so curve/tall range I have to go to the post office and wait 2 weeks. I'm actively refusing to shop there for that reason nevermind the fact that i can only buy it online!

Tectonicplates the sizes underneath the description normally have petite or normal up to size 20. They have really good sales and an outlet site. Also good customer service. I don’t work for them I promise!

Tall clothes all online only too. I'm 5'9", which was properly tall when I was a teenager but is only averagely tall now - my 14 year old and lots of her friends are as tall or taller than me. But clothes are no easier to come by.

Good quality clothes cost a king's ransom.

I still have to wear a suit to work and the mid-range options that were available when I started work (admittedly this was sometime back in the Cretaceous period) have disappeared.

Now I have a choice between the woman oligarch range on the one hand and the Waynetta Slob Crown Court suit selection on the other. Plus all blouses, tops etc are in polyester. So I have started making my own clothes.

I’m 4ft 10in and quite often the petite range is too big for me as well. I have the added fun of being a size 16 apple shape with a 26in inside leg and quite short arms. I also have a overhang from 5 pregncies. It’s a bloody nightmare trying to find clothes that fit.

M&S stock the weirdest selection of sizes. I occasionally go into their Moorgate branch (City of London) where by nature of the place, most women who work there are younger and thin. Yet in this M&S, the only sizes ever available are the large ones (18+). I recently tried to buy a pair of navy trousers in an emergency but of the 5 types available, only one had a 12 on the racks

I’m 5ft4, usually hourglass shaped and currently very pregnant. Can’t find a single thing on the high street!

Agree. I’m not petite but I used to love high st shopping and went to Bluewater at least once a week. Now I mainly buy from a tiny shop in my village, a woman who sells at my gym, a friend who sells on Facebook and Tu at Sainsbury’s.

The high street is over, stores need to wake up to this. Too many shops got too big so they can’t actually stock all the sizes in long/short etc. It’s all drab or poor quality. I went in Debenhams two months ago on a Thursday afternoon and I was literally the only person in the store.

Surely fast fashion is designed to be worn for a season- a few weeks at most. That’s the point of it isn’t it?

My problem with online shop is g is the fabric and the sizing. Every store sizes differently. I get some gym stuff from an American company and their Medium is what I would describe as Small or Extra small here. In others, Medium is massive. If I see something I like the look of, I try to see what the fabric is made of, but I’ve been caught out more than once with fabric that’s unpleasant to touch, or thicker or thinner than expected.