Boden, Joules, and the rest are not expensive

[prorsum]

We're just cheap. I am on a very, very low income so everything is expensive to me, but I have clothes from my higher income days. The cost of these items, Jigsaw, Laura Ashley, Monsoon, the odd Whistles, bought in the early 00s are similar to items I see online.

[prorsum]

Boden may be overpriced frump but the price is comparable to the cost of clothes I bought 15 years ago. I don't understand how this is done. Boden are deemed expensive but how can they be. In reality aren't their prices normal and the likes of Primark and new look excessively cheap? We've accepted as consumers hikes in the cost of gas, food, house prices all sorts of things except clothing. I think the likes of Primark has really changed our perception of what clothing should cost and it's not good.

I'm sorry if this thread has baffled people. I really don't know how else to phrase my aibu.

[PunkrockerGirl]

Boden is overpriced frump, imo. Hell would freeze over before I'd wear any of that shite unless I wanted to look like someone's elderly granny having a stab at being fashionable.

[OuchLegoHurts]

I still don't understand the OP!

[TwartFaceBeetj]

But £80 in 1999 is the same as £125 now

I don't understand what you are getting at?

As pp poster said isn't it all relative to what you earn/have? £125 for a dress could be nothing to some people and may be deemed cheap, £125 for a dress to someone else is just lunacy.

[HoneyDragon]

90% if mine and the kids wardrobe is second hand. The rest is H&M or La Redoute.

[googoodolly]

I couldn't justify spending more than £20 on an item of clothing, tbh, and even then I buy very rarely. £80 for a dress is extortionate imo!

[Pigriver]

Recently we have become very used to cheap 'fast fashion' clothes on the high street. Now he idea of spending £25 on a top seems expensive because you can get much cheaper, lower quality items from certain shops. I am guilty if it too, my mum even worse.
But when I look at what is in my wardrobe it is rubbish and never lasts long (frankly ideal for my job working with 5 year olds!). The things that last are the more expensive items, usually bought in the sale money off vouchers or eBay.
It just seems to be a change in mindset. When we were younger we had less and things did seem proportionately more expensive. You had 1 pair of shoes and 1 coat instead of the masses we have today.

[flora717]

Look at the cost of fabric, consider what you're rate per hour is. A lot of clothes are underpriced. But they're not UK sourced.

[sharonthewaspandthewineywall]

They are expensive to me. All that money to look like someone pottering round an allotment/nct nearly new sale. Yuck

[ApignamedJasper]

I think it's all relative really. If you are a millionaire, £200 on a dress doesn't seem like much but if you are on benefits or MW it's ridiculously expensive. I've always considered the examples you gave as expensive because I've never been able to afford them. I think that's my definition really if I can comfortably afford it without getting myself into financial difficulty, it's cheap or reasonable. If I can't, it's expensive!

I do think things cost more though, a few years ago £15-20 seemed about standard for a pair of jeans in the places I shopped. Now it's more like £30+. Same with tops and things, I'm often shocked by the prices of clothes in not at all upmarket shops (New Look, etc). Mind you, I mostly shop in charity shops so most things in shops seem extortionate

[prorsum]

Yes I think they are. Or the quality has gone down the pan.

I'd never heard of Boden til MN either.

[MissDuke]

Because from an environmental perspective I can see your point - my dd's friend has literally 20 pairs of cheap shoes, why? Ok, they probably cost the same as my dd's two pairs of shoes from Clarks, however they have lasted the whole school year (school shoes and trainers) and she wears one or the other everyday and has no need for other shoes. Yet when she grows out of them, they only take up a smidge of landfill space compared to her friend's 20 pairs. I still don't know if this has any relevance to your op

[MissDuke]

So, are you saying that clothes are too cheap?

[Whiskwarrior]

That dress does actually sound lovely but it's not something I'd ever wear. I work in a primary school, so clothes need to be practical more than anything and I can't see me romping about the beach or the local castle in anything silk!

I suspect I don't really have much interest in nice clothes. My boys are the same (jeans and trainers for playing/climbing in) and DD shops at New Look.

[prorsum]

MissDuke I wonder if iabu in thinking the general populace or Mumsnet, samething, has lost track of what clothes should cost.

I'm not a good internet communicator.

[TheFairyCaravan]

I'm talking about an everyday skirt, btw.

[TheFairyCaravan]

We're not on a low income but I think £50 for a skirt is expensive. If it were a nice, plain skirt I might consider it, but not one with the ridiculous prints Boden have at times.

[Babyroobs]

I love Boden clothes for my dd,butvery rarely pay full price. I use the vouchers that they send me and my dhor only buy sale stuff or second hand off Ebay. Some of the kids T-shirts I've purchased in recent years have been poor quality and faded really quickly.

[MissDuke]

I have never heard of the shops in the op's title, however a thread yday claimed that next is inexpensive for kids clothes - I strongly disagree!

I buy clothes in supermarkets/primark and charity shops. I think it is really silly to spend extra just because of the brand name, and if the quality is so good, why not just buy 2nd hand?

Sorry if that has nothing to do with the op, I didn't understand the AIBU

[prorsum]

whiskwarrior My Laura Ashely dress is beautiful actually. Silk. Yellow. Cost £80 in 1999. I doubt I could get one for the same price these days.
I'm on benefits too but I have not lost my interest in nice things.

[GlitzAndGigglesx]

I find Monsoon expensive especially the kids clothes but if I was on double what I am now I'd probably buy the odd things in there because I like the quality and style. I shop mainly in H&M because I find the quality and pricing good

[curlyweasel]

Ahhh I was pulling your leg x

[bigbuttons]

Boden is ridiculously expensive for the quality ( which is crap). The kids' stuff seems to wash ok, but the adults' stuff doesn't wear well IME.
I am a single parent on a low wage and no way could I contemplate paying those sort of prices.
But, I see a lot of that here. I guess people have much more money than me ( not difficult, sadly). I saw a thread recently where they were discussing how good some gap trousers were for work. One poster ordered three in different colours to try and decided to keep them all. I would struggle to justify one pair full price.