To think so many middle-class clothes are ugly?

[RoyalFamilyFan]

I admit I am hardly a style guru. But when I joined Mumsnet people talked about lots of companies I had never heard of like Toast. So I followed links of clothes posted and looked at the websites mentioned. And was shocked at how ugly so much of the clothing was.
Shapeless grey dresses. Black loose trousers teamed with black tunics which make the model look like she is a member of a cult. Shapeless brown t-shirts.
They are just so ugly. AIBU?

@Thatsplentyjack

They might look better on taller people but it's no challenge to look good when you're tall.

I'm tall and that's definitely not true. What you mean is its bit hard to look good when you are really thin. I'm not massive but look ridiculous in baggy trousers or dresses like that because I have wide hips and wide shoulders. Infact I agonise over clothes all the time!

NOT hard to look good when you are really thin!

@RoyalFamilyFan

Or this. It is incredibly ugly. How can anyone see this and decide to buy it?

Christ that is awful!

@JaneJeffer

Ok as you won't post an outfit I presume you're sitting there in your nylon tracksuit typing away *@RoyalFamilyFan*

Yes that is what working-class women wear of course! I have already said what I am wearing and where I buy from for special outfits.

@RoyalFamilyFan

I like navabi for special buys. But mainly Isolde Roth. Some of the other designers are ugly.

I've just looked at the dresses on Navabi and 95% of them have very deep cleavages.

For me not showing cleavage doesn't make one 'frumpy', far from it.

@RoyalFamilyFan

People on here always go on about the quality of clothes. I ordered some Racing Green clothes on the basis of comments here about their high quality (when they first started). I sent them back because I was shocked at the poor quality. I honestly have bought much better in ASDA.

Maybe the shapeless grey dresses though are of great quality. But I don't want an ugly but high quality dress.

@RoyalFamilyFan - but a lot of brands have gone downhill in quality - I used to like Racing Green clothes too - back in the olden days when they first started and they were good quality, but I didn't even know they existed now and if you go on S&B board you'll see the odd complaint from posters wanting clothes in natural fibres.

Asda to me is always going to be high street fashion. The odd gem but not a huge amount, personally, for me.

I knew a lawyer who went on to work as Head of Department in a government law department - she mostly dressed in Tu Sainsburys but she carried it off well, so you couldn't really tell what was what.

@Hadtocomment

I don't know about the class thing but looking about the streets yesterday I was really struck with the drab colours everyone was wearing. The overall impression was very dreary with the dreary weather too. I notice this in the winter in particular. I wonder if we all do it subconsciously or whether we all just feel less outgoing in the dreary cold dark months and whether we would all cheer up a bit if we put on brighter colours particularly at colder times of year. I realised people are not even in bright wooly hats and scarves - everyone was in dark greys and dull near black. It's also a time of year where there are dark early nights and it would make so much more sense to be more visible and safer on the street - as the murky colours just merge into the background at dusk. I thought I would start to try wearing more vibrant winter clothes as an experiment. I only mention it on this thread as I notice a lot of the "middle-class" clothes posted are in very drab colours so wondered why this was. (Err and I agree the links you've posted are pretty awful OP! Very shapeless and with wear doily collars!)

This I agree with as a non British person who wears fuchsia and turquoise. :) I think British people think wearing colour is v daring. I don't much like black or grey; makes me feel sad. But this is only a personal preference.

@ChristmasCrackered

I think with Cos, the sack dresses are very distinctive/odd compared to other human clothes, so people in the know, will know you’ve spent a lot on it. That’s my theory anyway.

Cos isn't expensive. It's very good at looking like other much more expensive architecturally structured clothes.

I’ve never heard of some of these brands!!

I’m afraid there isn’t a single social class in the country that would accept me as a member!

So I’ll just carry on acquiring clothes everywhere from Sainsbury to Jil Sander, and everywhere in between.

Genuinely don’t get the rapidly escalated to vituperative tone of this thread. Why are some of you so offended by the style of other people’s clothes? I care about exploitation and environment, greed and harmful influence - those are things I bear in mind when browsing - but I can’t get angry because someone else likes a big collar or emerald green trousers.

I haven't RTFT, but would like to say:

• Boden make loads and loads of plain dresses. I have five or six Boden dresses but they're all in plain colours. The "obviously Boden" prints are marketed more but they're only one side of it. I buy clothes from there because they make petites.

• People with an "innate sense of style" almost always have a body shape that's favoured by the fashion industry, i.e. average height, small breasts, not much in the way of waist/hips. It's easy to be stylish if you're 5ft 6 and a 34B because the clothes are actually made for your body shape. Anyone who's short, tall, has large breasts or has a more defined waist-to-hip ratio has to go through a lot more stress and disappointment when trying to buy clothes. It's not that uncurvy people have an "innate sense of style" - it's that most clothes are made for them in the first place, so they have the luxury of choosing the most stylish clothes of what's available which wouldn't look good on most of us mere mortals.

Wait what’s architecturally structured clothes? I’m an architect so I need to know

Toast isn't for everyone. Some people look very chic in it. There are plenty of other semi-premium brands like Whistles, Sandro, Sezane, Maje etc which don't have the same style as Toast.

I would be fascinated to know where you shop and what you consider to be good taste.

@Wbeezer - great explanation!

@TremendeouslyJolly- not true for many provincial French and Italian towns and villages (have lived there). Cities, yes. Equally, if you walk around London you can see some of the most creative and well dressed people in the world. The UK also has some very eclectic fashion designer culture, some of the best in the world. More into Art/Philosophy/Feminism than just looking good.

@Porcupineintherough

Well heaven forbid that a woman might not give a shit about how she looks! Looking attractive is the primary purpose of womankind, after all.

Quite. Why we all don't wear bin bags and just be done with it, I don't know.

Cos always gets recommended but it’s so awful. And arket. Boring, shapeless nonsense.

Yanbu those examples are absolutely horrific. Esspecially the overall (or whatever that is) made me shudder and not with excitement. When I think of middle class clothing I think of Maje, L.K. Benett, Sandro, Phase Eight etc. not of frumpy art teacher clothes.

@Porcupineintherough

Well heaven forbid that a woman might not give a shit about how she looks! Looking attractive is the primary purpose of womankind, after all.

I was just coming on to say this! If a women wants to wear a sack dress why not? It’s not our job to look pretty. If you want to then crack on and enjoy it. But some people don’t give a crap.

I have a solid uniform of jeans, man sweaters in navy, grey and beige, Dr. Martens boots and a big overcoat. I’m happy as a clam.

@phishy I don't buy anything showing cleavage. There are as I said some awful things on there. But I have found gorgeous stuff that is real bargains.
Everyday I just wear plain colour jumpers and t-shirts. Pretty ordinary but comfortable.

Toast is a very strange brand these days. Going back about 10 years it did dresses with tight bodices, full skirts and in fantastic colours, a lot of silk dresses. I had a strapless lime and black striped full skirted dress with a matching jacket that I wore for special occasions and a water colour silk tea dress that I wore to a Buckingham Place tea party. I felt great in them. Nowadays there are no dresses I would buy. When I was 13 stone and 5'3" a toast size 8 was too big in the body and trailed along the ground. Now I'm a size 8-10 there is nothing I could buy, the size 6's are too big in the body and you can't have the dresses shortened as they are not cut for short women. It is also the case that everything is now very drab.
The knitwear is good, if expensive ( I prefer Brora). I have had T shirts and shoes from Toast as well, they are fine. Somehow, without telling us, Toast rebranded as a make for very tall people who are in denial about their true dress size.

I think this category of clothes falls into a similar category of Granny Chic.

If you are young (ish) or thin (ish) or have expensive other things (haircut, shoes) then this stuff can look fab on you. It says: I don't care about fashion in an overt way, I have money though to spend on this lovely unstructured stuff.

If you are fatter, dumpy, don't have the expensive hair/shoes/jewellery, then like with Granny Chic, it just looks plain.

Young girls wearing Granny Chic look cool, hip, and they blend it in with sexier clothing. Middle-aged women wearing Granny Chic look like grannies, which is fine if that's the look you are going for, not if not.

These 'plain' clothes are exactly the same, if they are genuinely worn by plain people with no other accessories/wealth markers, they would look like sacks, but if they are part of an overall look, on the right person they can look charming/deliberately simple.

@Cornisharchitect

Wait what’s architecturally structured clothes? I’m an architect so I need to know

It means oversized expensive grey and sludge brown clothes.

And as for the "sack" clothes like Cos etc - they are specifically made for fairly tall women with a willowy shape and small breasts, slim hips etc. It's easy to get that look to suit you when you're actually the right shape for them in the first place, but most of us aren't.

@RoyalFamilyFan

I like navabi for special buys. But mainly Isolde Roth. Some of the other designers are ugly.

Navabi only has 7 Isolde Roth items so I looked Isolde Roth up on Amazon. They're really not that different to some of the stuff you linked, OP.

www.amazon.co.uk/stores/IsoldeRoth/Homepage/page/136065B3-30C6-4517-9889-802397F0544B?tag=mumsnetforu03-21

Yes that is what working-class women wear of course!
I don't know know what class you put yourself in do I? You said working class people wear branded sportswear but so do a lot of other people. It hardly counts as stylish.

Like this.