I just don't like the current clothes fashion

[Jourdain11]

I've been on a few clothes-shopping expeditions lately - trying to replenish my Covid-depleted wardrobe - and I've come away virtually empty-handed because I cannot find any clothes I like or which look good on me. I don't know whether my perception is weird, but the current fashion seems to be for women to wear clothing shaped like sacks! Some women look amazing in it, but unfortunately I am not one of them.

Am I being weird about this, or does anyone else wish they could find clothing with some semblance of shape? Even dresses seem to be either shapeless or like something out of Little House on the Prairie!

I'm not very 'girly', but nor do I wish to dress in a duvet cover with holes for the arms and neck 🤔

Why are there items with tags on? Why haven't they been returned? Seems suspicious to me.

Does it matter?

Yes everyone online seems to be dressing like a sister-wife. However around here, everyone is dressed like Princess Diana going to the gym aka cycle shorts and an oversized tee. I look ridiculous in both trends and I had a baby 8 weeks ago so most of my clothes don’t fit. I just want a couple of nice shirt dresses and maybe a pinafore dress. I’m actually tempted to do a -gasp- Shein order as they have the clothes I like in plus size.

I don't want to look like a milkmaid, so I've bought very little this year. I did a journey by train recently and noticed one very grumpy looking woman who bore a close resemblance to Deborah Meaden. She was dressed in a green and white gingham tiered dress with puff sleeves and it looked so strange. She stomped off the train and across the car park as if she wasn't too happy too, it just looked like a mature woman wearing a child's dress.

I took my discerning almost 9-year-old with me shopping. Boy, was that a mistake! Even the things that I thought were okay were met with comments such as:
"That one's kind of okay if you make your eyes half-closed when you look at it."
"It looks like it was made for a biiiiiiiig person, someone bigger than you"
"We had one like that in the dressing up box!"

Gotta be honest, I think there is a big push on gender-neutral clothing, which is not shaped for the female body. I took DD to a store which had a section of gender-neutral kids clothes, thought it might be a good option for picking up some bits for football, and she loudly announced: "Mum, those clothes are for boys" (in the most withering tones, as if boys are swamp monsters.
"They're not, it says they're for both genders, there."
"Well, it might say that, but look at it! Really they're made for boys. Everything is made for boys." (Here follows multiple examples of things which suit the needs of boys better than those of girls. I swear I haven't been reading her Caroline Criado Perez as a bedtime story...)

I’ve believed that for years! There’s definitely something going on…

Yes, I'd rather not buy stolen goods.
If it's from someone who left it too late to take it back, fair enough.

I have to say that John Lewis is currently very disappointing, having been a staple for me. Their own lines are terrible.

i just shop at beyond retro and depop and vinted and ebay tbh i have the same style for years and never really change it up hahah so i need old clothes
haven't been shopping in real shops for new clothes for absolute years tbh

It's just cost - shapeless sacks take half the time to sew than a garment requiring darts and tucks to create shape, don't need experienced seamstresses and can "work" with a much wider range of body types.

Best solution is to learn to sew your own clothes. Absolute control over fit and materials! And once you find a pattern that works for you it's very easy to make minor adjustments to give you a bit more variety. I've made 4 tops from the same pattern in the last 6 months, but they all look quite different - one pattern as is, one with flutter sleeves, one cut higher on the waist, one turning the scoop neck into a v. I only started sewing seriously last summer, so these aren't changes that you need to be wildly experienced to manage!

This is what drove me to sewing again. I am a plus plus size and the clothes choice was awful.

Now I can find a fabric I like and a pattern I like and away I go.

It isnt cheaper than fast fashion and I would probably be sacked from a sweat shop within the first hour but by golly it is satisfying.

Fabrics:
poundfabrics.co.uk/
www.poundametre.com/
fabricgiant.com/

www.mumsnet.com/talk/arts_and_crafts/4455203-Stitch-and-bitch-thread-4-I-needle-the-help-I-can-get?page=34&reply=118994569 if you want moral support

I think that it’s to justify the stratospheric prices. The cost of the prestige labels like Dior and Gucci has soared in the past ten years. Probably because there is more money around to buy them: plenty of new Chinese and Russian money, for example.

Those labels don’t want to sell clothes in volume. They want to sell a limited quantity, at high prices, to keep the exclusivity. The exclusivity then sells the handbags, sunglasses and perfume, where the real money is made.

Even if you were a Russian oligarch’s daughter with all the money, you wouldn’t necessarily want a pair of plain black perfectly cut trousers from Gucci. You’ll want what you’ve seen on the catwalk, which will be the attention-grabbing stuff that other women in your circle will recognise. The loud orange 70s style trouser suit, for example. So the designers are kind of incentivised to produce borderline barmy clothes: the buyers aren’t necessarily buying them because they value quality, flattering classics. Chanel has (kind of) stuck to that, but not the other prestige labels.

I really struggle to find clothes that a) I like and b) fit/suit me! I used to love simple tailored and lined shift dresses for work from M & S or Debenhams or John lewis but there are none. They all have peplums or puffed shoulders or frills or aren't lined. And I haven't found a pair of trousers to fit for years as my hip/waist measurement is clearly way off standard and they are always too short (34" inside leg). I've bought several skirts for work from charity shops and I'm really happy with them. Unfortunately the dress that was labelled a 16 is a very small sized 16 so its going in the next charity shop bag.

My mum has offered me her sewing machine and I'm really tempted to start making my own dresses - it can't be that difficult can it? And I could do my own tops too.

It’s a nightmare! I feel really out of touch with fashion currently. I mean, I’m 45, so the high street isn’t marketing at me anymore, but BOY does it show.

I don’t like floral midi dresses.
I don’t like tea dresses.
I don’t like shapeless sack dresses.
i especially hate calf length / long midi shapeless dresses, that make me look two sizes bigger than I am and like I ordered a maxi dress that’s a bit too short!
I don’t like loose, wide-legged jeans or trousers.
I don’t like big, clumpy footwear.
i don’t want to reveal my midriff.

I’m a tall hourglass with a bit of a tummy.
I REALLY need shape, structure, a bit of tailoring.

At the moment I barely shop on the high street.

My work wardrobe consist entirely of secondhand dresses from Vinted, as I can get tailored dresses from Hobbs, Jaeger, LK Bennett, Ralph Lauren and blazers/jackets/coats from Massimo Dutti at cut-price.

Summer has been so hard, as I detest EVERYTHING in the shops.

Winter should be easier, I hope.

It seems to go from one extreme to the other, either oversized sacks or ridiculously structured so that you need a very specific body type to look good. I’m a size 10/12 but struggling to find tops/dresses that fit properly as I’m a G cup and half the things I try on I end up with the dreaded double boob, or they’re spilling out the side. I’m in my early 20s so not sure if this has always been the case for bigger chested girls or if I’ve only just noticed it in the last few years

I'm really in need of some smart black trousers for the office/meetings but cannot find any anywhere that don't have an elasticated waistband. I have zip front tailored trousers from before lockdowns which are now very well worn. The comfort style trousers that shops seem to think people want are not smart enough

PPs talking about liking the floaty style, I LOVE floaty clothes - I basically live in secondhand beaded Monsoon skirts and silk shawls, like a 1970s art teacher. But the stuff that's in the shops now isn't floaty, it looks like balloons stuffed into a gingham sack! I never see anyone of any age wearing it out and about so I'm not sure who's buying it, but someone must be as they keep producing it

@Takingabreakagain

At the risk of sounding very in-fashiony, M&S still do some decent black work trousers in varying styles. I like the not-on-trend tapered or slim fit 7/8th or ankle grazer ones, but they do wide legged and straight styles too. No elastic waist, zip front, varying lengths, not to expensive (£35 I think?).

Boden do some nice ones too, although more £££.

That should have said UN-fashiony.

Look at it another way. No-one needs very formal structured clothing for office work any more.

The black trousers you've seen are absolutely fine.

People don't see the waistband anyway as it's covered by your top, as tucked in shirts aren't expected either.

@witheringrowan

<waves to a fellow sewer>

www.mumsnet.com/talk/arts_and_crafts/4455203-Stitch-and-bitch-thread-4-I-needle-the-help-I-can-get?page=34&reply=118994569

if you fancy some moral support

Shirt dresses work really well.

It’s a nightmare, I know fashion and graphic design is cyclical but can we skip the awful 80s era please.

stranger things is not a modern fashion guide

My previous ones were M and S so not very formal at all. I have to meet members of the public so want to appear smart.
I just want smart trousers that don't stretch round the waist as the stretchy waist ones don't hold in my tummy rolls 🙈

Oh and I've had to use the local seamstress to take up the hem of a couple of dresses and change the sleeves on one of them.

Thanks @FrogsOwls I had looked in M and S a while ago but maybe there was too much summer stuff around then. I'll have to go back and try again