To feel so disappointed in clothes shopping now compared to what it used to be like?

[mrsgreggspastry]

AIBU to think that there used to be far more choice and just more appealing clothes than there is now? Just everything, the fabrics, not something I pay much attention to normally, but now things just seem so thin and cheap looking. The colours, styles, choice, everything. I can remember going to the shops and really struggling to choose between so many lovely things. Now it's hard to find things I like at all.

Totally agree

Brexit has impacted the fashion/ textile industry just like everything else. It's going to be like this for a long time.

The fabric and choices are very disheartening. I ordered a few bits over the weekend and nothing fitted. I’m an 8/10 and everything was either too tight or too big. The cut is all wrong and the fabric was dire.

I’m bored of wearing sports attire as at least its cotton.

Nothing to do with Brexit. It's fast fashion. Cheap labour. Most clothes made from plastic for a long time now.

People don't want to pay proper prices for clothing and most people want more clothing than they generally need (you can't afford to spend as much on one piece if you decide you need three), but something has to give if it's cheap. The quality of the stitching, the thickness of the fabric, the type of the fabric etc. Britain used to have such a thriving textile and clothing industry until about the 60s/70s, when everything was taken offshore to exploit cheap labour.

I have this thought at least once a day. I have decided to stop shopping and wear what I have but with different accessories. Nothing sparks joy anymore. I am tired of online shopping, it is actually more effort than going to a shop down the road. I just end up parcelling it all up and sending it back, then chasing refunds. The average person in the street has little access to clothed shops now, and when they do it tends to be fast fashion.

Sometimes we look back at things with rose coloured glasses. But in this case, we are seeing very clearly that clothes shopping in this country is shite now. No wonder we are all in trainers and leisure stuff.

It depends where you shop. Where have you been looking?

My teenage daughters say the same thing. They've given up on going clothes shopping as they say that everything is the same,all bad designs, poor quality fabrics and odd colours. The eldest buys vintage of second hand and the youngest lives in jeans or riding tights.

I refuse to wear anything but natural fibres like wool or cotton. I refuse to wear polyester. The clothes are out there, but sometimes hard to find. The designs are strange, cold shoulders for example, jackets with no buttons, either too short (for me at least), or too long, or too fancy!

Fewer shops to choose from as well, as do much shopping has gone online.

Definitely really poor quality and the sizing is all over the place.

Well, personally I’m disappointed in just about everything compared to how it used to be, but yes clothes is definitely one.

Mid forties and have no idea where to shop anymore, nothing suits me. Fed up with seeing high waisted everything. Absolutely detest online shopping. At least I spend less now, I suppose. I suited the early 2000’s fashion more.

Check out the style and beauty section - there's a whole thread on "what I'm wearing today" and it's great to get ideas for the quality brands.

Do tell us how all the cheap stuff we import from China or Turkey has been affected by Brexit?!

There are lovely clothes around. But quality costs more.

I'm just relying on my old clothes these days
Sainsbury’s do cotton tops , but I have to buy the really big sizes as they come up small
M and S have a few nice pieces, but I agree that clothes are disappointing and hard to source ( for my age / size etc)

I am also mid forties. The only place I really buy anything now is M and S.

I hate online shopping but at least if I do order from M and S it is easy to take stuff back to the local shop.

The shop I just don't 'get' is Zara. People rave about it but the website is awful and the shops are even worse with horrendous queues to try stuff on.

I feel like fashion has left me behind and I am lost forever more.....

100%. Fabrics are horrible, colours are limited, quality is dreadful… and so many high street names have gone that there are now about four shops that are worth checking. Plus there are none of those nice little add-ons to a shopping trip like a visit to Body Shop to try out perfume testers.

Where can you find quality, @qbish? There are loads of women on here wanting to pay more for better quality, as long as it is reasonably good value for the outlay.

Totally agree!
I need to get an outfit for a special event and I'm losing the will to live: wall-to-wall [or perhaps it's head-to-toe] shiny, sweaty polyester and sizing seems random.
Today I had a styling session at John Lewis and although the stylist was brilliant, very patient and kind, the clothes were grim and sizing weird.
I walked through the major stores in a big shopping centre yesterday and nothing, not one thing, tempted me and I would have 'treated' myself had I seen anything nice 😟
I was also deeply unimpressed by lazy, unhelpful shop assistants.
'Do you have this in a size 12, please?'
'Dunno, is there one on the rack?'

Couldn’t agree more.

I noticed today that my jeans had worn so thin at the crotch that there is basically a hole in them. I only bought them last summer, and I only wear them every few weeks.

Meanwhile I’ve got jeans in my cupboard from 5 years ago still going strong.

Agree! If I go to the shops they have hardly any sizes and the selection is pretty dire. If I find something which looks nice on the Internet, I order lots but sizing is nonsensical and I end up sending it all back and feeling annoyed I can’t go to a shop and try things on! It’s a vicious and frustrating never ending circle!

For the first time iny life I have both money to spend on clothes and time to shop and
...
YOU ARE SO RIGHT!!!

It's SO dispiriting to go home with credit card undented. There's money here desperate to be spent. Gah.

I am also mid forties. The only place I really buy anything now is M and S.

But my local M & S, which is quite large, only ever have very limited sizing in the rails. Usually a few size 6s and a few 24s

I've found so many lovely brands, all online though. The high street is largely low quality. They must be really struggling to carry those overheads. 😔

I worry they will all go in the end and there will be nowhere to even shop.

I try to stick to natural fibres too. We know micro plastics are a big issue and clothes shed so many when washed. Cotton and wool are so much more expensive sadly.

Vintage and second hand shops are where I buy a lot of my clothes now.