Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

253 replies

mrsgreggspastry · 11/05/2023 17:26

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.

OP posts:
CapaciousHag · 20/05/2023 10:39

I actually check labels now just out of curiosity sometimes.

I’ve checked the label of every single item of clothing I’ve considered since I was old enough to buy my own clothes! It’s the most important criterion. I regularly reject an otherwise beautiful item because the fabric turns out to be crap. Do other people not do this? How d’you know what you’re buying otherwise? Especially online?

Schroedingersimmigrant · 20/05/2023 10:43

CapaciousHag · 20/05/2023 10:39

I actually check labels now just out of curiosity sometimes.

I’ve checked the label of every single item of clothing I’ve considered since I was old enough to buy my own clothes! It’s the most important criterion. I regularly reject an otherwise beautiful item because the fabric turns out to be crap. Do other people not do this? How d’you know what you’re buying otherwise? Especially online?

Sorry I meant I check even on things I wouldn't be buying. Just out of curiosity because some look ok but there is something quite not right so I have a look

SaturdayGiraffe · 20/05/2023 13:06

Still can’t find lined trousers.
They never add it to the listing.

GonnaGetGoingReturns · 20/05/2023 14:29

I’m at a local suburban fair market with stalls and just now have got a handmade sequin and net bomber jacket, and cotton dungarees for DM’s birthday and the latter stall was also selling nice cropped sari fabric crossover tops.

I plan on visiting the local fabric shop soon and getting some patterns and making my own clothes soon. I made a dress with red and white floral viscose fabric which I got from a shop in Kingston on Thames. Sort of fit and flare, just above knee length. Did get help from DM re fitting the zip. Not that hard to make.

Original poster
mrsgreggspastry · 20/05/2023 15:05

Great if you are able to make your own clothes but for the average person it's something we most definitely do not want to add to the to-do list Grin not enough hours in the day as it is!

OP posts:
LadyAstor · 20/05/2023 16:43

Agreed! I have a good sewing machine and do my own alterations but I dont have time to source a pattern, fabric, thread, zip, buttons etc. and then make the damned thing.

I always check the fabric but generally, if I like the feel and look of something, I dont care what its made of.

AzureBlue99 · 20/05/2023 20:32

Clothes shopping used to be a pleasure. Now it's a chore.

Marchintospring · 24/05/2023 17:31

I need new cheapish quality black trousers or jeans for work. All the local shops New Look/ M and Co have closed leaving high end boutiques where jeans are £120.
I have two towns to chose from 40 mins drive in opposite directions. Or I can park for free at an out of town centre with TK Maxx , Matalan and Sainsburys . Which I did . I also looked in an Outlet shopping centre and ASDA.
All the choices were the exactly the same whether supermarket or French connection ; jeggings, black skinny jeans, wide flares. shiny work material flares. Where are the cargos in various materials ? Harem pants, linen numbers?

HisHobbyIsSex · 24/05/2023 17:42

CapaciousHag · 18/05/2023 08:40

@LadyAstor there are plenty of wonderful clothes being sold. The problem is that those ‘legacy’ brands you mention - and even more so places like Next - are long, long past their peak. The creative and entrepreneurial drive that made them exciting places to shop, once, has gone. Costs have risen too, so they gradually source cheaper fabric, processes and labour to avoid increasing prices to the point where they alienate their customers. They are not the same as when you first found them.

Over the past decade I’ve read and posted on countless MN threads that sing the praises of new places. Brands that are finding new ways to negotiate changing circumstances. Designers with something new to offer. The outraged resistance on the MN Style & Beauty board is really something to behold …

Can you share some here possible? I'm relatively new to style and beauty board....

GellerYeller · 24/05/2023 17:45

@Marchintospring H and M?

CapaciousHag · 24/05/2023 18:03

@Marchintospring is there an actual reason why you can’t shop online - where you’ll have infinite variety and choice?

AzureBlue99 · 26/05/2023 11:25

You do have an infinite variety of choice online, but you also have endless trips to the post office to return stuff as well.

the80sweregreat · 26/05/2023 11:37

Some online stores do pick up any unwanted goods or clothes from your door.
I always check this after having to pay out for the return fees by a smaller catalogue I ordered something from and I had to go to the post office , but j d Williams in the uk ( for one example) can organize a pick up from home by the courier and I've just left it outside for them ( people can't see my door from the roadway , so that helps if I'm not in) you can arrange an approximate time. Unless it's altered , I think this is the case for a few online retailers.
Not perfect, but better than trips to the local PO.

CapaciousHag · 26/05/2023 11:43

I’m guessing you saw my response at 13/05/2023 10:36 - so you’ll realise I completely disagree with you, @AzureBlue99!

Bluevelvetsofa · 26/05/2023 12:25

My local town has lost so many shops, there’s no point in trying to clothes shop there. But online is such a pain. I ordered a dress from Brand Alley and they sent a pair of jeans. The faff of sending it back, with a special returns label because the mistake was theirs, is ridiculous.

I still haven’t been refunded, ten days later, because ‘the warehouse hasn’t received it’. I’ve sent a photo of the Post Office receipt and I don’t see why I should be out of pocket because the systems are rubbish.

AzureBlue99 · 26/05/2023 13:56

I do agree that there is no point now going into the High Street and expecting them to be back selling good quality. I have just been up my unremarkable High Street. We have lost Debenhams, and Dorothy Perkins, and Top Shop. We have left M & S, Primark, H & M, Peacocks, Next and T K Maxx. I had to go up there today for a non clothing item and looked in Next, M & S and Peacocks. I thought, there must be something in here I would buy. Nope. Not one thing. Just horrendous plastic garments and shoes. Loads of droopy dresses - gazillions of them. With an extra ruffle on the bottom for the giants amongst us. It is time to stop looking at High Street shops and casting my net further afield. Buy less at a higher point. Or just buy books. Books never let you down.

SaturdayGiraffe · 27/05/2023 08:09

oh don’t get me started on disappointing books @AzureBlue99 !!

Paperbagsaremine · 29/05/2023 22:48

I would like to interject with an upbeat note.
I went clothes shopping this afternoon and not only found nice looking clothes that I still wanted to try on once I'd touched them ;)

Some of them looked nice on, and I bought them!!!!

Mint Velvet, Cos, Seasalt, John Lewis

Why yes I am in my 50s and bits of my body are... relocating

TBH I might have bought more but we had to get home.
So there is some hope...

Siameasy · 29/05/2023 23:19

I mainly go in charity shops now. I hate the current high street fashions. Those bloody “Co-ord” sets are so dull.

SaturdayGiraffe · 30/05/2023 08:12

Returning 9 items to Uniqlo this week. (£2.95 charge).
All the shoulders were long and pointy, too big. They’re supposed to be easy, neutral clothes!

Aslanplustwo · 30/05/2023 08:38

Lionoso · 11/05/2023 18:02

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.

Show quote history

I only wear natural fabrics and have no problem finding clothes to buy - I'm not in the UK, but sometimes buy clothes from there. You have to pay a bit more, but it's well worth the effort, and your clothes should last longer. I live in linen in summer and merino in winter.

Aslanplustwo · 30/05/2023 08:40

AzureBlue99 · 26/05/2023 11:25

You do have an infinite variety of choice online, but you also have endless trips to the post office to return stuff as well.

I'm not in the UK, but here you can arrange for couriers to pick parcels up from your home or workplace. Surely there is something similar there?

DisquietintheRanks · 30/05/2023 08:52

HashtagShitShop · 11/05/2023 18:54

This cheap fashion annoys me in that the prices are often not that cheap to the people buying but within a few washes the clothing is seemingly see through without meaning to be.

I've an longline black cardigan that I paid 30 pound for. As an unpaid carer I don't think that that is a small amount when compared to my available budget (ymmv given your own incomes). It's been washed approx 5 times over the space of 2/3 months and it has thinned to the point that when it was on the washing line I could quite clearly see through it where it hasn't been like that for the first couple of washes. It's sadly not alone as I've seen it happen often to other clothes.

The thing is, £30 is cheap for a cardigan. That's what they cost 30 years ago and the price hasn't risen at all so the quality has had to go down and down.

We (as a society) demand cheap clothing. So that's what we get.

Aslanplustwo · 30/05/2023 08:56

I also find the bodices of the dresses too short so they are almost empire lining on me, my waist is lower

That's something I've noticed too - and I'm short waisted!! I'be given up buying dresses with bodices.