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.

@LostWithoutDottyP I agree-

@Antisocialfluffmonster how do you find cider? Slightly off track but they have some dresses dd likes for prom but they have awful trustpilot reviews!

The delivery was a little bit slower than shein, included a tape measure as a free gift which is handy for working out the sizing. I got the most incredible outfit for my birthday, this lush green velvet jumpsuit and it is so well made. I got jeans that look fantastic, fit well but are a little on the thin side, everything but a body suit fitted, everything has washed well, worn well.

I did see the trust pilot reviews and most people I’d say knew fine and well what they were buying before they used it, but the styles are ones I’ve not seen anywhere else.

id say shein has better sizing and more range, but it can be a bit odd some of their stuff, I wouldn’t use cider as regularly as it is more expensive but the stuff was brilliant and I couldn’t be happier

The lack of choice, poor ranges, etc started way before Brexit!

Never buy from shops always vinted so usually end up far higher quality than I'd buy new

Yes I have responded to this comment several times.

Of course there was a lack of choice, poor range and lots of things being imported from China etc before Brexit.

But what do you think Brexit has done?

It has exacerbated this.

We import even fewer good quality things from Europe than we did before, and we have fewer EU workers willing to make clothes here in the UK - how do you think they are making up for that gap in the market?

By importing even more low quality textiles from China, of course.

Yes, it was a problem before Brexit, no one would say it wasn't. And Brexit has made it worse.

The shops will be stocking what they sell most of, and it’s only a really sub set of people now that go regularly to a shopping centre. But the sizes you mentioned are very common usually. ,

In terms of why I won’t shop in person, not well enough to go for a start, they don’t stock my size and never have, and normally the shop has used the disabled changing room as storage and I know I’m a bit funny in the head about this, but I don’t want to buy something that people have been grabbing all over and trying on to feel the quality. The number of times I’ve found stuff and there’s lipstick or finger marks on it, it actually is gross.

but I do get that’s a bit strange!!!

in terms of on trend, I mean, what you see in the shops is on trend. But I’d like to think that as we get older we get braver in wearing what you like rather than what’s fashionable.

You mention age, but personally I don’t really see age as a factor, you can wear whatever you enjoy wearing and don’t worry about looking like everyone else.

just some ideas m&s, Roman, Karen Millen, cotton traders, fat face has lovely quality clothes, joules, white stuff if you can afford it, sea salt, etc. all a bit different and you’re not going to be walking about wearing the same jacket out of new look or primark as a 16 year old in front of you.

It’s been rubbish since long before Brexit.

I agree and feel your pain.
I currently have lots of nice natural fabric dresses that I wore for the last 15 years in my old line of work. None are at all the image for my new line of work.
I have no “nice’ t shirts, no shirts and few useable work trousers.

All I can find are too thin tops or really thick synthetic fibre ones, trousers that are odd shapes and shirts that are badly sized.

@ZoraMipha But how do you explain the stuff coming from Europe has dropped in quality? The Zara’s, Mutti and Desigual’s and La Redoute. It’s all recycled polyester with them too. I mean great for a fleece but I want my jumpers to not go shiny and fluffy after one season

Massimo Dutti used to be great for workwear and wardrobe staples. They’re awful now too.

e.g. Jigsaw, Arket.

Online shopping takes so long in comparison to visiting a shopping centre. If you want to visit a few different shops online you find their website, accept the bloody cookies, filter to what you want and scroll, scroll, scroll, scroll, bored, bored, scroll, select something, read reviews, find out if it's sized well/itchy fabric/same colour as photo etc. find out it's not very good, back to scroll, scroll, scroll.

Now i get it that visiting a shopping centre takes time to travel and park, but in terms of productivity - you can see so much at a glance. Things you might not have considered on a mannequin or sales assistant. You can feel the fabrics. Try on. Swap sizes. Grab a coffee. That lovely feeling of a full bag of goodies - it's so tactile. And even if they don't have your size at least you can order with more confidence.

I feel sad that our children have so little in the way of shops, it was part of growing up - going into town with your mates.

Last part of my ramble, my old favs - Warehouse and Oasis - been bought up (boo hoo?) and the quality is bloody awful now.

@Sockbogies

Now i get it that visiting a shopping centre takes time to travel and park

Not much of a problem if you have a decent shopping centre near you. Our nearest worth going to is Trafford Centre and I live near Morecambe Bay, so basically 90 minutes drive away making it a full day lost to traipse around clothes shops and costing a tank full of fuel. No way. I can spend a lot less time and money looking on the internet in the comfort of my own home, delivery to my door and returned via the garage 5 minutes walk away.

So many towns and smaller cities now have very poor shopping options - we've basically got a tiny M&S and a couple of small Nexts and a Primark, besides the usual supermarkets. No point at all "going shopping" locally as there's nothing worth going for.

Definitely more nasty cheap fabrics, in horrible colours/patterns. As my DM used to say, there are ‘good’ colours, and cheap-looking ditto.

OK, it’s not recent, but when I had hardly any money to buy anything, I’d see so many things I’d have loved to buy.

Now I’m better off I can go shopping and find sod all. And even if I do find something I like, they typically won’t have it in my size.

I tend to buy online now - but only when I‘m already familiar with the quality and sizing, plus easy, efficient returns, etc.

I was going to have a rant about how everything this year seems to look like relics from the wardrobe at Little House on the Prairie!

Tiered frilly skirts, big puff sleeves that make me look like an American footballer, shirring, ghastly "flutter" sleeves ... and White Stuff have ruined a perfectly nice t-shirt by sticking a fucking frill where the sleeve meets the shoulder!

Am absolutely dead with your comment 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I also hate frills. No I would happily dress in steampunk/Victorian stuff if I could, or maybe wheel of time style dresses and cloaks, but I don’t think the kids would appreciate it. They already did pair of my weird dungarees and jumpsuits

I ignore 90% of the trend stuff unless it's really my style, reasonable quality and suits me.
Basics tend to be better fabrics and I wear them daily or weekly. Having nothing to wear is because you don't have enough decent basics so you buy more fashion and just end up with more stuff you don't wear. It's said over and over on
YouTube/style blogs but probably because it's true for most.
I hate online shopping, it rarely lives up to expectations.

I don't do online clothes shopping- unless it's for funky sports leggings which are a bit niche and highly likely to fit. I'm short and while a smaller size have awkward curves that make me very reluctant to spend £££ on a batch of clothes that are highly likely to need returning and all the faff that that entails.

But I can't remember the last time I really went clothes shopping on the High St. I did have a spree in about 2015 after losing baby weight. I certainly haven't in the past 3-4 years. I'm completely uninspired by fashion trends and have been for a long time. I don't have the willowy build required to not look ridiculous in blousy voluminous dresses, and midi length is horrendously unflattering to most. And if you are built to carry these fashions off, you'd look fantastic in anything anyway.

I feel lost as most of the brands that I used to love such as Oaisis are gone. I'm not a teenager and can't pull off the 1992 parodies even if I wanted to, and I'm not ready for the well cut Country Casual classic look either.

I mainly wear active wear or dust off older clothes that fit and suit me well regardless of fashion. Plain basics, I'll get in the supermarkets and they're just as good as clothing shops.

I feel no tempation to stroll into clothes shops and buy something new for the sake of it. I'm also at that stage where I can't remember when I last went to a wedding, and it's likely to be years before I go again. The last occasion I had to buy for was a funeral.

I'm not ready for the well cut Country Casual classic look either.

My mother is in her nineties - and hasn’t dressed liked that since about 1980 …

I’m trying my best to understand those of you for whom online shopping is a stressful round of multiple ordering and returning. That just isn’t my experience. And it can’t just be because I had more than forty years of in-person shopping before I took to online shopping as the default. (Say 10 years ago.) It’s true that I know what I like - but that definitely doesn’t mean repeat buying of versions of the same thing; I’m always eager to experiment. And I’m constantly trying new sites.

I almost never buy from a site that doesn’t offer the full panoply of measurement guidance and / or tools for assessing fit. I try hard to buy from places that value natural fabrics, and make their ethical and environmental practices clear. I zoom in to check fabric and stitching. I watch the videos of individual items closely. I sometimes take weeks or months to click ‘Buy now.’ I’ve never in my life ordered multiple sizes of the same garment.

This is not to say I don’t make mistakes, because of course I do. Generally when I’ve so fallen in love with a piece that I take a risk with the only size left in the sales, which might be either side of my normal size. But, this year, so far I’ve had to return one thing. And none of the clothes I’ve ordered and loved would have been available within 300 miles of where I live. I used to adore ‘going shopping’ or just spending an afternoon trying things on in shops; that’s how I learned about fabric and proportions and what actually suits me. But I’d be miserably uninterestingly dressed if I had to rely on concrete shops now.

Stuff is made as cheaply as they possibly can. But it doesn't seem to fit right either - I have unusally skinny arms and several things I've tried on (my size or the next size up) the sleeves are too tight to get my arms into!!! Who is buying these clothes?!?

Mmm … I do acknowledge there must be an element of the cheaper online retailers simply selling crap.

Don’t use those places …

Agreed but it’s been like this for ages!

My local big towns, they have all the big shops (apart from some nicer ones like Jigsaw, Cos etc) but there’s nothing I like there, or if I do see something (nice skirt on Zara website) it’s not in store. Zara had a very similar striped belted blue and white dress same as last summer and Arket re-sold/marketed an exact same dress I bought 5 years ago (black floral midaxi length last winter!

I have a couple of local boutiques I like, one the owner makes her own clothes as well as sells vintage pieces and new items and the other sells Italian, Chinese imports which are ok but all of a similar style and baggy. I did buy some nice jeans and a handmade pair of neon earrings from a local seller in the latter shop last weekend though. There’s also a few good vintage shops in the area too.

I’ve bought 80s/90s Next etc items from the person who makes her own clothes and you can really see the difference.

From now on I’m looking to make my own clothes, a local market has a shop and stalls which sell fabric and Kingston on Thames has my preferred shops plus a John Lewis and a fabric shop there too.

Jigsaw’s prices are obscene! £160 plus for a midi skirt! I wait for sales and have got some great bargains especially at Jigsaw local boutiques in their sales.