To find clothes shopping depressing. It's all the same

[IShotTheDeputyItWasMe]

I'm fat and broke so clothes shopping is never going to be fun but its just so depressing. Every shop is selling exactly the same stuff and it's all just so soulless.

20 years ago when I had lots of disposable income, each shop had its own personality. You knew you'd go to Next for suits, Warehouse for something a bit flashy, Oasis for lovely day to day stuff (I miss Oasis, the online shop just isn't the same), Dorothy Perkins for something more grown up etc. Kookai in the sale. I knew that Zara wasn't cut for me so I didn't go there and so on. Some shops were expensive but the material etc generally justified it. You knew there were shops you'd almost guarantee to find something you liked in (Oasis) and others that you just didn't bother with because you didn't like their stuff (River Island in my case).

Now it's All. The. Same.
You could be in Tescos, or River Island or New Look and it's all the same.

Even to my untrained eye, the "alternative" shops are all the same. None of them are original. You could have bought that bat bag from any one of them.

No wonder all the teenagers around me look identical. They have no option to dress any other way or find their own dress sense.

It's so depressing.

Take me back to when you had a choice of what to wear. Or when you'd have "tribes" based on where they shopped. In college there were 3 distinct groups of people and they identified themselves by what they wore but even then there were differences eg if their look was tarton, one person would wear a tartan shirt, another tartan trousers, another one would have a tartan lined coat etc. Nowadays the tartan crew would all just be wearing a red tartan shirt perhaps with different buttons depending on the shop.

I get you, OP. And there is just SO MUCH of it! I rarely go into shops, but when I do, I am completely overwhelmed by the vast amount of stuff. It really puts me off. Same online too: I use the filters where available, but when you’re looking for a white shirt and even after putting in material, sleeve length, size, colour… There’s about 100 odd items. All with a tiny difference to the last one. And the same as the other website that you just looked at …

The problem is that teenagers all dress identically, because social media means that none of them has the courage to stand out and make a statement. They are programmed to wear what influences tell them and are made to feel stupid/bullied if they don't. Therefore there's no incentive for clothes manufacturers/retailers to produce anything different.
Plus parents, grandparents everyone dresses the same as 15 year olds.

I am much older than you but as a teen in the 80s we had leather jacketed rockers, mods, teddy boys, skins, punks, casuals, Goths all in the same school year...now they are cloned and that reflects in the clothes available.

That's very true.
I remember Oasis (sorry to harp on!) would have maybe 3 different styles of trousers in 2 colours per season. Then you'd get maybe 6 complimentary tops in 6 different colours a few jumpers, a couple of skirts and dresses and that was it. Almost a capsual wardrobe for shop. So easy and much more enjoyable to shop! You had to be careful you didn't walk away looking like one of the mannequins though! 🤣

YANBU. Teens have always had fashion crazes and I’m absolutely a bit of a sheep myself, but OMG every single teenager round here wears the same outfit every single day: a black cropped North Face puffer with long hair parted in the middle, wide legged jeans and UGGs. If in school uniform then the puffer with black Nike trainers.

It’s hard to find anything that isn’t loungewear in neutral beige/black type colours. This has to be the most boring and ubiquitous fashion stage ever.

I miss pretty prints, feminine shapes, things that look summery and cute. Just a bit of colour and clothes which make me feel like I’m not going for a dog walk.

I've had a voucher for John Lewis for over a year. I need some black trousers. I lose the will to live looking for black trousers on John Lewis. So I decided to buy a gold chain instead. The same thing. Just too much choice. I already have to make enough choices in my life, thank you. Just sell me a damm gold chain.

Around here, all the teenage girls wear long polka straight brown hair parted in the middle, Cropped jackets (cannot be done up), crop tops (even when I'm in gloves) and leggings.

The boys all wear a limited range of shirts with dark jeans and big trainers. The younger ones mostly have permed hair with shaved sides like a 1990s Justin Timberlake. I really hope their parents are taking LOTS of photos!

YANBU. I need some new jeans as lost a dress size. I want low rise skinny flares. That's what suits me. Every single sodding shop only does high waisted 'mom' (bleurgh) jeans either barrel leg or skinny. I look shit in high waisted I've got a short body. I look shit in skinny cos I'm out of proportion. I look shit in barrel leg because they're shit. Grrr.

Which one were you? I was definitely a rock chick lol

The boys all seem to have mullets where I am. Thankfully ds has not gone a long with that trend, I don't think I could face it every day.

In the city, I keep seeing boys with hair that seems to defy gravity, like a character from anime.

I’ve really started to love clothes again when I discovered Vinted I never buy in shops!

I could have written this post!
My situation is the same now, and I say the same about the past.
And how much choice there was and quality was better.

I totally agree I buy tops exclusively on Vinted now, filtering by brands colour and material then BNWT/ WIth tags
fabric much better quality on older items( probably taking up space in someone’s wardrobe for years)
I’m 60 now but I was excited to wander around the shops every Saturday as a teen and my style never changed!

I was the teddy boy...love 50s music. If I'd been female I definitely would have gone for the rock chick look!

YANBU. I really miss Debenhams stores - so much variety under one roof.

I had a job in the centre of Bristol for 20 years and mainly worked with women (I'm male) I've done so much shopping for women's clothing. One of the few skills I have is I have an eye for colour and I was also honest enough to say "no that doesn't suit you"

Debenhams used to make me mad. Maybe it was just my shop because the decline in there started waaaaaay before it became news. It was a dirty, packed mess with half an overstocked concession here and the other half over there. If you wanted black trousers you needed to trapse all around 3 floors and some concessions wouldnt let you take items off their patch so you couldn't compare them with another brand and if, you found a top from one brand and some trousers from another you'd have to queue and pay for them separately at each consession. What's the point in having all these brands in one place, if you're going to treat them as separate shops?
I did sorry for the staff having to manage this.

@Jabberwok
you might have served me. Went to Bristol when I wanted a change of scene from Bath!

Who knew that social media would actually wind up encouraging uniformity.

Totally agree. I hate clothes shopping now and I used to LOVE it! Everything is poor quality, sludgy colours badly cut, looks cheap and tacky. There's no sense of real style or glamour, the materials are thin and plasticky. It's so bloody grim. Fast fashion has killed the high street and teens all look the same. It really shouldn't be like this. But it is...😓

Totally agree with you OP - I used to live Chelsea girl also, which I loved.

And it’s all crap quality. Even the supposedly better stores. I bought a long sleeved T shirt from M and S yesterday and had to return it as the material was so thin you could see my bra!

Next is full of nylon /polyester crap..don’t go in their with a naked flame!

I never go to the shops anymore for this very reason! And the changing rooms are awful it’s like wonky mirrors at the fun fair 😂 Order everything online, try it on at home and return it if it doesn’t suit.

Tu at Sainsbury. You need to poke around a bit, but they have some good stuff. Stock changes regularly, so keep an eye out, there's always a few interesting bits. Sizing is fairly consistent too.

I really like Uniqlo. If you're not in London (I'm not) then hardly anyone else is wearing it and it's mostly cotton. But I do like block-coloured basics as well as their more unusual print t shirts which I suppose could be seen as boring.

I think youngun's fashion changed in the pandemic, when I was made redundant from fashion buying because nobody knew what the future looked like. They've never really got out of leggings and loungewear.

I love clothes and I am happy to spend my retirement staying fit so I can still wear whatever I want. Most of my clothes come from Uniqlo or M&S and the interesting individual bits are either Vinted or expensive. White T shirts are cheap. Gym stuff is M&S. The rest, I think about.