to think that you are really not that much affected by the 'credit crunch' if...........

[cordonbleugh]

......you can afford to spend over £100 on a cardigan!!

Seriously, the style and beauty threads of late are just ridiculous, someone asks for help finding, say, a coat, and what follows are links to coats similar to the OP's description.......mostly over the £100 mark!

Is it just me who thinks spending that much on clothes is silly?! My top budget for a coat this winter is £30! And the clothes that get linked to are not that dissimilar to what I can get for a fraction of the price!!

Just on a practical note, cheap(er) shops want to keep overheads down and don't often sell online or show limited stock so when MNers link it's often to more expensive sites. E.g. H&M do some lovely Boden type cord trousers for dd at £8.

And I agree, you can nearly always find a designer style at knock off prices since that's how stores like Primark function.

sorry - didn't finish my 1st para, which should have said I had to link to the Boden site to try and explain the H&M trews I'd just bought dd.

Yes Penth, sorry that was to you.

Re quality - I absolutely don't get it. My ex used to say something similar. He reckoned that a designer shirt was better quality than one from M&S. Well perhaps it was, but the prices he was paying could have got you 20 shirts from M&S, and nobody is going to be able to convince me that one Hans Ruben shirt will last longer, or be as versitile or even as comfortable (too scared to go out in it) as 20 M&S shirts. The price differential does not equal value for money.

I know its not partucularly 'green' but I wouldnt want to pay £120 for something (eg a cardigan) that will last me years. I would be pig sick of it long before it wore out.

Hate the "spending the husband's money" jibe.

I am capable of earning mroe than I do. However, we (me and my DH) chose for me to change jobs, after a lot of thinking on my part, to take on a part time, term time job with far less stress/outside work, in order to be able to do other stuff - housework, collect DD from school, etc.

By doing this I enable DH to be able to work full time in his "high earning" job. It also enables him to come home and not have to spend all evening or weekends doing chores, etc.

Therefore we see the money that comes in from both our out ut of the home work to be our joint income, for us all to benefit from. We are a team. The income is for us all.

Moonlight - I think the quality thing is often a red herring (though not always - some "quality" clothes are cut better).

The reason for this is the one you've already given: that "high-end" fashion houses use the same sources for their clothes - and pay the same meagre wages - as the lower end producers. Labour behind the label is informative on this. Ralph Lauren, for instance, and Tommy Hilfiger use cheap labour in Indonesia.

You can tell when materials are better quality: e.g. cotton is sturdier, yet smooth, the weave is finer, etc. A "name" on the label doens't guarantee this, of course.

£120 for a cardigan just has to be a rip-off!

Some people hav e quite a bit of disposable cash and they like to spend it on clothes.

It's as simple as that.

Incidentally, I apologise for coming over holier-than-thou. I am defintely not innocent of buying clothing from shops with dubious supply chains. I would be a hypocrite to imply otherwise!

It's just very recently been something that's struck me, and something I want to do something about in my own shopping, so this thread is timely, in this respect.

definitely

Okay something like M&S you are getting pretty good quality for a decent price and it will last well. And, because they are a big brand, they can do the diffusion lines that are more high-end.

At the risk of turning into my mum who used to tug at seams on clothes and tut at the quality.....

Lower end - say H&M will have a skimpier cut. They will use as little fabric as possible to make a garment,so they will have less ease of movement and as many pattern pieces as possible will be squeezed onto the fabric.
This means that pattern pieces may not be placed well on the fabric and that there will be little ease when the garment is made up. This means they will not hang properly and will not flatter anyone that does not have the exact measurements that the garment is cut to. So most people.

Quality of fabric will be lower. Finishing will be lower - a single turn up on the hem rather than a double.
Stripes and patterns not matched on the seams.

If a person doesn't care about these things thats fine. I do and I don't have the budget to shop where I would like, so I sew my own.

oh dear I got a bit carried away there.

Wasn't meaning to rant at anyone - poorly made clothes just bug me.

Up to the individual how they spend their money.

heh, who'da thought it, this thread has degenerated into an interesting discussion, nice work

can i just say, the high earning husband comment was not serious, of course women can and do earn more than men, and do just a good a job if not better doing it! Of course things should be equal.

It was a lighthearted jokey comment that has obviously not been percieved in the way it was intended, so for that I apologise wholeheartedly.

And for the record, if you've looked at my profile, you will see that I am young, but I also happen to be a fatty and a saggy!!!

Again, sorry if I've offended anyone, should really have thought about this from other points of view before posting, but have enjoyed reading everybodys posts

If I had the money I would. Presently I buy e-bay and charity shops for clothing of quality. And high st for new.

Love clothes but am skinto!

yabu.does it matter?i cant afford crap but i buy 2nd hand and have a few nice peices.i wouldnt begrudge anyone else spending their hard earned money on whatever they want.if i did see something i really loved but it cost a lot i would save up.

ok, I dont begrudge them spending their hard earned money, its the amount of money that one single item costs that just seems ridiculous and incomrehensible to me, but then, I've never if I ever have £100 left over after paying bills and whatnot, it get spent on a whole new wardrobes worth of clothes.

Man from Gucci on Radio 4 today said that they have customers who would not buy a handbag at 800 but would at 1100 (they have a panel to consider the pricing).

He said they sell "a dream" and it's not about the manufacturing cost of the goods.

Clearly, some designer goods are just rip-off prices "because they can" and because the "market" accepts it, and people pay it.

It seems ridiculous to me to pay excessive amounts when the quality only goes up a tiny amount despite paying perhaps ten times what another brand might cost for a similar item. I'm going to reserve my views on those people who pay the high prices - if I made a lot of money, it would change my spending habits, but I don't think I'd be sucked into paying excessive prices - it is like the emperor and his new clothes, IMO!

Tangent: I hate the fact they wiped out two good radio programmes ("Nice Work" and "Shop Talk") to put on that business programme called "The Bottom Line" (where they only speak to people in the upper echelons of companies, on a par with less than 0.5% of the populace, given they are in (mostly) international corporations, though in this case the piece was worth hearing.

Nice Work and Shop Talk used to cover all sorts of employment and business matters, and included views from staff, unions, and directors, not just CEOs and similar like the current thing.

cordon, don't worry, I'm not offended.

And FWIW I do think that some designer gear is over-priced just for the sake of the label.

But I do also think you can tell the difference between a cheapy cheap Asda T-shirt and a nicer £20 one from Marks (or wherever).

Webdude - good post.

But I can see why I'd pay someone to handknit me a lovely cardigan than buy one in primark for example.

I really do not think £100 for a nice coat is at all over the top.

I also agree that often (not always) a good quality item (a coat for example) from say River Island / Next which would be about £100 will be much better quality than a similar style one from Primark.

I do not buy clothes in Primark because I think they are terrible quality, fall apart / shrink, are made to random sizes which differ on each item and are not very nice. I do not have lots of money but I would rather pay a small amount more and shop for better quality and low end high street store such as H&M and Dorothy Perkins.

I recently looked for a dress for a wedding in Debenhams. I must have tried on at least 20 ranging from £30 non-labels to £200 Coast ones. The more expensive they were the nicer they felt, fitted and looked. (A small sample of course and I realise this isn't always the case). Soemtimes I see £500 cardigans and think "crazy price" but to pay £100 for a coat isn't crazy, usually it will buy you quality that will last.

On a similar note I had an amazing county pub meal with friends a month or so ago. We had starters, delicious main and dessert and 2 alcholic drinks each. It was wonderfully presented and tasted amazing. It was £25 each! When I told my mum she was horrified. How much?!? She is the sort of person who really would hate spending her hard earnt money on food out when she could probably cook it better herself at home. To her it was a total waste, to me it was excellent value for money.

It's all about peoples expectations, not necessarily about how much money they have!

I have always thought people talking about how much things cost is a bit crude tbh.

I am very lucky to be in a position not to be affected by the credit crunch but I know how lucky I am. I have lived on bugger all in the past.

Maybe just me, but I don't feel comfortable talking about what I spend at the moment. Makes me feel a bit dirty at times tbh.