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Original poster

What would you ask clothes and shoe designers to STOP bloody designing and trying to flog us?

204 replies

HouseOfBamboo · 31/07/2011 11:49

On my list:

  1. Tops/dresses with necklines which show your bra straps. As most women wear bras and most bra straps aren't designed for public display, this would seem to be a basic design flaw.

  2. Skirts / trousers / jeans with pockets in stupid unflattering places. We don't need the extra bulkage thanks.

  3. Yet ANOTHER bloody gladiator sandal. Just because I hate them.

What would be on your list?

OP posts:
polyhymnia · 02/08/2011 18:28

Hmm, I'm sure you don't mean that 'older and heavier' women actually deserve the horrors of Per Una do you? Or even in my case, and that of all my friends, would be seen dead in them!

StopRainingPlease · 02/08/2011 18:33

Oh and as for making your own, it costs a fortune these days. For the price of a pattern alone, never mind material/thread/trimmings you can often get something just as cheap in the sale. (Of course that's because clothes these days are made abroad for what is practically slave-labour, but I guess that's another thread!)

Original poster
HouseOfBamboo · 02/08/2011 18:44

Hmf - I bet BHS sandals never had those groovy jaggedy soles like Flys do. Although... MIL was very admiring of my pair the other day

OP posts:
EuphemiaMcGonagall · 02/08/2011 19:21

No-one deserves Per Una! But then again, older women don't deserve M&S Classics either ...

dexter73 · 02/08/2011 19:23

I don't know what my mum would wear if Per Una ceased to exist! She loves all the jangly bits and blingHmm

Bunbaker · 02/08/2011 19:37

"older women don't deserve M&S Classics either "

No woman deserves them. They are vile. I visited M & S yestereday and it was so depressing.

EvenLessNarkyPuffin · 02/08/2011 22:10

Indeed. M&S use a really striking model for their old lady clothes. It must be so depressing for her, turning up to work and being given that crap time after time.

BelaLugosiinStripes · 02/08/2011 22:19

Bunbaker suggest you look for Joseph trousers and jeans on ebay

Bunbaker · 02/08/2011 22:32

I don't dare order clothes online because I prefer to try them on. Buying jeans by waist size wouldn't work for me because I woule never be able to get them over my hips. If I ordered something on ebay I wouldn't be able to return it to the seller if it didn't fit.

FreeButtonBee · 02/08/2011 22:50

I am 5'2.75"' short waisted, size 10/12 and have DD/E boobs. I mainly want to shoot myself after a tripnto the shops. I have MONEY TO BURN!! if only someone designed clothes to enable me to spend it...

polyhymnia · 02/08/2011 23:21

Agree 100% that no woman deserves either Per Una or Classic collection.

startail · 02/08/2011 23:40

Dotty P's - I know you want to sell to my daughter not me. BUT thin flowery polyester tops with elastic top bottom and sleeves are not the way to go.

kickassangel · 03/08/2011 02:10

Clothes in larger sizes (like above a 12) with spaghetti straps/ no straps/ square neck.

NONE of these suit a woman of that size & never will - put a decent v/scoop/cowl neck on it, with enough strap for a bra to fit under.

THEN I WOULD BUY IT

kickassangel · 03/08/2011 02:12

oh, and shoes with decent grips on underneath, as well as sufficient depth to the sole. they don't need to be dm's, just enough that i can wear them in frost/snow etc (living in a snowy place as i do)

Thumbwitch · 03/08/2011 02:18

kickass - you're losing the thrust of the thread in your last post - you WANT those decent grips, you don't want them to STOP doing those! Grin
Agree entirely - having nearly gone arse over tip a few times in "fashion" boots that have no grip on the heel, FGS! (they're not stilettoes either, they have a big heel but no actual grip on it)

kickassangel · 03/08/2011 04:27

thumbwitch - you're right, just reverse what i said, iykwim.

if they DID make decent shoes i would buy them.

surely that is incentive enough? they clearly don't give a rat's arse about whether we look good in clothes, or they wouldn't be making them.

i would love to go back to going to a fabric store, choosing a fabric & a pattern, call back a couple of weeks later for the made-to-measure piece. i'd own less, but it would look good

EuphemiaMcGonagall · 03/08/2011 07:14

I would love to be able to buy decent quality shoes, like men can. Women's shoes seem to be designed as if we intend to update our look every season, whereas in fact we have no choice as shoes last no more than a few months' constant wear.

DH wonders why I need so many pairs of shoes; I explain to him that if I just wore the same pair constantly, like him, they would be worn out after a month or so.

StopRainingPlease · 03/08/2011 09:03

Agree on the shoes. DD has just worn through the soles of a pair of (adult-size) hush puppies in 6 months. They were in the sale, so not extortionate, but would have been around £70 full price.

My Red-or-Dead soles split (after 2-3 years, but wearing only a couple of times a week). I took them to be resoled but was told that because of the design they couldn't resole them in a way that would last Confused.

bacon · 03/08/2011 11:50

Everything should come in different lengths - short, standard and long.

At 5'3" sick of looking swomped with sleves so long and dresses I'm tripping over how on earth can clothes come in one standard size?

Even coats I have to roll up the sleeves as I look stupid.

polyhymnia · 03/08/2011 11:56

Would be excellent too if the length given applied to the body as well as just the overall length. At 5'9'', I'm fed up of eventually finding something nice in my (large) size only to find the bust is in a different place from mine because it was designed for someone shorter!

mippy · 03/08/2011 22:09

Please stop scaling up all your patterns from an 8. If someone is a 16, chances are they're not a B-cup. Actually, the average woman isn't a B-cup, so why are 99% of clothing cut for one? Also, why in bra ranges that go up to a H-cup do the knickers stop at an XL (16)? That doesn't even make sense.

ALSO - yes, some women are an hourglass shape, and don't want the 'waist' up under their norks, nor a seam under the bust that's in line with the nipples.

YY to designing clothing that a bra can be worn under.

Bunbaker · 04/08/2011 08:42

Playsuits - why?

EightiesChick · 04/08/2011 08:47

Bunbaker oh goodness, yes. I am sick of the currently ubiquitous floral playsuits, which make people look like naff sofas. Saw a child of toilet training age in one the other day too - that must be fun.

LadyClariceCannockMonty · 04/08/2011 08:52

mippy, it would be my dream to find something with a B cup! I have a tiny torso and am --flat-chested- gamine of figure, but long arms, and any top that's long enough in the sleeves would require me to have a boob job to fill it.

Miggsie · 04/08/2011 11:04

Girl's shorts cut so tight they ride up the bum. DD lives in boy's shorts.
Girls' sandals which fall apart in 2 minutes. DD now wears boys sandals so she can run around beaches, climb trees etc.
A nice range of "activity clothes" would be nice for children, at the moment it looks like boys and girls are different species if you judged by the clothing racks.

Skirts and dresses with a decent hem, not a 3mm bit of overlocking.

Tops with a SHAPE, remember clothes with darts that were shaped like a woman's body? These days the only tailored clothes I have I made myself.

Hipster trousers, skinny jeans: a disaster for high waisted women, produce muffin tops on all but a stick insect, and are basically made so the manufacturer doesn't have to use so much material. Ditto short tops which stop above the waist.

All teenage fashion: it is badly designed, badly made and of the cheapest material. Even my friend's very attractive teenage daughter looks like a sack of shit tied up in the middle wearing those styles. It is obviously a training ground to direct them to Per Una specials later in life.