Oooh, Mary Portas has launched her own collection for over 40s

[levantine]

article here

It includes some sort of arm cover thingy apparently

However I'm not sure about the pics of it here.

Good for her for doing it though

Drove my mum to the airport today, and she was raving about this. She'll be very disappointed that it is only the Oxford Street HoF.

Love the silk t-shirt she is wearing in that pic.

I'm not 40 and that collection looks really good...yessireee....v excited...

That's not "opening a shop" as they've called it, that's "having a concesssion in a department store".

Hahahahaha - one of the items is labelled as "waterfall cardigan".

I'm not over 40 but I like one of the dresses...

A lot of it looks interesting/approachable although it's hard to actually find much of it online at House of Fraser. I wonder if there were supply issues - or is Mary being coy to create demand? Also it would seem that Mary is targetting not all over 40s, but only over 40s in a certain snack bracket. Are there that many women in the UK who would snap up a £150 pussy bow blouse?

Have been rather put off the whole thing by her choice of Clarks for the shoes and Radley for the bags.

Looking at the HoF online selection, the ones I liked best were the ones she had chosen from other retailers, eg Whistles, not her own stuff. In any case, as pointed out on the other thread on this subject, all her designs seemed to be aimed at women with figures as slim and 'straight up and down' as hers.

I had high hopes of this.

But the stuff on HoF website is all ghastly. And for thin people. As usual. (I am not hugely overweight but I do have hips.)

It looks like stuff for 60+, not 40+ to me.

And some of us over-40s have very good arms.

Mmmm, and some of us baby-boomers don't fancy it much either! Had expected better of her. Think it's just another cynical commercial exercise which got great coverage in media because of her connections.

She should have stuck to the day job. Some of that was horrific.

Am nearly 46 and would never wear any of it.

She seems to think over 40s all want to dress like her.
What's the point of that?
I was hoping for a wide selection of dresses with sleeves, trousers that fitted people with hips and waists and so forth. Not a load of jokey weird prints and hideous necklines.

She has no taste, her hair and everything is so over done it looks ageing and forced. The clothes are what a lotto winner would wear on a cruise to look 'jazzy'

I've just had a look on the HoF website and I am hugely dissapointed.
The clothes were nothing to rave about and the range of shoes (clarkes) are nothing special at all.
I'll stick to Top Shop and French Connection for the foreseable future.

and this isn't going to make me rush out for a new bag.

www.houseoffraser.co.uk/Mary+Portas+Radley+Compton+medium+cross+body+bag/155655885,default,pd.html

Aging and forced - exactly.

V disappointing. I don't want to look like the clothes are wearing me - I was hoping for some really good new stying that makes you look good, not a fashion victim.

OH NO, just seen the radley tie up. NO NO NO NO NO........WRONG.

Bleeuurrgh.

All the dresses are too short and those blouses very manly.

So sorry, we are still waiting for someone to come and dress us over-40s.

That bag is foul and far too expensive. Obviiously I'm in a minority as there are only 10 left ...

I like your name Bleurgh

I am so disappointed, I had such high hopes - the bags have really killed it for me :(

Totally with you on the Radley thing, Madame. Undermines any cred for me. As do the shoes. And clothes.

I like the concept but the stuff is a big no from me.

I'm disappointed too - yes, dresses with sleeves are great, but why are they so ruddy short? Not all women have the legs or the confidence to parade around in dresses so short they could be mistaken for tunics.

I quite like the Clarks shoes, but the handbags are awful. That fringed effort is ghastly.