laura Ashley

[purplepidjin]

I am approaching 30. Yesterday I purchased a coat (which I think is lovely) from laura ashley - it was £38 in the outlet store sale. The coat is purple with big grey dots.

Am I getting old, shopping appropriately for my age, or just been skint so long that I'm totally out of touch with where's good to shop? Most of my clothes are supermarket and dp (who encouraged me to get it!) thinks it's the latter...

Please help me, wise style experts. I am likely to encounter more similar dilemmas now we've acheived joint finances and I can afford (and will be told to buy) decent quality!

I can't claim to be any kind of style guru and am a bit older than you , but I do like a bit of Laura Ashley :)

Steer clear of the skirts , which all seem to be rather mumsy in shape , but the coats , bags , tops and dresses are usually alright and they often have some interesting prints . I was particularly loving the butterfly prints they had this summer .

I got a great bag with butterflies on it in their sale last summer and people always admire it ( even young stylish people).

And their sales are very good - things are properly reduced . to me , 10% off is not a sale

Thanks, monkeycat. The last time I wore something from there it was made from flowery lawn and smocked

£38 from £125 is a bargain to me

Where else should I be looking? My current default setting is skate trainers or ballet flats with flared/bootcut jeans and primark/peacocks/supermarket cotton jersey tops and a cardi...

I think I'd keep the style, if that's what you like and feels like 'you', just improve on the quality. Just because you have more money doesn't mean you have to start being a carbon copy of other 'stylish' mums. Keep to what you like :)

I like LA in small doses too. This autumn they have lots of leaves in their prints and the perennial corduroy.

Thanks cristina

I'm just a bit lost really. Dp thinks £100 for a pair of shoes is reasonable while I think it's more than I spend in a year on clothes (no kids yet). Now we've combined the finances, he's assuming I'll go for better quality stuff this is the first month and while I won't exactly be going mad, new clothes for me are on the priority list as I've lost over a stone (very amusing flying a kite yesterday, he had to hoik my trousers while I dealt with the kite and small nephew)

All suggestions on where to look are very much appreciated!

Then you are in the fortunate position of having the youth, the figure, the money and the time to go shopping (I mean without children around to distract you). You could try a personal shopper at some of the big stores, see what ideas they come up with. OTOH if you don't need to get more stuff (shoe size will have stayed the same, for example), don't just spend the money for the hell of it, you'll just get swamped by items and things.

Yeah I won't be rushing out for an entire wardrobe - there's not that much disparity in our incomes - but it'll be nice to actually enter Monsoon instead of drooling outside the window

I like laura ashley but unfortunately our nearest one closed down. I like their knitwear, tops and the skirts. Good quality and last for ages with good reductions in their sales.

Also love their homeware.