The Outnet - just rec'd first purchase

[AdelaideJo]

...and I am really dissapointed. Not with the website particularly (although I can't see the point of tissue wrapping something thats more creased up than the floor of Primark on a Saturday afternoon, which they did).

I bought a Vanessa Bruno Athe dress, heavily reduced but still best part of a hundred squids, and I can't believe the finish on the garment! Threads hanging off, bad stitchwork, a PLASTIC care label (made in Madagascar) claiming to wash at 30 when the website said Dry Clean Only.

I was really excited about saving to buy something a bit decent this month and feel really really deflated. Has anyone experience of buying a 'label' and finding it akin to poor quality stores?

Having read this back i sound quite spoilt but I drove for 30 mins to the DHL office to collect it in the 27 degree heat this morning. Grrrr

Outnet is very hit/miss. I've found some brilliant things from there, but others were crumpled, sack-like, polyestery and oddly sized to boot. If you order from them, be prepared to return a lot.

I have bought a Vanessa Bruno Athe dress from them, bought sometime last year. I adore the design and it was my favorite piece last winter, but the quality was terrible - a thread pulled while I was at work and it was ruined. It was also a wool mix with a bit of acrylic - something I'd never normally buy. (I have a lot of decent quality pure merino wool and cashmere things and they wear and wash well.)

You cannot even trust that big-name things are decent quality anymore. I've recently received from Outnet a Marni coat that was poorly finished and a Cacharel dress that was beyond nasty.

Thanks for replying...have boxed it back up and now have to book DHL to collect. A total let down all in all.
Had wish-listed some stuff on My-Wardrobe so I should have stuck to that really.

All this really makes me laugh when I think of the Peacocks cotton t shirt I bought in 2007 which has not a single washing-machine hole, loose thread, colour fade etc...receives tons of compliments and all at the princely sum of £8.00.

I have had hit and miss experiences with them too. I bought a fab Vanessa Bruno merino roll neck last autumn for a bargainous £35. It is gorgeous and wear it loads. But don't get me started on the overpriced tat that is Rick Owens. DH bought me a navy jersey maxi dress. It was sub-standard even for H&M.

TBH though I think it is "labels" themselves rather than that Outnet chooses to sell crap. Whenever I go into our village boutique, I am astounded at the cheek of Matthew Williamson, in particular, whose clothes are extortionately overpriced for really nasty looking fabrics.

I bought a Catherine Malandrino blouse from the outnet. Granted it was only £40 but it was horrible scratchy material. The thing that annoyed me most was the returns policy it's just such a faff and has put me off ordering more things.

I can see why they use DHL for returns but I think it's a bit much if you've spent hundreds of £'s to pay for returns.

I bought an APC dress from them once but had to return it. I usually love that brand and lots of my clothes are APC but the dress was in a really stiff fabric and very unflattering. My rule of thumb now is if an item was truly nice it wouldn't have stayed around long enough to go on the outnet!

Thats interesting because I have a ton of APC stuff on my wishlist but, having never so much as touched anything in real life, I don't know what the quality is like..the designs are great though.

Updating on the "rubbish quality" theme though, today I went into Top Shop for what I truly believe is the last time ever. Even the trusty Baxter jeans are now in a bland wash instead of the lovely indigo they were last year. Every blouse i picked up seemed to be made from sweaty scratchy fabric, and even though I wanted a lot of knitwear, am mindful of the holes in my existing stuff. I actually felt quite depressed by it all!

What is happening to the high street? Is it too much to ask that stuff might last longer than 3 weeks without developing a mini hole or tear? I also went into Hennes who had put their new coat range out. I couldn't believe the state of it. Every single one was totally creased up, and I mean thick this-has-been-in-a-bin-bag creases.

Does anybody know why the clothes on the average high street are so poorly made at the moment?

I thought the whole point of the Outnet was that it was stuff that hadn't sold on net a porter/similar - so on the whole it is going to be the badly made/strangely sized/downright horrible stuff - same as any sale ?