Wallis. Am sure it was OK once.....

[orangeandlemons]

Now, I know when Wallis first started, they used to buy the toiles from the Parisian catwalks and then make up their ranges from these, but this is a looooooooooooooooooong time ago.

However, I remember buying a coat from there when pregnant with ds now 19. They were known for their fantastic coats, and it was £84.00. Their coats are now much cheaper than this and are uniformly terrible as is everything else in the shop. Utterly vile. As is Next, which also used to be good. Am in my late 40's and there is no middle market shop for my age group. When did these shops move so down market? The sheen of polyester is visible a mile away

It has its ups and downs - I bought a (genuinely lovely, not at all frumpy) black waterfall jacket in there earlier in the year which looks like it came from All Saints but cost me £32, and I have 3 chunky, oversized, loose knit jumpers from there which look great with skinny jeans or a leather a-line skirt. I do find that their sizes run very large (I'm a very busty size 10 everywhere else, and a Wallis 8 or XS is generally a bit big), but at least their clothes are always more elegant, modest and understated than other high street shops.

However, I've just looked on the website and I agree with you that there's nothing particularly appealing on it - everything looks like a slightly longer version of what you'd find in Dorothy Perkins! It is getting harder to find nice clothes on the high street - I hope this is just a blip although I'm pretty sure synthetics are here to stay.

I generally aim to get jumpers and jackets from Wallis, tops and dresses from Debenhams, skirts from Gap or Fat Face, vest tops from Primark, and (surprisingly) skinny jeans from M&S or (even more surprisingly) Sainsbury's Gok range. I didn't expect to feel "too old" for New Look, River Island, Dorothy Perkins etc at 22, but since I gave in and switched to the above I've noticed that I get lots more compliments on my clothes!

Sorry, I meant to say - even though I'm in my early 20s, I think that I'd be wearing much the same if I were in my 40s right now although I'd probably retire my Doc Martens. I'm a very conservative dresser, you see...

Oh, and Zara is very good for coats if you're still looking for one!

I do find things in Zara, Joules, White company etc. from time to time, but NEXT - where I bought most of my clothes 15 years ago is now just flimsy acrylic and polyester rubbish. I have moved to buying clothes from more expensive makes but only in the sales, and sometimes on ebay.