So is there anything we DO like in M&S style and beauty?

[Lottapianos]

Their clothing sales figures were released yesterday and are down for the 12th quarter in a row. I cant' imagine many on here will be hugely surprised! Their clothing frustrates me so much - an INSANELY huge range of everything, poorly displayed, way too much ageing granny type stuff, way too many frills and fuss, not enough good quality basics, much of it very overpriced. The usual complaints.

However, there are some things I do like:

• knickers - fit well and last well. I tried some from Sainsburys recently, they were the same price but did not last any time at all
• socks and tights - a nice range of colours (tights) and at a good price
• smellies - own brand bath and shower stuff if you love a bit of floral (I do!). Stila make-up. Fragonard perfume (wish it lasted longer though)
• cakes in the cafe!

I think that's it. What do you like, apart from their food and drink?!

Don't like the shoes at all - with a few exceptions just don't look good enough quality.

Shame about the Lynn Harris perfumes - I love Miller Harris and this was one of the few bright sparks - was always about to try. Too late now it seems.

School uniform
Knickers
Percy pigs
Nuxe range
I used to really rate the formula make up remover, used it for years and years, they messed with the ingredients and now it brings me in a rash.

That's it. The shops are dire :(

MIL single handedly has kept the local M&S in bussiness for the past 50 years. This year I suggest I buy all the Christmas food from M&S as it is the umpteenth year I juggle with dinner, cba etc. she looked horrified: Oh no, darling, we're getting it from Waitrose, much nicer! Well, if my MIL has given up, things are not looking good :(

For the price of the cashmere jersey, you could buy something truly lovely, fabulous quality, and sourced ethically by Brora.

The biker jersey a. has been done by everyone else now - and in a particularly nice way by Jigsaw and b. I reckon 10 will give you 2 that it will be weird around the shoulders, and cut in such a way as to make any normal woman look like a cube - the pattern cutters make all their clothes on a kind of "hobbit-foot" block/design: everything is as broad as it is long. I think they think the women of Britain are very, very sturdy.

Honestly, normally I'm not this grumpy and negative. I am just really cross about their line-culling in the Beauty department. They had amazing things for a bit - and they were left to kind of fend for themselves, and build a following by word-of-mouth - which takes time - and then culled after an insanely short time.

And the lack of mail order ... surely that is bizarre? It's like a return to the days-of-madness, when M and S were the only store that refused credit cards.

catinjapan I totally get your crossness. Whatever M&S do, I think they just miss the mark and very rarely get it right. That cashmere sweater is OK but I agree, there are far nicer options around from places like Jigsaw and Whistles.

One of the mysteries is how they can do well with food, and not be able to translate those successes to other parts of the business.

If I find a big enough branch of M&S there are still enough nice things around to keep me happy.

I particularly like the undies, the fragrances, the Autograph and Indigo ranges, the shoes (perfect for a wide-foot like me), and the school uniform. I like the free store delivery and easy returns, and the prices are generally sensible.

But the website gives me the rage. Looks nice enough, but soooo slow. And when you filter everything in a (say) Size 10, it gives you anything that was ever available in a 10, regardless of whether it is actually still in stock. Pages and pages of clothing, but when you click through - size 6 and 22 left only. What's the point of that? What a waste of my time.

M&S Beauty Hall concept was fab - lots to like, including Shay and Blue, and some of the other fragrance lines, plus Stila, Nuxe etc. But like TheCat am sad they can't make the Lyn Harris collaboration work. Doesn't bode well.

I like M and S a lot.

• Nuxe and other nice brands
• 5 pocket jeggings - best skinnies ever
• Autograph accessories
• Bras - although obviously don't get measured there! And as a 30D I have to order online to store, no 30 backs in store as standard
• Food, all of it
• Shoes, there are always lovely shoes at all sorts of price points and comfy and well made, especially high heels, I have loads of them.

I love the limited range and autographs clothing ranges. Love bags and shoes and underwear too. Food is alright. But I agree way too many ranges aimed at too many age groups etc.

Mostly the food.

Though I have acquired a lot of M&S tunics in cotton and linen over the past year or so. Indigo is lovely, though mostly too pastel for me. And what isn't pastel is well, indigo aka fucking dreary navy.

I wandered into East, earlier. It was polyester hell and I momentarily forgave M&S.

I am, well, sturdy, btw, though most of their ordinary t-shirts are too short to be decent on me.

And JL also refused credit cards back when M&S did.

I can usually find lots I like in m&s, the problem comes in the fitting room. I know I am taller than average but the clothes just don't sit right. Most of their jumpers and tops are on the shorter side of normal and after one wash I am tugging them down to reach my waistband or the belt is too high. I note some new ones are a bit better but will this be permanent?

I buy accessories and jewellery. I buy DH chinos and smart casual trousers for work.

I don't rate their underwear.

Kids wear is uninspired and nothing special I pick up the odd thing for dd, almost never for DS.

New website is a fail.

Some of the flat shoes are fine but shoes not well enough made for heels.

Have you seen how they have styled the biker jacket gretchen linked to.

Look on the right. It will take an age to load the shop the style bit though!

Is that how they think women want to be styled? Horrendous!!

I've had some odd bits and pieces
A striped cotton long sleeve slash neck top. Worn and worn because it's a longer length
The nude heels - comfy and cheap, I got them in a print colour too
Nude ballet flats, and an amazing pair of suede ankle boots that are a total isabel marant copy!
I like that they do shoes in half sizes

Thecat

Thanks for that.

The thing is though that marks is accessible. You can say what you like about whistles and bloody ethical
Brora (ethical clothing is not on my concern list ) cut marks iis accessible and easy.

That recent M and S add with Annie Lennox killed it for me. Annie is glam, stylish and ever youthful and they made her look frumpy, Middle Aged and dull.
It was like the clothes sapped all that was individual and quirky about her and I suppose that sums up MAnd S clothes.

In the last year or so, I have bought:

• a gorgeous tan leather handbag for a wedding (and seen another lovely bag that I couldn't justify buying)
• v smart shift dress for work which I've had loads of compliments on
• plain black stretch jersey pencil skirt for work
• school skirts, pinafores and trousers (like the new bit of extra material on trousers to make them last longer)
• nude plain bras for wearing under white tops
• socks
• knickers
• the odd "dine in for £10" meal

I have looked for many other things such as tops for adults and children, winter coat for me, pretty but non-lacy and non-wired bras, shoes and boots, jeans, but struggled to find anything suitable.

It's a bit hit and miss because I highly recommend the things I do buy, but have had more unsuccessful trips than not.

It's the largest shop in our town so I would definitely spend more if there was more I liked, especially with the Deliver to Store option.

The cashmere lined leather gloves are fantastic.

I love M & S clothes - they are all I wear. The quality's fantastic, the cuts are flattering and, unlike the monstrosities from eg Next tight on the bust but massive everywhere else, or DP's ugly, oversized and short efforts, they all fit really well (I'm a small size 12 and 5ft 9 or 10). They are also surprisingly cheap - their prices are fairly similar to the cheaper high street shops or supermarkets.

DD only has M & S and JL clothes.

Their food costs pretty much the same as food in normal supermarkets like Asda and Tesco and is 1000 x better.

But yeah, the website's awful, isn't it?

Jeggings: I have skinny thin legs and they are the nearest to fitted trousers I can get. Used to like their cashmere jumpers, but the quality has declined as the price has risen.

i hate the dine in meals - always disappointing. I think " i could have just cooked some pasta and garlic and parsley"

Have bought some jeggings in dark indigo, and some white sculpt and lift skinnies, both long and cropped. And REN skincare. But I tried on a quirky looking pale pink/black shift dress yesterday which was cut specifically to house a bag of potatoes, and was made of really weird thick polyester. Bleurgh.

I bought a bottle of the Lynn Harris perfume after it was raved about on here but I didn't feel the love. The smell was ok but it didn't last long.

I like their bras, used to like knickers until they stopped making the ones I liked, t-shirts are ok. Their food has gone downhill so I rarely buy it any more although I do like their lunch salads in the take away bit.

My best buy from M&S was our sofas. We bought them 10 years ago and they are still like new.

GretchenWiener I didn't mean it aggressively - just as a conversation.

I'm grumpy with M and S, about the perfume, not any person/poster.

All the people being positive, yourself included, are very, very entitled to your opinions.

I'm sorry if it came across differently.

I'm a bit that my post has come across in any way other than as a conversation. I read an absolutely vile thread in "Primary Education" last night, where a real bitch of a poster was replying to someone who was clearly quite depressed. I did wonder how anyone could be quite so vile, and over something that was actually not worthy of such a crappy way to respond.

I'm a bit worried now that this is how I come across - being unnecessarily hostile and a total bitch about another poster (in this case, her views on a padded biker jacket).

I do like Brora, though - and I can't quite help myself from wanting to spread the love for them. They're pretty cheap in their sales, they do mail order, and they support small businesses. I was genuinely quite shocked at the price hike for the M and S cashmere. I used to love M and S cashmere because it was priced really affordably and went through the wash (heaven).

(And I realise I have dug myself a bigger hole there. But this really is intended as an apology if I came across as being personally unpleasant. For what it's worth, it really wasn't intended in any such way.)

I have an amazing swimming costume bought earlier in the year. Stomach control panel, ruching to hide any extra wobble and flattering cups that make me look perky! M&S is still good for some things - you just have to hunt through a bit of tat to find them.