If you're in your mid to late 30s...

[MioNome]

Where do you clothes shop?
It's dawning on me that a lot of the high street shops I've been shopping in for years (next, gap, DP) aren't really my kind of shops any more and are really for young slim things...
I'm 38, 6ft tall, size 16 and have had two babies in 2.5yrs.
Where should I be shopping??

I shop a lot at Red Herring in Debenhams, also Julien McDonald (sp) there too, some Warehouse stuff, Next is not too young! I do like the odd M&S clothing, their jeans in particular, and some tops in the Indigo section. Some H&M.

But, don't listen to me. I also have no significant style and I have no intention of 'dressing my age' I just buy what I like style wise and what I think looks good on me for my size/shape. It might, or might not be my 'age'. I also don't buy many clothes as I am tight about spending huge amounts, unless it's on Fly boots.

I like Birkenstocks, Fly London boots, chinos, shift dresses, flares, skinny jeans, halter necks, baggy jumpers, fun clothes.

I am 37, almost 38.

Some ideas here........

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/style_and_beauty/a2406043-anyone-here-36-years-old

I feel you pain.

I seem to be shopping in M&S limited, next, oasis and not really finding much I like.

Think I am repeating myself from another similar recent thread, but I d love a good bore on about clothes :

Zara/Oasis/Warehouse/H&M/ASOS - a LOT of my stuff comes from these five

Boden/Jigsaw/Hobbs/Phase Eight - mainly for work clothes

Topshop - for leggings and occasionally tops.

New Look - always throws u a few decent and cheap tops for me.

Next - for a few bits from their Tall range ( can be very frumpy...but always a couple of decent bits)

Occasionally Ted Baker, Ralph Lauren, Mint Velvet.

Levi's for their Curve jeans.

I'm 38, size 12, tall, busty.

I like department stores, as I can just zip around and spot styles and colours that I like without getting too hung up on brand.

Although having said all that _ as a fellow curvy six footer, I do find dresses, skirts and trousers hard. I am limited to shops with a tall range and have to try on lots. It can be a pain.

I'm keeping my eye on this as I'm also a bit lost clothes-wise.

I've been liking Jigsaw lately, although it is expensive. I buy smart clothes from our local Hobbs outlet. I order stuff from Boden as there aren't many good clothes shops local to me, although it can be variable in both style and quality. When I make it to a decent city or shopping centre I like Uniqlo, Cos, White Stuff (variable, but it's nice that most is still cotton), Fat Face (ditto).
I can't advise on buying clothes for tall people. At 5 ft, that would be a nice dilemma to have :)

Recently most of my clothes have come from Mint Velvet, Gap, Oasis, Warehouse. TK Maxx is always worth a look if you can be arsed rummaging, but I think their selection has gone downhill this year. The odd bit from Mango and Zara, sometimes French Connection, Biba and Phase 8. I mostly trawl John Lewis and House of Fraser, so basically whatever concessions they have.

Baukjen, Mary Portas's House of Fraser range, Day Birger Mikkelsen, ASOS (if I'm feeling very patient and have time to trawl through all of the clothes for teenagers), Whistles and Great Plains.

I'm 37, Love M&S collection, oasis, and Zara.

Long tall Sally - usually at sale time.
Joules.

Primark and Dorothy Perkins mostly!

I'm 38 - soon to be 39 - and I shop anywhere that has a tall section! New Look, Dorothy Perkins (although they are dire at the minute), Next (same), ASOS and Long Tall Sally sometimes, and the piece together stuff from Monsoon, River Island, H&M, and Warehouse. I have a couple of things from Fat Face, but find they go a bit raggy after a while.

Maybe you could tell us what style of clothes you are after. To me shops like Next and Gap are quite staid and mainly for a 30-50 demographic so I wouldn't have described them as for 'young, slim things'. I wouldn't have been seen dead in Next, for example in my 20s.
I shop at French Connection, Warehouse, Ted baker, Asos, Espirit, Oasis, & other stories and massimo dutti amongst others.

I'm in my thirties, and would say that the only brands I can't wear anymore are:

• Topshop. Apparently topshop is so cool now, that they needed to reflect this by trebling the prices, stocking sizes that didn't even exist when I was a teenager, and having some of the ugliest clothes you can imagine. Because: FASHION.

• Miss Selfridge: I'm a size 8/10 and always have been. Apparently Miss Selfridge considers that I am some sort of obese hippo, since their clothes are MINISCULE. I don't know if they just scale their sizes down, or if the fashion is just to wear clothes that are so tight they are like latex.

• New Look - New look I can still manage, but it is just beginning to get to a point where it really fucks me off. Their dresses are SO short. RIDICULOUSLY short. It's like they want to save material and so just cut off an entire foot of fabric from every dress they sell.

It depends on what you like to wear and what shape you are I suppose. I am tall and broad and quite hourglassy (14-16 hips in old money and a size 8-10 waist), so most shops aren't cut for my shape. I look for sales and buy loads on eBay (I don't like going shopping). The shops I buy from are: Me&Em, Uniqlo, Jigsaw, New Look, All Saints, and occasionally French Connection. I'm not really attached to labels; those shops have clothes cut for my body shape so that is where I shop. Oh, I do get my bags from Edward de Lacy as everyone should.

My uniform is basically either a silk wrap type dress or dark blue New Look skinnies (the only jeans that fit), a cowl neck jersey top from Me+Em or similar, a moleskin biker from Jigsaw, brown or grey plain boots, brown or grey plain leather bag. Like every other mid-30s woman!

Thanks everyone - if nothing else this has given me lots of brands to check out. I'm so out of touch there are several I've never heard of

Next? For slim young things? Hardly. I think Next is very mumsy and you can always, always, always tell clothes that are from there when out and about. They just have this 'Next look' about them. I do buy the odd thing in Next but less and less as its styles become increasingly dowdy.

GAP is ok in the sales but i can definitely see why they're closing 175 stores globally. GAP are in the shit, clearly.

Debenhams went to the dogs years ago.
Oasis and Warehouse also gone to the dogs and to be on the ropes.
Likewise French Connection - used to be fab 15 years ago, now tragic.

i go to New Look, H&M, Zara, Mango, Vero Moda, Stradivarius, Promod and Primark. I'll never see 30 again, sob. There are nice clothes out there but can be hard to find amongst the dross.