Where do you find decent quality clothes nowadays?

[BabCNesbitt]

Fed up of wasting my bloody life spending afternoons browsing the shops and coming back empty-handed because everything is either sheer, drapey (both of which seem like ways for clothes manufacturers to save money), or polyester/viscose.

I know that if I were to poke around long enough, I'd probably come up with the odd gem, but are there any shops (high street or online) that are still consistently coming up with the goods and selling decent quality natural fibres?

Dare I mention Land's End? Lots of cotton there, and the quality is good, though all a bit casual!

I also like Boden, especially for jersey cotton tops.

Forgot to say that Petit Bateau for women is usually excellent quality.

I second most of the brands already mentioned.

Of course quality clothes that last years aren't really in the manufacturers interest, are they, as we won't come back next year to buy again...

Another late to this but agree completely - I don't mind paying he and m or zAra prices for polyester or MMF as the price point stes the expectation sometimes, however Massimo dutti- love their ranges but they re really a tidier zara store with perfume sprayed about , their clothes IMHO are pricer and same quality as zara just marketed a slightly higher price point.
I find myself waiting for sales, ear marking items and buying less but letter quality depending on he feel and tread count / content.
Of course I still rush out and buy the other tat and you can get some real gems in h and m etc too.
Uniqulo often raved about on here, was IMHO such a let down, I couldn't wait to try their stores, when I got there it was all a bit warehouse-y, colours were washy, items were only ok looking. Gap - in another form. Fine, I picked up a few basics - they ve been ok, but just ok, not amazing!

I m turning into a grumpy old lady.

Even worse when you are six feet tall with a 35 inch inside leg
My local shopping centre is big and "high end"... Yet there is nowhere I can buy trousers, shoes or even a coat. Even being within 30 minutes of central London doesn't help.
I'm actually going to look at the overpriced Long Tall Sally today to try on 4 styles of jeans//leggings which may or may not fit.

I like bits of Mint Velvet, Esprit, Vera Moda, Sandwich, Banana Republic,Warehouse. At 55 I want to look contemporary.
I look shocking in Cos. I have spent hours in there. A shame because I like the clean lines and lack of prints.

A lot of the brands mentioned here that people are saying are too expensive (eg Jaeger, Hobbs, Phase Eight) can be found at outlet centres.

The outlet place at York is also the only place I have seen Banana Republic in the UK (inside Gap, not that I've looked very hard).

Would be last season and not always great choice, but could be an option if looking for basics?

There's a Banana Republic shop in Covent Garden

Thanks mrs but I'm 200 miles from London so it would have to be a special trip. I don't generally shop for clothes on the internet due to variability in sizing etc.

However, I'll add it to my list of things to do in London, along with Uniqlo - irritatingly they have about 10 shops in London and the South East and none elsewhere in the country. Similarly Esprit, which I also like.

We've had a real retail boom in Leeds in the last few years - a massive shopping centre opened a year or two ago and there's another one due newt year. We're finally getting a John Lewis, but otherwise it seems to be the same old shops with nothing new that we're currently missing out on.

There's a Banana Republic at The Trafford Centre in Manchester.

Wish Uniqlo would open a northern shop!

I don't buy into cotton being a luxury fabric. The harvest failed a few years ago, but has recovered. Sainsburys can do cotton blouses for £15.00. Fatface and Whitestuff, although I loathe their stuff manage to do cotton at a reasonable price. I was amazed when shopping with ds that Top Mans shirts were all cotton and about 20 quid.

It's to do with profit IMO.

I used to make clothes & any good fabric shop would have different qualities of cotton & linen at different prices. When I buy from a more expensive brand its usually because the quality of fabric & construction is in a different league from the cheap brands. Having said that you can find poor quality items mixed in with the good - Boden, in particular, seem to have decided that the best way to keep prices down is to give up on quality control, and Uniqlo shirt fabrics are very variable. Most obvious difference with fabric quality that I buy is with linen - worst ever was from La Redoute - a skirt looked as though I had slept in it within an hour of wear; at the other extreme is linen described as "irish linen" which is a more substantial fabric & a dress in that will do a day at the office & look no more creased at the end than good quality cotton.

I think shops can't be blamed if we don't shop there if they turn out a rubbish range.

H&M do some good cotton basics

www.hm.com/gb/search/#!/products?q=cotton&category=ladies

but the one thing that REALLY pisses me off about H&M is why they do stuff like this for men - jackets - a nice fawn one but nothing for women in wool - it's because they're classics and they want us women to spend more on disposable clothes:-

www.hm.com/gb/search/#!/products?q=wool&category=men

I buy a lot of my tshirts from Vero Moda when in Denmark. They are cotton Lycra mix and hold up.

The stuff from Germany is Espirit, Webber, Aasis and Moda.

Worktolive planning to move back to Leeds in a couple of years

SuperFlyHigh is right; my husband still manages to find clothes in natural fabrics and he's hardly a 'high end' shopper. Womens' retailers are taking the piss.

Mango online is quite good. I have got a few cotton jumpers and cardigans. Slightly more edgy then your fat face and Boden offerings.

I try and avoid Mango as I gather they were absolute shits after they were involved in Rana Plaza.

Rana Plaza was one of many - do not think that any other brands are squeaky clean because their name did not come up. Buying cheap clothes is costing much much more than money.

Of course they're not the only ones - I'm not that stupid! But Mango was one of the companies that dragged their feet about paying compensation which I thought was particularly disgusting and have remembered ever since. Matalan and Benetton did the same. At least Primark paid up straight away.