White Stuff - will it ever reach saturation point

[BrendaandEddie]

with its A line skirts, endless cardigans, frumpsville tunics and button necklaces?

PLEASE?

I cannot wear Whitestuff, Boden or Seasalt or Mistral , all the clothes just look hideous on me. I bought a WS top once shjch shrubk dreadfully, and the seams got all twisted.

All these brands clothes look just dire on me (age 43, size 12, tall pear)

I have 1 nice mumsy jeans skirt from WS which I wear a lot though. There is a time and a place for a nice mumsy jeans skirt (village fetes, school bbq, walking the dog in summer etc.)

I used to love White Stuff, could guarantee that any size 10 top would fit me beautifully and be a lovely print and good quality.

Now it's gone really crap - crap material, crap prints, crap cuts that make me look pregnant or shapeless.

The final straw was when my 60-something mum started shopping there. As a previous poster said, it's gone all Per Una :(

I think tunics are frumpy. Loads of women here seem to be dressed in white stuff and Boden. You can usually tell by the patterns, fabric and cut.
I used to wear tunics a lot. Then I realised that they looked crap on me and pretty much on everyone else really.
They do advertise the fact that you are trying to hide something. I am lucky that I am slim but shapeless tops immediately make you look frumpy whatever your size and build.
They do a lot of wrap around stuff too iirc. Only people with decent length torsos can carry that look off ( am not one of them, I have no waist)

I go in at the waist, especially when viewed from the side (big sticking out pear-shaped bum) and it took me a while to realise that loose tunics are possibly the most unflattering possible shape on me, as they just sag past the slimmer area in the middle, and make me look barrel-shaped. I only suit things that are fitted or cinched in at the waist, even though I am a pear-shaped 14-16. I think it's a myth that's somehow sprung up that if you are carrying a bit of extra weight a shapeless tunic is a good idea. For many people it's really not. But I think a lot of women in a post-baby period get frightened into the idea they should cover everything up with a WS tunic.

That's very true boskycat the tunic coves things up that you are anxious about, but it looks crap.

Why are we saying here "shapeless tunics are so frumpy" but then those boxy loose dresses from places like Cos are always being recommended. A lot of White stuff dresses are at least fitted under the bust but the more fashionable ones are just pillowcases.

it's a nightmare trying to find anything at the moment fitted but not skin tight/bodycon and stretchy.

But if you are fat and frumpy like me, tunics are better than a lot of the clingy stuff that's out there. I can never find anything nicer that doesn't cling and show rolls of fat. So a tunic that is tighter under the bodice and then looser makes me feel a little less hideous. I know it's frumpy, but you have to compare it to what else is available for people like me. I've tried a lot of styles. Don't want shapeless, exactly, but rolls aren't a good shape either, so the right sort of tunic style is better than a lot of things you can get. But it needs to be thick material, too.

if you're a slim type, then there will be lots of things that might look good, so I can see where WS wouldn't be too appealing.

I like some of the patterns, but not as many in recent years, and I also think the quality has declined loads, and the prices have gone up. Shame.

What is lacking in clothes shops is clothes that skim rather than clothes that cling, or just plain baggy shapeless clothes.

Agree with those saying that they're appealing to a different target group these days. My mum has just discovered White Stuff and is happy to have found a shop that sells the sort of clothes, dresses particularly, that she wants to buy. She's actually a pretty well-dressed lady but she's 70 ...

I do like some WS e.g shirts, t shirts, cotton tops often in plain colours and I like the embroidered detail. I got a really nice cord dress in the sale and have a few skirts again plain ones. I also have 2 lovely waistcoat cardies and a coat. I always buy in the sales

I don't go in for the tunics but I did have the odd one, I still love my sleeveless knitted one but it developed a hole

I agree the quality has gone downhill and the cotton is so thin. I don't think I would buy the knitwear now.

I think the fatface blouses are better.

I am in my late 40s so I think it's ok on me. Some of the colours are nice but they need to up their game quality wise

I think its a bit much to say that tunics all look crap. There are loads of different styles and types. A tunic suits me. Love wearing it over my kickflares providing it isnt too long. I am not fussed for the leggings tunic look and think it is a bit dated now but i do still wear leggings and a shortish dress that otherwise i would be too old to wear!
I have a velvety pinafore mini dress from asos on with w.stuff faded black jeggings and boots. Its like a tunic, covers my bum and comes to my upper thigh. I think its all about what suits the individual.

No they don't all look crap, but I think baggy shapeless tunics a la WS look crap on a lot of people, especially people who have a few lumps and bumps and feel they should cover them up.

Of course they will suit some people.

They sell so much more than tunics! I own a lot of WS clothes, none of them tunics.

I recently bought this top to wear for work and got compliments the first day I wore it to the office.

www.whitestuff.com/mobile/womens/tops-tees/brooklyn-blue-salina-tee/

£45 for a tee shirt?

£45 for a t shirt that looks like something my gran would wear.

I like that top. Agree much is dowdy but I have a great totally plain dark brown leather bag that I bought 8 years ago and still love

Yes I love my WS bag too. Really, really nice leather and design, looks like it could be something much more designer/expensive, and has lasted amazingly.

How I used to enjoy these threads, good old laugh at dowdy clothes. Until I hit perimenopause - now all my spare weight is gathered unattractively round my tummy and shows no sign of shifting and it's rather tempting to wear a tunic style top that hides it.

Pray tell if I should not be wearing WS outfits, what should I be attired in?

It does do good structual swimming costumes for those of large of boob and lumpy of (sectioned) tummy. Bit less full on than bravissimo, not depressing as other places seem to make them.

I quite like sludgy colours and never wear black, but quite afford as much as I would like so sometimes buy lookeelikee stuff from logg at h&m

Well I don't think there's a "should" other than you should wear what you like and feel comfortable in.

I suppose my point is I think some people end up in WS tunic land because they feel they should, but that something else actually might be more flattering. That's not to say they should dress differently, if they don't want to.

But, I feel more confident and better about my CS tummy and general extra flab, if I wear some comfy control pants to smooth it all down and a knee-length dress that has a belt or tie at the waist. It doesn't have to be tight fabric that shows every lump and bump. It could be woven fabric in a fairly loose style, but that has a waist. I also like maxi dresses because they skim down to the ground and give you an overall longer shape.

I think one problem with tunics if you are pear-shaped is they stop at your thighs just where they are chunkiest. So the effect (on me that is) is of shapeless sack atop two tree trunks.

Doubt it, since my kids are both now at Uni, I don't have to see the Boden brigade every morning. It's soooo refreshing.

Afaik it's not either or

Boskycat If you are pear shaped then a dress with a tie waist will suit you - show off your waist , hide your hips and thighs.

If you are apple shaped like me then a tunic is fab. Leggings to show off my slim shapely legs and a tunic to hide my middle.

WS clothes suit my shape so i will continue wearing them.

I was wearing White Stuff back when it was a surf brand :) Then they stared to go a bit 'grown up' but it was still outdoorsy and a bit boho, so all was well, and I felt it was growing up with me - from combats to skinnies, from saggy surf tee to quirky/bold print tunic. FITTED tunic. None of this A-line-from-armpit business. Another plus was that there wasn't a WS store within a gajillion mile radius of me, so no one wore it or had heard of it. I ordered from the catalogue and online.

And then suddenly they - and Fat Face did the same thing - decided they wanted to be Boden II, or something, and went bonkers with the cuts, dull with the prints and the skirts crept longer each year - no good when you're 5 foot2! Now each new season brings another dull palette and even the models look like nothing fits right.

I have some kind of hope it may improve, every now and again I think an item might just work. I picked up a dress in the sale I'm really pleased with. I still wear my old 2008/9 tunics as my favourites, but it's been a long time now since I've bought something I know I'll still be wearing years later.