I used to like M&S but I'm not surprised they are struggling to sell womens clothes, WARNING MAY BE UPSETTING

[Behooven]

Says it all...

Interestingly, they do still focus on good (or at least reasonable) quality basics for their men's wear. Yes, there are beige cardigans but there is, to be fair, a market for beige cardigans

Most of their menswear is in plain colours and there are lots of natural fabrics. It's only women who are thought to be gagging for a nylon frilly Coat of Many Colours (it was red and yellow and green and brown and blue...) and other offences against fashion.

strangely not, shiny but I've never seen her without a grill or ruffle.

Frill or ruffle! Though I wouldn't put it past her if it was shiny enough.....

I like the idea of someone who never goes out without a grill - so useful for those spontaneous beach BBQs

Yes, please but all the bloody jumpers in the one area. I don't want to traipse from bloody Per Una to bloody Autograph to bloody Limited. It's like the seven circles of hell.

If Hieronymus Bosch were still alive he'd be using M&S for inspiration in his paintings.

'Yes, please but all the bloody jumpers in the one area'

Oh god yes to this. I remember going in to look for a jacket one day and feeling dizzy from traipsing round the store so many times looking at their 5 million jackets spread out all over the place

I actually own 2 jumpers from Per Una and I swear to god I am a frill and flounce-free zone. There are occasional alright bits and pieces in there, although I agree most of it just looks mental

Reading this thread with huge relief! I seriously thought it was just me!

Yes to the stuff being everywhere in their little ranges. Fair enough a smart section, a casual section. But like you say, it's bloody jumpers everywhere!!! Drives me potty.
Per una, I remember its launch. I always felt a bit like Dorian green was who they pictured when designing it. They'll take what could be a nice item and shit sequins and beads all over it.

It was always expensive but quality, we couldn't afford to shop there. Their Christmas range this year was a sad offering I thought

YY to 'just put all the jumpers in the same place'. And WTAF is up with per una? Is their design process basically 1) 'come up with relatively good basic garment' 2) 'fuck it up' ? So many times I've pulled a garment towards me that looked promising... only to find it has huge buttons plastered down one side, a big ugly bow, a really weird neckline, or is made of a horrible fabric. Why? For the love of god, why? It's as though the designers just don't know when to stop designing!

A perfect example of their hopelessness - dd and I went in to look for a warm, waterproof coat in November, just a dark coloured parka style coat like every shop has, but we thought M&S would have something more at the serviceable rather than fashion end of the scale (the terrible realisation has hit her, now that she is a student in a cold place, that warm and dry is sometimes better then trendy). They had one shiny beige, strangely puffy effort that was only water resistant, nothing else remotely fitted the bill. I suspect that there were other jackets hidden away in "collections" but we didn't find them.

In the end dd got a really nice waterproof coat in Zara which ticked all her boxes, is really well made and not too expensive. I say again - how hard can it be?

"Interestingly, they do still focus on good (or at least reasonable) quality basics for their men's wear"

Only for men with short legs and short arms, and everything shrinks in the wash. OH is 6'2", so he is tall but not that tall. M and S trousers stop at 33" and their shirt sleeves are way too short, and even shorter after a 40 degree wash.

Yes to all jumpers in same place.

I spent the best part of an hour helping my mum buy a handbag from there.
Except is wasn't "there", it was here, there and everywhere

I bought bras from M&S for years but suddenly the bra backs are at least 3" shorter than they used to be and don't go anywhere near fastening. How on earth can a 36F be closer to a 32F?
Even the lady on the Returns desk couldn't answer that. So no more bras from M&s, discovered Fantasie bras and I'm very happy.

A lot of what I buy in M&S shrinks in the wash - even when I make a point of washing at low temperatures and line drying. The children's school socks are the latest casualties.

Sadly, I think I might have to start making an effort and shop around a bit for the basics because M&S can't be trusted on quality any more. (They lost the design trust about 20 years ago).

M&S and next should combine forces.
Both had promise may years ago, both have evolved in to something no good to anyone.

Can we forward this to M&S HQ? It would save them a fortune in market research. The shareholders would like it.

Are they on glue!?

Maybe they're nice when they're on... fire, perhaps?

the quality of their cotton stuff is really poor - they've got a few cardies and jumpers that you think at first glance 'oooh they've done a jcrew jackie cardie for less money' but when you look at it, the cotton is too thin and worn looking and the shape is frumpy and not flattering. I love M&S, their home, kids, bathroom ranges are all better than the women's clothes - haven't even been tempted to try anything on in years

I go into M&S because I love Nuxe, and I sometimes go into the food hall whilst I'm there.

Clothes? Not for ages. The last time I did was in the 1980s, when you could reliably buy serviceable, fairly classic, durable clothes, usually in natural fibre and made in Britain. So you could get lots of workwear and staples, and feel good about the British economy too.

Then Sloane Rangerdom came along and suddenly they were fashionable and it went to their heads. It's just never been the same since.

They need to decide who their target market is, and then do it really well. I get no sense whatsoever of what sort of person would buy clothes from there.

(For plain bras in bright colours btw, try ASDA. They do a basic Tshirt bra (moulded cup) and always seem to have it in stock in white, black and nude, plus a regularly changed range of colours).

Saying the same things as this thread, by a nationally published journalist, so let's hope someone takes note:

www.the-pool.com/news-views/fashion-news/2016/1/sali-hughes-on-marks-and-spencers

Their bras have never fitted me, but now their trousers, tights and tops don't fit me either.

I used to be a 10-12 in M&S, now I'm smaller than an 8.

Unless of course I'm shrinking

I see they are reduced to £11 and someone has reviewed them "Jkie-from-Falkirk" saying how nice they are. If anyone on here is from Falkirk & spots them/her, please give her a card with the Mumsnet link on it.

Could we harness the power of MN (Falkirk branch) and find Jackie?! I want to know more about who is buying these trousers.

it'll turn out that she bought them on sale for an ABBA themed party, won't it?

Marc Bolland was on Radio 4 yesterday morning. He was saying that he thinks the British love shops and to back it up he explained that something like 80% of people who buy form M&S online choose to pick it up at their local store. He went on to praise the layout of the stores as being exactly what customers want.

AIBU to think that he's wrong about the motivation? parking and fighting your way to the collection dept in the back corner isn't ideal, people just do it because the delivery charges make a small item expensive so we order online and accept the inconvenience of having to collect instore?

Glad the thread is still going. Totally agree that their work clothes are really poor now. The shirts are too short cutting off at just that wrong part of my stomach to make it look even worse, the trousers on the other hand seem to have really long gusset areas (I don't know how else to describe it)

Here's what I found when searching for black trousers