Alexa for Marks and Spencer

[Neveradullm0ment]

Have you seen the clothes? On news websites

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Links not working for me but I did a search and found the green jumper. It's so short though. M&S don't seem to realise that most of their customers might well have had a couple of children and therefore might well have a bit of a tummy - my crop top days are long over.

Which skirt is it?

[SirChenjin]

Skirt (navy). Also comes in beige (if you feel your wardrobe needs 2 of the things )

[peaceoftheaction]

I think the green jumper's expensive for what it is. And those grey shoes. The skirt is ok for a certain age maybe but it would look like I'd got on my old one from girl guides if it fitted

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Ahhh. Thanks. Not my sort of thing - I had one in about 1983 and thought I was the bee's knees.

[Floisme]

I may try on the culottes - I'm after some crop wide legs for spring.

Love the green jumper and the length would be good (I'm short with a high waist so never fear people, my belly would be under wraps.) It may be a bit chunky for my post menopausal boobs but I'll look it up.

The top wouldn't work for me cos of the colours.

Not sure I could carry off that skirt but I bet Alexa could.

Thanks

[peaceoftheaction]

I can't really see the skirt working on anyone over about the age of 35. It might lose it's 'ironic' vibe and just look like you'd given up

[niminypiminy]

The jumper's actually quite fine knit so it has a bit of drape, and the length is good, I think. I love the colour!

The skirt is actually very flattering, it's quite a narrow A-line, and hangs very well - just below the knees on my stumpy legs.

Yes, have been looking for cropped denim wide legs for a while so am hoping they will work (haven't seen them IRL though, only online).

[peaceoftheaction]

The skirt or trousers wouldn't flatter my cankles that's for sure

[ephemeralfairy]

Marks is too bloody expensive for what it is. It's stuck in some weird hinterland between cheap 'fast fashion' and high-end high street. Not current enough for the former, and the quality isn't there for the latter.

I've just been given a Marks gift card for my birthday, I'm not going to bother even looking at clothes. Will probably hit the beauty department hard and stock up on REN.

[Floisme]

But that weird hinterland is pretty much where I would like to shop

I quite like a bit of cheap fast fashion but I can't carry it off head to toe and besides the ethics of it trouble me. But equally, I can only afford the odd bit of higher end. Something in the middle would suit me fine.

[Didiusfalco]

Its stuck in some weird hinterland between cheap 'fast fashion' and high end high street

This is what I want! I'm mid late 30s and I don't want disposable fashion but can't stretch to the high end of the high street either. I feel like floisme about the ethics too.

Personally I find that marks have so much stuff (yes sometimes a confusing jumble) that if I look carefully (online mostly) I can nearly always find something I want. I get all my trousers from there, because I don't have time to shop in person and I know I can order the same size in any style and it will fit.

I do find the amount of stuff they make in polyester a bit grim, but I just don't buy that. When I look at my wardrobe things I've had from m&s are some of the ones I've hung on to for years, while stuff from h&m for example just hasn't lasted.

[niminypiminy]

I too want things between disposable and high end high street. I can't bear the jumble sale aspect of H&M and Zara - I've never had the trick of finding things in actual jumble sales either. And I shop a lot at Marks. People often ask where I've got things from and when I say 'Marks' they're surprised.

I suspect the whole 'M&S just isn't what it used to be' thing has always been going on. For as long as I've been reading S&B there have been saying it, and probably when Marks was selling things in the Penny Bazaar there were people saying 'the quality's just not there like it used to be'.

It's partly because they are so huge, and such a national institution that people feel they have a stake in them - I can't imagine anyone really caring whether Zara went down the pan. And because their position in the high street means they need to be all things to all people, everyone feels a little bit naffed off when they don't get exactly what they want.

FWIW one of the items in my shopping basket is polyester. But the quality is fantastic! It's really thick, lovely material, with properly bound seams and binding on the bottom hem so that it will hang well. It's well cut and will wash and not crease, and I will wear it for work with something under it. And all for £28!

[prettywhiteguitar]

Actually I never go online for marks I just go into store and there much more online I fancy, too much is not priced in the middle though, I like the best of British range (not the peach horrors) but £99 for a silk shirt, why ? I like the grey cashmere sweater, on the black model in basics for £75, I might get that if I can order it in store

[prettywhiteguitar]

www.marksandspencer.com/pure-cashmere-animal-print-jumper/p/p22426702?prevPage=plp

This is exactly the kind of thing that lets them down !!

[SirChenjin]

It hasn't always been like that nim - honest! I'm 47 and I can well remember a time when M&S was well respected for their clothes. They had good quality, well cut stuff that lasted, and that didn't have to resort to reworkings, or bad copies of stuff, or the awful Speziale or whatever you call it. I can't recall exactly when they lost their way though - mid 90s maybe?

[niminypiminy]

I remember shopping there in the 80s, though, and it was not fashion at all - just mumsy jumpers. And earlier - certainly in the mid-70s than that I can remember it being a byword for mumsy jumpers. Maybe there was a brief golden age about 20 years ago? or have we simply forgotten?

[Floisme]

niminy I agree. I think grumbling about M&S has become a national sport. I do it myself.

Every woman I know who's middle aged or older expects M&S to cater for them yet we're a massively diverse group: different shapes, different sizes, different styles, different lives, different incomes. I don't know how they can ever square that circle. I assume they hired Belinda Earl because of the way she'd revived Jaegar but that was a much more niche target market.

I too remember when 'the brand name of Marks and Spencer' was a byword for quality (though not for style: big fights with my mum because she wanted to shop there and I wanted to go to Chelsea Girl). In the 80s I lived near one of their factories. It employed a lot of local people, paid them well and there was uproar when they closed it. But everyone else was moving their manufacturing overseas and they didn't dare get left behind. Getting that level of quality back would mean a massive hike in prices.

[SirChenjin]

Oh I don't think M&S has ever been hugely fashionable but I do remember that it was where you want for good quality, classic stuff. That's gone now imo.

[Floisme]

Yes - it was a time when we still made clothes in the uk. I think the downturn in quality dates from when we stopped doing that.

[SirChenjin]

Quite agree Flo

[Floisme]

We also paid a lot more - in real terms - for our clothes then. That's another of M&S's problems, I think.

[RichardHead]

I'm mid 30's and seem to buy almost half of my clothes from M&S. I've got my eye on some bottle green wide legged trousers and a denim dress at the moment.

I honestly don't get the hate!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Have had a search on the M&S site.

Love this blouse but I doubt it would suit me.

Ditto

Looks like good basic and, surprise, surprise, it's nearly sold out. Guess what women want from you, M&S?!


Potentially v useful

Why the hell haven't they done this in black or white or grey?

Will go and try this on

And obviously the Rosie silk stuff is lovely.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Am clearly alone in my liking for those items!

[SirChenjin]

There's just nothing grabbing me - it's all a bit meh (apart from the silk blouse - that's screaming 'sweaty armpit stains visible from 300m' - do you not remember the Silk Shop??!)