Archive by Alexa verdicts?

[StrawberrytallCake]

I've just bought one of the slip dresses with the cardigans and the black playsuit - what do you reckon? I'm unsure if I've just impulse bought but picking up tomorrow so will check quality and fit then!!

link

[Laska5772]

I like the lydia trousers..

[WicksEnd]

Awful. An aggressive looking model who looks like she's just got out of bed doesn't really help to showcase it though.
Their styling is just awful.
They seem to fuck it up at every turn.

[GertyTheGert]

Hi Laska I know what you're saying but have you noticed there appears to be a sewed centre seam down the front of said trousers a la Courtelle trousers in the 70s, when women would grab a sewing machine and sew a centre seam to keep in the trouser crease (Gawd!) as at that time the material quality was so poor? I noticed in the pic that the model's trousers have gorn a bit baggy just modelling them BUT the actual design minus the centre seam (or is it me imagining its there?!??!) is nice enough!

[flingingmelon]

I do t k ow what they're aiming for. If they're trying to lure in cool twenty somethings, shouldn't they come up with clothes that haven't been available in Topshop for eighteen months? If they're going for trend conscious thirty somethings, what are the mini dresses about? I agree, if you look like Alexa you'll look great in it, but you probably spent all your money in other stories / finery / cos / whistles already.
And the card is are the same as the cashmere ones they always do.

[GertyTheGert]

My very cool god-daughter wouldn't be seen dead in ANY M&S shite - she is nearly 20 and wears v high-fashion stuff which is cheapish (because it IS high fashion and she can go and buy even more "latest fashion" stuff in a month!!!!!). When I say cheapish its anything from Top Shop to Primark etc etc but HONESTLY the quality doesn't seem to be compromised either! I wish I was nearly 20 and size 10 - she out-dressed me and her mother when we took her to the OXO Tower for her cool birthday yet we probs spent treble on our outfits - in desperation!!! (Example - my necklace that evening cost £25 (yes I was desperate to colour match so bloomin paid over the odds) Guess what? The necklace broke as I minisculely adjusted it so the flowers were dead in the middle, 5 mins after we sat at the table! So, in the photos I had a plain ie drab black top on...) God-daughter? Looked fab in a Primark dress and long necklace...... I rest my case....... (Sob)

[Laska5772]

Actually gert I think you may be right ..disappointing and that would put me off.. ive ordered them now, but if they have the seam ill not be keeping them.. coming to my local store , so at least I havent paid postage..

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

the vast majority of that looks like cheap tat I would have bought from Topshop in the 1990s. I guess if you are in the demographic for whom the 90s is 'retro' and not a painful reminder of cringey teenage fashion mistakes then it might be appealing, but if you are in your 30s I can't imagine why you'd want to dress as your teenage self

Those shoes are unspeakably hideous.

[SavoyCabbage]

The shoes! My eyes!

[Nibbl3s]

I think you made a great choice with the cami dress! It's lovely.

[StrawberryLeaf]

I've ordered the Ada wide leg cropped trouser. This is a good shape for me and I could do with navy ones but I'm not sure if I'll keep them, they are 100% polyester

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

The shirt dress thing I'd wear with leggings or skinnies, but there is literally nothing else you could pay me to wear.

[StrawberrytallCake]

Thanks Nibbl3s fingers crossed although it does feel a little like I'm trying to re-live the 90s. Mind you I've just bought a denim button down front dungaree dress which I have tried on and think looks awesome so maybe I just belong in the 90s anyway!!

[SallyDonovan]

I quite like the shirt dress but the rest is hideous. Why, M&S, why?

[frolific]

What Scooterloo said.

Also, what's with naming everything and sticking 'the' in front to make it sound unique?

More like Archive Trolled by Alexa...

[ClimbedEveryMountain]

I knew there'd be a thread! I haven't read the replies yet, but...

• Everything seems to be cut to fit an almost non-existent chest. Those dresses and the cami tops would not accommodate my chest, which is actually smaller than the average
  
• The jacket has been made too boxy/square shape. Absolutely no good at all if you have even a hint of a hip or bottom.
  
• The jumpers are too short
  
• The dress 'inspired by a 50s apron' is simply gopping.
  
• I don't know anyone over the age of 20 who would be able to carry off a shoestring dress. Even my 24 year old slim sister just wouldn't be able to do it.
  

I like the capri trousers but unfortunately that's it.

[ClimbedEveryMountain]

OMG!

I forgot that hideous shirt and dress with the weird high neck and frill all around! What on earth is that about? Go and stand on any high street and look at the women walking around you, do you seriously see anyone who would actually put that on for any reason other than a dare or fancy dress??

I just can't believe she had the entire archive to choose from and these are what she picked out.

[ClimbedEveryMountain]

Oh and I thought the lemon cardigan was ok but wasn't it £35? You could probably find it elsewhere for cheaper but just as nice.

[HMF1]

Sadly another own goal by M &S. I haven't seen anything in store but the styling on the website is awful. The clothes are not displayed well at all. I think M&S needs to have a serious think about their collaborations, perhaps looking at how Debenham' s, H&M & Clark's do this type of thing. They could start by thinking about who their target markets are & I don't think it's the teenage fashionista s who could wear the stuff in this collection.

[GreenHamNoeggs]

The navy cable jumper is the least offensive but having read that it's a 2003 Blue Harbour piece and that Alexa's dad had one just like it, I am not inspired. To say the least.

[LitteRedSparke]

They've obviously paid the daily mail


So enter Alexa Chung, a woman so achingly of-the-moment and adored by the younger generation that she has the power to singlehandedly improve the fortunes of a brand

[Wilding]

I like the shirt tunic thing, though if definitely wear it with trousers of some kind! I think the trench looks OK but the rest is a bit boring. Agree that most of it looks as if it would hideously unflattering for most figures. And as for Alexa (who I was at school with, weirdly) having the whole archive to choose from, I really doubt it - they probably just gave her a small selection. I don't know how much input she would actually have had into the whole thing.

[AgathaF]

Those clothes were bad enought the first time round. Why, why, why resurrect them?

[LitteRedSparke]

some of it is ok, the cropped trousers with a wide leg make you look short and dumpy -

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[CalonGoch]

What I don't get is that all these 'celebrity curated' bollocks design collections, for all the adoring tweets from fashion bloggers, are surely overseen by someone with a calculator going, 'We need to shift x thousand units of this, Steve' - even if it's a limited edition collection designed for editorial coverage, rather than to sell in mass. But HOW do you wear a pie crust mini dress? Where do you wear it? How do you sit down?!

Agree that it's disappointing. Given how much wearable stuff they must have in that archive - properly cut 50s pencil skirts, flattering 70s maxis, cute 60s prints for t-shirts - this feels like more of a branding exercise for M&S than a genuine attempt to sell clothes to their customers.