I am baffled by the popularity of Cos

[crystalgall]

Who wants to look like this?!

The model looks like her head has shrunk or that she is wearing clothes about 10 sizes too big for her.

Everything is so shapeless and blah and yet it's lauded as a style haven.

I don't get it.

Agree, wheatchief. That '20% amazing' figure that was so roundly mocked earlier on sounds like pretty good odds to me. I shop all over the place and if I even find 1% amazing I'm very, very happy.

I'm certainly not young either floisme
I am only size 6 and 5ft 3 though and find some of the cuts swamp me
I do like the look of alot of it though

I love Cos. I only have a few pieces from there which are basics, but the quality and feel of them are lovely and I love the fit of them.

Ok, I'm 5'3, size 10. Small? Are things generally very long?

I'm a similar height and size, taybert and my jumpers (and I ought to stress, I only have two!) are both Small. One of the things I really like about them is the length: a lot of slouchy knitwear is too long for me but these are just right.

Grand. I've ordered a couple of jumpers. We'll see....

Friend at work had a lovely navy tunic top on from there the other day but I only know one person I've met who suited Cos. She was very thin, very intellectual and very serious.

Thin, intellectual and serious you say? Perfect

Why the

Chill out. The smiley is a "hmm" and I was saying "hmm" because I'm not sure that really describes me and I've just bought two jumpers from there. Maybe this one would've been better .

Perfectly chilled here - it was a genuine question asked out of curiosity (as per the )

Obviously my intellect is lacking in the area of smileys at the very least. Perhaps the jumpers will be going back.

I love Cos - but I find a weight gain of even a few lbs (taking me from 'skinny' to 'slim') shifts the look from 'edgy' to 'frumpy' for me.

The shape is difficult to pull off, but looks very Fashion if you manage it.

Have one of mine

Spirited the blue dress on the right you pinned - I wore it to a wedding in the summer. It's beautiful.

Just bought a navy round-necked pure wool dress there for 89 euros. Meanwhile in the posh department store across the road they're flogging polyester dresses from Prada for a grand. With no lining.

I love Cos!

I've just bought this and this and they're both fab. Look 100 x better in real life than on the website.

Hardly anything in Cos suits or fits me - the cuts make me look dumpy and shapeless and the colours wash me out. I'm a shortish (5'5) and curvy 10/12 and the clothes that suit me have very different lines from those you'd typically find at Cos.

I know there are likely to be a few items that would suit me - I've had a couple of dresses from there in the past, when I worked next door to a Cos and used to pop in at lunchtime - but I'd rather shop somewhere with a higher hit rate than spend ages trawling through the racks/website.

That said, I recognise that the quality is decent, and if you have the right body type/bone structure, colouring and aesthetic/vibe, you would probably look fantastic in them (although some of the clothes upthread seem to be a bit challenging even for the models).

I too always thought Cos wasn't for me. But I had a look at their knitwear on the advice from a stylist last year and bought two really lovely jumpers from there. They are gorgeous.

If COS is too extreme for you, stories.com is the safe middle ground - more into catering for adult working women than H&M but less severe and minimalistic (and more into waist definition) than COS.

Just had a look at stories.com - to me, it just looked like an extreme and expensive version of H&M. I'm so old....

They have a weird bondage theme going on on their site but the branch I frequent is full of 30-50-sth women and the clothes are generally immensely work appropriate. I like their makeup and jewellery too.

I love Cos so much. I don't love everything in the stores (true of every shop though I think) but all my favourite clothes have come from cos, formal and informal. It suits my shape and hides my least favourite features (tummy and flat bum). The cut often reveals things such as slim wrists or ankles, which makes me look elegant all over when in actuality the wrists are the best bit, if you see what I mean!

I like the clean lines, minimal style of the clothes and I appreciate the different textures of the material they use.

There was a thread on here the other day full of hate for Cos. I don't really get the vitriol although someone pointed out that if you only see the online images rather than in store browsing, you get a skewed image of what the clothes are really like. Still, there's plenty of other places to shop if you can't make Cos work for you.