Jaeger in administration

[pseudonymity]

Very sad to read about this.

Am a bigger fan of Ralph Lauren now. They do a cheaper/sporty range which is still gorgeous - and I can even interest my daughter in it (she was never interested in Jaeger).

I found it very good for the older woman. As I said I bought a lot of stuff there for my mum, but she is 79.

She also bought a lot of stuff from Artigiano which was bought by a British company I think and turned into BHS style clothes.

If Jaeger is bought by the Edinburgh Woollen Mill (uncertain) I suspect their style will go the same way.

There's definitely a market out there for middle aged + women who don't want to wear M&S.

But I guess the market wasn't big enough to sustain Jaeger at the prices they charge.

I suspect the tendency to discount made people reluctant to pay full price for clothes.

I'm sad to see such an iconic brand go under but for me, they made the mistake of assuming that all middle aged women look the same and have the same life style. (A lot of posters do the same thing.)

I do have a Jaeger shirt dress that I bought in a charity shop and that I love but most of their clothes weren't really my style, didn't fit very well and didn't suit my job or my life.

sad - because of the crazy history.

I would never compare a H&M suit to one from Jaeger. The quality and tailoring is vastly superior at Jaeger, which is part of their problem. A suit from H&M might last me 18 months. A suit from Jaeger is still going strong after 5 years.

Want2bSupermum Of course the quality is incomparable but you miss my point. No-one wears suits nowadays, full stop. Even if Jaeger made rails of them they wouldn't sell to the "younger generation" because they are no longer needed in the a modern workplace. (a very small sector of the financial and legal sector aside, as I said).

I quite liked their clothe so and I didn't think they were that expensive considering the quality.

Issue for me was the sizing. They seem to be made for giants. Am regular size 12 and 5'3".

Coats were great though.

Have had a few great shift dresses from there for work. Agree Jaeger Boutique was more my style.

simmons Suit jackets are still needed in upper management in nearly every industry. I'm in professional services and have seen a good cross section of management from different industries. The real problem is that the layer of management in charge and the layer underneath doesn't have many women. Too many women coming up don't follow the saying 'Dress for the job you want, not the job you have.' Having been in the room during reviews of my team members it's nearly always the women who get 'I just don't know about her ability to do x, y or z'. IMO the senior person with this opinion has it because of how the woman has present herself. Part of that is how women in the office dress.

Also, H&M suits are great for starting out in your career but if someone wore a suit of that quality to an interview with 10+ years of experience, looking to be hired into a mid management role, I would be thinking twice. I would think the same for a man walking in wearing a suit from there too.

In my sector nobody, including the Chief Executive wears a suit. In fact, far from going in your favour, it would probably be taken as a sign that you didn't really understand the company. Dress codes in many workplaces have changed beyond all recognition in the last 10 years and Jaeger failed to keep up.

Really surprised so many industries don't dress smartly.

In the agricultural sector a suit is definitely still required by all the professionals I deal with. If my land agent/banker/financial advisor rocked up in casuals I would judge.

Well whatever you think about it, there has been a sea change which I would say some high end retailers (eg Jigsaw or Me and Em) have capitalised on. Jaeger missed a trick in my opinion.

Want2bSupermum sorry I think it's a massively outdated concept that women have to wear suits to be taken seriously in the workplace, and a far bigger topic for discussion than a Style and Beauty thread about Jaeger going bust so I'll leave it there..

Floisme exactly, Jigsaw and Me and Em cottoned on to modern womens workwear and Jaeger didn't, simple as.

I also wonder how long Hobbs will have on the High Street. They don't have a big infrastructure behind the scenes, and like Jaeger haven't really nailed business casual workwear, casual wear, or attracting younger customers in.

I work in financial services in The City and can definitely confirm that no-one wears suits these days. I earn six figures and haven't worn a suit since I first started out in ill fitting and ugly Next suits at 22

By no-one, I mean no women. Men still wear suits most of the time.

Trading no they won't wear a suit day to day. Going to see a client they will. Those higher up are wearing suit separates.

I read about this and thought ' when was the last time I bought anything in Jaeger?' . Years and years ago. A (for me very expensive at the time) suit for an interview. The hem dropped out of one of the trouser legs on day one. The next time I wore it a button fell off the jacket. Staff not remotely interested when I told them how unhappy I was. So this closure is no loss really.

stumbly This is my point - men are still wearing suits. Women are not. Women are also not getting promoted into senior positions at the same rate as men.... Biggest shock to me moving up into lowest ranking management position is sitting in on review meetings and just how what you wear and how you present yourself has a huge impact. Men tend to nail these areas where as women, because they are not dressed or talk in the same way as men are not considered as capable.

Well maybe men should stop wearing suits too then!

A womens capability and suitability for a senior role, or any job at any level, should not be determined by whether she wears shoulder pads or a skirt of the same fabric and colour to her jacket. If this is still the case, then the philosophy and culture in that workplace should be addressed, not the bloody dress code!

I am quite frankly astounded.

simmons Clutch your pearls and be astounded. It is the way it is and the women who are getting ahead are wearing suits. Most of my time in the review meetings I attend are spent promoting women and minorities who don't conform with the status quo but who are capable. If they dressed the part my job would be so much easier. I have also had to have conversations about appropriate dress for women wanting to be promoted so many times.

"If they dressed the part my job would be so much easier.I have also had to have conversations about appropriate dress for women wanting to be promoted so many times."

I'm so sorry your job is made harder because women don't conform to out-dated male stereotypes and you don't do anything to change it. I think I mentioned before about missing the point but jeepers....

It isn't about out-dated male stereotypes but what clients expect. If I go to the client I am in an expensive suit, with my hair done and make up on. I would love to be able to wear my regular clothes but I wouldn't be viewed as favourably by my client. The reality is that it is my client who pays my salary and without my client I don't have a career.

My roots are an inch deep and I am gutted I forgot it's Easter this weekend so I have to wait another two weeks to get my hair done. I have a client presentation next week and I do not want to go with my greys showing. Of course going to this meeting I will be wearing a suit. Probably my navy blue dress suit from Hobbs.

I work in an industry which involves me meeting many senior managers from lots of other industries and I never see any women wearing suits. Occasionally I see men wearing suits but even that isn't the norm anymore in my experience. Am sure legal etc may be different though.

In my sector wearing a traditional suit would get you the square root of nowhere. And men don't wear them either. It doesn't mean some senior workers don't look the part but it's a whole new way of high level dressing that's going on, not everywhere but in a lot of work sectors. People want to look professional and sometimes expensive but they most definitely don't want to look corphorate, not out of personal choice but because it can actually be bad for business. Jaeger didn't cotton on to it which is a big shame.

If senior women are not wearing suits what are they wearing?