that awful pink m&s dress...

[Bleurghghghgh]

Is now haunting me via ads, with additional horrific items! Thanks MN!

Ginger

The supreme irony is that there are 1000s of women, with money in their pockets, looking desperately to find things to wear for their everyday lives.

M&S's only job (re. their clothing) is to provide decent stuff that people can wear. They are, at the very least, supposed to be competent business people. Is this crap really the best they can do? Are they so swayed by fashion buyers telling them this is the next big hit, that they follow like sheep?

Do they not have wives, sisters, mothers who could give them advice about what is actually required and desired? They have been told again and again what's wrong and yet they can't get anything right?
Seriously depressing.

I don't buy clothes in M&S but surely what they should be aiming for is to undercut Hobbs on price and perhaps nick some of Cos' safer items.

Crying laughing at this thread. And it's so true. On Friday I debuted a lovely Toast dress I picked up in the winter sale, it's thick cotton, with a kind of abstract floral print, waisted with a soft flared skirt just around calf length. And SLEEVES to the elbow and pockets. It's so gorgeous I want ten of it in different colours. I'm 40something and it made me feel just right -not frumpy, not trying to be young, just right. And I'm not kidding I had seven different women at work ask where I got it, emails and everything. There's so much hunger out there for decent clothes!!

Ginger you are a hero. 🙌🏻
Thanks for that much needed laugh.

That pink horror of a 'dress' is in our m&s window... My children point and laugh at it...me too..
M&S tries to be all things to all people.. It should produce less crap and concentrate on copying Hobbs and Whistles lol.

There's a pretty horrific yellow effort too...all gypsy looking, but not in a good way...the models must weep when presented with these beauties..

I've bought the yellow dress! It's lovely! I'd have bought the pink one too but it was too pink pink.

It's absolutely gorgeous on.

www.marksandspencer.com/tiered-long-sleeve-midi-dress/p/p22512036?image=SD_01_T42_6133_R0_X_EC_90&color=YELLOW&prevPage=plp

I'd probably like the yellow dress if it was available in a petite size and not yellow - if you're one of the rare people it suits you're in luck this year, there's going to be loads of it left on the sale rails.

Oh, and if it was cotton or at least a cotton mix...and obviously lose the tassels...

I think only about 10% of the population could wear that yellow colour successfully. Part from the colour I don't think it's half as bad as the pink one.

Every year there's a colour that they try and get us to wear that we can't. Usually it's mustard. This year it's bright yellow.

The yellow dress isn't as bad as the pink, however, the tassels will be in knots after the first wash.

Posted on Twitter yesterday and got a reply!

Send them a link to the Mumsnet threads! There's more than one!! 😁

Ginger I did mention the two main ones in subsequent tweets!

Ooh, got another reply!

I don't actually think that yellow one is too bad. Fairly good shape. But floaty baggy for me but can imagine it suiting some people. The colour is not for me.

Customer feedback? Whose customers?

Some guidance:

Natural fibres
Good cut
Things that hide a 45+ midriff
Sleeves
Some below the knee styles

I needed a plain black skirt a couple of weeks ago. Not one M&S one was well cut, hung well or in a good fabric. They were all under £30. Every one made me look like a sack of potatoes.

I nipped to our local Basler. Plain, straight, black, knee length lined skirt in a nice light weight wool crepe. Very neat waistband, beautifully finished hem, does not crease. Price £199. Actually it was a warehouse sale and I paid £20. But I would have paid £199.

M&S used to produce good quality basics and some brilliant tailoring. Nowadays it follows supermarket or petticoat lane trends and tries to put a make-up on them because they still think they are a quality brand.

I really liked some of the Indigo tops a couple of years ago - cotton (or mix), roll-up sleeves (best are the ones which do roll down and have a button cuff not fake). Those do the saggy arm disguise thing well. And some of their jeans are good - please please keep making black skinnies in a short length (else my dd will be in trouble when her existing 5 pairs wear out) but also please bring back black slim legs, again in a variety of leg length.

Oh yes, and ... m&s must know what size bras they sell so fgs make clothes that fit women with boobs! (And not idiocies like the Pink Dress which show bra strap.)Again, they sometimes get it right (or at least, not as wrong as other shops) - things like the extra inside button to stop gaping are good.

Idiotically, M&S do a multiway bra which has a low back option.

However, it only goes up to a maximum size of a 38DD, so it's useless for the larger size dresses.

And these are pretty horrible ...

So I was at a wedding yesterday and someone was wearing the dress. She looked AMAZING! I'm not joking.

Did you manage to get a stealth photo?

However, it only goes up to a maximum size of a 38DD, so it's useless for the larger size dresses.

Hm... maybe Grayson Perry is the target market? (I loved his choice of outfit for getting his OBE from Prince Charles, I guess he could wear this dress with aplomb?)