M&S Oh dear

[katie2bumps]

Quick visit to a fairly rural m&s today in Scotland. Racks of the dreaded pink dress for £10 in every size . Sale made quite depressing viewing.

Oh and still lots of pink dresses left in the tiny M&S Food store I went in today.

I wanted a denim dress this year and kind of liked that one in the previous link - but I don't get on with tie waist belts. I did buy a really lovely chambray dress from the Jaeger Outlet (which has now been reduced 🙁) Lovely on and being Jaeger I got to size down which doesn't happen very often!

link to said dress

DH rarely goes shopping but a week or two ago we were in M & S, I was looking at some sale stuff and he made a beeline for the pink dress and said "what the hell is this" it is truly awful, the colour, style and material.

They sent me an email to complete a survey of the Autumn/Winter collection a couple of months ago (small preview) - the majority of it was hideous. Awful fabrics, odd styling, weird cuts.

I think there was one coat that was nice, everything else looked like 90's fashion rejects.

I slated it, and gave similar feedback to the numerous MN threads about M&S clothes. I just don't think they listen.

To be fair they do do some good items. Skinnies, underwear, basics. They must know what sells. What their customers want. Their tills will tell them what they sell the most of, and as such it tells them their stengths..

That dress was always a disaster waiting to happen. Very few people can wear it and not look like a complete and utter twat.

I agree completely. Sandwiches are distinctly average, they've stopped doing the stretch waist leggings sob and I bought a blouse from the workwear section last month that was ENTIRELY see through.

M&S is good only for their underwear, food and beauty department.

The clothes need to burn sorry.

Due to the popularity of the M&S frill pink dress, TU have launched a cheaper, nastier but just as frilly orange version. Yum.

Haven't got it here to take a pic but there's an A/W M&S dress on someone in this month's Red mag. It looks very similar to The Pink Dress of Doom except with added frills and it's in wine red velvet.

I like a bit of velvet in Winter but there's a limit.

I've just googled the AW Vogue preview and not only do they have the very, very frilly velvet dress that you spotted Enid, but they also have a navy version of the Pink Dress - only longer and more sack like.

There's an M&S by my work and I often get lunch there so I have a scout around the clothes every couple of weeks.

It's awful. Relentlessly awful.

Every now and again I find something which at first glance looks nice but then I pick it up and it has some hideous detail which ruins it, or is made of sheer nylon or is just weirdly unwearable in some way.

I don't know how M&S manage to get it so consistently wrong, for so long. Let's face it, this issue with the bizarre clothes is not a new one, and yet M&S still seem unable to get it right, despite everyone on the planet screaming at them 'just sort out your fucking basics and stop trying to be edgy'.

God damn it, how hard is it to develop a range of basics in decent fabrics that have a rangenof sleeve lengths and actually are long enough to cover a muffin top? Trousers in decent thick cotton that aren't quite jeans but hold their shape and actually reach my ankles? Perhaps some shirts that don't gape and don't have the previously mentioned arm thingies to keep them rolled up? Basic clothes for actual women shaped women in proper fabric and not poly-bloody-ester. I would pay a reasonable price for actual cotton!

Last year, I just wanted one black and one white long cotton layering vest. Did they have any? Did they fuck. This year, I wanted a flesh coloured half-slip. Again, no.

DH has always got their plain white t-shirts and cashmere v-neck jumpers and he has said the last couple of years, the quality has been rubbish, the sizing has been inconsistent and he would rather go to John Lewis now and pay the same for better quality.

As I remember it there were quite a few things I liked in the preview. From memory there was a check coat, a long Mac, some Katharine Hepburnesque wide leg tweedy trousers and quite a few nice reds and deep pinks. I didn't like everything but I wouldn't expect to. Not sure how you can tell what the fabrics are like without seeing it for real.

Persp

I was looking forward to the A/W season coming into the shops. Hope that velvet horror isn't the angle everywhere's going to take. I need some decent stuff after this Summer's bell sleeves and bare shoulder disasters.

Missed your post Flo. They don't sound so bad.

I'm really looking forward to some tailoring and I'm sure there was quite a bit in the preview? I've tried checking on my phone and it crashes every time but I'll look on the laptop tomorrow.

Oh god yes. Tailoring! And hopefully some nice heavy fabrics.

Actually the velvet that dress is in looks good. I like the colour too. It's just that awful shape.

I think there are gems to be found but they do take some searching out! Have any of you seen their Try Tuesday site? You can have one of their stylists send you a regular edit of various looks: Try Tuesday

I use this and have found some great things I never would've noticed otherwise. Plus it gives me some great ideas on how to style pieces in my existing wardrobe.

The thing is these shops do seem to want to add extra frills and stuff. Don't they realise that we just want nice plain clothes in a good fabric and myself what I need is length, which sadly M&S doesn't seem to offer even in their basics, what few there are. Next is just as bad as M&S for doing this, I do shop in there more though as they have the ever elusive Tall section but it is difficult trawling though all the polyester, frills and flounces.

Why have the trend analysers not noticed that by this time in revival pregression the 80s had turned into alt, blacks, batwing,s more hipoy dresses (not floaty, cute flowery) and boyish? They seem to have picked the wrong progression. Unless they do 'Frankel says' they shirts?

My DM and I looked at M&S sale clothes the other week. Everything was massive gawdy flowers, like being dressed in curtain fabric from the 1980s Laura Ashley catalogue.

When they get it right they nail it yes - their chinos are fab, £19.50. I bought 3 colours (sand, navy and khaki)

Yes the chinos do look fab, unfortunately they are one of the few trousers where the haven't made them in long length