Opinions on H&M's new shop - Arket?

[banivani]

It's online now (as a "preview" nonsense) here:
www.arket.com/en_sek/index.html (hope link works)

Some nice things, but poorly designed webshop.

Picked up my parcel today - email yesterday saying it had shipped and today a text saying it was at the post office. So that was quick. Nice sturdy parcel, everything nicely packed in it, like Cos.

The jeans fitted over my thighs and arse, oh miracle of miracles! but wouldn't button waaahhhh. Not by a good bit... The tailored wool trousers fit, but badly in the crotch so they give me a camel toe. But they were very nice apart from that, exactly what I like! A size bigger (44) would be too loose in the waist and probably a bit baggy overall, but the 42 was a smidge tight (I have eaten A Lot Of Cake recently mind). And my husband didn't care for the tshirt which was not as thick as I'd thought it would be and more importantly it was quite big (but that was a chancer, I didn't check the size guide). So it's all going back.

Well, I went to the store on Regent Street today. It's a great store - airy and spacious and I agree with the PP who said it was absolutely unrecognisable as the Banana Republic store.

But the clothes were completely underwhelming. Not luxe enough to be lovely and simple, not interesting enough to even tempt me to try a single thing on. I was hoping to see the floral midi dress that was featured in the pre-launch press shots but no sign of it.

However, I do wonder partly whether this is a time of year thing - I went to all my usual stops around Regent Street (Cos, Stories, Jigsaw) and didn't see a single thing that was interesting. So I am planning to revisit around mid-October when the new collections tend to hit the stores to see if it has a more interesting collection.

I really hope so - I do want to like it. I did buy a soft toy, a piglet which makes me very happy indeed. The packaging is lovely - minimalist and chic, plus you get free samples of the body range.

There is a market for basics though, sadly untapped 😡 (Oh the irony of Arket being in an old BR location) If they're looking to get into that it might work.

All I want from life is wide-legged tailored trousers and v-neck jersey tops really, and the odd wrap dress. Unicorns. 😉

So, after being spectacularly underwhelmed thus far, I have ordered two dresses today - neither of them in the dreadful-sounding (and seemingly prolific at Arket) recycled polyester :

1. The dress I saw in the pre-launch images - I had signed up for the notification for when it came into stock, and the email came through at 8.20am - I ordered it by 9am, and glad I did as it now looks like it is sold out, no sign of it on the website: www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/shopping/arket-first-look-new-brand-hm/floral-dress/

1. This wool, 70s-ish style - am very hopeful it is a fine wool fabric, as I've had a lot of wear out of a Cos dress from this fabric for a few years. Also hoping the sleeves are't too crazily puffy: www.arket.com/en_gbp/productpage.0547720001.html

Am very hopeful that these two dresses will work for AW - have velvet and tweed jackets from last year that I think will go with them. Also used the 'welcome' code to get 20% off which was nice. Fingers crossed they are as nice as I want them to be.

I tried the jeans. For reference I take a 30 in J Brand, a 28" in Me&Em and Gap and a 29" in Seven for all Mankind and Uniqlo.

I ordered the straight rinsed indigo jeans www.arket.com/en_gbp/productpage.0528278001.html in a 29" and 30". Both were really big on the hips and thighs, but I couldn't get the button done up on either. Might work well for the curvy, but size down. Very long too. Absolutely gorgeous thick denim so a bit gutted the don't work on me.

I also ordered the fitted rinse selvedge jeans in 29"www.arket.com/en_gbp/productpage.0528277002.html which say they are black, but I think are actually very very dark midnight blue. These are a lovely very heavy weight denim and a super flattering straight Jean. The 29 fir fine and I am keeping them. At 5ft 4 they are the perfect ankle length with a small turn up, so way shorter than the others.

I think the quality of the denim is the best I have seen in ages.

I dropped into the store on Friday. Just idly passing, definitely didn't make a huge detour and end up half an hour late for a meeting...

I liked it. Clean, simple, uncluttered space - much like the clothes, really. I bought three lightweight merino jumpers (grey, cream, mustard). Contemplated a long, soft grey jumper, but it felt a bit synthetic (didn't check what it was actually made of). I tried the a-line skirt and liked it, but it didn't sit right on me. I'm a 14/16 on the bottom, but even the 44 only fastened quite high on my waist, when I felt it needed to sit a bit lower to hang right.

I like this from the home wear section:

www.arket.com/en_gbp/productpage.0560388001.html

But what would I do with it?

I don't think that link worked - it's the "Bordallo Pinheiro Sardine"

Can you do anything else with that sardine than display it? Just ... display.

saurus do return with info on the wool wrap dress! I like stuff like that but don't even bother looking at things that aren't stretchy because APPARENTLY I'm so freakish with my broad back and huuuuuge boooooobs that nothing un-jersey ever fits. ;)

lambzig funny, I had opposite reaction to jeans, I didn't think they were big in size, just true to size ... I took a chance ordering since my waist is realistically more 34 inches but I am always SWIMMING in those sizes. So.

Banivani - reporting back on dresses as requested

Well, both dresses I ordered are going back. Sizing is comparable to & Other Stories/H&M, as opposed to Cos, so the things I ordered just didn't work sizing wise. Also, both styles weren't great - the black wool dress was kind of ...puffy. Just not good. But fast delivery, well packaged and free returns so no complaints from that perspective. Plus, saved myself £250

Thank you for remembering! Disappointing news but hey ho. I’ll keep them on my radar but very low-key 👍🏻

I was in the store last weekend and liked the look of the clothes - they struck me as being like Cos but more accessible, ie no bonkers shapes or gigantic sacks etc. Didn't try anything on as I had DC with me but disappointed to hear the sizing is comparable to &OS as I find them tiny! I'm a 12 at the most everywhere else but in &OS even the 16s are too small for me.

Just beware if you are looking for quick returns. They don’t do them. I actually really love the quality, but customer service is really poor. Returned my items nearly two weeks ago and havn’t heard anything. Some people on TrustPilot are saying it takes a minimum of 4-6 weeks for a refund. This is just not good enough. Surely if H&M can correct their terrible online service can’t Arket do the same?
I’m not sure I will order from them again.

Return refunds are rubbish but if you note the date you posted the return, they will refund you 14 days from then if you ring them up if you haven’t heard sooner. Their customer service tel team and very efficient and helpful.

Also, they are very flexible on the return period, its supposed to be 30days but I’ve beem told by the tel team that a few days over is fine.