Why are clothes so poorly designed?

[MynewnameisKy]

Two thirds of the British public are reportedly overweight. Very few of the clothes on the High street are cut to flatter your figure. It's almost impossible to find anything that gives you a waist.

Is it just me? Why are there so few clothes out there that you can try on and think "this is quite flattering "?

Oh and about the cost of jumpers... I wouldn't spend £200 on one ready made, but I'm barely even a basic rate tax payer. But I try to make myself one every year or so, and mine are real wool, cotton, cashmere, merino, silk, or a mix of natural fabrics. I generally buy the yarn at discounted prices but even so, it might cost me £10 - £40 or so just for the materials, then there are the hours of hand knitting on top. (Which I enjoy.) I figure that it's the only way I can afford a bit of real luxury in my wardrobe, & why knit in acrylic which goes bobbly after a few washes anyway...

Entirely agree with PP. I now shop almost exclusively vintage from 30s/40s/50s as the clothes are better cut for people with a waist and the quality is superb. Even if they are a bit tricky to care for!

I scour charity shops and eBay for 'vintage' aka used quality pieces. I got the most beautiful Jaeger Boutique wool coat recently (still had its tags attached so it must have been lying in someone's wardrobe for a few years as they stopped producing Boutique some time ago). £40 for the coat and £30 to the local alterations shop - still a bargain.

And I would rather pay £30 for a used silk top in good condition than a crackly sweaty polyester new top any day.

Well we didn't wear rags but we did have far fewer clothes!

Depends how far back you go. There was certainly a lot more make do and mend. As a student I always darned things whereas now I wouldn't bother (and it's hard to find decent darning wool).

depends how far back you go
All anecdotal but the John Lewis jumper I saved up for was mid 80s. I also moved house several times in that decade and could get most of my clothes into 2 large suitcases. I also remember M&S being expensive then.

And there was none of this 'decluttering' (aka throw out all your clothes and go and buy new ones - probably equally shit) then.

Yes it was all fields round here too

It's really bad at the moment. I'm trying to buy fewer but better quality and spending my money on classic items e.g. Perfect white blouse . I bought one from Ghost 4 years ago and it still looks great. Coat from Jaeger outlet. Better to buy one decent tshirt that lasts than 5 cheap primark ones.

So many high street clothes are cut really tight. So arm holes on coats too tight to accommodate a jumper underneath.

I was so fed up with trying to find the perfect Breton style top with a slash/boat neck that, along with the inspiring dressmaking thread here on S + B, that I made my own. I'm going to do this increasingly with a few key items and make multiples of them and tweak them so I get the perfect fit. Making this top made me realise how shit a fit some of my clothes are.

So I'd recommend anyone with the inclination to try making their own as well. My top cost £12 for Ponte fabric and similar rtw on the high street would be about £40.

Another thing I think is often neglected is care of clothes. So washing at the right temperature, sometimes hand washing. Don't bung it all in the dryer. Iron them etc.

My parents and grandparents generation spent way more time caring for clothes.

Primark clothes are badly fitting and make me look like a bag of shite, the socks are a fabulous fit though.

I'm considering learning to make my own clothes. I have a sewing machine and a pattern but at the moment no motivation.

So true about the frills and features on cheap nasty clothes - I wish they would make them simpler but out of better fabric and longer.

I do have some nice quality things. An amazing coat from Hobbs that's beautifully designed, lovely fabric and has lasted years and still looks new. It was about 180 in a sale, 250 originally so expensive, but not crazy designer expensive. Also, I know it's not for everyone but my Superdry stuff is surprisingly well made. You can avoid the logos and get some lovely dresses, cardies and tops - I like them because they make things long enough for me.

I don't have loads to spend on clothes but I have nice things from Toast, Noa noa, Orla Kiely etc that I've got on ebay. I'm a sewer so I can adjust things, change a neckline etc.

I think a number of stores have gone down the route of loads of choice, very quick fashion-responsive manufacturing, and horrible cheap fabrics. Understandable at Primark I suppose, but it's started happening at Whistles, Boden, Gap, and definitely M&S and so on so you feel surrounded by crap even when you're prepared to spend more. But I do still think if you know how to spot quality, it's out there.

I personally hate seeing a fabulous print dress that I love, then find out it's 100% polyester. Immediate turn-off and I won't buy it.

And yes to the high necks, they look good on approx 1% of people. Why do they do it?

YY to the shit fabrics (even in premium shops. My personal bugbear is the samieness. In the 80s and possibly 90s, different shops offered different styles (so if you shopped at Chelsea Girl you probably wouldn't even look in M&S) but these days the same styles appear everywhere, no matter what the demograph, so you have the illusion of choice but no real choice at all. I'm buying almost all my clothes secondhand at the moment not only because it's the only way to find cotton and silk but because I hate 95% of what's in the shops - all the shops - and can't find anywhere to spend my money when I have it to spend.

I love making my own clothes but it is time-consuming, and v hard to find that time at the moment (working single parent). But customising things off ebay is quicker. For example a dress with a great print and fabric, but with a neckline I don't like - easy to make into a skirt. I shorten sleeves or add sections to hems to make things longer. It's cheap so I don't worry about taking things apart, but you get the nicer fabrics and designs from previous years. If you do want to sew from scratch, ebay is also great for interesting fabrics, and cheap offcuts of really nice quality fabrics like liberty.

Agree with Deux about caring for clothes. I often get this the wrong way round e.g. I have a Margaret Howell (charity shop) linen shirt and I wash it as if it's made of gossamer spun by fairies when in fact it would probably come out of a 90 degree machine wash looking pristine. It's the Zara and H&M things that need careful nursing.

I'd love to make my own clothes (or even do my own alterations) but I'm so scared of buying nice fabric and then ruining it that I don't bother!

I'm a size 10 but have 30H norks so I've given up trying to get nice tops to fit me, I end up buying a 12 or 14 and then I look like a sack of crap because of it fits the tits it hangs off the stomach.

I'd really like to buy ethical fashion that hasn't been made by kids in Bangladesh getting paid 5pence a day but in all honesty I don't have the £££. There's definitely a gap for well made classics that are ethically built to last.

I find myself buying things in Oasis as they tend to sometimes have fitted things that give you a waist.

It's not a shop I was ever even in before this year.

I haven't been in Boden for a couple of years but it looks like it still has the same clothes in it.

Sizing is all over the place. I am a small size 14 (losing weight and have got in size 12s) - tried a jumper on in White Stuff today and the size 8 was the one that fitted. No way am I a size 8. And if you are a real size 8, what size would you get?!

I find that if I try to be discerning (!) Then I come away buying nothing... Awful fabrics/ cuts or design.

I want simple, well made and well fitting... Almost impossible..

I remember finding it really easy to buy great clothes made out of decent fabrics. It's only the last 5 years imo.

Missionocrity I know the feeling - I've been sewing for decades and I still have some fabrics I can't bring myself to cut into!

However to get started you can make a mock-up version in cheap fabric to check something will fit - you can get v cheap cotton sheeting off ebay, or get Ikea "bomull" for £2 a metre. Then make it using the nice fabric if it worked.