HAs anyone read MidLifeChic’s response from Boden this week?

[Frankiewears]

Apparently they are aiming their products at a younger demographic....

Boden I hate to give it to you but.... even middle aged people are shunning Boden nowadays for being too frumpy and obviously Boden.

Bloody cheek though and as if anyone young would ever dream of wearing their stuff..... bloody deluded.

Anyone else find their attitude a bit weird?

Good luck to them not sure what their marketing team were thinking. I can't get worked up about it though I only buy the Richmond trousers.

Oooh I'm curious what was the initial thread?

I was curious but cannot find the response. Could you post a link OP?

www.midlifechic.com/boden-order-ss18-keepers-and-returns/

Detailed here- sorry should have said it was on her blog.

She has mentioned this before, probably last time she did a blog post on them!

I don’t know why she bothers-everything she tried on look shite. It was either ill fitting, or garish and made of man made fibres for premium prices.

Particular hatred though is reserved for the green dress. Health care worker uniform more like. Actually, no the shoes. The shoes were a thing of monstrous ugliness.

She bothers because back in the 90s Boden was a breath of fresh air, particularly if you lived away from large shopping centres. They had a good website very early on, their clothes were good quality and natural fabrics and the customer service was great. TBH they still do a lot of that well although the natural fabrics are disappearing. You can see on here Boden are still recommended a lot because they are good at the smart casual look so many of us need for work. But I do agree I didn't particularly like much that she tried on.

Yes. I think they're deluded. I'm 42 and I think I'm at the young end of their customer base. No-one I know younger than me would touch it - most of it is too frumpy and all of it is too expensive.

I really love her honesty!
I'm 36 and have a few bits from there, though their fit model is clearly a completely different shape to me.
With the sales/discount codes it used to be affordable. They seem to have made everything £20/£30 more expensive lately plus their horrible attitude means I'm a lot less likely to splash out.

I'm nearly 60 and find their clothes to be a curious mix of garish and dowdy. The shoes particularly are too 'old lady' for me. However I thought MLC looked nice in the shorts.

Wow! That’s some response!
Exactly how young?! I’m 41 and can’t imagine my friends in their 30s being interested. My friends in their 50s are though.
If Boden want to appeal to a younger audience they need to ditch the garish colours, the clashing prints and those hideous twee contrast trims they persist with in every garment they sell (I’ve hated that about them for years!!).
I’m waiting on a black dress I bought in the sale to try but I’m not sure if I’ll keep. £90 for polyester seems a lot.

Silly Boden to make such a comment. It doesn't pay to alienate anyone in their marketplace.

I used to like their childrens’ clothes but even that’s gone very wrong recently.
The only thing still worth buying from them are young girls’ pants!

Horrible fabrics, hugely unflattering cuts and colours. I’m in my forties and have none of their clothes. It’s all a bit Per Una, at twice the price with a faff to send back.

She's a good bit older than me but she seems very nice. She dresses older than me but I'd trust her eye/advice.

I've never bought anything from boden. Tis frumpsville.

I can't see what Boden said.

I read the Midlife Chic blogpost including her summary of the communication from Boden HQ, which I read as “no, we won’t work with your blog aimed at 40+ women because we want to focus on a younger market”. Fair enough, they can make that commercial decision about their business. However, Dont be surprised Jonnie when made a consequential decision not to spend anymore money with Boden.... you can try and make up the shortfall from your new target market (good luck with that, by the way,). I dont buy much from them for myself but I bought a reasonable amount for my son and would throw in the odd thing for myself. Today I phoned up to cancel all brochures from them and let them know exactly why so they can feed this back to their marketing team. I prefer to spend my hard-earned cash with the likes of Baukjen and Me&Em where they clothes are well made from good quality material and don’t have garish “fun” patterns.

It’s interesting because I don’t think the Midlife Chic blogger ever intended Boden’s Attitude to be the focus of the post; rather just a contextual comment. The comments from blog readers were the first indication that Boden’s attitude has really p*ssed people off. I enjoy her blog. She writes intelligently about fashion, family, life.

Interesting that they worked with thelondoner who while looks great at times dresses in an aging way. I think she is just 30.

I have the swimsuit she tried in plain navy. It's really flattering on me but I'm considerably bigger than her!!

I find it do ridiculous that they want to concentrate on a younger market! They won't touch Boden with a bargepole and they (largely) want cheaper fashion.

Don't Boden (or 90% of fashion retailers) realise that it's slightly older women who have the cash and would splash out if the clothes were made properly, of good fabrics and wearable. What is so damned hard?!