How can brands justify £50-200 for polyester dresses?

[Thedarklady]

Natural and natural mix is fine but not man made, hot and shedding fibres. Yes, it's tough in retail but is it too much to ask for a nice dress without having to spend £300+?

I have managed to buy a few timeless cotton dresses recently but it's hard outside of summer.

queenoffarles - I sometimes go into Matches and Browns.

Will take a look. I used to like Carroll (French brand) but think they're manmade fabrics sadly.

Just looked at Thierry Colson dresses online -- gorgeous! For sewers, they are similar to some of Yoshiko Tsukiori's designs in books like Happy Homemade Sew Chic and Stylish Dress Book. I'm already (in my dream spare time at least!) planning a Thierry Colson-inspired Tsukoiri dress using sari fabric or cotton block print from merchant and mills.

SilentSister: oh I’m with you in the non leather shoes. Not so long the only place you could buy non leather shoes were market stalls and supermarkets. Cheap prices because they were cheap products. Now shops and designers seem to want to charge the same prices for plastic shoes As they would have charged for leather a couple of years back.

People need to be more savvy and check the material. I do NOT want to either encase my feet in non-breathing plastic and I do NOT want to pollute the planet by discarding non-biodegradable shoes a year after I’ve bought them because they have fallen apart.

I read my labels VERY carefully these days, for the materials used not the brand. I won’t pay hefty prices for shite but it seems some people will if it’s got the right brand label on it.

Etsy is your friend for real leather sandals - loads of Greek sellers on there offering lovely, classic sandals for really affordable prices.

You seem to only need 1um of leather to qualify as 'leather' as well, I've seen 'leather' belts that are more plastic than leather and it is very hard to find all leather shoes these days, I have Boden shoes from 20 years ago: leather upper, lining and sole. These days just a leather upper is sufficient to be called leather apparently. And don't get me started on 'gold' or 'silver' jewellery.

What is annoying is this only applies to women's clothes. DH can easily find cotton, wool and linen clothes or leather shoes that are well made and not expensive.

count That is so true. All of DH's clothes and shoes are natural materials. Again, slightly derailing, why can't women have "deodorants" rather than "antiperspirants", that seems to be a man only thing too :-( I know we have body sprays, but they are made by different brands.

Organic and fair trade cotton clothing available at People Tree and Nomads Clothing. Some items at Far Face and White Stuff is also organic or fair trade. Also have a look at Thought Clothing who have organic cotton and sustainable bamboo and hemp.

Can you recommend some shoe brands @CurlyhairedAssassin ?

There is a vogue for describing plastic as “vegan leather” which irritates me beyond belief.

slipperyeel totally agree. I have often wondered is there some leather (hello Stella) I don’t know of, some leather made from plants or air or something. Then I think I should google and inform myself and then I cop on and think what bullshit. It’s plastic.