Why are the shops SO disappointing?

[JanisMoplin]

I went to Oxford Street for the first time in 2 years hoping to buy a couple of nice simple tops to go with black or grey trousers. It was like the 7th circle of sartorial hell. I am 50, 5"7 and a size 12 so not Alexa Chung but not massive either. Went to
& Other Stories
Zara
Massimo Dutti
M and S
John Lewis

Hated everything. Everything was recycled polyester, frilly great yokes, oversized, too cropped, see through or with principal boy sleeves. Even Uniqlo has succumbed to huge poufy sleeves and it used to be great for basics. Baukjen and Hush in John Lewis were no better.

There were some nice coats but I wasn't looking for coats. The dresses were horrible too; completely sister wife territory
I returned with a boring black knit top from M and S which was £12. Returning to my athleisure!

Flouncy and most floral especially with puffy sleeves make most women 40+ look like a second-hand sofa.

Gen X ers grew up with edgy stuff and structured shapes, why do they think this generation want anything so unflattering and passive looking for older women? Its a joke.

I am in the USA and we have some brands here that have structured cleaner looks, one is Lauren by Ralph Lauren. I see they so have a UK website.
www.ralphlauren.co.uk/en/women/brands/lauren/162027?webcat=women%7Cbrand%7CLauren

@GoodnessTruthBeauty

Flouncy and most floral especially with puffy sleeves make most women 40+ look like a second-hand sofa.

Gen X ers grew up with edgy stuff and structured shapes, why do they think this generation want anything so unflattering and passive looking for older women? Its a joke.

I bought something similar to this Nobody's Child dress last year and I dont think I look too bad. Also very comfy. I toughened it up with a denim jacket. However, it developed a hole after a few washes.

www.nobodyschild.com/dresses/midi-dresses/izzy-black-midi-dress.html

Aritzia is one of my favorite stores, their brick and mortar stores are great but they also have an international website
www.aritzia.com/intl/en/clothing

Because the flouncy dresses seem shapeless
So could you not embrace that lack of a familiar shape? I mean - maybe it is only so fabric producers can sell more fabric, or maybe there’s a more intellectual justification for the change, but it’s an opportunity, surely, to ask whether any part of your value as a human being / woman depends on revealing your body shape. (I’m not advocating ‘modest dressing’ as a general practice.)

not a syle that I normally wear
What terrible thing would happen if you veered from the norm just once?

don't really suit my lifestyle
Can’t comment.

one season trend
Well … I was quite late when I bought one last summer, they’d been around long before that. And I’ve seen plenty being offered for this coming Summer. If I’d been quicker I could have had at least three years wear out of a big flouncy frock. That’s hardly throw-away.

Flouncy and most floral especially with puffy sleeves make most women 40+ look like a second-hand sofa.

Something like this is not going to suit a shortish scraggy 50-something with an athletic build

White House Black Market is another great store that offers a range of styles and high quality but don't know if they are accessible in the UK
www.whitehouseblackmarket.com/store/

@TottersBlankly it's nothing to do with modesty, feminity or revealing a female body, you can achieve all of these in flattering ways. I am not anti-floral just that it has to be done differently for an older age group generally. I love dresses too but an Edwardian yoked number to my mid calf doesn't appeal.

I hear you! Feeling personally victimised by the oversize trend (I am petite, it looks very silly on me, particularly oversized tops/ jackets now that skinny jeans are verboten). Online shopping leaves me listless, but the stuff in the shops looks so sad at the moment.

Maybe not that one, FayCarew, but I can think of few people of any age who wouldn’t look good in this:

www2.hm.com/en_gb/productpage.1046680001.html

@GoodnessTruthBeauty

Flouncy and most floral especially with puffy sleeves make most women 40+ look like a second-hand sofa.

Gen X ers grew up with edgy stuff and structured shapes, why do they think this generation want anything so unflattering and passive looking for older women? Its a joke.

I'm gen x we wore indo dressees with florals, usually small print, with tights and doc martens. Often band tees that were too large and baggy 501's. Coats were army surplus, huge and hooded, and lots of floaty, tye dye and florals going on. I can't recall structure at all!

Im kind of in to all that again, although less 'acid trip' and more demure, lol. I still like a well fitted tea dress but would prefer silk.
I recall Harriet Wheeler's lovely red hair from The Sundays and wear mine slightly similar now, loosely knotted at the back with floaty bits at the front.
I can't do structure at all but the 90's look still suits me.

sorry, Indie dresses not Indo!

The problem, for me, with all of these saggy dresses is the cut and fabric.
It's like we are being teased with the 'idea' of lovely tea dresses or floaty summer frocks but are only given thin, plastic tat with no proper seams or shaping.

The length and concept of them are fine, but the reality is cheap, mass produced shit, to put it bluntly. And no, I don't think age has much to do with it, i would have been disgusted with current styles when I was 18.

And it's all there is! Wherever you shop! It's dreadful and predictable and destined for landfill.
I've seriously just stopped entertaining it all and only shop on rare occasions now or second hand. Most of my ebay stuff is much higher quality and better condition than anything new at H&M or White Co. It's all something of a con isnt it?

@TottersBlankly have I read that wrong? You think that dress/outfit would suit most women??

What gets me is that you struggle to find anything basic, you know, staple items that everyone needs.
I spent ages trying to find a plain black jumper which didn't have ridiculous frills everywhere, long sleeves (I've never understood why knitwear would have short sleeves but then I'm no fashion expert), plain in every way.
I used to trust H & M for stuff like this but even in there I struggled.

[quote TottersBlankly]Maybe not that one, FayCarew, but I can think of few people of any age who wouldn’t look good in this:

www2.hm.com/en_gb/productpage.1046680001.html[/quote]
Even the model doesn't look good in that.

@TottersBlankly, there is no way I would wear that dress.

I don't like viscose. I don't like the colour or pattern. V-necks aren't great on me. It has no pockets, and at ankle length it would swamp me. The oversized shoulders would make my broad, square shoulders look wider. And it's a bit shapeless.

Guess we just have different eyes! And I didn’t mean the whole outfit, just the perfectly simple dress. (Though I’d personally prefer a different fabric.)

Looks like a nightie Totters.

Looked at Jigsaw thinking that might be better and found
this horror

I'd look like Greyson Parry's nan in it

**artist name deliberately misspelt

@Disneyblueeyes

What gets me is that you struggle to find anything basic, you know, staple items that everyone needs. I spent ages trying to find a plain black jumper which didn't have ridiculous frills everywhere, long sleeves (I've never understood why knitwear would have short sleeves but then I'm no fashion expert), plain in every way. I used to trust H & M for stuff like this but even in there I struggled.

Gap is good for basics. I have a couple of their plain merino wool jumpers.

@FayCarew

Looks like a nightie Totters.

Looked at Jigsaw thinking that might be better and found
this horror

😩

The thing is if a size eight model can’t look good in something, why would any of the rest of us look good? So many of the models are slouching, look grungy and disaffected also. It doesn’t make me want to buy. I know it’s fashionable for models to look like heroin addicts without a skeleton, but that’s not the way most of us aspire to look.

I watch Friends wistfully, harking back to a time when fashion was...wearable??

I'm anti flounce because I think they look awful. However, it's not about the fashion itself, it's the monotony of it all. I've got twenty year old Primark bits that have washed and worn better than stuff I bought in the last six to 12 months. Many on S&B ask why people won't pay £20 for a t-shirt but to a lot of us, that is pricey! We want decent mid range stuff but it doesn't seem to exist any more. There used to be a lot on offer in between Primark and Hobbs, but not sure there is now! My recent bugbear is the weird lengths of trousers. I'm 5'7", so middling I guess. Trousers have either been that short they look ridiculous or so long I'd have to wear platforms to stop them dragging.