Joe Browns - tell me more? 100% cotton dresses

[BakeOffRewatch]

I needed a new homeware item and a drastically reduced one at Joe Browns came up in Google, so I got it and today I received one of their catalogues. Never heard of them before, and when I bought the homeware item assumed it was American like Target.

I like a lot of the stuff in it? It’s like Boden, but less expensive and without the lifestyle marketing. There’s sleeves, 100% cotton, midi.

Has anyone bought their clothes, what do you think? Is the stuff I’ve linked to below actually nice or have I fallen for catalogue marketing.

100% cotton daisy shirt dress www.joebrowns.co.uk/the-maybelle-shirt-dress-we522#colour=244

60s style leather knee high boots only £85! www.joebrowns.co.uk/the-spy-who-loved-me-boots-kb088#colour=679

100% cotton broderie dress unlined though www.joebrowns.co.uk/beautiful-broderie-dress-we587#colour=874

guess I’m just wondering what the catch is, at it seems a lot cheaper than other similar products.

I think the catch is that once you get your eye in you can spot Joe Brown stuff a mile away. There is an obvious style. That said I've got some gorgeous stuff including a winter coat, a hacking jacket with a lovely libertyesque lining, and quite a few tips. They are largely true to size

I adore JB and have a lot of clothing from there, but the quality is getting slowly worse. I've got some tops that are around 10 years old and still going.... whereas I've bought some this year that are fit for rags. The colour fade is horrendous.

I'm slowly migrating to White Stuff as the quality is better.

I don’t like any of the things you have linked but have had plenty of clothes from there over the years. No catch

I love Joe Brown. It's a little bit over my budget so I don't have as much as I'd like. I tend to pick stuff up in their (decent) sales and have had some good second hand stuff.

I think the catch is like a PP said, once you know it you can easily identify a Joe Brown dress and the general style is a bit self-conciously quirky - a bit 'middle aged but think I'm too cool for Boden!' I don't care cos that pretty much is my style but I think it might put some people off!

Generally I think it's good quality. Occasionally comes up a bit on the small side I'd say. I've got a gorgeous leather jacket that was my 40th birthday present (people gave me vouchers and it's still going strong now I'm nearer 50.

I really like their stuff. The quality varies but returns are very good - I would advise resewing buttons. Jackets are the wrong shape for me sadly.

I would definitely buy more if I could afford it.

I've got a couple of their cotton dresses and like them, but the button holes are poor quality.

I have some Joe Brown's stuff - I only buy 100% cotton as I made the mistake of buying some in man-made fibres first and they didn't wash or wear well at all, but the cotton stuff I have is great quality and a flattering cut.

I can't recommend the shoes except for novelty value - fell to pieces in under a year.

I wear a lot of JB, I only wear dresses, and I like that they are flattering, cotton and their summer dresses mostly all have adjustable straps.

Nice clothes, generous sizing, arms legs and dress lengths all very long

I find the t shirt sizing small and the quality ok but nothing special. Jackets and trousers don’t fit my shape but as mentioned the returns are straightforward. Agree that you can spot JB a mile off, though nothing wrong with that.

You are looking at this the wrong way round. Boden is madly overpriced and always having sakes/discounts etc. JB is more realistically priced. They also don’t have the massive range, or range of sizes as Boden, which will keep costs down.

As for having a distinct look - so do Boden, White Stuff, Fat Face, Joules…

I love Joe Brown's stuff. They are one of my discoveries since losing 7 stone in weight and being able to fit into a size 16/18. Must admit I can spot their stuff a mile off!

Really like the style, and have bought various things over the years. Unfortunately the buttons seem to come off very easily. And not just buttons at waists, etc, which will have pressure on them, but purely decorative buttons. It may seem like a small thing, but it gets really irritating when you buy a skirt with 10 or so decorative buttons, and only have 6 left after a few wears!!

A neighbour gave me a catalogue and INSISTED I did some ordering.

Thing is, she is a wee petite slip of a redhead and all the things she suggested I ordered were in lovely russets, greens etc designed to flatter a petite readhead.

None the less, I ordered some items. All too small and I looked like a swollen sausage stuffed in crinkly material .

So not for me

I've got quite a bit from them

I ordered 3 dresses and they all went back. The picture looked lovely material but in real life it was ugly crinkly cheesecloth type material

Yes, I bought a Joe Browns dress. It’s been admired lots. It also looks a bit like a red background with a. Lack flock pattern on it. It cost me £5 from my local market.

I used to adore joe browns but I got a gorgeous dress from them for Christmas a few years back
wore it once and washed it-the patten faded and looked awful
another dress frayed like mad after a few washes
the quality is nothing like it used to be-although I got some boots from them about the same time as the dress and they’ve worn really well

it can be a bit hit and miss

I don’t really like Joe Brown’s now, they seem to have gone a bit mainstream same old, same old but not particularly good quality, at least when I looked at a few items a while ago.
I much prefer their clothes from years ago, funky, quirky, grungy even, with an array of colours, and mostly in natural fabrics, ideal festival and/or smartish hippy’ish wear.🙂

I have a couple of cotton dŕesses from there (bought at an outlet store for a reduced price) but you do have to check the labels because the majority of their stuff is viscose now. I find it a bit "Per Una" most of the time - overly fussy details, weird patterns, outdated features like asymmetric hems and cold shoulder tops. As a pp said, a bit self-consciously quirky and "I'm mad, me!" But that's just my opinion, if you like it, you like it, and the quality is ok for the price.

It’s very hit and miss. I’ve had some stuff I’ve loved and worn to death, great fit and quality.

then i’ve ordered things where the fit is completely bizarre and made me look, as pp
said very accurately, like a sausage stuffed into crinkly wrapping 😂

i stopped ordering because I was getting more misses and fewer hits, and they didn’t do free returns.

i like the style though and you can get stuff from there which isn’t quite so “mad,me”, like summer dresses.

Quite distinctive in style but like Boden, easily identified.

I saw someone recently in a gorgeous dark red leather jacket she said she got it from Joe Brown's a few years ago

I really like Joe Browns. I've only ever bought shoes from there though. They have always fitted and I've always had compliments on them 😊

I love JB but personally think that a lot of it is over priced for what it is, that said their sales are good. I just bought a load of winter stuff for a fraction of what it was a few months ago.

Agree that there is definitely a "look" and JB fans can spot each other straight away!