What happened to Boden?

[buswheels]

OK so I probably havn’t looked for most of covid but I looked recently and was surprised to see there’s nothing for older teens and very little for 13/14. What is available is dire. The adult clothes seem to have increased in price 4 fold, a lot of the items seem weird (hyper fashionable, tiny cardigans, odd styles, unusual fabric, lots of polyester)

is this temporary? Has it all changed?

The cost of producing clothes has gone up in the last two years.
I wouldn't call them hyper-fashionable, but they need to be current.
I don't think older teens were ever their target audience.
They have a lot more polyester but polyester isn't all bad.

I think they did try, some years ago, with JohnnieB range some years ago, for teens and older children.

As has been said many times on other threads on the topic Boden quality has decreased but the prices have increased. The last year or so must be the longest period I haven't bought anything from them.

I only ever buy Boden at their jumble sales clearance events, but this year I struggled to find anything where the quality and fabrics merited even those much reduced prices.

I have a feeling it might end up going the same way as Joules...

It is spectacularly awful, isn't it? A bit like M&S when they tried a rebrand a few years ago and came up with some absolute howlers. Their catalogue used to be something I looked forward to receiving, now it's more like an advert for Primark's sale bin - they've completely lost sight of their target market.

I don't think Boden have ever catered for teens - they aren't trendy enough and hand me downs get less common at that age so it's harder to justify paying those prices (I always bought the cute little kid stuff knowing it would go through both my boys and I would still be able to sell it on second hand).

Some of the plainer toddler stuff is nice when in the sale. I'd never put a teenager in it!

The prices are crazy- I know they have very frequent 20% off events, but £55 for a plain jersey top? £110 for a nondescript knitted day-dress? Bonkers.

Boden has never been for teens. I don't think I got my kids to wear Boden past about age 5.

They had the JohnnyB range as a teen ranges for a few years?

I wouldn't consider my 8 and 10 year olds the most fashion forward but they would not be caught dead in most of the recent offerings when I showed them.. and anything they did like I could get for a about a third of the price elsewhere. For me, sometimes I see something I like but usually eat out of my price range, and definitely not as good quality anymore.

Thanks like I say I hadn’t looked for a while I was shocked by how awful some of it was, and so expensive and when I looked to see what some of it was made from in case that justified the prices everything seemed to be polyester!

they used to have some great teen staples, one of the best pair of jeans my kids had was Boden, just great functional plain jeans, ski jackets were good, we had some lovely shoes over the years, socks, shorts, tees that are way better than Primark.

i went to buy my daughter a cardy and they are all sold out in her size so someone is buying them.

shame!

They actually have a 30% off everything sale which ends tonight if e.g. you want another pair of the same jeans at a less eye-watering price. I picked up a £30 end-of-the-sale-plus-30%off sundress too (which in no way was worth the £100-odd pounds they originally wanted for it)

We had some lovely things from the JohnnieB range when DD1 was a younger teen

I don't think they've ever had much for teens, but then I haven't looked specifically.

I like some of their stuff for younger kids but the prices are crazy. £65 for a dress for a 3 year old?? Even in the sale it was nearly £40. I know the price of producing clothing has gone up but nowhere else is charging so much - even similar retailers like frugi and joules

sitting here wearing a plain boden knit dress from 2019, with a stripe feature. Its warm flattering and nice. There is nothing in the current catelogue / website that suits me like this kind of thing. Boden has gone mad - I have had countless £10 off vouchers and had to bin them all! No suits, no work wear, just acres of frilly pie collar puff sleeve floral nightmares.

I looked recently and was surprised to see there’s nothing for older teens and very little for 13/14

I saw this happened to H&M too. The nice children's clothes go up to size 10. From then on everything looks awful. What are 11/12/13 year olds supposed to wear?