To be shocked...clothes prices

[fairisleknit]

Luckily I don't like any of the colours or styles at the moment so wouldn't be buying anyway but I am shocked at the prices of womenswear in Fatface! White stuff prices have also gone sky high and joules pretty pricey too. Can't believe as a middle class shopper(!) with some disposable income that I'm nearly priced out of these stores! What's the future for them?

I was near an outlet store today and the women's section was horrible: all pastel acrylic and polyester. But the men's section was really good. Ended up buying a men's lambswool sweater in XS for myself. Why is men's clothing so much better quality and in nicer styles and colours?

A £75 cardi from Tesco? (even if it's made of cashmere) who do they think they are? I mean, people don't go to TESCO to spend £75 on just one jumper no matter what it's made of.

I noticed this too. Lovely jumper in joules on sale at £50 from £70 but its polyester and doesn't feel very nice.
We've been spoilt for around 20 years in the UK with how cheap clothes have been so it's quite a shock.

TK Maxx have slowly started to increase their prices too. Gotta love this cost of living crisis and Brexit.

TK Max has been shit for a long time imo. Had a reputation for getting some higher end products at reduced prices but is mostly full of tat now - I think some brands make cheap versions of products specifically for TKMaxx, but customers believe they are getting the same product as would be available from the brands own stores.

Ebay is your friend. I stopped buying new clothes, except for underwear and shoes a few years ago. The price of new clothes horrifies me.
Having said that, I have bought quite a lot of sequined party stuff from M&S recently.

I just buy charity shops or very discounted sales!

I have no idea how anyone affords new.

Their clothes seem to populate charity shops as do M&S New Look and most other chains or also designer clothes (although latter usually priced too high on this basis) I buy everything in charity shops I enjoy the variety and unique finds. Consequently I’m always completely taken aback if I go into a shop and look at the prices. So I don’t do it!!

I quite like TKMax household and food departments. Clothing just exhausts me all those rails with piles on. You can get good socks and sometimes tights

Cashmere always has a high price tag even the cheap type which is not a patch on high end cashmere. I’ve got LOADs of cashmere high quality stuff. All bought from Charity shops!

Where do you find Mint Velvet discount codes? I agree on the others but rarely find that one

Toast have an outlet shop and many woollies there are reduced to under £100. I just bought a 100% wool from there for £130.

I have only bought clothes in thrift shops for years now. I'm gobsmacked at the original prices of items I buy if I manage to look them up.

Agree with all this.

I think the sea of pastel polyester is due to fashion and womens' near insatiable desire for new trend-led clothes constantly, whereas men shop less frequently as they tend to wear less fashion-led stuff and instead, go for classics. It's harder to sell to men simply by adding frills, lace, appliqué or cut-out shoulders.

It always strikes me that you only tend to see the wacky fashion/trends here, never in Spain or Germany or France or Australia for example. A quick trip to Frankfurt and you'll see lots of Jill Sander type organic cotton or silk tops and boiled wool jackets and trousers.

I’m also finding it irritating how much knitwear is suddenly cheap acrylic and polyester, even from kidswear brands that would normally have decent stuff — I’m not paying £40+ to Boden for a child’s jumper that’s 100% acrylic! Wouldn’t mind paying it for decent wool or cotton, but it seems impossible to find good knitwear in natural fibres at the moment.

@Dryandirriatble you usually get a 15% Mint Velvet code with their magazine .
Having said that been into their winter sale yesterday and nothing I would buy even with 50% off.

Yet I'm buying barely worn silk, cashmere and wool items off Ebay for an absolute steal...

I have never shopped in TK Max until I found myself in one (walked through it on the way from a car park to the shopping centre). They had a great display of toys. I bought several (genuine bargains) for little relatives and also some high end candles at great prices. I don’t think I could take on the clothes though. I like relaxed clothes shopping (so mainly online). I can’t do Zara, so I’ll avoid the TK Max clothing department.

TkMaxx is lovely for home wares - they have the most beautiful, dirt cheap glass, but the women clothes section is dire.

I've found that the price of clothes in shops has rocketed for cheap material but even charity shops have put up prices, for example my local ones charge the same amount for Primark clothes when they are second hand as if they were brand new

High end stuff is still being donated but the charity shops know what things are now and put them on ebay.

I sell my old boutique-y clothes on ebay and am increasingly seeing Oxfam, BritishHeartFoundation and Red Cross listing similar stuff to mine (Droopy and Brown, Toast, Cabbages and Roses) on auctions starting at over £100.00, presumeably leaving the Shein and BooHoo stuff for the shops.

You might well be right OooScotland but I think it's shortsighted of them to literally put their crap in their shop window. If I'd wanted to buy my second hand clothes online, I'd be doing it already.

I thought the same. Lots of places asking £100 for a padded winter coat. Madness.

I really do see what you mean @Floisme but I respectfully disagree that its short sighted of them. I think their very highly paid CEO’s and strategists know what they’re doing, business wise. They just see the shops as collection points now rather than a shop that has to sell stuff so they’re not going to close. Long post coming up. Sorry.

I was thinking about it because, along with being on ebay quite a bit I know a lady who works in our local British Heart Foundation and she said they’re not taking closed bags of items or ad hoc donations any more.

Instead they’re just having weekly ‘consultations’ and only taking branded stuff they think they can put on ebay auction because the shop is packed full now and nobody ever buys anything from it. They have to pay for disposal of unsold/unsaleable stock so refusing to take random bags of stuff and then sort through them for saleable items is much cheaper for them.

All understandable when they know they can easily get £120 or so for a noughties Toast skirt on ebay and what, maybe £10 on the shop floor? Of course that does mean that the actual shop is full of dross. What they do with all that money is for a different thread 🫤

Oh I get what you're saying OooScotland and I realise their job is not to keep me in affordable, high end clothes but to make as much money as possible for their charity. I guess what I mean by 'shortsighted' is that they will lose my custom this way because I'm just not interested in buying second hand clothes unless I can see them first - because I make quite enough bad choices as it is. But it's over dramatic and self aggrandising of me to think they will care.