What brands to go to for good quality stylish clothes?

[CorporateBull]

I am at a loss. I have a decent budget for new clothes but want to buy good quality stuff that will last. I’m just emerging from a longish period of buying very little and living in the same clothes.
Many of the brands I used to buy from have disappeared or now seem to sell expensive polyester, and current trends just don’t suit me.
I have no idea which of the brands I see ads online for are real decent ones and which are dodgy resellers from China!
Please suggest some nice places to try for natural fibres and classic styles? I’m late forties and tend to be a jeans and jumper type - overweight and not very groomed!

If you are going to invest time and money updating your wardrobe OP I advise having a read of what like to be in fashion in 2023 as the worst thing ever is to go to a lot of trouble and expense and then wish you’d done a bit more homework when you start to notice that what your wearing suddenly seems dated next autumn.

i appreciate the general opinion is to ‘get what suits you’ but this largely depends on what cuts and fabrics are popular at the time.

i’m pretty sure skinny jeans/trousers will be totally out next year if they are not already after a very long run of popularity.

just thought I’d mention it as better to be ahead of the trend and not at the end of it, iykwim.

I really like Benetton for plain merino wool jumpers and cardigans.

Well … you’ll know Browns, Net-a-Porter, SSense and a few others all carry a selection of the big names. I generally recommend Raey @ Matches Fashion for relatively effortless swagger, but they’re perhaps not quite as good as they once were.

But I don’t have a corporate life so am inclined towards a few other more esoteric sources. (Also brand new brands tend to be less greedy.)

It’s a shame you didn’t reach this fortunate point a decade ago, @CorporateBull - then you could just have raced towards Phoebe Philo with a suitcase full of money. It would have been so easy!

BangingOn and pharmachameleon I hadn’t looKed at Sezane before and do you know whether they have a sale? The last chance section doesn’t seem reduced so just hoping !

Have a look at the fold, wyse etc.

Where’s good for plus sizes?

I was wondering the same thing. I hadn't heard of them before but I've just seen the most beautiful bag on the website.

I’m not enormously corporate I should say! Mostly home based right now. But I would like to look more put together!

I’m just finding that current trends just don’t work for me. I’d like to find some well cut basics in very classic styles - I’m totally open to contemporary stuff if it doesn’t make me look silly, but I’m never going to mix in circles with people who would notice if something wasn’t right of the moment. I’ve been happily wearing bootcut jeans since the 90s because skinny jeans look absurd on me, for example.

Weirdly I happen to know that Sezane is a favourite of Kate Middleton. MiL’s Daily Mail is a source of information on these things.

They probably don't look absurd. Bootcuts might though 😉

Bootcut suits my shape and no one has ever mocked me for them. To my face. 😄

Don’t be silly.

Bootcut probably look a bit more current than skinnies now. All the bright young things I see seem to be sporting flares again.

Flares, yes. Not bootcuts. And not silly - of course wear bootcuts if you like them, but unless you are 'wearing them ironically" they are pretty dated.

@FairlyIncognito and @BrennieGirl Sezane tend to do a couple of archive events every year, but they tend to be pieces from previous seasons rather than big mark downs on the current collection. I am trying to buy less but buy better and have not regretted any Sezane purchase, even at full price.

Thanks. I have signed up to their newsletter anyway and really glad to know about them anyway thanks . I hate shopping normally !

Oooh love ME+EM - thanks for the tip.

@BrennieGirl the sales in Sezane aren't great tbh. As @BangingOn said they do archive events and bring back old stock at reduced prices but they have very little stock. I don't think I've ever bought anything in the archives and I buy almost every item of clothing from Sezane.

But better cut and fabrics is usually price/brand dependent.

I’ve had items from Hush, White Company, Mint Velvet, Boden etc that have really not lasted long at all.

Really, you’re better going on eBay and getting second hand Nicole Farhi, Armani, Malene Birger, Creenstone and more top end brands.

High street wise generally they’re all much of a muchness, give or take.

But they suit me. I’m really not particularly bothered about looking dated as most people I spend time with wouldn’t know dated from a pineapple. I do though want to wear clothes that I feel confident in and flatter me.

Had a look at Sezane. The knitwear is lovely and i would happily spend all my money there if my lifestyle justified it. But yours does!

I’m really not sure it does! But I agree that Sezane is gorgeous. And not as expensive as I was thinking for what you get.

I love Arket, APC, YMC (mostly via Depop as they’re not cheap) Uniqlo and Sezane for a treat.

Also love Toast but like others above it does nothing for me so have just stopped buying there.

Plumo also has some great stuff on there.

White company always have lovely fabrics.