BODEN- I am so over them after 30 years.

[SummeryBells]

If I was married to them I'd be filing for divorce.

I loved them thirty years ago when I bought a poacher's jacket.
There was the honeymoon years when I couldn't get enough of them. Lovely knitwear, basic trousers, nice plain-ish smart dresses, great wool coat still going strong after 10 years.

And now I can't bear the sight of them.

The colours are garish, patterns headache-inducing, dresses nothing that appeals, prices- well, don't get me started on those - £80 for a pair of basic jeans? T-shirts close to £30. I could afford all of this but refuse to be ripped off.

I wonder if they will exist in a few more years?

Oh bore off. This is the style and beauty thread! Go elsewhere if you want to talk about something else. 🙄

I don’t even bother looking at Boden anymore and it was always my go to shop. I wore a dress to work last week that I bought a year ago but haven’t worn much. It was almost translucent in places where it was stretched and I thought how poor the quality was compared to when I first shopped with them.

Ah yes - the puff sleeves on knitwear! Just why?!

I had a drop waisted fine knitted dress from boden years ago, it was amazing it hid everything lumpy.

Every single cashmere item has had to be thrown away, it goes in holes.

Haven't bought anything from them in years it's frumsville now.

I remember the days when getting the Boden catalogue in the letterbox was an occasion to have a coffee morning with my toddler mum friends! It seemed to say I too could be lithe and caramel-bobbed with rumple-haired little boys who loved stripy button-down shirts and fishing nets. Maybe I got fat and old. I’d like my £££ back for the Cornwall beach-life that never happened.

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Speaking of Whistles, my DM bought me a fantastic cardigan from there once. Really simple merino wool in a great colour but I left it at someone’s house one day and never got it back, was very sad.

Haha, yes, I do wonder if the Cornwall tourist board ever paid Johnnie a commission for sending so many visitors there!

The synthetics thing annoys me. It used to be that at that price point there was lots of lovely stuff in natural fibres - I have cotton, wool, silk and linen from Boden, White Co., Jigsaw etc. from 10-15 years ago, and it was great quality. Now it’s impossible to find anything that isn’t cheap synthetics. I recently tried to find a cotton jumper for my DD and everything was cheap acrylic, even for a kids’ pullover in Boden for nearly £50!! Ironically H&M now stocks more cotton knitwear for kids than Boden does. John Lewis quality has also gone way down.

I notice that Boden quality is going down rapidly for kids too - one summer season I bought a lovely cotton jersey dress for DD; literally the next season (3 months later) I bought the new pattern/print of the sale dress and the fabric was half as thick and clearly less well made with a different texture, same price though!!

DD is getting too old for a lot of the kids’ stuff, but they no longer do the nicer Johnnie b range that was a bit more grown up. Resorting to eBay right now, but DD’s approaching the age when teenagers get more picky about secondhand clothes, so I wish they - and other similar retailers - just still did good quality stuff.

Doesn’t help that the current aesthetic is all very 1989/1990, cheap sweatshirts and joggers, ugly body shapes and ugly patterns. I think of how pretty and vibrant the clothes and just the overall styles and choices were fifteen years ago, and just sigh!

*same dress, should have read!

• and boxy not body shapes - gah too tired, and autocarrot has got me.

I never understood why they thought a Mexican Carnival themed summer clothes would work in dreary British weather. Most of their customers are professional women in their 30s and over or SAHMs. Where will they be wearing these impractical huge Day of the Dead skirts and loud frilly tops? Most of us our lives are work, local park, cafe or local pub, school run, supermarket.
Why is it so hard to make quality plain clothes suitable for British weather ie can be layered?

I also used to love Boden but now shop more at Hobbs and Jigsaw

I agree with you all and it makes me a bit sad that our decades-long relationship is foundering. (And I'm someone who doesn't really mind the bright prints because they often suit my colouring.)

Thing is, I hate shopping, I just want reliable quality and sizing with a small but genuinely varied choice of colours/prints (so 5 mad prints and one navy/black is not it), and I was happy to pay for it.

I still have Boden things I bought 10-20 years ago, the quality was so good. Sadly, many of them don't fit me so well any more - because I've gone saggy and misshapen, whilst the clothes have kept their youthful perfection

Johnnie and I officially separated a few years ago now, much to the surprise of all my friends who knew I was devoted to anything and everything Boden. It's very sad but I no longer even look at anything he sends me through the post because I know it's pointless. I'm very much afraid that he doesn't actually want me any more because I'm too old but my dd (who is the right age for him) would laugh at him, I'm sorry to say.

Self entitled pricks "oooh Boden's fashion has really let us down, let's go shop at Whistles instead" pffft
Which shops would it be acceptable to discuss the lines of then?

This is a style and beauty board.

Does anyone know who he wants though? I.e. how is the business doing? Will it go the way of Joules? (I was not such a fan, but I did have a couple of lovely skirts and some cardigans from them).

is he as a PP said, courting a young American second wife? I can’t see any 20 somethings from the UK filling my shoes?

@rookiemere how tall are you? I keep looking at unfolded trousers but am a hobbit

I think he's torn between the safety of a wife who's dependable and will always be there to buy her staples and having a bit of flirtation with anyone and everyone at the bar.

He seems to be working on the principle of churn lots of generic stuff out and hope it sells in the sale to people who probably wouldn't normally buy Boden, but would consider it if it was a bargain.

Hi I am 5ft6 but seem to have a long body and short legs so unfortunately the trousers didn't work for me, but did for someone of the same height and size just with longer legs.
The Gigi culottes are a lovely length though as was the jumpsuit and dungarees.

Definitely feel tossed aside by JB after almost 30 years whilst he tries desperately to pursue my daughter's age group who are just not interested! Never mind though though, M&S are proving finally to be sometimes a bit more reliable (I've recently bought a couple of pieces from them after many years) and I love Hobbs. What I'm not prepared to do is spend money on poor quality, expensive, badly designed clothes.

I always loved the long sleeved breton tops that were smart enough to wear to work with a blazer but they're almost see through now and the latest ones I bought from Ebay were obviously the newer type and I use them as pyjamas or as an extra layer when WFH.

For trousers I've had some great success with Wallis for about 25% of the price and better quality/cut than Boden.

everlane, toast

It looks like Borden's PR department has gone downhill