Can we talk about clothing brands and target demographics?

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Because I’m thinking about the brands that form the core of my ‘going out to meet other grown ups’ wardrobe, and laughing at the Margaret Howell mail shot I’ve just opened. (Socks and sandals photo.) Beautiful young model, and each garment will be wonderfully well made - but I know no one under fifty who wears MH. That’s fine - but I wish the marketing acknowledged the fact.

When a brand does make an effort to engage with the real buyers of its clothes I’m full of awe and gratitude - Raey at Matches is usually great at this.

Studio Nicholson hovers somewhere in between. Again, everyone I know (in the UK) who wears their clothes is older and richer than me, probably in a creative profession. Not a wispy 20 year old.

I never used to care. But I’m wondering if marketing is the reason 99% of the middle aged and older women on MN exclaim that there are no decent clothes for them. There are - but not every brand tells you so.

Baking soda is bicarbonate of soda.

Sodium bicarbonate and bicarbonate of soda are other names for "baking soda". So if you're in the UK it's one of those you should try, not UK "baking powder"

Thanks botemp. The site I found seems to suggest formaldehyde can be removed but it takes more time than a simple wash.

Thanks @NatashaDancing yes my next plan is an overnight soak in bicarb. The shorter soak wasn't enough. Surely Plümo must have had other complaints? Or will do shortly!

I wonder if soda crystals (Borax) might be more of use here than baking soda/bicarbonate of soda, not as easy to get in the US where most of these blogs tend to come from.

If we're talking about adding sharpness to an outfit, I like www.unaburke.com her leather and studded accessories are fantastic in their craftsmanship and structure. This is one of her cuffs that I own.

I don't like the feel of cuffs but in extension of may I offer up some gloves and gauntlets courtesy of Paula Rowan.

I may try that too - I have 'borax substitute' that I use to clean our sheet - DP's natural body oil discolours them yellow, normal washing can't get that out. Borax sub plus washing liquid plus washing powder soak, then a vinegar rinse do the trick! But I'll wait I think until I have spoken to the Plümo folk.

Thank you, Botemp, I will have a look at Ancient Greek too. I probably should speak to my physiotherapist first - I’m supposed to stick to boots with good ankle support but I’ll be damned if I’m sitting on a beach in them!

Oh my, such beautiful gloves. Most are wildly impractical but I'm glad they exist.

The Paula Rowan gloves are beautiful.
I also love the Plumo Abito dress.

Yes, really don’t wash it again yet, @CrunchyCarrot. I’m afraid so much immersion will mean you’re left with a different dress to the brand new garment you paid for. It is surprising that a brand presenting such a ‘wholesome’ image could make this type of mistake.

Fabulous list, @botemp - I can see why you felt it might be an effort to write it all down! Of your more old guard designers I’ve had passing relationships with most except Givenchy. And I’m very glad indeed that The Row wasn’t around when I had an elastic clothes budget. I don’t know if it’s too late for me to remake my life to the extent that I might dress exclusively in Paul Harnden and Kolor - in the meantime Margiela is my happy place. And, like @Enheduanna (I think?) I try not to think too much about all the things I’ve lost, abandoned, given away, or left in a bin in an Edinburgh hotel because it was looking a bit shabby …

What’s making me laugh at the moment is that mentioning my ancient Top Shop jumper (£150 in 2008/9) prompted me to look up the designer Simone Shailes, whose MA collection Top Shop bought. She went on to become one of Phoebe Philo’s team when she was setting up, and is now, if I’ve understand correctly … Head of Knitwear Design at Hermès. In all but one aspect my own life seems to have stood still in comparison.

I feel like such an idiot paying out for The Row every time, the price tags are inflated but ugh, it's got appeal. I can find a fair bit of it secondhand as weirdly people don't tend to hang onto it but footwear is something I always buy new. My mother and grandmother had lots of opinions on feet and the shoes that go on them so I've had that indoctrinated in me and probably why I don't balk at their prices creeping up the way I do with bags.

My grandmother massaged all the grandchildren's feet into perfect arches because flat feet were for workers in rice fields (or something like that, I don't think you can actually shape baby feet either but I'm sure we enjoyed the massage) and the best feet were bare feet but she was nicknamed Imelda too...

My mother always took me on special trips to Antwerp or further afield for Pomme D'Api shoes. We sang along to Patti Smith songs on the way, well she sang, I made up new lyrics. We'd always get pulled over at the border because my mother was not white and driving a big ass Mercedes meant you were suspicious to Belgian border guards and she'd always delight in telling them that our purpose for visit was to buy shoes and I'd wiggle my feet in demonstration. I had little interest in the shoes at the time and was placated with a cinema showing of Babar and a Belgian waffle after.

Well if so, I've been shaped by Babar, Curious George (which my mother carefully translated for me with pencil, probably my most precious possession), Shell Silverstein, Maurice Sendak and a bit of forbidden Edward Gorey that I stole from my father. Later there was Calvin and Hobbes which I really must revisit again...

Enheduanna, is your close relationship with your granny standing in for your mother potentially also why you connect deeper to the past? My other grandmother is close to turning a hundred this year but she's very much a product of her time (very Modern, capital M) I never really understood that when I was younger but it's kind of wild to me now to know what she's witnessed and how shaped by her time she is.

I meant more in a it doesn't feel foreign in the way it would for other people of your generation but you've already answered it somewhat with your house full of interesting relatives that make history all the more interesting. I remember recently there was some archive footage around the death Of QE2 and it was of her grandmother and her in the garden and the grandmother was in full Victorian wear, hair, everything, it must have been in the 1930s but it's such an odd idea that that was still around then, fashions don't stretch that long anymore.

Ha, and I don't like cats, or cats don't like me. It's a MAD situation...

Gorey knew how to rock a fur coat though, love the reaction of the other pedestrians.

Yes, that 1920s era is fascinating, they also did away with undergarments and had flimsy things that you couldn't really call a bra. How did it feel to go from laced up and constructed to going out in what previously would be like an under slip.