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.

I really like that idea. I can see a Venn diagram of my 3 themes or the themes I would like to have. Visualising that also helps me to to think what I would want the predominant look to be. It’s nowhere near my current daily look Thank you LolaSmiles.

I don't know, to me the whole capsule carefully curated wardrobe thing is the equivalent of one of those Facebook statuses where someone praises their partner and goes on a little too long about how amazing they are and how fantastic their marriage is and, usually, the divorce announcement follows not long after that. Lots of caveats if it works for you, great, etc. etc. but I think it's often a smokescreen to seem like everything is going well for you when it probably isn't, an underlying belief if you can fake it you can eventually make it so.

I consider myself a constant work in progress and that's fine, I don't want to stop learning or experiencing new things. If that means sometimes I'll look like a tit instead of forever stylish, so what, I'll live.

I suppose in the way people commodify themselves into brands on social media the emphasis now is on appearing to be the one who has it all figured out and it it's utterly boring and superficial to me and they overwhelmingly talk shite.

I am really picky about what I buy though and I do think there's some bred in entitlement that goes with that, things need to be good enough for me because why would I settle for less. Whereas I do know a lot of women who think they're not good enough to wear something for various reasons, and well, marketing loves that.

Hmm I think my Venn diagram is large circle Gertrude Jekyll planting plan, small circles Courtney Love and Audrey Hepburn.

@TheLongRider , I love ankara fabrics too. If you make your own clothes, the waxiness makes it pleasant to sew. The polycotton ones are best avoided.
I'm pale and celtic, and was initially concerned that it might be culturally inappropriate to wear it, but I've had compliments. Thanks for the links.

@NatashaDancing , My husband is dreadful about this. He's discovered suits, coats and trousers he's forgotten about.
Me too, and I have a habit of buying multiples. I even have unopened ebay parcels.

@LolaSmiles , In my head I would love to be the person with the beautiful scandi classic style neutral capsule wardrobe, but in reality that's not me at all.
Me neither. I could wear a drab uniform, day in day out, but there will be that one day, when I want to wear something completely different.

@VenusClapTrap , I love it when I see something and feel I MUST have it, or even the 'it's over budget, but I want it, can I justify it?'. I usually get it.

overlaid with a bit of Le Nôtre
Oh good Lord yes. That would be heaven. I missed the pyjamas - must scroll back

@MerryChristmasToYou

I have a habit of buying multiples. I even have unopened ebay parcels. Blush

Oh, no. When I get something new I want to wear it NOW* *😂Which is why the whole 'buy your winter clothes in the summer sale' aspect never works for me.

This thread is making me think it really is time to do a cull, though. My husband points out that I go through phases where I wear about 10 things consistently and the rest might as well not be there except for the odd special occasion 🤗

My film/wardrobe reference at the moment is the character of Maddy from the Bill Forsyth film Comfort and Joy. I've just bought an extra long 80s/90s St Michael cocoony wool coat on eBay to facilitate this.

Mmmm, the ones that got away. There was a skirt that haunts me like that. Betsy Johnson. I was in the US for work, and I saw it in a window while walking through a mall. It was black with a delicate lily of the valley print. Gorgeous. Perfect length, looked great on me. I bought it, then took it back the next day for being ‘too much to spend’.

I regretted it for so long. Tried to find it later, without success.

I agree completely with the instinctual choice, it has not let me down whether it be €50 or €500. I also regret not buying a deep green silk velvet coat in 1990, it was beautiful but deeply impractical for a student. My instincts are pretty good, most of my wardrobe meshes together. I' be had moments of wobbles, my mid-thirties to forty were tricky but I've come out the other side.

I have been known to walk past a shop window when something catches my eye, brake hard, and go back to investigate. I think about the feel and texture of the fabric as well as the fit and use of the garment. I'm at an age where I will pay for good fabrics but not for 100% polyester with a brand name and price to match unless it really, really fills a gap in my wardrobe.

@Enheduanna I'd love to see the green jumper that finally satisfied the sartorial itch.

Ah don't open up the sore wound that is things I should have bought but I just had to be pragmatic about it 😑

I do love a hunt though, is /www.ebay.nl/itm/234462196777?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=1346-175129-2357-0&ssspo=IIcwQ_-yQAm&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=Npptu24HR4K&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL this the skirt]] Venus?

Who shops like my mother did, we had to go to every conceivable shop in town and see what was available and then we'd go back to the first shop to buy the first thing we'd found 🤦

/www.ebay.nl/itm/234462196777?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=1346-175129-2357-0&ssspo=IIcwQ_-yQAm&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=Npptu24HR4K&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL let's try that link again]]

Aah, I formatted it correctly, bare link:

www.ebay.nl/itm/234462196777?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=1346-175129-2357-0&ssspo=IIcwQ_-yQAm&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=Npptu24HR4K&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL

The only time I had a capsule wardrobe was when I was pregnant!

As to the demographics question of the OP, I made my peace a long time ago with the fact that I was never going to be a 5"10 blonde supermodel. I'm 5'5, pear shaped and menopausal now. My upbringing was rural so my mother made sure myself and my brother had both Sunday best and mucking around outside clothes in wellies and hard wearing jeans and jumpers. Mum loved couture but could never afford it: but she could follow a pattern and make some great clothes. Pragmatism is the fundamental rule of my shopping, clothes I can cycle in, shoes I can walk in (including heels). Brands and logos were seen declassé, my parents values were more along the "if you know, you know" rather than being a walking advertisement. Some of that has stayed with me.

As I move through life, my budget may change but the fundamentals of my style don't. I have a teenage DD and watching her find her style niche is interesting.

My actual cycling kit and bicycle are probably worth more than my car and daily clothes, again if you know, you know...

Oh my god @botemp! At first glance I thought no, the flowers were smaller and more regularly dotted across the fabric. But I think that’s my memory! I mean, how many black skirts with lilies of rye valley on would one designer do? And it definitely had the small ruffle.

How do I buy from German eBay?!!

Ah - it’s Dutch not German! I have family in the Netherlands. I can do this!

It's a US seller, not Dutch, but you need to contact them to get them to post it to you. I should have swapped out the listing address, it should work for UK eBay now:

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234462196777?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=1346-175129-2357-0&ssspo=IIcwQ_-yQAm&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=Npptu24HR4K&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=EMAIL

Ah, ok. The .NL confused me. Funny it’s described as ‘polyester but feels like silk’ because in my head it was silk. I don’t think I ever checked (or cared) what clothes were made of back when I was in my early twenties though. This is going back decades. I can’t believe you found it, Botemp!

It's beautiful, I love the green.

It's really lovely Enheduanna but I can't stop cackling at what they named the cream colour 🤣

Venus, I do hope you'll be get your hands on the skirt this time (provided you still want it). Yes, clothes in our memory definitely are better, I'd forgotten how shit clothes can sometimes be. There was an Ivanka Trump dress in my local consignment store, and it was just so awful (and I'm not saying it because it's IT) it just reminded me of how spectacularly crap fast fashion could be, for all its faults the overall quality of fast fashion has somewhat improved, as in, less absolute misses. In turn, few absolute hits.

That’s a lovely colour and no judgment here.

I am a recent convert to the ‘wear your eye colour’ approach, and am slowly shifting my entire wardrobe towards sludgy greens. I had totally avoided them after spending most of my teens wearing army fatigues (CCF, not a Kurdish paramilitary like bo)

Another strange hangover from younger days unconsciously affecting my clothing choices

That’s a lovely colour and no judgment here. I am a recent convert to the ‘wear your eye colour’ approach, and am slowly shifting my entire wardrobe towards sludgy greens. I had totally avoided them after spending most of my teens wearing army fatigues (CCF, not a Kurdish paramilitary like bo)