Brands you loved which went horribly wrong

[WeDidntHaveWaterBottlesInThe80s]

I was just mourning the demise of the original iteration of Finery, when it was quirky and had great prints and interesting shapes at reasonable prices. Then it became weirdly expensive and Hobbs-esque, then cheap and dull. Any other sad losses? We can weep together.

I'm another one mourning AllSaints and the demise in quality and design. Interestingly, DH still gets some nice bits from the men's dept.

I used to live in Glasgow and bought a camel wool coat from French Connection- tiny shop just outside central station. It was £250 in the 90s and I bought it with my student loan. I loved that coat. Lasted for YEARS

I used to love shopping there and Hoi Polloi, and the massive next. Then there were the buchannan galleries with pied a terre. So fancy!

@FloweryWowery I looked at Shelley’s the other day Omg. What a load of tat. My friend and I had these high heeled Victorian style shoes with big ribbon laces. Hers were black, mine white.

@Pigtailsandall
I remember faith shoes. The quality was so much better than what’s around these days and they were very affordable. I liked to go for a bit more expensive back in the day, when I wore clothes and shoes until they fell to pieces.

Someone mentioned Patrick Cox. Yes, they were great. I had a pair of block heeled pie crust shoes in the early 90s.

I think Perdita's points are fair and her advice sound. To be honest, I wasn't going to bother posting because these kinds of threads always go the same way and I'm tired of talking about it.

The high street in the early 2000s was absolutely brilliant. No argument. It was also totally unsustainable. I don't see the point in mourning it.

As usual I echo the Community Clothing recommendation. Yes it's mostly basics, not occasion wear and yes it's online (not sure if there's a shop in Blackburn still?) I miss real shops too, very badly, but they've gone and I can't see them coming back.

I really miss 80s and 90s M&S
@MrsDanversGlidesAgain - I've been picking up a lot of it on eBay the last few years. Full length tweed coat, Italian wool trousers etc. A lot of it BNWT. What I do notice is the range of price points and quality M&S used to sell. Plenty of poly/blend blouses (polyester is nothing new!), and also higher priced wool, silk etc.

@Catsfrontbum hopefully some clever person can tell us what 90s £250 would be worth now and we could see if we could get an equivalent quality coat for that...🤔

I've been buying vintage for most of my adult life and I also remember clothes since the 60s and I'm kind of sceptical about this golden age of natural fabrics. The 60s went mad for synthetics - couldn't get enough of them. Linen, silk and cashmere were luxury end only. Wool itched like hell. My favourite ever dress was made of crimplene.

According to the inflation calculator £250 in 1990 is £700.74 now and £534.28 if you take 1999 as the start point.

At the top end of that range you could get Weekend MaxMara or a few Brora examples.

At the lower end, L K Bennett or Gerard Darel.

A post on another thread made me realise I came of age during a weird blip of fashionable decent quality clothes at a relatively cheap price being widely available (00s) which has not been the case before or since. I struggle to find stuff of comparable quality now at 10x the budget (still have £30 silk Topshop and early COS dresses which are more substantial and well cut than £300ish elasticated viscose rectangles from Rixo, Jigsaw etc. now).

The recent <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/2023.10.11-111236/www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/10/sweater-clothing-quality-natural-fibers-fast-fashion/675600/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Atlantic article is a good one, applies beyond knitwear.

I think it all went to sht when manufacturing went to China*
Pure greed. Companies thought they could increase their profits by reducing production costs. Many also simultaneously reduced the quality of the items, while prices remained the same. But eventually we realised the products had gone to shit and stopped buying them. A lot more people nowadays prioritise looking for items that are ethical and high quality, whereas before you didn’t really have to think about that because most stuff was pretty decent.

I just heard that and came to find this thread again. He was so right.

I think Sezane might be heading this way. Less and less silk etc and more mixed with polyester. And more made offshore. Checked out who owned them now and they have some private equity investment so know how that ends up.

Actually I do like Cos and Arket... or rather I like the idea of them, because everything I've ever tried from either shop absolutely swamps me at 5ft 2.

I do search Vinted/eBay/Depop for older stuff in decent fabrics. The best stuff seems to be on Vinted, but the search function is rubbish. eBay allows you to use Boolean operators for search – so you can really specify what you're looking for. eg you can use the minus sign to remove Primark or Shein crap. etc. Or you can use brackets and commas to search a range of brands – eg (Margaret Howell,Toast,Arket).

A few weeks ago I was watching old Grange Hill, the Zamo days, so late 80s.
At one point they went into a clothes shop. It was a small independent, not a boutique, more the cheap and cheerful type place. There was a rail (one of those round ones) with jumpers on. Standard V-neck type. They were priced at £20. Prices then were so much higher compared to income. Even a cheap clothes shop was expensive.

All of the above, but most particularly Long Tall Sally. Such a shame.

Yes, in many ways I think the 'everything is polyester now' complaint is more of a 'there's so much bad, ill-made polyester now with little else available'.
I've just got hold of a cracking 90s skirt - viscose/poly blend, weighty fabric, well tailored, lined.

I used to wear M&S in the late 80's/90's.
I remember really good quality cotton & linen & velvet trousers we used to wear to the local youth club. It wasn't just for women of a certain age. My dd's now buy St Michael & Per Una in the vintage shops, as they like the style & quality.
I'm another who used to love Benetton. The colourful display of folded jumpers was so innovative at the time. The quality was also fantastic.
I thought Warehouse was a brilliant shop in the 80's/90's. I've bought some wonderful silk dresses over the years & their summer t shirts & jeans used to come in really bright vibrant colours.
I echo people's experiences of Monsoon - then my go to for ball dresses, Next - excellent quality & Principles - good silk & knitwear. Also House of Fraser for relatively expensive coats ( for me in my 20's) Marella, Cashmere etc.

As a non-sweaty person I actively miss polyester, would take the good quality stuff over the shite flimsy viscose that predominates on the high st now.

I think part of the problem is us (ie demand.)

The fashion now is to look 'casual' whereas before (can't pin it to a date) women would always wear fairly formal clothes even for going shopping.

Photos of my Mum is the 1950s wearing lovely wool suits, coats, hats etc .
You bought clothes to last.

So many women wear leggings and jeans every day (hands up- guilty) that the manufacturers play into this.

And now that WFH has become more a default setting, many women don't need formal work attire.

I did read on one of the business pages in the press that Jigsaw have seen an increase in demand for formal office wear, so maybe things will change.

I am also really puzzled by sizing now. In the past I never had an issue with sizes. I'm one inch shorter than the average woman. Now, all dresses need shortening unless I buy 'mini' which are longer on me and knee-length.

Models are listed as 5 10" and the midi length is mid calf on them. On us lesser mortals they are ankle length.

When will this stop???

I used to make special trips to Glasgow to go there, and to TK Maxx which was just along the road in a basement, and was a brand new unique thing.

Maybe we are just getting old so the river islands and the Topshop’s are completely incongruent to us now.

Monsoon used to be quite bohemian, in the 1970s.
I had some interesting dresses from them, all lovely cotton in interesting fabrics.

Also, in the 1970s, Wallis had quality clothing. I used to buy a lot of my work dresses there, coats and knitwear.

Somehow it became Etam and the quality fell.

In pecking order there used to be

C&A
Etam
Richards
Dotty Perkins

Wallis
Monsoon
Next
Jigsaw

Emma Fox, of the old Topshop, is now head buyer for M&S

Just to add Kookai to the list- used to love their designs. Excellent quality for the price.