i vote for a we chat iwht lisa armstrgon of he times - fab articel about M&S - is she a mner?

[FluffyMummy123]

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i used to love their freakishly enormous babygros, they had lovely designs. obviously i haven't even looked at those for 3 years so they are all probably neon pink now with disney princesses and playboy motifs.

I like some of their Limited Collection and Autograph stuff.I buy my pants and socks there.Their makeup is quite good and their food is fab.
You do have to sift through some dross though and I've given up on their t-shirts as they shrink to crop tops,as did a lovely grey cardi I bought there recently.

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did you think they were freakishly big?

I think she's a dull and dated writer - journalistic equivalent of M&S in many respects. Also, why must she bang on endlessly about her daughters (I see they make an inevitable appearance in this article too...)

At least Lucia is entertaining - mad as a box of frogs but funny...

Fancy naming a dress 'Busy floral' - do they want people to recoil in horror before they've even set eyes on it!

I think I am turning INTO Anna888

agree AGAIN

and I'll tell you what makes me seethe

'Plan A - because there is no Plan B'

THEN WHY IS IT CALLED PLAN A

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRH

Enid - LOL

Got some fab underwear in Princesse TamTam yesterday btw... another good place to shop in France

I too find M&S like a giant jumble sale (and Goat, that's the new Princes Street one you mean isn't it - how on earth did they manage to revamp it and make it so much worse???) where you can find one or two nice things if you have time to riffle through 2,500 weird grannyish aqua, coral or lemon yellow short-sleeved jumpers, and another 2,500 peculiar per una skirts with strange tartan flappy bits attached, etc etc.

The only things I still go in for are boys' vests, pants and pjs, and tights and knickers for me.

I love M&S, the kids clothes are probably my favourite place in there. I wish they would keep up more of the classic\basic stuff though. I think they have gone a bit bonkers on the more trendy stuff recently.

Underwear great and i still find some great stuff in the ladies too. DH has to look like the typical M&S man for a drink in the Wardroom so we buy alot from there.

My local store in Fareham is dire though, so dissapointing every time i go in. They really need to spruce it up, it does indeed look like Littlewoods.

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M&s cakes are gorge.

She'd be good for a web chat because she's not too up her own arse about fashion and seems to actually know about high street brands etc.

I thought that article was interesting because of what she said about the difference between what they show to the press and what you actually find in store. I've often gone in there looking for something that I've seen in a magazine and given up trying to find it after wading through the rails of polyester stretchy trousers like my Gran used to wear.

They should do more of what they do best - getting the basics right - and less of trying to chase press coverage with runway rip-offs (especially as Top Shop and Zara do that so much better).

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M&S always seem get it 'slightly wrong' with everything. Their shoes are...ok. Their clothes always looks frumpy, even those so called 'cutting edge' ones in the Limited Edition collection.

I go in there hopeful as a last resort sometimes and always come out predictably disappointed.

And don't even get me started on Per Bloody Una.

Far more interesting than M&S
..Largeginandtonic , I grew up in Fareham! So I can vouch for how crap the shops are there.

Oh blimey, I bet they haven't touched the M&S in Fareham since I was last in there, which must be, ooh, about one million years ago (okay: 15 or so). Dismal.

There's a large out-of-town M&S near me and one of the problems I find is that they just have too much stuff, all vaguely similar, dotted around the store in the various "collections" - I needed a pair of smartish black trousers a few months ago, must have tried on at least a dozen different ones (and there were dozens more I didn't try on) and none of them fitted properly. And I am not extremely-sized!

I have also given up on buying bras there because they don't fit properly.

Yes Fareham dismal but we do have a much better HUGE M&S store at a retail park. I can spend all day there and it is attached to a huge Sainsburys.

M&S is horrible
I have no pretentions to design knowledge or retail experience but even I could design a children's range that would be 50x nicer and sell 100x faster than the bollox that has been polluting M&S's stores for... oh.... a decade? No, maybe it is only 8 years that it has been REALLY shit.

I can generally find a present for my Mum in M&S (she is size 20 and nearly 60) but not so much for me. DD got a nice dress out of there for Christmas - but since she was insisting on a green party dress in size 2-3 we were somewhat limited because they were all pink or red or purple everywhere else. Bought DS some school trousers in there and they just fell down.

I think my main problem is finding what I like among all the stuff. It does seem to be a bit scattered. I do buy underwear though in the sales. That is easy to locate - all on the sales underwear rack.

And, cod, I am as pasty as they come and wearing pink and grey today, albeit not M&S. What colours should I wear? Red not good either.

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The M&S in Brixton still has the old slightly stern-looking 1970s signage on the front. The inside isn't much better. It's the M&S that Time Forgot.