What shopping in charity shops makes you realise about the high street at the moment?

[Britpopbaby]

I picked up a Richard’s cardigan in a charity shop today for less than £7 which is 70% lambs wool? 20% angora and 10 percent nylon. You’d be hard pushed to find that kind of composition on the high street now and I imagine that of you did it would be part of a premium range.

Yeah I still have no idea what you mean about sizing, OP! Isn't vanity sizing exactly the result of brands trying to track to a fatter population? Like PP I fit the same size now as 20 years ago. Despite being 15+ kg heavier and not being close to fitting into my actual clothes from then.
And it's not just the UK and US but also true of FR, IT etc. brands just slightly milder.

I've bought some m&s stuff that is probably 20 years old and fantastic quality.

Clearly OP means that old stuff still was generally made to a higher standard whereas even expensive clothes now aren't guaranteed to be better quality.

There seems to have been a huge surge of polyester crap on the high st about 15 years ago and it's still filling the charity shops.

My mum died decades ago but was a slim size 10 for her whole adult life. I couldn't bear to throw away her vintage outfits and got them out of my loft during lockdown as I had lost a bit of weight and finally got down to a size 10 myself. I swear I couldn't even get some of the skirts over one of my thighs. They didn't even fit my 11 year old. I would have to lose several more stone to even attempt to get into them.

Angora is very cruel. People don't realize, but it's kind to avoid it x

Lambs wool hasn't been a premium yarn for years. Even merino has lost its cachet as it has become more widely available. And cashmere is appearing more often at a lower price point.

Not everyone cares about cachet though. For some it's just about it being natural fibre and a quality material. Knitwear in cheaper shops is mostly not natural fibre.

But Richards was a premium brand!

@Cookie77777 I know about angora hence why it’s probably better to buy it second hand/ vintage rather than new.

@FluffyFanny Really?

That's not the op's responsibility though. She can't control what other people post.

The charities benefiting from the charity shops shoulder rising costs. Imagine how much more it costs per day to heat a hospice ward compared to a few years ago:

According to this Wikipedia article, Richard Shops' long-time rival was Dorothy Perkins. I would have thought that was accurate, they were both relatively cheap high street brands in the days before Primark.

Off topic: But the mention of Richard shops immediately brought their advertising song back to me - I have not heard it since I was a small child but all the words were apparently lurking subconscious!

It was a cheap(er) shop, originally aimed at young women. I have no idea of the quality of its goods!

Re: Charity shops. I particularly like to support the smaller shops that raise money for local charities.

IMO charity shops are great for books and glassware, but I very rarely see any good quality clothing, (but I do think it’s often dependent on area).

I spotted a Richard’s coat in a charity shop for under £11 that was 60/70 percent wool.

Since when did wool become a luxe fabric? When did the planet’s sheep die of covid?

Cotton’s legendarily cheap and even that gets its own ‘with cotton’ show off tag now.

I love a good chazza hand knit and they’re mostly nice oiled wool. I have a 70s aquascutum Mac that’s perfect after 50 years of wear. DNephew is the third generation to wear the family Burberry for The Tall One.

I think you might find yourself in a minority there. I have a friend who buys a lot of second hand designer clothing ultra cheap, and she is the most stylish person I know. She got a leather jacket from the recycling centre shop, and shortly afterwards saw the exact jacket being worn on the cover of a fashion magazine. I think she paid $5 for the jacket. I agree a lot of it is not great, but if you have the time and the patience (which I admit I really don't) you can find some treasures.

I do buy second hand clothing from auction sites, as does my friend, and have got some real bargains.

Only in the way that Joules, Boden etc are now. It was very affordable. My last surviving item of clothing from there was a jumper in finest acrylic, mind.

Richards, in the distant past through to more recently, seemed to be on a par with the more recent East. It was always slightly posh, but the clothes were not for me, an hourglass hippy

I was listening to a conversation between three early twenties girls ok the bus yesterday. When they started talking about clothes shopping it was all “Ugh… I went into Zara there was literally nothing!” “Oh my God it was so depressing trying on X, Y, Z” “I just did a massive ASOS order Ii the end. Sent loads back”. It sounded like no fun at all.

In the 90s / 00s shopping was a day out for me & my best friend. We’d try on everything, go for lunch, come home with armfuls of bags. Containing great clothes that didn’t break the bank. Shopping in central London, Paris & Dublin. The shops were beautifully merchandised, plenty of staff. Sales were genuine deals. The quality / value are not comparable…

On charity shops, I’ve always shopped in them. I agree, that it helps to have the eye. Most of my wardrobe is second hand now.

I never want to buy new clothes again.

It sounded like no fun at all.

It can be a bit fun. There are usually some dreadful monstrosities to make fun off, if you go with someone who knows that you're mocking with the suggestions and whose taste is similar enough that you don't end up mocking them. But it doesn't yield decent results. I buy pretty much almost all my clothing online.

I touched an Etam coat and it felt really good quality. Nothing like you get in high street shops now.

I don't recall Richards, but am I right in saying all high street shops were more expensive before supermarket clothing was a thing? OTOH, I really like real merino and cashmere jumpers and other natural fibres like linen and silk, I buy nearly all of these from charity shops, I find it pretty easy to find these items. I buy them in all sizes, too small merino jumpers to wear as thermals, mens ones as loose fit. I find natural fibres are easy to spot on the rails by scanning with my eyes and checking labels, and I am often surprised to find sometimes I am right about the material but often it is Matalan or another low cost high street brand. I think they are just unpopular with people (which is why they are easy to find in charity shops) because people are overly wary of washing instructions.

Last time I was in a H&M changing room there was a 100 watt spotlight directly above, making me appear like a pale, sweaty blancmange… Swathing same in several variations of crumpled viscose didn’t help, either. I left empty-handed.

I remember the first supermarket range being George at Asda, about 25 years ago. It was actually quite decent. But yeah, the price point was keener than the shops. The lingerie / nightwear was well-made too. Nowadays, even M&S can’t be relied upon for that. No sign of any detail anymore.