Your top gripe with buying clothes at the moment?

[Clotheswoe]

Mine is that often when trousers are described as 'high-waisted', they are not at all high waisted on me. They just aren't hipsters!

the polyester

length
in charity shops and on other people sainsburys stuff looks good but i struggle to find it new

This!

i bought a black and a white bra from m & S
without trying first
the white fits
the black is too tight!

I few years ago I bought a lovely top from Jigsaw. I liked it so much, I bought a second one in the sale, same size, or so it said on the label.

The second one was huge. Same size on the label.

The terrible quality even for high-end high street shops, with clothes that look ok until you wash them, and then look awful, but at ££. Impossible to find anything in natural fabrics at a reasonable price. I’ve bought a few men’s items as the quality seems better.

Also the engineered shortages (things dropping and then selling out quickly) to try to encourage more impulse buying. I just want to see everything and think about what I need. I’m busy and it’s too stressful to keep up :(

Don’t understand why so many shoe brands don’t make half sizes, especially small half sizes. I’m a 36.5, NOT a 36 or 37

Sleeves! Huge balloon sleeves on my not very long arms are not a good look.
Lovely blouse arrived from Hush yesterday fits and looks good on the body and ridiculous on the arms.

I feel like I live in an alternative universe to most people on here. In my world, ever since I've been shopping (and I'm 51 so been at it since the late 80s) polyester and viscose were commonplace. I can't remember a time where lower end shops like New Look, Bon Marche, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Bay Trading, Miss Selfridge, Oasis etc. which were my go to shops in the 90s, sold clothes in all wool, silk, or cotton. Back in the 90s my dresses and skirts were still all polyester, only summer sundresses might be cotton as is still the case today. Coats were always a cheap wool mix from these shops and suit trousers from Topshop and Burton (which my DH wore) were always made to be washable so definitely not wool.

My mum who's 80, will talk of a time when tailoring was always wool (and she was a tailoress by trade) but that was before the dawn of off the peg suits and coats and large hughstreet chains- she's harking back to the 1950s when they shopped at the local tailors and had a made to measure suit which they had only one of and it lasted a life-time.

Some of you on here are claiming polyester was rare 10 years ago and you were buying quality natural fabric clothing in all the shops. It wasn't. I agree, lots of shops have reduced their quality over the years- Next and River Island especially spring to mind. But it's over 30 years ago since I started shopping at Next when all their shoes were leather lined and made in Italy and their clothes were notoriously expensive and worn by young professionals on good salaries, and the shops were small and boutique like with carpet. Now, next is mass market and priced for the majority to afford and the clothes are cheaply made and the shoes are largely synthetic. This change did not happen in the last 10 years though.

Actually @fluffyfanny, I don't recall that manmade fabrics were that common in the past. Can't remember anything made of viscose for instance - remember looking it up as I'd not come across it before. There were eg polyester blouses but they weren't the price they are now - shops trying to pass them off as silk (looking at you Jigsaw) with £100+ price tags. I lived in London in the late 80s/early 90s on a student nurse/staff nurse salary, so earned a pittance, but could still afford to save up and buy eg. a green silk shirt from Next, cotton t shirts/shirts and jeans from Gap, 100% wool jumpers from Benetton, 100% wool coats and leather shoes from M&S or Ravel. And they lasted and wore so well. My M&S camel coat cost £150 in about 1990 - they're less than that now.

I didn't have many clothes - fortunate that I had to wear a uniform to work - but was able to do that because I knew the items would stay in the shops all season - I could save for them - and would only be reduced in the sales. And I was genuinely happy with purchases.

The constant 15 or 20% off and random sales also piss me off. Just charge the price to start with and don't reduce it, so customers won't feel continually duped. We've completely lost sight of how much quality clothes should cost - I took home £300 a month when I bought that coat and probably saved for a year to buy it - had it for years until the moths got it. Just so fed up with fast fashion.

Right, getting off hobby horse now

In my experience you used to be able to get the natural fabrics more easily in mid-high end shops. I agree about the lower end shops' fabrics, but I think what has noticeably changed in the last 5 years is construction quality and quality within the fabric range. I have cheaper and relatively more expensive garments from those cheaper shops from the late 00s/early 2010s still going strong, and more expensive things from those same shops (see yesterday's post about the two dresses of disappointment) from the past couple of years that haven't lasted or weren't any good to start with.

Leather, however, is definitely harder to find, with mid-range shops now proudly proclaiming "REAL LEATHER" on certain shoes, bags and jackets and charging a premium. I remember when, in around the late 2000s, you would get PU bags and shoes in cheap shops but they were seen as plastic and undesirable, rather than greenwashed as vegan.

I have silk and cotton blouses from Warehouse, Zara, ASOS, Reiss, M&S, &Other Stories, Miss Selfridge, Top Shop and Massimo Duti that are over 10 to 15 years old (maybe not &OtherStories - they’re more like 8 years old I guess).

You could get better quality on the High St just a few years ago.

Yes, shops claiming synthetic leather as 'vegan'! What a joke!

In the 90s those bright colour silk shirts were in Freemans catalogue and affordable and I had a silk top from BHS

Saying that I wouldn't wear silk now as it makes me sweat

Good points from FF & HAN. It was the choice available on the high street. The change came after 2008. When Arcadia (Topshop etc) & Aurora (Oasis etc) were in financial trouble. M&S, Debenhams as well.
Yes, polyester dresses wee certainly available (I still have loads) but they were well cut, lined, had details such as covered buttons, piping, a waist, darting. You could buy black poly trousers (thicker, more details) but I also had wool suits that weren’t very expensive. I had a mix of nicely made clothes.
Regarding Vegan products. Such BS… There was plastic bags & shoes back then, but all of my shoes & bags from the high street were leather. There was great jewellery & swimwear, nightwear as well. What’s on offer now just isn’t comparable. I do like &Other Stories, and a few others. But the price, for what you get? Costs much more to get good stuff now.

i remember the joke 20 years ago talking about vegan shoes, just buy plastic shoes from woolies

I've never ever bought polyester tops and never will

I would buy viscose but you could definitely buy cotton in mid range shops such as Principals, Laura Ashley, etc

It tends to be mixed with modal now sometimes

When I was a child I used to cry as my mother wouldn't let me have plastic sandals.

M & S have been guilty of overdosing on polyester for a while, i cant stand it, they tried to convince me in the shop recently that a lot of things contain polyester, why dont they listen to the polyester haters?

What I like about M and S bras are that once you know your size then you can pick up any of their styles and it will fit.

I remember as a vegan teenager, fake leather not being easily available for school shoes. Leather was definitely the default.

I bought a couple of dresses from Karen Millen recently, both polyester, and was pleasantly surprised that the quality of the construction hasn't declined. They are properly lined and have details like piping and reinforcing of the button plackets, and seem sturdy and not in danger of falling apart. I know not everyone likes the KM style (I am that person who loves balloon sleeves) but I was really glad to see they haven't gone downhill in quality terms.

It very much comes across as jumping on the vegan bandwagon, doesn't it.

Which German company is it that you ordered from?

@Howmanyroses - Ulla Popken. Tracking says my package will be delivered on Monday so I've set my expectations to 'its all going back'!

I once ordered a top with looked beautiful on the Taking Shape website (described as overlay style with a fine cotton lace overlay) but when I tried it on both husband and I decided it looked like I was wearing a giant doiley! The lace was very stiff, thick and not at all like the picture. Gave me a good laugh before it went back... That's another gripe - inaccurate descriptions!

Completely agree with this. Good quality clothings still exists but is generally much harder to find and tends to be a much higher price point especially if you want something that is a non-manmade fabric. This video explains really well how to judge quality of clothes and what things to look out for - of course this means that you likely have to be much more discerning about what you buy and spend more time researching clothes, but it's a worthy trade off in my opinion: