Who actually wears Cabbagees & Roses?

[PaeoniaPlease]

*please excuse the typo in the title!

Newbie here. I'm from the US but love British style and follow British fashion and culture. There's one question to which I can't seem to find the answer - who is actually wearing Cabbages & Roses clothing?

I've really loved Cabbages & Roses lately, but few in the US seems to even be aware of this brand. I know it's a very small brand. I'm also aware that it is not "in style" or even very practical. It would be considered really "out-there" in the US.

My question is - is this brand something that is actually worn by British women? If so, who is actually wearing this brand? Is it 25 year old "Fashionistas", "Cottage Core" girls, the so-called "Turnip Toffs?"
Rich middle aged women? Younger girls with good jobs and large available balances on their credit cards? Mom types?

Have you ever seen someone wearing one of their signature flowy/billowy dresses in public? What type of person were they? How would you describe them?

Thank you for any insight!

It's a particular look, isn't it? Not my look as I hate acres of fabric- my current bugbear with fashion- but other people feel good in them. I like that black and white dress in theory, though it wouldn't be for me in practice. Bust lines finishing above the waist seem to be a thing these days. No idea why.

There used to be a little corner of C&R in my large local Jigsaw. I loved to go in and see the amazing fabrics. Too £££ for me at the time, but I'm persuaded to have another look.

(Chuckling at the PP who said the clothes look thick and sweaty. Just what you might need on a Highland sheep farm!)

If they came in a size I could wear and at a price I could pay, I would be all over their coats and jackets. I think they are stunning.

The brocade coats are beautiful. I'm now looking wistfully at the final reductions, especially the tartan flannel skirt that's all sold out, and wondering how it would have looked with my jacket. I didn't go near their sales this year as I knew I couldn't afford it.

There are lots of brands I just don't understand

Lucy and Yak. Literally the ugliest clothes I've ever seen. Everyone looks like a preschool entertainer

Irregular choice shoes. Above preschool entertainer's choice of footwear on a night out
They are so weirdly proportioned.

I don't like them all either but I'm still glad they exist.

Edmontina Don is the ideal client for Cabbages and Roses.
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/style_and_beauty/4281220-If-Monty-Don-was-a-woman

Ha that thread is probably how I first heard about them! Although now @thedevilinablackdress has mentioned it, I think I remember seeing them in Jigsaw too in days of yore.

I am spending today thinking about this

https://www.cabbagesandroses.com/products/viola-dress-in-c-r-earl-printed-on-cotton-cord

😍

I just checked out their website. These two particularly amused me. Both in the sale, so hurry!

very oldfashioned and expensive

Brilliant post!
I admire your tenacity. 😀

Id never heard of them before (but I love the name!).
It looks like the kind of thing a quirky fashion student might wear.....but they couldnt afford it anyways so would probably thrift the look!LOL😁

@LemonJuiceFromConcentrate Thank you for explaining. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure it was complimentary, the farm is obviously a business but I haven’t worked for an organisation since 1995 (and even then it was just the Droopy and Brown shop in York) so I’d never heard those words!

Noooooooo!

You worked at Droopy & Brown?

Your life has truly been one of unreasonable good fortune, @OooScotland !

I love every single sentence of this post. You should enter it into a short story competition.

They’re obviously branching out into prison uniforms and pyjamas

@BlossomBlossomBlossom

Yes, I was in the accounts department. It was just me and the accounts manager Amanda, above the shop on Stonegate. I think its a branch of Toast now! from leaving St Johns College in 1995 until Angela Holmes’ death fIve years later, she was only 50 and not many people knew she was ill.

After Jonathan (Holmes) took over there were big changes and an immediate shake up, everyone was at sea and I left very soon after as I’d met DH by then and we were moving away.

It was a very sad decline for the shop. I believe that the Amanda I worked with and another one of the managers eventually tried to revive the shop as a bespoke dressmaking service or something, but I was much younger than them and didn’t socialise so I don’t know how that went.

I never got to wear anything from the shop and am still sad about the Edwardian riding suit! Wish I’d kept some of the marketing material that was sent out to clients - The collection photos were sent out as packs of postcards with a description of the clothes that looked like a French menu!

It was a different world. So many changes. Seems like a dream now.

That pink and red padded suit is a shocker. And I say that as a superfan.

I would wear their dresses! Someone mentioned Helena Bonham Carter upthread; I'm the same heigh and build (and have the same unruly dark hair), and 34 y/o - would love to wear stuff like that. Bank account says no, though.

The collection photos were sent out as packs of postcards with a description of the clothes

I remember those!

I happened to be in Bath recently (for the first time in decades) and, lovely as it all was, I perceived a definite hole in my day, where an hour trying stuff on in D&P ought to have been. I used to sweep around my rural domain in one of their long grey flannel skirts and a big Tattersall blouse. Thinking back, people must have been astonished. (No one had heard of Bridgerton in the 90s.)

But I was young with oodles of swagger back then. If I tried a Cabbages and Roses wardrobe now it would look like cosplay - with shades of stealing from my mistress’s wardrobe - which isn’t quite the vibe I’m after.

I only ever had one Droopy and Brown item- a very Edwardian blouse. I couldn't afford it when they had a shop in Edinburgh. Cabbages and Roses, even in its maddest form, is probably more wearable on a day to day basis than Droopy and Brown.

I've been prompted to buy this which I've had my eyes on for a while. I will wear that to the office.

Cabbages and Roses brocade dress

Oh my, you wore D&B when you were young! That must have been fun. I’d have killed just to be able to nip downstairs and try something on back then. Sadly the owners and shop staff were very strict and I was kept in my place upstairs with Angela’s Irish Waterhounds under my desk to make sure I didn’t misbehave 🫤

This is not specifically in reply to you but for all those scoffing at what’s on the website now, not all C&R is OTT. I wear a lot of plain trousers, skirts and jumpers and most of the blouses are pretty normal if a bit twee. Out of my 12 dresses and four coats most of them are pretty wearable too if you don’t mind the odd double take. I have three or four of the extremely silly dresses that I haven’t worked up to yet, but never say never…

Nice choice! I’ve not got anything from this collection.

I agree, Droopy and Brown daywear was indeed more extreme than C&R. So beautiful though, and so dated now! It made up a relatively small part of the business. At Stonegate they did sell quite a bit to American tourists and sometimes a large order of daywear would be sent out to Castle Howard and other big houses. Bridal and bespoke occasion wear was a very busy area.

The Edwardian riding suit in cream wool will haunt me forever. I used to dream about getting married in it. Sadly it was not to be.

The mention of Droopy and Brown has just bought so many memories flooding back! We used to peer through the window as children and I always imagined that it would be the place I went to for a wedding dress (cos I was going to marry Mr Darcy, of course!).