I felt I had ‘missed the mark’ last year on holiday… what is this year's white linen shirt?

[Lessbest]

Last year I went on a Med beach/city holiday, spent time beforehand buying new clothes and thought I’d packed sensibly — light, natural colours & fabrics, tried to go for stylish but practical.

But the one thing everyone seemed to be wearing (but not ME!) was an oversized white linen shirt. It looked great on everyone, so relaxed and effortless, worked over swimsuits beside the pool, over shorts for shopping, tied loosely over a dress in the evening and was clearly the thing.

Off again soon and wondering — if you have been away recently, have you noticed what the current version of my ‘white linen shirt’ is?

Any particular item or look that was everywhere? Also curious what item of clothing people wish they’d packed but didn’t.

Thanks in advance — would love not to miss the mark again and I'm clearly not cool enough to be in the know! (My partner would also appreciate not spending our holiday trawling shops and markets for ‘a white linen shirt’).😘

I suppose it depends who you're a buyer for. Different shops, different vibes.

Well buying is the same job wherever. You want to maximise sales potential and minimise discounting. But some shops have a less trend focused customer & a narrower customer base. And actually shops now tend to have less of their own handwriting/signature style as they are all chasing the same £££ which is why I think you see more homogeneity.

I won't say where I currently work but I worked for Topshop for years. Demanding but amazing.

What are the most popular items you are seeing in your line?

When I go to Joe Brown's, it's very different to Whistles or Hobbs or Mango. I was assuming they had different buyers because the stock is very different.

When I go to Joe Brown's, it's very different to Whistles or Hobbs or Mango. I was assuming they had different buyers because the stock is very different.

I am not sure what you mean by the above?

Joe Browns would have a very different customer base to Mango. I wouldn't say Joe Browns is the shop for new trends.

I seem to have offended you for some reason & I am not sure why?

@onehorserace Very much still about trousers and wider shapes in general. Shorts have been very popular but across a variety of different styles paired with oversized shirts & tshirts. Very 90s focused still. Popular dress styles have had 90s slants too.
You always get a lift of "festival fashion" eg crotchet, fringing.

You haven't offended me. We're having a conversation about fashion, aren't we?
I've no idea where that came from!
If you're a buyer that's interesting, but surely there are different buyers for different kinds of shops? It's not exactly standard. That's just my point.

We're having a conversation about fashion, aren't we?

Are we? I'm not sure...

but surely there are different buyers for different kinds of shops?

Are you asking if buyer would be working in New Look, Hush, Whistles at the same time? Of course not but the job is still the same job, which is what I said.
It's a fairly small industry & cut throat so many will have worked as a buyer in a variety of shops. A lot of stock will also come from the same suppliers but you will tweak things to make it more appropriate for that particular shops customer.

However, some trends get adopted really quickly.

So which trends do you think have been adopted really quickly?

Well, @jaws33 , I thought we were chatting about style, so I've no idea what happened?
Great question, but I've got to go to work now, but will join the thread after I get home.
Enjoy!

It has always been and will always be white linen shirts. They've been the thing for decades, if not more! A no brainer.

I keep seeing gingham everywhere OP

The teenagers I know seems to be all about the ra-ra skirts and bare midriffs

Our core customer starts a bit older then teenagers, the 20 somethings are young to me 😆

@jaws33 is it a high street fashion chain you work for? I'm assuming so, as you were Topshop. Love all the buyers/ bestsellers stuff in fashion. I worked for Zara in store for a lot of years, it was always very interesting to the buyers team that no matter how popular current trends were country wide, they absolutely didn't hit in our behind the times city! But grey joggers for men, couldn't send us enough of them.

I absolutely wouldn't class Joe Browns as a fashion or trend led store. They have a definite alternative vibe, and aren't aiming at the mass markets- they stock very similar stuff, year on year. I would assume that they are very slow at reacting to trends.

The nicest cheese lost style stuff I had is from Gap- they call it gauze.
This is a link to some shorts

If I were looking to buy stuff for summer/ holidays now, that I wanted to feel might be a little bit ahead of the crowd, and should work for a few years, I would look at:
Length of skirts/ dresses- avoid midi. Go for at least lower calf length or a short dress
Tiers in skirts- avoid
Minimalist shapes and block colours, lots of straight/ a line dresses
Strappy tops with shoulders out/ interesting backs/ bare skin
Large but more minimal bags

If I wanted something that looked fairly fashionable right now but probably wouldn't hang about, maybe even not next year:
Printed co-ords
Large jewellery
Layered jewellery
Scarves as accessories
Massive oversized and graphic tshirts- I think they're on the way out
Bias cut satin skirts

@anon2022anon that made me laugh, grey joggers will never die!

Yes, I'm with a similar brand. At Topshop Zara was often the bane of our life, they had bigger buying power vs us so would often skip over us in the queue or drive our cost prices up. We would all rush to shop their new drops though!

Social media has changed things a bit in terms of trends, there can be quite a bit of over saturation and plenty of things never make the crossing from tictok to the average customer on the street. It's also quite homogeneous so I am always interested to read here who people are following for inspiration. For me once something is popular in M&S, the supermarkets etc it's gone mainstream.

@jaws33 Topshop was also a bit more expensive too, or at least more expensive than Zara at the time- seems strange now. We would be unpacking dresses at £25-35, when across the row Topshop was £40- £50 (prob 2007-2014 dates wise). It definitely meant that Zara used to be a bit more of a hit with the late 20s crowd locally at least.

Nothing really radical there then. Fairly bog standard.

Nothing really radical there then. Fairly bog standard.

Nothing is ever really radical particularly not when adopted by the majority. The main shift over the years has been to a looser silhouette.

@anon2022anon yes that's true. I have some
amazing classic pieces from the 00s particularly from the Boutique range. Lots of silk etc, the women who did that eventually ended up doing the in-house collection at Matches and some of those items were similar but £££

The main shift over the years has been to a looser silhouette.

I should have also added the shift to separates, particularly trousers away from denim & dresses.

To me, the main shift, particularly over the last 5 years, has been the lack of emphasis on sexuality in fashion.
I can see how the 90s styles have definitely been influencing the fashions, but 90s brings back memories of the super skinny, lots of really low rise bottoms along with cropped tops, everything was fitted, it all emphasised a lack of curves.
Now it's very rare that in fashion you see anything to emphasise curves. Yes, that's by looser silhouettes, but also the styles are less sexualised, they suit more shapes. Some of that is to do with brands trying to save money, easier to cut a box shape, no darts etc. but apart from that, I think fashion is reacting to the non- binary side of culture in lots of ways- the massive rise of unisex, and the body positivity culture.

It'll be interesting to see where this goes in the next 5 years, with changes in how trans people are accepted/ empowered, and with the rise of weight loss medication. I imagine that showing bodies will be fashionable again.

Interesting & I agree actually. Skinny was meant to be coming back in so as you say I wonder what will happen in a few years time.