Seriously, where are all the mid-range clothes at?

[Raisedbed]

Looking to boost my autumn/winter wardrobe a bit with some smart casual knitwear. Need natural fibres, so high % of wool and cotton. No acrylic SHEIN shite, and no £300 Jigsaw jumpers either.

Does what I'm looking for exist for around £50-£60 an item? I'd like it to last, and have found some nice bits in & Other Stories and French Connection before, but they're a bit bland and colourless I find. I love bright block colours and classic slim fit stuff, so find the trendier shops pretty hopeless.

It’s a feminist issue.

@MidnightMeltdown It's not necessarily a question of not wanting to pay for quality. I'm following this thread because, for environmental reasons, I no longer buy clothes containing oil-derived fibres (except technical sportswear and the 1-2% elastane that's almost impossible to avoid in some items) but I simply can't afford to pay the prices of brands like Community Clothing.

I usually have to wait for knitwear to go on sale, even with the likes of Bruar and Woolovers. I didn't buy anything last year because I couldn't find anything I liked at a price I could afford. This winter I'll probably have to. If I can buy the wool for less than Woolovers prices I might download a pattern and pick up a pair of knitting needles for the first time since I was a teenager.

It's a struggle to afford to have principles (I'd prefer not to buy Chinese-made woollen knitwear, but at a certain point I have to be pragmatic), so it would be nice if people with more money could avoid making assumptions when someone asks for help finding natural fibres within her budget.

I buy Cashmere for that amount.
Almost exclusively from Tk Maxx. Plus occasionally new M&S pieces from eBay. I did also buy an Alpaca mix jumper from Primark last year that's very slightly itchy but bearable over a T ( with wool) and a pure Alpaca jumper from Karen by Simonson at Tk's. My final buy was a beautiful heavy brushed cashmere cardigan in the Jaeger sale at M&S.
You just have to keep an eye out for excellent purchases.
The new M&S Alpaca mix jumpers are in that price range & feel thick & look lovely on, but unfortunately are terribly itchy & just unwearable.

Rapanui

Alpaca should be easy to wear it’s very soft. Must be all the other crap they put in.

I'm thinking of buying this from Next - Laura Ashley Mole Cable Knit Cardigan
https://www.next.co.uk/style/SU731891/W46743 I bought this recently, it’s only a tiny bit wool but I can’t wear wool, so that’s fine. It looks great with my barrel leg jeans or wide leg trousers. It feels really good quality and a little timeless.

@DaphneduM do you know the brand of the reversible coats? They sound great!

Oil derived fibres are less polluting to the planet than cotton.

uniqlo?

For cashmere, Nearly New Cashmere is my go to. They sell second hand cashmere at £40-65 a jumper in an absolute rainbow of colours. Really good quality, everything carefully washed, debobbled and carefully folded so it looks like new. It’s good for the planet as second hand, cashmere so natural fibre and makes beautiful jumpers affordable. https://www.nearlynewcashmere.co.uk

£50-£60 won’t get you what you are looking for tbh,

bit higher like Sezane , Rosaè , Damson Madder, Soeur, sessùn.

Yes but I think that you have to be realistic. OP has turned her nose at some of the cheaper suggestions but the reality is that if you want quality, you either need to pay for it, buy second hand, or wait for sales and choose from what’s available. There isn’t a magic solution to this.

OP is asking for ‘mid range’ but mid range is Jigsaw, COS, Reiss etc which she says is too expensive. The cheaper end would be New Look, M&S, H&M etc, which tends to be lower quality, and high end would be designer which is well out of price range.

Damson Madder

The issue with the brands listed is that they are not “just a bit more” - those brands are really expensive. Sessun is a good example - their prices have really shot up in recent years. Same with Soeur. A jumper is £200 to £300. That’s really not affordable for most people and I am not sure about the quality.

sezane is a bit cheaper. have a handful of items from Sezane although not any knitwear.

Hush, Uniqlo, H&M

I think the secret is to buy some timeless pieces that are very good quality, in a style you like and will age well. And then add it more of the high street priced pieces for fast fashion. And then basics you buy from wherever is cheapest that you can get away with. Tu does a good vest top, matalan can be good for the off pair of jeans. I have pink trainers from George as I doubt I’ll want to wear them for more than one summer and then I’ll pop them on vinted or to charity.

Basically, slowly build a decent capsule wardrobe and then add in some high street pieces to update it each season. You can look on vinted for the capsule pieces, might take a while but you can usually find the right pieces with some patience.

Spending £500 on a Belstaff jacket will probably give you 10 to 15 years of use, that makes it pretty good value. I’ve got a fat face waxed jacket in a classic style that I’ve had a good few years and probably cost under £150 and I’ll keep wearing till it falls apart. I also bought a long black puffer jacket at tu for £30 which looked horrid after a season and went to charity and never kept me warm!

if you really like cashmere or merino you’ll keep it for years.

This works right up until your 4 year old smears your timeless piece with jam.

The thing is that brands like Hush & Sezane are often not brilliant quality or natural fabrics for items like knitwear. I want pure cashmere or Alpaca with no wool or lycra in my knitwear. The same with cotton t shirts. I hate the fact that everything has Lycra added, as I really dislike the feel of it. I don't mind wearing the occasional pair of satin trousers in polyester on my bottom half or a Uniqlo padded puffertech vest but that's as far as wearing synthetic fabrics go. I even wear pure cotton muslin pjs in bed.

Muji is good for pure cotton basics & simple wool jumpers. Last year I bought some pure cotton scoop neck t shirts that were infinitely better than the Uniqlo heatech which make me feel hot & bothered with all the lycra & synthetic material added.

I've got my beady eye on Seasalt's Carn Gloose men's jersey. Lovely block colours. Waiting for it to be reduced a bit.

@Cantonet I also increasingly avoid synthetic fabrics if at all possible, but 100% wool knitwear is my go-to - I'm not sure I could afford to eliminate wool from my options without having to turn to synthetics. Are you allergic to wool, or is there another reason you're avoiding it?

Currently wearing this from Zara which is in the shops at the moment - 100% wool for £35.99.

Have you looked on ASOS. They have a huge range of styles and brands so if you filter to style, size, colour etc you should find something you like. Otherwise my go to's are Cos, Zara, French Connection, Mango, Sezane, Monki and H&M

I never find anything l like on ASOS. You can’t filter by fabric which is crazy.

3000 long sleeve t shirts to root through to find a cotton one.

Agree that ASOS is annoyingly hard to filter. I’ve got some pieces I really like, but it’s an oversight not to allow searching based on material.

Yes @Xiaoxiong i'm allergic to wool & lycra makes my skin crawl & I've always cut the labels out of clothes .Weird I know .... I also react to lots of skin products & get lots of irritable/eczema skin rashes. 2 of my kids react the same way.