Seasalt? Yay or nay?

[TheAmusedQuail]

Since I now work exclusively from home, I've gradually drifted (plummeted) from smart work dress everyday to living in leggings.

I'm not ancient, but not a bright young thing either.

I've been looking for some dresses that are comfy for daily wear but also look a bit nicer than the leggings sweater combo I've sunk into.

I've come across Seasalt and have seen a few dresses on there that I like BUT I'm worried they're a bit grannyish. I genuinely can't tell what's OK anymore.

Are Seasalt generally for the older woman? I'd shop elsewhere if the stuff was in my price bracket, but Next et al don't have a lot that I've liked recently.

@TheAmusedQuail I'm 60 and still struggling to accept my age and that I can't wear stuff I could 10-15 years ago. However, I happened to spot a Seasalt jumper on M&S last week and it was sold out so I went to their site and they had every size and colour. Lovely jumper, so I bought two and looked at the rest of the site in case there was anything else, but it all looked too frumpy for 60yo me.

Here's the jumper. www.seasaltcornwall.com/dawson-pick-merino-knitted-jumper

The OP is in her forties. A woman in her eighties can look beautiful and stylish and au courant - but can we please stop with the "you must hate older people" when someone just actually wants to look, and be perceived by other as, her own bloody age?

Reminds me of the time a friend (early sixties) to told me (late forties) that you can't really tell a woman's age between forty and seventy. Effing rude, although I understand why she wanted to tell herself and me that.

And a weird neck and dry clean only. I wouldn’t want to pay £189

@suburburban yep I think that’s genuinely not nice!! Don’t care whether it’s trendy or a ‘good brand’ or not -

Im 63 but I like to look well turned out and don't feel old by any means. I try and dress in the latest styles but keep my arms and not so attractive parts covered up.
I love Seasalt for classic pieces but not all of it. I love their knitwear and some of their separates. I avoid the linen because it makes older people look like crumpled potato sacks and I like to look put together.
I avoid their more garish patterns but I have a bluebell dress I absolutely love.
If I could afford it I'd buy all of their autumn knitwear.

I’m 63 and I like to look well turned out

FTFY …

Great. Now I'm a crumpled potato sack as well as being grannyish, old ladyish and frumpy 🤔 I wear linen trousers and pinafore dresses year round. I'm 61. Clearly I am not "put together" or as "well turned out" as I imagined 😳

I love my pinafore dress but it is from White stuff (oh the shame) 😂

I bought these trousers in navy last year and have worn them loads. They are described as moleskin, but they are corduroy.

https://www.seasaltcornwall.com/crackington-twill-moleskin-trousers

Their trousers never work for me but I like that short quilted jacket and the jumper / tank top.

I love threads like these because my mother (pushing 70, grandmother to 5) has for my entire life worn almost entirely black, and has long dyed jet black straight hair.

So the concept of what a granny would wear is, to my children, basically Morticia Addams.

Wonderful. She sounds amazing ❤

Hi! Do their knitwear age well? I bought quite a few for the holidays but only wore one twice and the sleeves are covered in piling. I’m spooked and considering returning all the rest. Shame because I thought I had found a high quality knitwear brand and now I’m unsure. Thanks!

I think of Seasalt knitwear as middling quality @LuxInvitaMinerva but also inconsistent. So I'm not shocked to hear that unfortunately, although I think you've been a bit unlucky. What was it made from?

Nay. Frumpy just like Toast, Boden and that Yak brand who do awful dungarees.

i have news for you: if you’re wearing leggings, jeans, designer, vintage or charity shop, Uniqlo, Next, Beckham or indeed any clothes, you’ll look like one or more of us grannies who are doing school pick-ups.

Oh dear. What CAN we wear?

Seeing as some are so critical of SeaSalt, White Stuff, Boden, Next and M&S that will leave us all shopping at either Primark or Gucci/Chanel 😂

At ReignOfError school you it would need to be your birthday suit. Maybe just embrace the granny vibe?

OP, I am middle-aged (52) and I do like a lot of Seasalt. Whenever I go into one, I'm surrounded by women who are OLDER than me, which should tell you something. But I'm hearing the criticism of the dresses. Most of them are pretty frumpy. For their tunics, they use really undrapey, stiff fabrics like cord, which stick out oddly, or very thick jersey. The necklines can be odd and too high. They insist on unfaltering waistlines, so though I do have some Seasalt dresses mine tend to be either straight down a-line, or tea dress style.

I like their Fruity jumpers though (they do pill like a bastard, you have to be on top of that) and some of the cardigans. I've never once found any of their trousers do anything at all for me. The socks and accessories are nice - their wool crepe scarves are lovely and make a nice 'shape'. I have a lot of their cotton Sailor Squares (cute hankies basically) which I never use because what the hell do I do with them?? And I live in their View Point cotton poplin pyjamas - they are the only nightwear that keep me relatively night sweat-free these days.

Yeah for work wear, smart enough so you don’t get the “we didn’t wear jeans in my day” look from an older volunteer, but comfortable and can be layered for year round wear. There’s others than make similar too, I’m not brand loyal. It isn’t for cutting edge fashionistas but for us lowly normal people it works for me at least.

Their jersey tops are useful especially ribbed ones plus the larissa shirts

also like the cardigans

some of the dresses are too high on waist and not keen on some of their prints

also like their hats and socks

Whatever the fuck you want, frankly! My point is how stupid the daft ageism on MN about some mythical older cohort who all dress exactly the same is.

I’m disappointed that two lovely soft, mostly wool, warm roll neck jumpers I have, piled and one shrank after a hand wash which pissed me off. They weren’t cheap but I bought in a sale. I think the piling was due to mixing fibres. I have pure wool jumpers (vintage) which don’t pile. I will never be able to wash the second jumper so have to air it after wearing it or just clean any odour off carefully without immersing in water.

Incidentally, I ordered quite a few of the dresses in the sales. I really really wanted to like them because some of the colours are lovely. But they aged me.

I liked the prints of the ones I ordered. But they didn't suit me. The colours themselves were fine, really nice. The shape of the dresses was bad though. The waists were about 2 inches too low. The gather of the skirt into the waist wasn't enough. And the cut of the skirt wasn't good either, a bit bulbous. The fabric itself, despite being listed as jersey was weirdly stiff (it might have been dressing, which would have washed out). In the past I've done a lot of sewing, and had I made any one of those dresses, I would have picked the seams apart and remade it.

I think it's a great shame. The ingredients are all good. I think the designers need to rethink. I can't be the only one who would love to indulge in a few pieces. I'm probably in their target market. But they're missing the mark.