Does anybody else get disappointed when a brand they like ends up in M&S?

[Spiracles]

M&S seems to be gobbling up everything.

Kitri, Albaray, Never Fully Dressed, Nobody's Child, Chinti and Parker...

I'm not even including Baukjen and Hush. Although obvs the next one would be ME+EM.

I find some brands I like, doing interesting stuff, then they end up on M&S 😥

I so miss BHS for bedding and lighting

But they aren't 'special' they're multi million pound business's with share holders who want their nice fat dividend once a year. They need to flog as much stuff to as many people as they possibly can. They don't see their customers as 'yooonique' we're all just cash cows who like to think we're on trend or whatever. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.

It annoys me the other way around - I want more M&S stuff and not the brands! I always filter them out on the website. If I want to buy from them I’d just go to them…

I don’t get why it annoys you though, is that you don’t see M&S as trendy so you don’t want the brand associated?

It’s silly not to want your fave brand to be well-known because that’s a sure fire way for them to collapse and not produce your fave clothes anymore!!

Do you genuinely not understand that different brands make different styles of clothes, @Lastfroginthebox?

I shop all over the place (99% online) but am always looking for a certain degree of specificity and a particular level of quality. What I like doesn’t appeal to everyone (see my many years of S&B posts, under many names, generally widely derided). The purpose of M&S is to appeal to as wide a range of people as possible; to be accessible - so it’s diametrically opposite to what I want in my wardrobe.

I’m always torn about stuff like this. I love having things that no one else has, that said I always worry the brand will go under as if I’m their sole customer 🤣

for example my staple and favourite perfume went “viral” and I was gutted. It’s been my scent since it was exclusive to one store years ago. Now I can’t enter a bar without both men and women wearing it!

there’s a website online that do the most fabulous and unique clothes. Really special. They have sooo many pieces and they’re made to order I wonder how they’re still going but I never want to share it 🤣

I'm snuggled under a BHS duvet cover as we speak, lovely thick pure cotton chambray. I miss their bedding and their towels were good too.

But they’re still high street clothes so other people will also be wearing those brands? 🤔

If you really want something different or unique, you have to design and make it yourself. It’s not that difficult and with the price of those RTW garments, it’s still reasonably affordable to buy the fabric and make your own clothes, plus they’ll fit you better too.

My M&S doesn't stock small sizes in anything. It's frustrating.

Agree. It’s why I write Marks instead.

Why?

I don't understand this mindset.

My nearest large M & S is a pretty good one and has a wide choice of their own brands as well as other brands. I really dislike online clothes shopping as I am very particular about the fit of clothing and like to see and feel before I buy. I refuse to wear ill fitting clothing and find that most stuff I have bought online has to go back.

I find them particularly good for jeans and underwear. I also don't feel the need to be "different", although as I am a different size and shape to most of my friends and family I don't wear the same clothes anyway.

As we no longer have BHS, Debenhams or John Lewis I am glad that M & S have picked up other brands that we don't have locally.
My current favourite clothes store is Uniqlo (which just goes to show how boring I am 😁)

This is my feeling about Tu online. Their actual own brand range has shrunk massively this year: instead there's lots of Sosandar and Finery which are rather different price-wise.

If you search only Tu stuff the results are much more limited than they used to be, when they were great for decently priced blouses and shirts. This Autumn what few there are all "western" collars and unflatteringly puffy shapes. What the hell's happened?

Plenty of places to buy clothes that few other people will have.

Look at small independent labels, buy abroad, get clothes made for you or make them yourself, buy vintage and second hand.

None of the brands you mentioned were exactly secret, and the tie up will help them survive and grow, so you should be happy about it.

Not you thinking Nobodies Child and Sezane are super exclusive niche brands lmao

Sorry judgebread, did you come here by accident? Tiktok is that away---->

This. Isn’t it better they’re still available? And haven’t gone bust with the loss of huge amounts of staff?

Yes, it's great that they're still available 👗👔
Yes, the brands have clearly decided that it suits them to be sold in Marks 💰
Yes, I'm still a bit disappointed 😆

Probably good for the brand as they have access to the wider public.
I would imagine it’s what the brand wants as they have come to a deal with m&s. I’d imagine they are less likely to drop off the market entirely with a huge backer like m&s.

Err Sezane does not have the same reach here as M&S, that’s the point.

Yeah but it's hardly dead niche and exclusive is it, you can just go buy it whenever you want like any other regular brand.

There are a group of people on here who seem to think that being able to afford Sezanne makes them somehow closer to the gods. I find it rather pathetic, to be honest.

Yes, that's how shopping works. You go and buy something. Glad we've got that cleared up!

I wouldn’t say it’s the same as any other regular brand here because it’s a not a UK brand. You can’t buy it wherever you want as there are only London shops.

As I said it is not the same as M&S…

They’re mainstream brands, not niche designer. I don’t really see the problem.

Im happy it opens up options to me that I can’t get locally. However some of these brands wouldn’t survive on their own anyway, Nobody’s Child is just this decades version of Oasis. Overpriced, mass produced and not worth the price tag.

God forbid that people from ‘the provinces’ might be able to access something. Outrageous!