Price of clothes

[Suburbanqueen]

Is anyone else surprised by the money some Mumsnetters spend on an item of clothing as if it were a mere bagatelle?
I would never have dreamed of paying the ridiculous prices for things discussed on here sometimes. ( Even when I had money).
An example.....£125 for a bag for a teenage girl to use for school. If we all refused to pay for these things prices would have to fall.

I was just discussing with a friend recently how spending vast sums on clothing doesn't necessarily make a person look better dressed. I know many who only buy reasonably priced clothes and yet look a million dollars in them. It's knowing how to style and wear clothes which makes a person look good, not the price of the clothes.

Incidentally, there is a vast array of clothing in the middle of supermarket or Shein prices and high end prices, it doesn't have to be either or.

I have some nice 100% cotton bits from Sainsbury’s & they are good quality.

I actually think what tends to make someone look good in anything is them knowing what suits them & having good proportions in the first place, that helps massively.

I agree with this, but you need to have an eye for it, to spot the gems, know what to put them with, how to dress for your shape etc.

butI guess that’s very different to clothes cost and quality. Ultimately you can tell the difference between cheap clothing and more expensive stuff, it’s the material, the cut, the finish etc, I’m not talking about designer, but something from shein or the supermarket, v something from max Mara or me and em.

and so you should be able to. No one would buy it if you couldn’t. But that doesn’t mean you can’t look good in cheap clothes.

This!
I buy very few items of clothing new, but when I do I pay for higher quality. I also buy good quality brands on Vinted.

£125 for a decent bag is not excessive, as long as you can afford it. My most expensive bag cost me almost £400 in a sale, but it's now 8 years old and still looks as good as new.

People make choices about all sorts of things. For me, I prefer to buy good quality food and good quality clothes. We don't spend money on , for example, fancy cars - one of our cars is 19 years old, the other is 14 years old. Other people choose to spend money on expensive holidays, meals out, streaming services., new cars. That's up to them.

@AnnaQuayRules fabulous user name. I agree with you. Cost per wear is important too.

Some of the prices on here certainly surprise me - particularly for brands that are just a clone of what everyone else is wearing.

But then I spend more than some would too. I buy less things and keep them a long time. The oldest item of clothing I still wear was bought on sale in 2007 :-) I have staples that are ten plus years old. I don’t buy things that I can tell will be out of date soon.

You're good at knowing other women's minds aren't you? All those Toast wearers performatively buying ugly clothes and now me. No one buys clothes because they are ugly. I don't think Toast is ugly. I like their dresses. I don't buy them as the likes of Colenimo do it better and make their clothes in the UK.

Even when I was a size 6, tight fitting /bodycon/ show off your figure clothes didn't interest me. I'm a 14 now. My good points? Still alive, can easily do 10,000 steps, all my own teeth and hair Flaws? None. My body isn't flawed. If I like clothes , they're in my size and they fit, that's it. I have a couple of dresses which certainly don't hide I now have a tummy

There is a thread about swimsuits where posters are saying the OP should wear a smaller, high cut bikini bottom because it will make her legs look longer. I find that depressing.

To get back to the price of clothes, I think people underestimate how expensive clothes actually were in the days of say for example Jaeger when it was proper Jaeger made in the UK rather than the M&S pale imitation

Genuine question here as I'm curious: give the things you said aren't priorities for you, in what way do structure, fabric, drape and movement matter?

Well said Phaedra and Flo. I also love a second hand bargain. Southern of course there’s a middle ground between high end designer and Shein but people saying spending more than £30 on any single item is mad aren’t really talking about a middle ground. And that middle ground is getting harder to find. I always thought I could rely on Uniqlo but am finding I need to be more and more careful checking the fabric composition etc. I don’t feel that high end high street (Reiss etc) offer the quality they used to for the prices they charge. Shops like Me&Em used to fill that gap but prices have gone up without quality following. You can still get good quality on the high street but it’s so much harder to find these days.

OK I’m going to stick my neck out and say I do judge people on how they choose to spend their money - with the emphasise on ‘choose’. I judge someone with a £1500 a week cocaine habit. I judge someone who gets their nails done in a dodgy cash-only Vietnamese salon. I judge someone who buys factory farmed chicken unless absolutely on the breadline.
So sue me.

I don't really understand why they wouldn't matter. I started writing a reply but it got all a bit too me,me,me.

So have a look at these sites-Cabbages and Roses archive, Colenimo, Klements, Casey Casey, Palava, Sister Jane, Kindred of Ireland, Chandlers of North Berwick, (Instagram) Baum und Pferdgarten, CFCL, Dicks of Edinburgh, Frontiers Edinburgh, Max Mara, Batsheva, Egg, Oska - what they have in common are dramatic clothes - e.g long, full skirted and sweeping, intricately gathered and pleated, e. g, coats made with up to 7 metres of material, or extravagant sleeves, or complicated tailoring, mainly natural fabrics including interesting materials like typewriter cotton or "paper" cotton, which wears like silk taffetta, Palava's heritage wool knitwear, Palava's fairly conventional shapes but coupled with amazing patterns and colourways.

Max Mara? They are as tame as it gets.

And there’s more. Not being in possession of a husband I can’t be a Stepford wife - but I’ve often wanted to hold a party just to talk about seams with other people who are as obsessed with them as I am. There have been days when I’ve opened a parcel from say MSGM or Margaret Howell and barely been able to stop myself running out into the street to accost strangers and exclaim Look! Just look at the inside of this shirt. Look what they’ve done. Isn’t it magnificent? (Instead I used to FaceTime my DM so I could show her - and we’d go into ecstasies together over flat felled seams.)

There was a day I went into a shop to try on their coats - and stayed for nearly an hour deep in conversation over tweeds and their provenance - even though I came away without one.

I’m currently contemplating two bags, from two different sources - one purely for the stitching; one with a lining that has given me sleepless nights of contemplation.

I had a brief obsession with a brand whose clothes were so defiantly raggedy and unfinished they confused hotel receptionists- so I had to stop.

And increasingly as I get older and older, I’m motivated by how things feel, even more than how they look. Show me a pair of crunchy silk and wool culottes and I’m there - even though I know they won’t be outwardly ‘flattering’ and the price is terrifying.

Even though I’ve tried, I suspect I’ve failed to convey just how thrilling really well made clothes (and the odd accessory) can be - but that’s what I’m paying for.

The poster I replied to was asking why I value fabric, structure, drape, movement over "suits my body shape" . My Max Mara coats, especially an oversized, ankle length 101801 icon coat, easily meet all my criteria. And obviously worth a mention for the quality of the material given this is a thread about price.

According to several posters on a recent thread about long coats being 5"3" means I'm too short and the wrong body shape to wear the icon coat. Complete nonsense of course.

I used to spend a lot of money on clothes and bags but don’t bother now. Bring back the olden days when eg Next clothes were well made and I’d happily pay more for them.

Agree here. I’ve got a friend of family who’s loaded and likes designer and budget clothing. One much admired jacket she had on years ago was a mustard blazer from Primark.

I spent the 90s in outfits that were often a combination of Jil Sander and M&S. People (and yes, people did comment on my clothes) always assumed the M&S things (often from the men’s department) were from JS.

But I’m afraid if the Next things I wore in the late 80s cost their exact equivalent now, countless MN posters who rely on Next for cheapness and logistical convenience would cry out in fury and cease to shop there. I remember a pure wool Chanel-esque jacket that I bought for my first post graduation interview at a City law firm. Wore it relentlessly, but it was still in such excellent form a few years later I was able to lend it to someone else for their graduation ceremony. In terms of quality that sort of jacket would sell for about £300 now.

Betsy I remember a navy slip dress I loved in the 90s, from Next. I saved up for it and it was £75. Dresses from Next are frequently far cheaper than that 30 years later, though the quality is obviously nowhere near the same.

Madness, isn’t it?

I've seen 1980s Next tailoring in charity shops and thought it was designer.

And I still think about the M&S linen suit that I had to buy in two stages because I couldn't afford to buy both pieces together - and I had a reasonable job at the time. (I have a memory of them not accepting credit cards - is that correct?) It got culled in a house move and I still regret it.

I wouldn’t call Max Mara tame. Lots of interesting fabric combinations wool/linen knits; organza in blazers; fringed T-shirts; embroidered and printed canvas.

lots of pleating, pinching, quilting and panelling to add shape and drama - none of which is possible when trying to minimise fabric use.

This max Mara who are known to be very classic?

https://gb.maxmara.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GB_eng+%7C+LF+%7C+PER+%7C+GOO+%7C+SEA+%7C+Brand_Esatta&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=16410626534&gbraid=0AAAAAoWHctGeHwRZG-6qF6XjzlFhoVzSF&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz4LY29jWkwMVLJJQBh2i4gVUEAAYASAAEgIPJ_D_BwE

You're missing the point. The point is whether Max Mara uses interesting structures, fabric, complicated tailoring, draping, how does the garment move when the wearer moves.

Here's 2 examples - it's the swoosh factor, the shape, colour and fabric of these I like and the detail on the blue one-the princess seams and the side ties. I couldn't care less about do they suit my body type/will they "flatter me"

Max Mara 1

Max Mara 2

Clothes can be classic and interesting. I lean quite classic, not super preppy and I love a lot of max mara clothing. I admire other designers (kindred of Ireland for example) but find they lean a bit too decorative for me on the whole. I don’t wear a lot of pattern so generally want to find interest through shape. This for example [[https://ie.maxmara.com/p-1191036206006-mxmabete-caramel?_gl=17tlagp_upMQ.._gsMQ..&gbraid=0AAAAADp8s96od3Q0NdyOlxv9S1tveZuGz%5D%5D&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI19vmtOLWkwMVTJNQBh26Ji7VEAAYASAFEgKSJvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds ie.maxmara.com/p-1191036206006-mxmabete-caramel?_gl=17tlagp*_upMQ.._gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI19vmtOLWkwMVTJNQBh26Ji7VEAAYASAFEgKSJvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&gbraid=0AAAAADp8s96od3Q0NdyOlxv9S1tveZuGz]] is really interesting (though sadly I dislike the colour!).

You’re missing point if you think classic cannot be well structured and interesting.

here I’m some pics from the current collection - I don’t think any of it is particularly “tame” and the collection is full of beautifully cut, interesting fabrics that have been well constructed