Have you fallen out of “love” with a shop you previously loved?

[Britpopbaby]

For me it’s &Other Stories. Granted I looked in yesterday and did try something in but there’s been a change of direction and Inam not liking it.

Does anyone remember Apartment?

Another shop was Etam - some rubbish but they sold a lot of cotton separates and nice skirt/top combinations. BHS too had some good clothes - nice suits for the office and lovely cotton summer clothes. Where have they all gone??

H&M was so cool 25 years ago and you could find all sorts of gorgeous pieces that had throwback boho elegance.

Now? I’ve never seen such creased clothes anywhere else. They look like they’ve been rolled up and stood on. Nothing much stands out. The odd jewel.

I am having such nostalgia. I want to go back either to my childhood, walking around the hideous Arndale Centre whilst buying clothes of questionable taste from Mark One and then some shoes to match from Dolcis, and then going to Affleck’s Palace to try and pretend I was cooler than I was. Or go back to my university days in London in the 90s where we would walk to the big Topshop and spend hours there buying party clothes. Sigh! Oxford Street now with its multiple American sweet shops and vape shops doesn’t have quite the same appeal.

Does anyone remember the original Next Directories? These books were such quality, they were amazing! Their dresses were to die for, they really were a cut above what else was on offer at the time. Next also did jewellery when they first started too and it was fabulous stuff, truly fabulous.

If I'd known what the quality of clothing was going to be like 30 years later, I'd have made sure to keep my entire early Next wardrobe. They were classics that would have stood the test of time.

Also, M&S original Autograph, not the cheap crap they peddle now. I had leather skirts and suede jackets from that range, all absolute quality.

I ordered a load of Roman dresses recently for holidays. They looked lovely on the site (with their AI models 🙄) but on me they just looked frumpy and not quite right. I suspect my figure is the problem - size 20 and booby - but I just looked wrong in everything. In contrast, I bought a couple of dresses from FatFace and one from Oliver Bonas which I love.

£90 22 years ago was a lot of money!

I agree about & Other Stories. I’ve been in a few times recently and not seen anything I would buy. Clothes are unimaginative and I always thought their bags were great but I’ve not seen anything I’ve loved. And the shop was empty.

A few people have mentioned Tu being great and I second that. Their jeans are great and I had a black linen shirt dress from there last year that I’ve worn to death. There’s a lot of crap there too but for cotton dresses and jeans they are brilliant.

Are you serious?

The pattern is woven into the fabric. You can see when you look at the wrong side.

With a printed fabric, the pattern is printed on, just like when you use a potato to make potato prints. I've kept it simple so that a 5 year old can understand..

@WhatARequest Me too on the nostalgia front. I've just been remembering wandering around Chelsea Girl welling up because Gloria Estefan's 'can't stay away from you' came on and I'd just been dumped. No amount of clothes were going to cheer me up that day 😂😂😂

This thread is truly depressing. What most of the brands that are being commented negatively on have in common is private equity deals that cream off all the profit, squeeze quality and then eventually collapse. LK Bennett and Russell & Bromley being two recent examples of what were very good high street retailers going bust after the vultures feasted on the carcass

DD works as a textile technologist and has moved out of clothing into homeware as a lot of fashion chains are making their tech teams redundant to cut costs after being taken over by private equity. This means there's little to no quality checking going on. She says you can spot when the tech teams have been let go as the sizing and fabric quality is the first to go. Interestingly, Sainsburys Tu still have a full team of techs.

I've just realised that I've three pairs of next high waisted thick cotton jeans I think in green, navy and black, buttoned not zips at the back of a wardrobe. Theyre pretty ancient now but so flattering. Haven't seen the light of day for many a year.

I suppose I ought to dig them out.

I do! I think you had to pay for them.....£2.00, perhaps?
Worth it.
I remember when they started selling home and garden items, including beautiful rose plants.

This is part of the problem; people are becoming less discerning, less knowledgable about how clothes should be made, what quality looks and feels like, so manufacturers and retailers can get away with peddling trash.

That doesn't surprise me. Until recently, I wouldn't even consider supermarkets for clothing, but I've bought three pairs of baggy cotton trousers; they look like Toast, same quality, tenth of the price. Just not photographed/styled well.
I used to love Toast, now it's badly made in China, cheap fabric, poor finish.

That's interesting we've a family member who did a degree in fashion and marketing. She says it's all about the home. She went to a presentation in London the other week of home accessories B&M. Autumn and winter home ware. It's all about the home and keeping chickens on a bit of land now. A sort of mini Yellowstone.

Sweaty Betty - quality has gone downhill, still overpriced but constantly on some sort of sale. The leggings I bought years ago are holding up better than recent buys. And now, inexplicably, they’re selling blouses and shirts?.

Joules - quality poor, don’t sell the fluffy boot slippers I used to buy every year anymore and so many stripes…

M&S food - went off their clothes and home years ago, but their food now isn’t what it was, still expensive but not as reliable.

Hard disagree. Sorry.

I don't think all of Toast is - I've bought a couple of great dresses & a skirt recently, on eBay/Vinted, that are from the last couple of years at most. They're very well-made & the fabric is really lovely.

The comment about fabric technologists being employed less - & that they are still used at Tu - is interesting though.

Was that where you bought your trousers, & do you have a link?

Hoss Intropia is back in the market, with corners at Cortefiel stores and a few standalone stores, all in Spain.
However, it is even blander than the last seasons before they closed operations. For me the best of Hoss was when they were still Homeless and Hoss, when the chief designer was the lady behind the costumes at the Royal Theatre in Madrid and fabrics were absolutely gorgeous, with plenty of embroidery and detail. This would have been the late 90s and up to 2010… I still wear skirts and tops from this era.
Anyway, the “new” Hoss Intropia still has a few nice tops and dresses, very well cut jeans, and they do very good sales.

I had an amazing cardi from Next in the 80’s. It was thick cotton , patterned and cropped. I loved it and felt like Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan!

Lush was always quite pricey but it’s eye wateringly expensive now. Something like £9 for the smallest showergel.

I could never even walk past a Lush shop, let alone enter one, without feeling nauseous & my head instantly starting to throb! I always cross the street ...

I was once given some of their products as a present - I knew that the gift was something from there before I unwrapped it. After my friend left I had to go & stash it all in a sealed tub in a hallway cupboard, then take it to a charity shop the very next day ...

I can be a bit sensitive to other perfumes/smells - but Lush is a whole other level!!!

Yes I used to love White stuff about 15 years ago but stopped like it after about five.