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.

I used to love All Saints in the days when their clothes were really distinctive, when they had a kind of shabby, gothic edge and odd bits draping and dangling. I've still got lots of their older stuff.

Nowadays their clothes are almost all completely dull and not distinctive in any way.

I did see a yellow dress I liked earlier in the year but it was £175! Sod that!

Also agree on Sweaty Betty. The quality and patterns have nosedived.

However, I have fallen back in love with River Island! After years of hiatus, I’ve found tonnes of stuff I’ve loved and wear in the past year.

@JustLookingThanks

I buy lambswool jumpers from Mars Knitwear ( or occasionally Eribe but Mars is much cheaper). Cotton t-shirts from Community Clothing. Cotton vests from Rapanui. Silk shirts from Joseph. Cord trousers from Palava. All other trousers from Margaret Howell. I still have a few things from Cos - I like their poplin. I have also given up on Toast.

I am in search of jeans.

Olover Bonas was my go to for a few ywars for decent summer clothes - skirts and dresses in linen mix matetial and interesting prints and decent qualityt t shirts with interesting detail.

This year I am not sure what has happened - it's all droopy, frumpy dresses in plasticky material, trousers that a Playschool presenter would consider a bit too wacky and those fucking awful boxy t shirts with fruit or fish and twee french or Italian slogans that make you look like a quirky eighties nan on cruise.

Boden. They keep spamming me after I bought 2 or 3 things. I never knowingly signed up to be on their mailing list. Now I’m regularly bombarded with catalogues, emails and texts. So I’ve made the decision never to buy anything from them again.

I just will not wear plastic clothes they are so horrible and I sweat to death in them.

They make me smell like bins!

I now buy nearly all my clothes from Nobody's Child!

So often the fabric is cotton or a high ratio cotton blend. Not everything, but I'm not constantly disappointed when I look at the composition.

The price matches the product.

I'm 39 and it's the perfect 'everyday' shop for me.

French Connection was absolutely brilliant 20 years ago. So stylish, clothes were a bit different without being weird, everything good quality. I don’t know what happened to it over the years but it’s non descript now and I’d never think to shop there any more, whereas it used to be my go to shop for investment pieces.

Next was also good quality and stylish once upon a time. But it’s been full of awful polyester shite for years and years now.

And like a lot of other people, I mourn the Body Shop of the 90s.

I buy so little now. The last thing I bought was a summer dress from Sainsbury's. The quality seems to bad everywhere now, so I just got it as cheaply as possible, as I needed it for work.

I never got into lululemon and Sweaty Betty tbh but I feel they are slowly dying. There is a Sweaty Betty in my high street and it is always empty now. The shop floor looks very '2020' with all those printed leggings people used to wear everyday. I think theyre on their way out which i am not especially sad about. The price they charged in their heyday for a pair of leggings which probably cost them pennies to produce was criminal.

I heard something recently which was that if you ever have a brand you used to love and which has gone rapidly downhill, there is a good chance that is because the finance bros have got involved. I will try to repeat what I heard but I am SO not a finance person so excuse the terminology! They apparently invest heavily in popular brands (makes sense). Then they use their influence to get the brands to churn out more and more products with high price tags and lower production costs. So that's why sometimes your favourite brand starts going downhill in terms of quality but the prices go up and up. They destroy the brand, squeeze as much money as they can out of it and then move on to the next one (apparently)

Oh, and Boden. 15 years ago it was incredible quality and everything lasted forever so I didn’t mind paying more. Now it’s terrible quality for the same price.

Me too
Also White Stuff

I think it’s as much me as them. I like much plainer clothes than I used to.

Whistles in the early 2000s
French Connection in the 90s

Both of these shops sold really good, slightly edgy basics.

But it’s not just these shops that have changed. Really fast fashion has had an impact on style and fashion generally. If you look at say Easy Living or Red magazine from the 90s/early 2000s, the clothes are quite classic , elegant …

Now these type of mags feature clothes that are so vastly different issue to issue that there is no considered ‘look’.

Shops are reacting to this.

We also need to consider how we have changed . Boden was great for the ‘mummy’ phase but as soon as you grow out of that , it tended to look hideous. Same with white stuff. It’s also about our stages in life

It’s currently relaunching in the UK so maybe it will have gone back to first principles? Here’s hoping!

Yes Boots is terrible, shelves empty, grumpy staff, especially at the Pharmacy.
M&S clothes are awful and the models are dressed in the worst of them.

Loads mentioned on here. French connection And Boden especially.

the Boden catalogue still comes and the prices are just preposterous.

I would in the past have bought a cashmere jumper from there for my mum for Christmas for example, for around £80-100. Now it’s about £140.

Used to be really good quality back in the 80s/90s - now just tat.

To be fair @localnotail Urban Outfitters is a teenager shop now.

Frame jeans still good IMO for the person looking for jeans.

Like Nobodys Child too.

agree with lots of the comments on the other brands - (except M&S which i think has improved recently). I had thought it was just me getting old and not liking anything!!

@AgentKim they have trouble keeping pharmacists in our area. A relative works for them and their branch is often staffed by locum pharmacists.

Laura Ashley in the 80’s. I miss their cotton skirts and lambswool jumpers and gorgeous blouses, all made in the Uk. I was a Laura Ashley girl!

Celtic &Co absolutely awful quality the last few years and things ive gotten have been returned. After the last thing, leather clogs that arrived so scratched up they looked like they'd survived a war i wont be buying anything from them again probably

M&S Food. We used to buy loads from there but over the past year so many of their recipes have been changed to the point some food is inedible. I used to love their veggie lasagne and it was 2 of your 5 a day. Now it’s a spinach smush with a very unpleasant taste. Their veggie pasta bake used to have lovely chunky veg in, now it’s just a sauce with tiny bits in. There’s so many other examples and it’s such a shame.

That definitely happened with Hush fairly recently.

This thread is such an indictment on modern shopping and modern life.

I agree with all of it. Next is especially appalling. Saw a nice looking basic top in M&S yesterday, looked at the care label and it was 60% acrylic. Acrylic!

There’s a YouTube channel called Her Highstreet Audit that points out enshittification on the high street. https://youtube.com/@herhighstreetaudit?si=tn5nD1ZtCGv6OBX

You really have to root around for nice garments. It would be lovely if retailers a) stopped focussing on quantity over quality and b) defined their brand.

H&M. £32 for a pack of children's knickers and a pack of socks inc. £4 delivery. I am just not paying that! H&M used to be great with quality : price ratio and now it's bad quality and way overpriced.

I was going to mention Community Clothing as well because of the natural fibres although I’ve never brought anything from them ( although I feel I should because ethics). I have bought a few pieces from Margaret Howells diffusion line MHL as they are natural fibres and very good construction ( French seams etc). The aesthetic is a bit utilitarian on its own for my taste but it is easy to mix with things from other brands. They are expensive but the clothes are practical for everyday which means I will wear them loads and the quality means they will last for years. So the skirt that cost me £200 will get worn 200 times I hope.
For jeans M&S probably is OK. Unlike the clothes I was discussing in my previous post, they are made in long production runs and rolled over into the next season so they can afford to use decent fabric and construction. Avoid the comfortable stretchy fabrics that go wrinkly and baggy after a while and stick with the ones with the high cotton %. My wide leg ones bought 2021 have been worn almost weekly and are still going strong.

M and S
But
White Stuff and Joules are rapidly improving