What is up with M & S?

While I like the dresse's shown in the ad when lady meeting man for dinner specially the beige block dress HALF shown in the wardrobe where are the nice cut jean's that they used to do,you know the one's you could dress up or down depending on the occassion,how can I fit into hipster type cut jean's? not very well I can tell you,a few year's ago they did a classic cut trouser with just a bit of elastic at the side's which helped when you tended to put on a 1lb or two during the month but these have all disappeared.

M&S trouser lengths went haywire last year. Medium length were always just right for me but suddenly they were far too long. Short was still too short. However, medium navy ones I bought recently are again the right length. I really dont think my legs have changed length!

I just go there for bras too. I asked what had happened to their petite range and was told they are substituting a lot of it for larger sizes. Like you can't get larger sizes everywhere else!! It used to be the only place where I could find nicely fitted trousers in the right length, so it's back to the sewing machine for me. I used to be prepared to pay for their cashmere but no more, the colours are dismal.

My Mum worked for M & S in the 1960's when their proud boast was that about 95% of their goods What were British made. However, even their Autograph make-up is made in China. And although the prices are low, so is the overall quality. Bought a lovely pair of light linen trousers in July, fitted beautifully, couldn't believe my luck. One wash later, they're down round my ankles unless I use the tie belt supplied! Whatever happened to all their green credentials? What a lot of us want is a) good quality b) stylish without being too edgy c) at a price we can afford, but we don't expect rock bottom prices. Hang on, their new advertisement has just come on television - where do they hide these clothes?
I have managed to buy comfortable yet pretty nightwear from David Neiper, though it might be a little "prissy" for some of you gals out there! Was glad I had one of their little numbers with me when on holiday recently - one of the cleaning ladies liked to arrange it in pretty patterns on the bed!

Oh I love leggings. So comfortable. With a tunic to cover the tops of my thighs. Would like to find some mid-calf ones. In other colours than black.
Not sure who their demographic is...
But yes Granny23 sounds like a standard classic - others like you got there first.

All I wanted was a pair of straight leg dressy (i.e. NOT shiny polyester) black trousers with a small or no waist band. Tried 2 big M & S stores and eventually tracked down half a rail of exactly what I wanted but only in sizes 8 to 14 and 20 to 24. Obviously this style must be very popular with the 16/18 group so why were there not more pairs. There were racks and racks of huge variety of hipster jeans, leggings, jeggings, etc. but hardly any younger people shopping. I expect that trendy young things will not go looking for trousers in M& S - indeed would not be seen dead in there - so why are they so geared to that demographic?

I know I could have ordered on-line but I wanted the trousers for my few days away. Walked into local M & Co. and saw the exact trousers, short leg size 18, much cheaper, staring me in the face. I am wearing them now and think I will go back and buy a second pair to keep for 'good'.

It is indeed sad - particularly when you think that we were the generation that liberated ourselves fromt the dreadful 'girdles', corsets, etc our mothers' generation used to wear.

I looked at the ads on the website and agree townie. I don't think they are ironic. Only dinosaur man has a sense of humour. There is a whole industry out there trying to convince thin girls they need control knickers if they to get a second date. BIG SIGH EMOTICON

Can't agree that Per Una have better colours than rest of M and S, I'm afraid. For me, they are gennerally much too garish. Only Autograph seem to have the idea that subtle and understated is more stylish than throwing everything but the kitchen sink at an outfit.

Have now seen both ads. As a feminist (who also loves clothes) I just find them both so depressing in their assumptions about what women want. Could have been made made decades ago - or are they 'ironic'? (Doubt it).

And I didn't like most of the clothes - the pink dress the girl in the 'Date' one ends up in is downright tacky, IMO, despite the stylists' best efforts.

green I must say that I liked all the dress's shown in the advert but will they have them in stock when I go to the store is another story.

Saw the advert last night - crikey! If only I needed 'control knickers' that size!

They do have better colours than mainstream m and s don't they.

I have a wardrobe full of per una, I hasten to add that every garment was a gift and probably I would not have chosen them if I had shopped. The surprising thing is that most of them really do look quite nice on, but I do usually leave the necklaces off.

nice dinosaur. I would give that chap a job in customer service.

Annobel, its just so silly, as if they are on some automatic response which then of course sounds most insincere.

Lovely, kitty
Hilda - got news for you: Debenhams are doing it too - the girl at the checkout apologised for keeping me waiting when she hadn't!

This might make you all feel a bit better about M&S
www.loonyletters.com/ms-sandwiches/

Not sure if better or worse than all that irritating rubbish with twiggy and underwear that they have been doing in the last few years. I wonder if the ads actually work.
The other one with the younger woman who looks like her implants are much too big is even worse. Why would she want a second date with him? Or is it meant to be funny? Why on earth would that model be needing control knickers?

Townie............it certainly leaves a nasty taste......cliche ridden nonsense!

The shirt I put a link to on this thread looked horrible in the shop.

No - I've not seen it, townie. What's it like?

Have you seen their latest TV ad? Absolutely yuk, and quite insulting to older women, IMO.

Oh...........it took all my effort to contain myself yesterday.........popped into the M&S in Shrewsbury yesterday just to buy my daughter some nice knickers for once shes over the messy post baby stage. 'Sorry to keep you waiting' the girl chirpped....I had not been waiting a single diddy tiny insignificant nanomoment....had just walked straight up to the till. I do wish they would engage their brains or are they all drilled to within an inch of their lives to always say it?

I was a great M&S shopper until the fashion part was driven relentlessly down market and the manufacture changed from largely UK to third world sweat shops. In recent years I've gone in and found, bizarrely, that there was nothing there expensive enough for me.
Agree re Per Una (can't bear that dishscraper fabric they embellish so many clothes with). M&S has never been great on colour but used to be reliable for classics made of quality materials, but now generally seems to use cheap fabrics.
Having said that, I have actually bought three items there in the past month - a casual shirt (all cotton); a silk and cotton patterned top and a cheap short raincoat, so perhaps my tastes have changed or their stock has!

Just as well we don't all have the same tastes, but I must side with those who think Per Una truly awful and deplore the amount of floor space it takes up in M and S.

I've never understood who the 'brand' is are aimed at - I'm a baby-boomer, and neither I or my friends would wear it. The 'designers' apparently have no idea that less is often more when it comes to style and pile on the colours, decorations, frills, etc wildly. I'm afraid I find that stripe shirt on the link above an example of that - too bright, too much for me.

Autograph Weekend on the other hand I can't agree is 'old-ladyish' - though there are some dull pieces in that as in almost any fashion range. They are the only one of the M and S brands I still buy. The best of their stripy tunic dresses, for example, can look good at any age, dressed up or down with the right jeans (or leggings for those who like them), plus interesting shoes/ boots and accessories.