Jaeger at M & S

Thanks everyone for your comments and some very good suggestions.

I expect they are fine if you can walk into the shop and try things on there lulu - but it was really frustrating at the time!

O’h dear NotSpaghetti as you say a very bad experience.

4allweknow - I don't think they've changed the composition of the clothing - after all wool is still wool and linen, linen - they never were "standard".

With linen, for example, years ago it would be predominantly be European which is usually coarser but stronger. Higher quality linen is still corser and stronger with more irregularities.

Irish linen (which we might have known many years ago) is barely grown now - most "Irish linen" is still good quality though because the flax is grown in Belgium (where much of the best linen comes from). True Belgian linen is also processed there where the conditions are perfect - Ireland processes Belgian flax into Irish linen.

Flax processed in China (say) is a different beast altogether!

It's now quite a bit about provenance.
M&S need bulk and cheap.
I can't see them paying the premium for Belgian linen.

I'm afraid we probably get what we pay for.

...now that almost everyone can afford cashmere it can't be the same.

Yes, M & S bought the brand ( but not the shops) for £6 million in 2020.

Usedtobeblonde

I wasn’t aware that M&S had taken over the brand.
I thought they were just acting as “middlemen “ in the way that Next and Debenhams do.
M&S sell many different brands on their website.
Jaeger always stood out as a quality if higher priced company.

Same here, I didn't think they had actually taken over the brand.

Even high end brands have changed the composition of materials used in clothing and I feel that is where the poorer quality comes in now. Wool, silk, cotton, linen used to be the standard. Now everything seems to be made of a mixture including manmade fibres. Sadly, the prices havent reduced.

I bought a tweed suit from Jaeger, in Princes Street Edinburgh, when I was a teenager in the early sixties. I was a mod. And this was part of a mod look. I wore a pastel coloured, round necked thin woolen sweater underneath it. My father was pleased because it was a "good " suit. For his generation having smart clothes for best was important to show you were doing well and were respectable in the thirties when there was unemployment and destitution for many working people. It was one of the most expensive items I ever bought..I have a photo of myself in it and it makes me feel happy to remember it. Unfortunately for my Dad, I went to University adopted the hippie look of rebellious middle class youth of the period and never wore "smart" clothes again.

Unfortunately we had a really bad customer service experience with House of Bruar who sent my husband the wrong item 18 months ago. It was a pair of dress shoes for a wedding and they sent the wrong size. He was told to return them and as he wanted the right size quickly was advised to just buy another pair and they would refund - so he did.
The second pair arrived the wrong size too.
They wouldn't send a new pair out without this 2nd pair going back to them and wouldn't even cover the expidited postage (but would "look at it" once they had the 2nd pair back).

Their shoe turn around was very slow but they wouldn't do a next day delivery for some reason... they said to order a 3rd pair and they would "sort out" the credit for the second. At (I think) £230 each and now getting too close to the date we bought elsewhere.

A month later we still hadn't had the refund for the second pair. We had to chase them.
I wouldn't shop there again.

We should be able to rely on the quality of reputable brands but things have changed over the years. Companies have struggled to keep costs down and may have compromised on fabric quality or used lower cost manufacturing.
Of course you should take this up with M and S so that they’re aware but the fault lies with Jaeger.

I have three of the old Jaeger striped tops that will never wear out. I buy from House of Bruar, online, although washing lambswool and getting a good result can be difficult. Two of my longest lasting jumpers have never been near a sheep and came from Primark

Whitewavemark2

Jaeger went into liquidation quite a few years ago now. It was then bought out by Edinburgh Woollen Mills and became very mediocre.

It was then into liquidation again and bought out by M&S who appear to be trying to revive the original brand, but it lacks the style and quality.

Yes. We had a Jaegar store at a local discount shopping centre. I bought the odd item there, but didn't consider it any different from the other stores there selling clothes at a discount.

Grannycool52

Thank you everyone. I agree that even the 'good' brands can sometimes vary in quality and I'm glad some of you have had better experiences than mine.
I just thought that my experience typified what has happened to Mark's in recent years.
Isn't it difficult to find decent quality knitwear these days?

Have a look at The White Company or Mint Velvet, their knitwear is really good, slightly more expensive but worth it.

I have been using EBay to buy vintage jumpers by Country Casuals and dresses by Max Studio. A recent shopping trip to a large M&S was a real eye opener- I thought the clothes were expensive but their Italian coffee is delicious.

Thank you everyone. I agree that even the 'good' brands can sometimes vary in quality and I'm glad some of you have had better experiences than mine.
I just thought that my experience typified what has happened to Mark's in recent years.
Isn't it difficult to find decent quality knitwear these days?

I used to buy some of the excellent M&S cashmere jumpers years ago, before I had a moth problem! The last time I looked at them in M&S they were very, very thin. You could see your underwear through quite a few of them,

I bought a simple silk Jaeger dress there for my neice's wedding and found it cleaned very well. I hope that your jumper didn't say dry clean only, that really annoys me but can obviously be used as a get-out if anything happens.

jude2006 it was binned.

I didn’t realise M&S had taken over the Jäeger brand- rather than just selling it. M&S will usually refund if an item is faulty or doesn’t wash as it should.

Please take it back Grannycool52.
I have just taken back some of there black magic jeans, which even after one wash were not black anymore and the material was awful.
The manager was very good about it and they refunded the cost back to me.

I’ve had a couple of Jaeger items since M&S took over the name, and both are very well made - a casual jacket, and a long boiled wool cardigan which is beautiful, and unusually not itchy - I’m not keen on wool normally for that reason.

I do think the quality of knitwear has deteriorated in the vast majority of brands over the last few years though, there’s too much polyester, acrylic etc, which looks shabby very quickly. I now usually bite the financial bullet and pay for White Company cotton or cotton blend ones.

I have quite a few original Jaeger pieces, that are beautifully cut and of wonderful quality. Will last me for ever I think.

Jaeger went into liquidation quite a few years ago now. It was then bought out by Edinburgh Woollen Mills and became very mediocre.

It was then into liquidation again and bought out by M&S who appear to be trying to revive the original brand, but it lacks the style and quality.

I used to visit the Jaeger factory shop and bought some beautiful items there.
I still have some lovely stretchy cashmer skirts that I wore for work, and a fabulous silk blouse.

I got the skirts out recently but I know in my heart they won't fit me again so they are in the "charity bag" waiting for me to fill it.
🙁

I bought an expensive coat ( well for me anyway) Joules. It is all shiney and horrible now.
Partner bought a jacket from Gant, again all patchy and tatty looking.

It's so disappointing.