I expect most companies will be doing this within the next year or so now the precedent has been set. Yes there are some serial returners out there but surely they’re just squeezing the consumer even more. Pees me off lol. Especially when some lower end retailers have the nerve to be charging £40+ for a poorly made polyester dress.
It’s the “high end” retailers that I find to be the most shocking.
You expect stuff from New Look or H&M to be a bit shit, to be a bit poorly made and have a large polyester count.
It’s more shocking to me when the likes of self portrait, massimo dutti, arket, Christopher Esber, Sandro etc etc - the mid to high end retailers, charge a hell of a lot for poorly constructed items made of polyester. They’re the real con artists. M&S are truly guilty of using their historical reputation for better quality clothing, while peddling fast fashion.
I buy a lot of vintage, and even compared to stuff from the early 2000s, the quality has just collectively gone downhill so much.
About 10 years ago, I was a poor student, but I really needed a good winter coat. I didn’t know much about fabrics back then and just assumed if a coat was a bit more expensive, it must be good. Back then, anything above £30 was expensive to me though.
I found this grey Topshop pea coat that I loved, and I think it was between £70-80.
That winter I remember going home and it started snowing, and my mum was a bit taken aback by my coat and how was I going to stay warm? It was then I noticed it was almost pure polyester and yep, not warm at all. I’d paid all I could manage to afford on basically a plastic coat.
The biggest shame to me was, the style of it was great. Went with everything, wasn’t a micro trend etc. I kept the coat for about 5 years and by that point, it had bobbled and the fabric had thinned out. It looked terrible.
For £70 I couldn’t ever have gotten pure wool and great construction but that coat has always stood out in my mind as one of the big red flags for Topshop’s quick descent into fast fashion and bad quality but for the same prices. I got a similar type coat from new look with similar quality as the Topshop one about a year later, but I paid less than half for it. Topshop had loads of great coats too over the years, but I think the inconsistency of the quality was when it’s descent into fast fashion, buying from lots of different factories etc really became apparent to me.
After a winter of freezing, i learned about the importance of high wool content in my early 20s. I bought a Windsmoor coat for £15 a couple of years ago from a charity shop online. It’s from the 90s/early 00s and I cannot stress just how incredible the quality is. It’s toasty, it’s cashmere and is just constructed beautifully. I’ve worn it a lot and it just hasn’t worn out the way the fast fashion coats I’ve bought in the past have.
. The line on ASOS just isn't the same
