2020 Fashion on the Ration Challenge

thriftwizard

Noooo! The best-laid plans... DS2 & his fiancee have had to cancel the trip to France to celebrate their wedding: too many potential pitfalls. They're still getting married in September, but it's got to be a small DiY reception, provided they can have one at all. So the secondhand dress I'd found, suitable for the South of France, isn't going to be warm enough, really... I trotted round a couple of local charity shops today, hoping to find something a little bit glamorous, but you can't try stuff on any longer... 

I ended up buying two dresses and a smart jacket, with my fingers crossed. One dress and the jacket will end up on Ebay straight away! The second dress fits well & looks nice, but just is't mother-of-the-bridegroom; a pleasant summery dress, that's all. I'll keep & wear it, but it won't "do". And it all just goes to show how odd sizings are now; the dress that fits well is a 16, the one that looks tight, in a very similar style, is an 18! The jacket's also a 16 and too tight across the back & shoulders, never mind my somewhat overblown front, and the arms were clearly designed for someone of 6'6". A 30-second try-on & I'd never have wasted my money. But then, I would never want to pass anything nasty onto anyone...

I wish I felt that my sewing skills were up to doing a smart dress & jacket...

maddiemay

thriftwizard -Sorry about the wedding plans. Good luck in finding something to wear.  I have now made my first forays in a few CS, thought to myself that I must measure the waist and boobage of a few garment that fit well and put my trusty tape measure into bag or pocket. I like wearing a plain skirt or trousers and a stripe/breton top. Tu and a few people do some nice ones that are not as expensive as Boden etc, my oh my how the sizing varies, don't mind a snugger fit under a cardi/jacket, but less  so when not needing warm layers.
I have totted up my Uniglow spends and now have 24 points left for the year (fingers crossed smiley).

PipneyJane

@diminua - Yes.  Not having to commute on the Tube is a nice side-effect of Lockdown.  The sub-surface lines are their own circle of Hell in summer.  Current restrictions - mask wearing, etc - will have made them feel even hotter and more stuffy.  Did your makeup survive the masked trip in to the office or did most of it come off on your mask?  (Masks are the reason most nurses don’t wear make-up.)

@maddiemay - I like your logic.  It’s true; if I had been a smoker, I’d have smoked that £1,600 within a year and nothing to show for it except impending COPD.

@Baileys_Babe.  Yes, agreed.  Also, there is one accidental benefit of Lockdown:   We aren’t travelling, so there’s no temptation to “pop into that yarn shop near...” (say) “...the Place de la Bastille because we’re in Paris” (enter town of choice).   (Yes, I have been known to do that, complete with a rehearsed “Hi, I bought this from you 3 years ago/online.  Do you have any more?”)

@Cherryfudge - fingers and toes crossed re the colour match.

@thriftwizard - It’s frustrating that you had the perfect dress but British weather is so unreliable that you can’t wear rely on it for the wedding.

I hear you regarding sizing.  You may remember that I wore a pair of jeans to death a couple of years ago with the fabric dissolving over my thighs?  I bought those MrT’s in Dunfermline.  When I got back to London, I was so pleased with them that I bought an identical looking pair from a local branch, without trying them on.  Same size, or so I thought.  No.  Much tighter.  The equivalent of a size 10 vs a size 14.

- Pip

[Deleted User]

It's a bit of a lottery buying two pairs of the same size and style of jeans that sat beside each other on the rack in the shop in the same colour.  The sizing seems to be completely random and one fits perfectly while the other one is tight.  There seems to be no standard size in any given size these days (does that make sense) that you can rely on without actually trying garments on and now you can't even do that can you? The postal and courier services must be getting rich on the back of the number of returns being made.  Used to be a time when you could go to M&S and buy your size in anything they had on the shop floor and know it would 'fit' even if it didn't look nice when you got it on but no longer can you guarantee it will fit even in the size above can you?

Baileys_Babe

I made the mistake in M&S about a year ago of trying on something in one colour on the way to the till I picked up a second one, same size (supposedly), same style, different colour. Tried it on when I got home, it was in reality 2 sizes different from the 1st item. Quality control has been forgotten, one of the reasons I shopped at M&S was I found it quick and easy as their sizes were consistent. 

Laura_Elsewhere

Yes, with M&S in the trouble they're in, we can only hope that the various analysis articles I've read all saying the same thing will finally be listened to - ie that in their frantic efforts to appeal to everyone of all ages they are losing their core customer base of people who don't want fast throwaway fashion but want classic staples that are a reliable sizing range, and last reasonably and fit well! 
Our M&S is next to Primark and I always think they should each embrace their totally different target audiences! 

@thriftwizard how frustrating! But still, better safe than sorry, and France's cases are going up at present, by more than 50% in a week, as are England's, so best just have a Zoom party with everyone dressed to the nines! 
Can you do a shawl for adding warmth to the dress? Not an old-lady one but I suppose I mean a wrap or throw or pashmina type thing? Find some glittery fabric online and order enough to make a shape that you can throw and drape round your shoulders in an interesting way, and then just sit and pull threads off the edges to make a fringe. I did that in an emergency-formal-ball situation (!) and my trusty "horse-blanket" of fine black woven cloth is still going thirty years later, worn for a multitude of things - but also I have (somewhere, wish I could find it) a piece of metallic sea-green brocade, almost weightless, with green metallic fringes on two opposing sides and black on the other two - iirc it was 1 metre of 110cm fabric so I just trimmed off the selvedges and pulled the fringes - it isn't quite square but that doesn't matter. Mostly I wear it folded to a triangle with the two points offset showing the shimmering underside on one whcih looks quite nice...

PipneyJane

Baileys_Babe said:

I made the mistake in M&S about a year ago of trying on something in one colour on the way to the till I picked up a second one, same size (supposedly), same style, different colour. Tried it on when I got home, it was in reality 2 sizes different from the 1st item. Quality control has been forgotten, one of the reasons I shopped at M&S was I found it quick and easy as their sizes were consistent. 

How can you control for quality when things are made in multiple sweatshops abroad?  I think that is part of the problem.  It’s too expensive to maintain meaningful quality control, when it’s all manufactured abroad.  M&S have lost their way in multiple ways - they haven’t paid any attention to their traditional target market for years - but they’re chasing fashion instead and they want it cheap.

Cheap and well made do not (usually) come together.  One of the reasons I started doing this Challenge was to ensure that I when I bought clothes, I spent my money wisely.  Nothing is more expensive than the item of clothing you purchase which doesn’t fit properly/doesn’t look right and never gets worn.

- Pip

Baileys_Babe

PipneyJane said:

How can you control for quality when things are made in multiple sweatshops abroad?  I think that is part of the problem.  It’s too expensive to maintain meaningful quality control, when it’s all manufactured abroad.  M&S have lost their way in multiple ways - they haven’t paid any attention to their traditional target market for years - but they’re chasing fashion instead and they want it cheap.

This is one of the areas M&S need to change. STOP using sweatshops, they are cheapening the brand both in quality but also ethically.

Laura_Elsewhere

Wasn't one of their older slogans about "British-made"? Back in the 50s or maybe even the 1940s when clothing was rationed?

Gosh, with our modern habits, how on earth *would* we, as a society, manage if clothing were actually rationed now?

joedenise

Maybe it's something which ought to be brought back to stop the throwaway fashions the younger generation seem to favour.  My clothes all seem to last for years and I don't spend a fortune on them.  I've only bought some bras and a couple of vest tops this year.  Everything else I've had for 4-5 years or even longer!  I'm still wearing a pair of cord trousers which I bought from M&S about 10 years ago, although they now have a small hole just below the waistband which I'm planning on trying to patch.