We don't run on this high street; we run this high street

[maj]

styling is a bit fruity from a quick overview, nice pieces tho and the prices are tasty, outwear specifically. almost like a uk jcrew.

[ramseames]

Infinity scarf + olive fishtail with pleather sleeves + midwash jawnz tucked into socks + wheat timbs

[ramseames]

H&M sports collection is fucking great, shows how good their designers are. Other than standard hit and miss loose stitching and stuff its much better than the pricing suggests. Hardshell looks exactly like a veilance, cut is great. just water resistant poly but that's what you get for $80 msrp. they also had this pair of pants I can't find on their site, but they were olive cargos with a blueish grey small box ripstop fabric around the crotch/seat area, and a plastic clip buckle as an integrated belt. So cool.

Didn't buy anything though.

[Bobbin.Threadbare]

Reckon we'll see all retailers paying close attention to sportswear in the coming months.

[odradek]

that duffel bag looks great, though

[rublev]

I'm a big fan of COS. The oversized textured melange knit from this season is the best thing i've bought it a while.

I quite like Uniqlo for some things, especially cheap roll necks. They went a bit crazy with fleece this season and i picked up the mock neck heattech fleece tops in about 6 colours.

[maj]

this fred x raf on sale is rich pickings, plenty of unique design and the quality is great for 50% off.fit is fantastic.

[bels]

Weekday is a bit interesting. Any further comments on it rublev?

[rublev]

Weekday is a weird one. It's run / owned by the same people as Cheap Monday, and are now all under the H&M umbrella (along with COS of course). The Weekday store stocks in house stuff, but also Lemaire and Hraun (Cedric Jacquemyn, an Antwerp Academy graduate). So that is quite cool.

The clothes themselves... I think i've made maybe 4 orders from Weekday and 3 of them all went straight back - every piece. I bought a few things from the recent sale i'm still deciding on. Prices are quite similar to COS but the quality and construction is not as good. Everything looked better online than IRL. I wouldn't say much of it was worth it RRP. Weekday have two lines - mtwtfss Weekday and mtwtfss Collection - the latter being the slightly more expensive and marketed as more 'grown up' side of the brand. They also have this guest brand called 1440 which seems kinda sporty / Russian suburb type thing (last summer reminded me of a poor man's Gosha Rubchinskiy) but that's a bit hit and miss as well. I know a Scandi girl who is into COS etc, and she has also commented on being a bit disappointed with her Weekday orders, so i know it's not just me. Their collections are also quite small each season.

There was an oversized / closed placket felt'ish wool coat they released earlier in the season i would have liked to try, but most nice things tend to sell out quickly.



I guess it's cool they're trying to do something a bit different but in my honest opinion i'm not convinced it's working that well.

[maj]

got some new cos gear,

funnel neck track top is something i've wanted for a while but didn't really want a branded one so when it went on sale this is perfect. build wise it has an ok zip and the material is p heavyweight with a boxy cut, the best part is it has a series of vent holes under the arm pits which is pretty cool as it's a nice detail a lot of lower end garms ignore. for £30 absolute steal.

2nd item is some contrast collar thin sweater type thing which in reality works as a sort of tshirt with some texture, nice build and stuff and looks great layered over some polos so very happy for £17 or so.

http://www.cosstores.com/gb/Shop/Men/Sa ... .1#c-22755

http://www.cosstores.com/gb/Shop/Men/Sa ... .1#c-22755

currently styling said pieces with a green faf polo, black jawns, stan smiths and a goggle jacket and it's looking gravy 8)

[prawnzee]

new cos magazine came out, read it online here

[wiggly--woo]

had a walk around the bull ring (big shopping centre) last week just for something to do, and because I hadn't been in any high-street shops for quite a long time.

went into cos for the first time in a while and remembered how 3/4 of the entire store was womens and all of it looked great, but the mens was largely dull and all shoved in a tiny corner - they did have quite a few pieces I liked though (as always tbf). selfridges and other department stores were mostly full of crap. i was quite impressed with topman though, and whilst there weren't many individual pieces that I liked, much of the styling/overall aesthetic was better than i expected. h+m was dissapointing, and river island was just plain awful. urban outfitters looked like the kind of place where brands go to die and seemed to be popular with the jdsports and usc crowd. gap was boring as hell, and primark was just as dirty as usual, and i queued for like half an hour just to buy some underwear. almost everything in tk maxx was polo ralph lauren for some reason.

allsaints was looking good though (and always does imo) but they seriously need to sort their pricing out. felt up and tried on a bunch of stuff in there, and then did the same with similar items in topman, and i just don't understand why they value their stuff at 4 or 5 times the price of topman stuff. it's nicer but it's not anywhere near as good as the price would suggest. madness.

[bels]

All Saints is basically a veblen good I reckon. Like Reiss. Shit clothes marketed as expensive clothes to people who don't know any better.

[rublev]

I'm getting so annoyed at the backwardness of mens high street fashion. It appears to be uncompromising in it's NECESSITY to remain traditional and ordinary and unimaginative. I thought for a few weeks last season that COS might be coming through for me but it feels like they sold out to the money man and are back to rolling out standard fit cashmere knits and straight fitting trousers. The best two pieces in the lookbook never even made it to production.

How cool are these Topshop trousers?



Sometimes i wish i was a girl :(((

[Syeknom]

Every time I go in COS I get so psyched looking at women's wear with their fancy shapes and textures, then deflate as soon as I step into a world of grey merino jumpers, slim-fit shirts with shit collars and basic slim trew.

[IsaiahSchafer]

@bela, I actually like a lot of AllSaints styling. Moreso their women's line though. My girl really wants one of their leather dresses. What do you recommend as alternatives? (For both men and women)

[bels]

All saints ain't that bad style wise. It's all knock offs but so is COS. I just feel all saints has an offensive price point.

The paucity of men's high Street fashion is a constant issue. I don't know that it will ever change until men start to change. However don't we often say the same thing about run way collections etc? that the women's is better than the men's?

[wiggly--woo]

i think its fair to say that there are two sides of the coin with allsaints. on the plus side it has good styling, better quality than topman et al, and the relative exclusivity that cmes with the higher price (if you buy something from topman you're going to see plenty of other people wearing the same thing, much less likely with allsaints). on the negative side, speaking from more of a rational economic view, the quality doesn't quite match up to what people expect at price level.

generally speaking, i do like allsaints, i just think you've got to be careful which of their pieces you buy, and which pieces you buy from somewhere else.

[rublev]

Found my way to the Zara website and was pleasantly surprised. Looks like they're at least trying to do something a bit different?

Anyone handled their stuff IRL? Is it a bit shit or what? Get what you pay for or worse?






Damir creeper lookalike for £60?

Tempted to get a few things to see what they're like.

[hooplah]

agreed. i buy a sizable amount of zara, but pretty much all basics because everything that looks remotely good is a blatant knockoff (last season they may as well have called themselves Céline 2.0). Their basics do not last very long. I have a couple linen tanks and shirts that are on their last legs. I bought a pair of chelsea boots for cheap and the heel tip completely fell off the shoe.

[nick]

so zara quality is the actualization of people's perceptions of H&M quality?

[rublev]

....what's H&M quality?

[smiles]

The fabrics at zara make me shed a tear

[IsaiahSchafer]

@smiles, because they're so good or so bad? Guessing it's bad, but for the price, I dunno. Never handled any of their stuff myself.

@everyone, are their any lines/brands/etc that are more along the lines of allsaints styling but mall-tier prices? Or at least priced more appropriately for the quality. I'm not ready to step into the RO-tier prices. Something like "Babby's First Avant Garde"

[smiles]

In a bad way. Very much like actual plastic.

Your best bet is silent dd. not the most avantgarde but if you can get at least a nice outer layer you'll be 80% there.

Also kka/attachment can be had for pennies on rakuten (pants for like 50 bucks). Check out the store kind-u on rak. Honestly ordering from rakuten is only slightly more of a hassle than from a regular store. The only factor is it takes about three extras days in the beginning of the process.

[bels]

Zara look books always look good but once you step into the store it's a different matter.

[iamacyborg]

Starting a new job on Monday, which means I have to overhaul my wardrobe to get a bunch of smart casual stuff. Not stuff I'm used to wearing, really, so I don't have much of it.

Anyway, this meant a shopping trip, mostly around the huge Westfield in Sheps Bush. Checked out all of Topman's suiting and shirting - it looked and fitted like shit. Same story with H&M and Zara. Everything in COS is too big so that was a no-go.

Checked out Suit Supply while I was there but the selection of size 34 suits was pretty limited, and they were too long. They suggested MTM (which I've done before, and it's great, but I don't have 6 weeks to kill) which didn't help much.

Got myself in order earlier today and strolled down to Selfridges, checked out the "upper" high street brands. In terms of quality, design and fit, they're way beyond any of the previously mentioned brands (other than SS). I ended up spending a bunch of money at The Kooples getting a couple pairs of trousers and a matching suit jacket, and I'm now staring at a 9 item shopping cart on their webshop with their outlet sales. The "upper" high street brands might not represent particular value for money, but they're a definite step-up from the cheap HS brands, in terms of quality control, fit and design.

[Bobbin.Threadbare]

I bought a couple of suits at COS a few years ago and really liked them.

[bels]

My suit is jil sander but as I don't want people to think I'm too baller I say it's Cos

[rublev]

While i am unimpressed with the majority of COS men stuff i do think the suiting is quite good. There was a raw edged one last season that was really cool. And a fuzzy grey one from winter i think, very nice. I don't wear a suit though 'cos i'm a bum.