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Discuss clothes that you can just walk into a shop and try on and then buy.

I've been liking Jigsaw lately. Lot of made in Portugal construction, and decent fabrics. Fit is sometimes off but the price is right (and it goes on sale).

Their menswear has only been going for a season or two I think.

They've opened up a Whistles in Cambridge. It's womenswear only but I get the feeling I'd like the menswear if they did some.

my COS wishlist is out of control

This post made me to look up Durham-area boutiques... .... interesting.

That said, I might visit

my mate dragged me into blue inc the other day, was awful in every way. it was like banter lad a/w 2009 yet people have been lapping it up.

then i get wind of my town announcing two new 'anchor' stores which are h&m and primark, h&m is awful but primark will be a goldmine for cheap undies, chinos i have from there back from 2010 were of remarkably good quality.

Think you're being overly harsh to h&m. Last time I was in there there was some nice stuff. Probably my favourite fast fashion store.

topman takes that crown for me, if you can sift through the shit the tees and jeans are not half bad. great spot for a cheapo pleb pleaser suit in the sales too.

h&m is like a stormtrooper on quality control and the fit is not slim enough for my emaciated body.

the h+m in soho is so over run and overstimulating, I don't have a ton of experience with their clothes but I get the impression that their low quality is over exaggerated -- I'm sure their shirting materials are crap but I've never had a garment just fall apart on me after a couple washes.

top man is over stimulating in the same way but I have so much respect for their design team. I love that I can go in there and find a givenchy knock off next to a pair of knockoff raf runners next to a balmah knockoff. and it's all knockoffs of current season stuff.

their shoe selection looks great on the displays. none in my size but last time I was in I found some nice brown wingtips on wedge sole, some lunargrand copies, and what looked to be a nice repro of w+h zip sneakers.

i know bela will share how hard it is to describe banter as the look isn't 'bad' it's just awful to us because of the people who wear it, but then they aren't even that bad either (bar a few.) easiest way to describe it tho is some du in his sisters jeans cuffed up his calf a pair of am90's and some tee with cuffed sleeves who bangs on about #liquidthurdays #vip.

share what you mean about topman ben, walked past the window in town and i was like 'shit they're those ol runners i wanted for £20' went inside to find some other laughable knockoffs. they had those lanvins a while ago, unreal.

I'm generally cruising for basics in h&m/topman/whoever and don't spend a lot of time on their knock offs. Though I dunno about fit/qual on h&m stuff last time I was in they had plenty textured tees/hoodies/sweats that looked alright. Their shirting materials are that really papery thin cotton which I assume is cheap but probably resembles more expensive shirting somehow.

ramseams I can't get hold of much internet stuff without catching a train to London even though I spend a lot of time in Birmingham which is England's second biggest city. That's mainly to do with the fact that most internet brands are US and US stuff is obviously never accessible in England.

There are stores in Cambridge that stock Acne, OL, Norse but I never go in there with the intention of actually buying any of it. Their buys are pretty small and pretty conservative and I also don't really want to buy anything from any of those brands.

Girlfriend bought €75's worth of tops at H&M today and was gobsmacked at how easy it was to shop there. Bit strange to have such a revelation only now!

I've plenty of H&M t-shirts that get regular wear. They're getting a bit mank now but are perfect for lazy days.

Here in Belgium we have a pretty cool chain called WE which do nice basics in decent quality. I've a chunky shawl neck cardigan from them that gets a lot of wear still, and a remarkably resilient overcoat.

Best high street shop here though is probably Filipa K - great shops and really nice stuff if priced well above high street prices.

I'd like this thread to be about stuff that's above "high street" pricing as well as h&m/topman et al. Hence my posts about Jigsaw (feels to me like a cheaper margaret howell) and COS (cheaper jil/raf whatever)

And yeah, the experience of going into h&m and trying something on and buying it is so incredibly easy it's kind of a nice change of pace after deliberating over £900 socks or whatever bullshit we do.

What's the quality like on Filipa? See it around here sometimes but not sure what to think. Worth the price?

Filipa is mostly not worth the retail price to me but on sale you ought to hit that, it's great stuff even if it isn't top tier quality. The designs are great, t-shirt cotton is nice, wools used on the jumpers ace etc. Shoes are a bit flimsy but again, great designs. They're a bit like an upmarket COS if that makes sense.

Wish we had COS in my town. The Antwerp one is the best I've visited; Brussels is tiny and weird and the London one was a bit sterile.

Regret not popping in to Jigsaw in london! "Cheaper margaret howell" are some magic words. Muji was lovely though, really sweet suff.

got my eye on

Really regretted not getting the hidden placket shacket (lol) that COS did last summer. Would have been very convenient piece of gear.

Looks nice though. Albam had a similar thing but with big chest pockets.

I really don't enjoy most high street brands. Unless it's scarce or collectable I can't seem to get into it these days. I make an exception for COS every now and again though, but I wouldn't consider them High Street - they had a towelling sweater a while back that I still regret passing up. Has anyone checked out '& Other Stories'? It sits between COS and H&M in the company in terms of price and quality.

Why wouldn't you consider COS high street? Their shop locations are always nestled in with other high street shops (In London it's on Regent Street, Brussels it's near Zara, River Island, Hugo Boss, etc) and they operate a fast-fashion business model of churning out goods cheaply and quickly with low overhead.

I've not heard of & Other Stores - google suggests they're women only? Where do they have shops?

Yeah, they may be on the high street but they're not 'high street'. You're right about location, but they don't have shops on every street possible, and I feel like their design direction is clear and less mainstream trend focused. They're not the bleeding edge, but they're not reactionary fashion either.

Yeah it's just womens, but I have high hopes they may sell mens at some point.

cos 44 is too small in the chest and cos 46 is too big in the shoulders :(

tried on a nice hidden placket overcoat deal.

I got all excited by & Other Stories but it looks like womenswear only to me too.

Womenswear rules the highstreet

That picture of Sutton at the top is so dreary.

went and tried on the shirt jacket above

it's more jacket than shirt, really puffy and unflattering and too warm to layer with dahn sahf. which is great because that meant i didn't buy it

off topic:
went into y-3 and was accosted by 4 SAs
went into yohji yamamoto and was roundly ignored

what did you think of y3? I was there and blown away by how they had models styled, and also the new dress shoes constructed on the qasa sole. and the women's platforms.

fucking sick, the store is a maze of black glass and vinyl and mirrors. love the colours this season, the fluorescent green and orange.
the shoes are really great in person
didn't stay all that long because i hate being the only person in a shop

Really like some of the y-3 stuff but I just never wear trainers. I had some of the white Warrior High boots but they were such a 'look'.

seeing all these birds about with these olive parkas with faux leather sleeves like a rick knock off in different colours, have a feeling this will be the topshop fishtail of 2013. not a bad jacket tbf, has a bit of originality about it.

girls who wear those are the ones who reblog 1000 pictures of cara delevigne

Its at the point now where you can look at a girl downtown and guess with like 90% accuracy if she has a tumblr or not and what will be on it.