Decided to start buying UK clothes

In fact, the best bargains and quality items now come from charity shops, particularly the older items, all wool coats etc which you can have dry cleaned. In well off areas you can pick up some really nice things. I won’t name the place where I managed to buy a lovely stylish jacket for a fiver a couple of years ago, but it has a famous race course nearby.?

Turned out my wardrobes recently, being almost permantly in tier 3,does that to you. I had so many clothes I rarely wore, so I was left with the items that I do like and will wear, I had got used to buying something that caught my eye and being reasonably cheap had it. There were things test I had only witness once which is ridiculous. Now I ask myself will I get enough wear out of this, do I need it, leave it a few days and if I want the item go back to the shop and get it. My house was getting full of stuff that I just don't need. I look at labels with everything now and if it's not made in UK don't have it.

I checked every sentence as I typed and still words altered,,hope you got the meaning.

I just had a look at the Celtic and Co website. The clothes are beautiful but the prices are sky high. Not for me, I'm afraid, not even as a one off purchase which might last me for years.

This year I have been making my own clothes with fabric purchased from the internet - very 'Made in England'. I am quite pleased with the results but, of course, there is no telling where the fabric has come from.

Whitewavemark2 Fri 18-Dec-20 08:52:56

I can remember there was a patriotic call to buy British in the 60s because our economy was performing so badly against other economies. I wonder how it ended, allowing our economy to thrive and expand?

That's right, I remember that too. Did you watch Andrew Marr on BBC2? "Elizabethans." He explained how our economy went from manufacturing to a service industry.

travelsafar Fri 18-Dec-20 09:01:31

Maybe we should go back to the days of making our own clothes, knitting and sewing lol. We would probably take more care of items and keep them for longer if time, money and effort had gone into the making of them.

My wife has always done just that. It can still be expensive though. For example, she has made me a collection of Hawaiian shirts, each one needs three yards of fabric, then there's the notions, the paper pattern and the electricity. It takes her ten hours, start to finish, the costs quickly add up. But my shirts last and last.

You were missed Spangler! . We wondered where you were.

Marydoll

You were missed Spangler! . We wondered where you were.

Kind of you to say so, Marydoll. I made a regrettable mistake. Then I followed the deleted thread about men having their own forum. Some of the posts were a bit below the belt. It felt wise just to let things cool a little.

Remember ? will be watching you! ?

biba, I worked at Corah's during the golden M&S years. There had been huge rejoicing when we began to make exclusively for M&S but it was the beginning of the end for a company that had contributed hugely to the wealth and reputation of Leicester.

The recent abuse of workers (both male and female) in Leicester has been an open secret for ages and, ironically, lots of them are located in the rundown, almost derelict, Corah building.

Boo hoo, based in Leicester; they paid their employees below legal minimum wage and they had horrendous working conditions. But they were selling some of their clothing lines for just .06p very recently. The owners have repeatedly said that his company was “committed to making good” but at the same time stated "there was no wrongdoing on Boohoo’s behalf”. And now they've come under scrutiny, they're issuing warnings that they may take the company offshore; where there are less stringent laws for employees rights no doubt.
Any one who buys an item of clothing for 0.06p knows that someone, somewhere, has suffered to allow that to happen.

It's time to buy less, better quality and/or secondhand anyway. The days of cheap, throwaway fashion should be over and that will be less damaging to the environment.

Maybe we should go back to the days of making our own clothes, knitting and sewing lol. We would probably take more care of items and keep them for longer if time, money and effort had gone into the making of them.

It doesn't seem that long since we did that because clothes were relatively expensive then they became much more affordable when they were manufactured in the Far East in sometimes dubious conditions.

However - we'd have to check that everything we bought to make our own clothes was manufactured in the UK and I think we'd find much is not.

makeitbritish.co.uk/about-make-it-british/
makeitbritish.co.uk/top-ten/british-yarn-producers/

Yes, fully aware re Leicester situation. This was discussed in a previous thread. From my close knowledge of the area- I mentionned that the owners of the factories that have been paying below national and allowing workers to work in terrible conditions - did not generally live in Leicester City area where the factories are, and the people exploited - but in the leafy County suburbs, which are very much Conservative through and through, in Harborough.

Even 20 years ago, many of my students in a town north of Leicester, often had to stay at home to look after younger sibblings, or to help mum finish an order- paid £1 to stich a full anorak. Very poor Bengalis from the Silhet, a very poor agricutlural region of Bengladesh, muslims- and massively exploited by Hindus. Very political and tragic, indeed.

Boo hoo isn't based in Leicester. They use the sweatshops that are based their. The owner (or someone representing them) said on TV yesterday that they hadn't check the conditions of their suppliers properly!! Or at all possibly! The Mayor must have known though and did nothing about it.

I can remember myself as a head in the clouds teenager thinking I was doing my bit for buying British when I went out with my Union Jack 'Buy British' slogan carrier bag. It took someone else to point out that on the bottom of the bag it clearly said it had been made in China!

I ordered a dress from Winser of London. It arrived this morning.

Absolutely ghastly. Not sure where it was made.

Whitewavemark2

I ordered a dress from Winser of London. It arrived this morning.

Absolutely ghastly. Not sure where it was made.

Anything that looks good on Annie Lennox is not going to look good on me!

Blumin eck ... this is a mine field ?

I looked the the Winser site. Gillian Anderson looks amazing! Unfortunately, the clothes are bit out of my price range.

Yes, she does but I may not.