Unimpressed With The High Street

I'm not sure what's going on with the shops at the moment. I've been down at Char's for the past couple of days, attempting to tackle her wardrobe room. I'm thinking of hiring myself out for life laundry work - we were super productive and got absolutely loads done! It meant we had yesterday to spend in the shops and even though I'm not usually a big shopper, I was quite looking forward to it. However there was only ONE High Street store that I actually made a purchase in and Char didn't buy anything at all! It wasn't as if we weren't putting the effort in either; we went into loads of places and tried quite a lot on.

Trusty old Dorothy Perkins is letting me down badly at the moment. The jeans are still very good (£10 a pair for their basic range till the end of the month, hurrah!) but everything else is just so shoddy. I liked this dress but the material is so thin and cheap looking. I was majorly lusting after this top on the website but not only was the fit awful in real life, the material was already all bobbly and nasty.

Everywhere else is similar. I don't think I'm majorly fussy but there were an awful lot of things that I touched and immediately discarded on the grounds of cheap/shiny/see-through fabric, poor construction or general tattiness. Prices everywhere have gone up and quality has really gone down. I know raw materials are more expensive now and I honestly don't have a problem with paying more for a better quality product, but I do strongly object to being ripped off in terms of both increased price AND reduced quality. Looks like I'll just have to make do with what's already in my wardrobe and try and hunt down decently made things second-hand instead.

And on that point, I found a delicious vintage frock in a charity shop (as well as many, many books) so that ensured I didn't go home entirely empty handed. Then we gave H&M another try. The first look round was unsuccessful - why do they have such a mania for things that make your hips look huge? - but one little stand that I hadn't noticed first time round produced a couple of cute stripy 3/4 sleeved tops and two versions of the same pair of shorts (one navy, one completely-in-your-face red) in very nice, "proper" fabric. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love shorts. Such a change from this time last year when I was loudly bemoaning the fact that I would never look good in them. And the best part is that the total H&M bill was pretty much the same price as that DP dress I mentioned above.

And just to squeeze in a quick outfit photo or two, because I'm going on holiday on Friday and consequently will be wearing the dregs of my wardrobe all this week:

Cardi - Gap sale Top - George @ Asda Skirt - vintage Tights - M&S Brogues - River Island sale Ring - Stolen Thunder Oddsocks necklace - Tatty Devine, Christmas present. Wish I'd taken a close up - it's amazing!

I'm dreadful at having my photo taken by an actual person! I'm either scowling or hopping around in most of them.