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CaB Fashion Thread

Started by Blue Jam, December 01, 2020, 12:12:52 PM

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thenoise

Charity shops are a great place to buy mens shoes if your shoe size is 5 or under.

Icehaven

Quote from: paruses on December 05, 2020, 07:00:42 PM
I used to quite like Ryders in Harborne near the QE. I can't think where there are any others. We used to have Wakefield's in Notts when I was a youth. It still had the proper ex-army stock whearas most have some stuff with a lot of mid-range sports /walking gear now. The only proper ones I can think of I have been to in recent years where you can buy stuff to set up a militia have been in Sweden.

Yep the one near the QE is still there, and there's one in Northfield, there was one in the rag market for years but that might have gone in the last year or so. It was there about 18 months ago but I don't remember seeing it last time we were there.
There was a fairly sizeable one in Coventry on Far Gosford st. a while back too, but that area has been hugely hipsterised in the last few years so it might not be there anymore.

Blue Jam

Quote from: thenoise on December 06, 2020, 06:29:06 PM
Charity shops are a great place to buy mens shoes if your shoe size is 5 or under.

Buying women's shoes from vintage shops must be great if your shoe size is 3 or under. Did everyone have tiny feet in the olden days or something?

Ditto for TK Maxx. My shoe size is 7 and I've found that there is always less variety once you get past size 5.

GoblinAhFuckScary

Charity shops (or really any shops actually) are a bitch for womens' shoes in size 9 ffs

Bazooka

Quote from: Blue Jam on December 06, 2020, 08:24:29 PM
Buying women's shoes from vintage shops must be great if your shoe size is 3 or under. Did everyone have tiny feet in the olden days or something?

Ditto for TK Maxx. My shoe size is 7 and I've found that there is always less variety once you get past size 5.

Yeah people had smaller feet, same if you try and buy a door from a vintage door shop, all the 18th century doors are only 5ft high.

daimoniac

Quote from: Blue Jam on December 04, 2020, 11:46:29 AM
I haven't seen an Army Surplus store in years. Just realised Edinburgh doesn't even have one. The last time (indeed the only time) I ever set foot in one was to buy a lab coat for practical classes when I was an undergraduate, it was that big one in Mile End and I only knew about it because it was recommended by the lecturers.

Why does the Army make so much surplus anyway? Why are Our Bloody Taxes going on daimoniac's wardrobe?

our local one up here spun off and branched out into an outdoors shop with a large military surplus section - if i ever get to london again i might have a look for that one in mile end.

to be fair i usually end up with various de-flagged european army surplus stuff. that'll probably change after... y'know. the danish givil defence greatcoats are brilliant mind - warm as hell

paruses

Quote from: icehaven on December 06, 2020, 08:19:37 PM
Yep the one near the QE is still there, and there's one in Northfield, there was one in the rag market for years but that might have gone in the last year or so. It was there about 18 months ago but I don't remember seeing it last time we were there.
There was a fairly sizeable one in Coventry on Far Gosford st. a while back too, but that area has been hugely hipsterised in the last few years so it might not be there anymore.

Had a feeling there was one on the rag market but couldn't place it. I do remember a place where you could buy Japanese WWII officers swords for about a tenner for a while - and that was quite recent.
Glad Ryders is still there - kept the authentic surplus store slightly musty old clothes / damp smell and proper gear that was 98% either XXXS or XXXL and the promise of getting a bargain if you looked long enough (and needed an 80 tog undershirt with slightly short arms).

Blue Jam

Marimekko pyjamas arrived!

Well, half the set. After over two weeks. Thanks to fucking Hermes and a load of excuses from Uniqlo about Covid and the Festive season.

Had three Hermes packages stolen after they were left on my doorstep earlier this year. Also just had a Royal Mail delivery go missing.

Meanwhile every single one of my Amazon Logistics orders has arrived on time and in one piece. I know Jeff Bezos is evil but he at least made the parcels arrive on time, or something.

Seriously, I really wish retailers would stop using these cheap but shit courier companies, my heart just sinks when I get an email or text informing me that my precious cargo is now in the hands of Hermes or DPD and when they inevitably fuck up and cause me a fuckload of stress and I will then have to add another company I like to my Do Not Order From Online list. First Cos, then Gap, then TK Maxx and now Uniqlo- all places that sell stuff I really like but there's absolutely no point in ordering any of it if I will never receive it.

I would like to boycott Amazon but they really do appreciate how important a reliable service with a good courier is and that people would rather pay a bit more for a decent courier than save a few quid but never get their items. Except Amazon Logistics is also somehow very cheap...

Icehaven

We rarely buy anything that can't be delivered to a click and collect location or a locker, only if it's something very specific or hard to find and home delivery is really the only option. We live in a second floor flat and almost inevitably by the time we get down the stairs to answer the door, the courier is at least back at their vehicle if not already driving away, and several times the card left has been indecipherable so we had to go online to find out (if we're lucky anyway) if it was left somewhere else, taken back or if we can collect it or arrange redelivery etc. I'm sure it's some conspiracy by the high street to make online shopping unappealing.

Blue Jam

I'm in a second-floor flat too, but in any case these shoddy couriers rarely bother knocking and by the time you get an email from them saying "Your parcel was successfully delivered!" they're already three streets away chucking a laptop and a package of Waterford crystal over someone's hedge or something.

I normally do the ol' click and collect but that wasn't an option during lockdown. I also can't do that with Uniqlo or Cos because they don't have a store near me.

Funnily enough I have actually found it useful to order from Tu at Sainsbury's and the near-defunct Argos because they deliver to the Saino's round the corner from my flat. If Saino's made a big deal about this fact they could possibly revive Argos here, but I imagine Argos will still cease to exist within three years.

Pranet

I only found out about the pick up orders from Argos from Sainbury's thing this year and it is great- next day most of the time as well. Found it really useful at times recently.

Blue Jam

It's great innit? As a resident of Scotchland, free next-day delivery is not something I'm used to so when I ordered an Xmas pressie for Mr Jam one evening I was surprised to get an email saying it was ready for collection the next morning. I had assumed it would be spending some time languishing in a central warehouse in Birmingham or Manchester or something.

It's also really bloody convenient being able to pop round to the tiny branch of Saino's round the corner to pick up my orders, and as a non-driver it should be handy for me if I decide to buy any larger items. My experiences have certainly made me want to order from them more often. As an added bonus you can also accrue lots of Nectar points and then spend them on boooooze.

It is interesting to note that supermarkets have excellent distribution networks and yet only Saino's/Argos and Waitrose/John Lewis are really using them in this way. Instead of developing this side of the business though I imagine all the supermarkets will eventually go bust and we'll all just end up ordering all our groceries from Amazon.

Blue Jam

Also I could be tempted to get my entire wardrobe from Tu at Saino's if only the clothes weren't such poor quality. The slippers I ordered didn't survive their first cycle in the washing machine and the socks all developed holes after a couple of wears. All 20 of them! Not bad for a cheapo emergency pandemic purchase I suppose but I won't be ordering from Tu again now the proper clothes shops are open.

Got a load of socks from Tesco in the end. Ten pairs of boy's school uniform socks. They fit my size 7 feet and being technically children's clothing  means no VAT. And they've actually lasted pretty well so far. I shop like a bloke when it comes to socks- every time I need new ones it's ten identical pairs, plain black, no need to pair them up after they come out of the washing machine, job's a good 'un.

I draw the line at sock subscription services though, those are for people with more money than sense. What the hell are those about? Are they for people who can't afford/don't really need a valet so they can feel a bit special?

Icehaven

Quote from: Blue Jam on December 17, 2020, 12:36:09 PM

It's also really bloody convenient being able to pop round to the tiny branch of Saino's round the corner to pick up my orders, and as a non-driver it should be handy for me if I decide to buy any larger items.



Beware!! I bought a large picture frame from ebay last year, and arranged click and collect from the Argos up the road. I could track it online and was confused to see it was apparently returned to the depot shortly after I'd had notification it was being delivered shortly. Can't remember the exact chain of events but over the next 10 days or so a similar thing happened several times, including one update saying the driver couldn't take it because they needed a special vehicle (it wasn't that big!) and other random things, but each time it had seemingly been picked up from the depot, driven around as if it was going to be delivered, then taken back to the depot.
After god knows how many emails and a phone call to Argos I finally managed to find out what was happening; Argos had a size limit on what they'd accept, and it was about 2 inches too big (fnar). So couriers were trying to deliver it, Argos were refusing it, the courier was putting random reason codes into the tracking system (presumably 'item too big'' wasn't an option. Nor was "Argos too jobsworthy") and taking it back to the depot, for the whole palaver to be repeated by someone else a few days later. In the end they said I could either have it redelivered to my home on a choice of days when I knew we'd be out, or return it for a refund, which I had to do. The seller admitted they should have checked the size limits on click and collect and it shouldn't have been offered as an option. I at least hope the frame had a nice time on it's extended tour of Birmingham though.

Tldr; Some (all?) click and collect places have a size limit on what they'll accept, but sellers don't always know or check this so make sure you don't order something that your c&c location then won't take.

Quote from: Blue Jam on December 17, 2020, 11:58:11 AM
Marimekko pyjamas arrived!

Well, half the set. After over two weeks. Thanks to fucking Hermes and a load of excuses from Uniqlo about Covid and the Festive season.

I made an order with Uniqlo on 1/12 which arrived on 15/12, I saw the blah on the website that because of covid the dispatch time was delayed and allow 8 working days before contacting them etc - pretty lame for a high street retailer.

I went on their chatbot on 14/12 to see what was going on and that had a 90 min estimated wait so I left the window open and then totally forgot about it, later that evening got an email saying that it was dispatched and would arrive on 16/12, it actually arrived the next morning with a super easy Hermes delivery.

Blue Jam

Uniqlo didn't bother sending my order until I had sent about three emails, then it seems they panicked and sent it out ASAP but fucked it up. Still not had a reply to my last email. No phone number to be found anywhere, wait on the text chat is 1.5 hours(!). Lots of apologetic messages about high demand and delays. Looks like they're absolutely swamped.

Still, it's like going to a pub where it's taking ages to get served and the staff keep apologising because "we're understaffed". Those places could, y'know, employ more staff. That seemed to be a chronic problem with London pubs, there were several I just stopped going to simply because I was fed up of spending precious drinking time queuing. Doesn't seem to be a problem here in Embra though!

Anyway, Uniqlo: they could do with more staff, loads of people are unemployed and desperate for work now, most shops take on more staff at Christmas (my first ever job was an Xmas temp job in a shop). I really hate understaffing being used as an excuse, I just hear it as "sorry but we're just a bunch of cheap bastards". Unless you work for the NHS you can GTFO with that one.

Sebastian Cobb

Highly reccomend hospital scrubs as pyjama bottoms. I got given some knackered old theatre gowns when I bust my ankle and my jeans wouldn't fit over my stookie. Still wear them, quite warm but also very light.

I've been waiting months for a haul from that charity that was buying up clothes for Bangladeshi workers. Occasionally I get an 'it's on its way' email, and fuck all happens. Obviously it's for a good cause and if they're overwhelmed that's great as it means they're getting loads of orders, I'm quite intrigued by the lucky dip aspect of it, and feel like an arsehole for being impatient. I know some of you have ordered and got your stuff but I haven't and neither have a couple of other people who know about it, I guess it was ordered a month or two after it was mentioned here, so i guess it really took off in between.

Fr.Bigley

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 18, 2020, 04:35:28 PM
I'm quite intrigued by the lucky dip aspect of it

If you're a bloke they basically send you denim shirts, seriously, look on the site. All the men in the gallery are wearing the exact same denim shirt.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Fr.Bigley on December 18, 2020, 04:48:16 PM
If you're a bloke they basically send you denim shirts, seriously, look on the site. All the men in the gallery are wearing the exact same denim shirt.

It's a thrown-up website with some stock photos though innit? They send you a questionnaire that makes you select an age bracket and whether you like logos or plain.

So I selected plain and chose the bracket 10 years younger than me because I still dress like an infant.

Fr.Bigley

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 18, 2020, 04:52:54 PM


So I selected plain and chose the bracket 10 years younger than me because I still dress like an infant.

laughed.

One would hope that it's stock imagery.wanted to buy a box myself...update us when/if it arrives!

Blue Jam

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 18, 2020, 04:35:28 PM
Highly reccomend hospital scrubs as pyjama bottoms. I got given some knackered old theatre gowns when I bust my ankle and my jeans wouldn't fit over my stookie. Still wear them, quite warm but also very light.

I wear scrubs for werk sometimes and don't like 'em, think my body is just the wrong shape for them, sorry.

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on December 18, 2020, 04:52:54 PM
It's a thrown-up website with some stock photos though innit? They send you a questionnaire that makes you select an age bracket and whether you like logos or plain.

So I selected plain and chose the bracket 10 years younger than me because I still dress like an infant.

I was tempted to go for the "colourful" and "patterned" options to see if I'd end up with some proper Saul Goodman optical migraine-type stuff. Didn't want to put my real age in either because as a 39-year-old woman I would probably end up with a load of M&S cardigans.

Was also thinking of putting in the wrong gender to see if I could get some nice men's shirts but I'd want cotton or flannel, I don't do denim. That's a shame.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Fr.Bigley on December 18, 2020, 04:55:52 PM
laughed.

One would hope that it's stock imagery.wanted to buy a box myself...update us when/if it arrives!

The last person i sent the link on to hasn't received their stuff yet either, but tbh maybe that was a blessing:

Quotewent for that + dark colours and plain designs.
If I end up getting a Superdry jacket I'm fucking coming for you

GoblinAhFuckScary

Opinions on this? I think at a glance it looks gorgeous, but have some reservations about the pattern being a bit like... a bit hippy boujie? k-hole wall hanging? maybe. Also, tie neck? Is that a vibe?



The gal wearing it makes it look fab... but please turn so I can see what it looks like from the front please??

canadagoose

Quote from: Blue Jam on December 17, 2020, 12:51:21 PM
Also I could be tempted to get my entire wardrobe from Tu at Saino's if only the clothes weren't such poor quality. The slippers I ordered didn't survive their first cycle in the washing machine and the socks all developed holes after a couple of wears. All 20 of them! Not bad for a cheapo emergency pandemic purchase I suppose but I won't be ordering from Tu again now the proper clothes shops are open.

Got a load of socks from Tesco in the end. Ten pairs of boy's school uniform socks. They fit my size 7 feet and being technically children's clothing  means no VAT. And they've actually lasted pretty well so far. I shop like a bloke when it comes to socks- every time I need new ones it's ten identical pairs, plain black, no need to pair them up after they come out of the washing machine, job's a good 'un.

I draw the line at sock subscription services though, those are for people with more money than sense. What the hell are those about? Are they for people who can't afford/don't really need a valet so they can feel a bit special?
Socks don't seem to last five minutes, do they? You'd think they'd have perfected the art of making a durable sock by now, but apparently not.

Goblin, I like the dress! But then I probably wouldn't listen to me on fashion advice, as I'm a bit of a disaster myself. I'd like to wear dresses more often, but I feel like I stand out too much, and I don't really like the attention. Not that I'm particularly attractive - just a bit on the tall and broad-shouldered side.

Quote from: GoblinAhFuckScary on December 30, 2020, 07:59:05 PM
Opinions on this? I think at a glance it looks gorgeous,

It's really nice, I like the tie neck & love the colour/print - I'd want to touch the material cos it's a cupro/viscose mix, but it should be decent in this case.

Quote from: GoblinAhFuckScary on December 30, 2020, 07:59:05 PM
The gal wearing it makes it look fab... but please turn so I can see what it looks like from the front please??

Absolutely, bit weird that.

steve98

ASDA has everything I need, and at prices that won't break the bank. I can't imagine shopping anywhere else.
My local had a lovely gentleman's assistant chap (Stewart), gay as a brush and full of banter, who loved mincing about with his tape round his neck, looking for inside legs to measure. He was great.
Then one day he was off George and on fruit and veg, with a black eye  (I don't know what happened), humpin' 50 kilo bags of spuds and cabbages around, all sweaty and rough :( :(

I felt really bad for him, he was so happy @ George.

Blue Jam

Still not recieved the other half of my Marimekko pyjamas. Had to escalate my complaint to Uniqlo and finally got a reply, apologising profusely and telling me that the Hermes driver will be interviewed. Erk. I don't want to get the driver sacked, it's not the driver's fault Hermes are shit and understaffed and require their drivers to cut corners in order to deliver stupidly high numbers of parcels. I've replied saying it's probably not entirely the driver's fault and to consider using a courier other than Herpes. Still, I'm feeling a bit Larry David now.

I really could do with some nice warm pyjamas for tonight though *shiver*

GoblinAhFuckScary

Quote from: Blue Jam on January 06, 2021, 03:40:07 PM
Still not recieved the other half of my Marimekko pyjamas.

This is very sad!

I didn't get that second Toast dress in the end and shouldn't be spending that much money. My mum said it was like something her gran would wear which is rude but also is this a bad thing

Back to loitering ebay. Fuck I miss charity shops

Cuellar

The Oxfam online shop is good. Free returns if it doesn't fit or it's actually shit. Been getting fair few things from there.

GoblinAhFuckScary

Quote from: Cuellar on January 06, 2021, 04:06:25 PM
The Oxfam online shop is good. Free returns if it doesn't fit or it's actually shit. Been getting fair few things from there.

That's a good shout. Is the sight a bit buggered for you too tho?