The Officer's Mess: triumph of nastiness

I did my traipse of westfield yesterday. On my own, up and down. This meant I could go methodically around all the shops.

Oddly I mildly enjoy every now and then going shopping. I didn't really want to buy much but I was looking for a couple of bits for christmas presents. I wanted to see if the john lewis had a haberdasher, I was signed up for a sushi making lesson at the japan center, more of that after. I wanted to look in forever 21, new to me you see and with a window full of orange, brown, plum I was a little excited. Bleurrgh.

Pretty much everything was really nasty. And more than I had expected. And I mean actually all of the normal priced stores. I know I'm a grown up but it is sometimes possible to make clothes designed for teenagers work along side frumpdom, I think I'm vaguely stylish. The shops I'm talking about are top shop, newlook, river island (when did that get a makeover, I never went in there when I was 16?), miss selfridge, zara, h&m, *primark* etc etc.

Everything was nasty. Shock horror! Why the surprise I hear you ask? Because it wasn't quite this bad before, there was always a few things that were made in a nicer fabric, something that actually felt quite nice, maybe something with actual wool in it. So many chunky knits and not a sheep in sight. 5n the olden days an occasional suede skirt could be found, maybe a silk-cotton mix. And the worst of this was in forever 21. It is really bad in there, noting was nice, everything felt loose and nasty. So thumbs down to you. I found a mostly wool cardigan in primark, in nice colours so they win. Crikey, this is really scraping the barrel. Topshop, you have really let yourself slip. New look has some nice bras, I saw a blue sequin knee length skirt on a mannequin in zara but couldn't find it anywhere in the rails, h&m have a snazzy range of nail varnish in pretty stylish colours. I have this one which is darker in real, dark orangy red, it's a good red for my skin tone.

So pah to all you stores, it's a shame affordable really does mean cheap. It's all just for children.

In looking for the picture of nail varnish I see h&m now have a little section to click on for the sustainable range. There is still no way to filter or search so I don't know if the entire range comes up or just new/selected. I like this recycled shiny top with buttons down the back (nasty little fetish for shiny things I have).