Plus size need not be “frumpy”

I have been doing my usual online rumble round the stores this last few days and one thing stood out to me – Evans have completely lost the plot with regards to Plus Size Clothing. Granted they havent always had the best quality – highly variable ín fact- but their currant range, especially what they consider to be party wear, is just downright shaming.  There was a time in the UK when plus size ladies had very limited choice with regards to clothing and Evans was pretty much all you had on the high street. The quality was variable but if you rummaged hard enough you could at least find something which was wearable and flattering. This last year or two, as the market has stiffened and more plus size clothing providers have entered the game, Evans has seemingly lost the plot.

Someone needs to remind the designers of Evans Clothing that we plus size ladies need not look frumpy in poorly designed badly hanging clothes anymore. Either that or they seriously need to find a new way of displaying their range to advantage!

The only decent thing I have found on their site I have found are some wonderful and comfy jogging pants, and their jeans are as good as ever. The rest of their range was easily passable and not worth a second look.

Rant concluded.

Yours Clothing Review

Before I begin this order I have to say the vast majority of orders I have made through Yours Clothing have all gone through successfully and I have received them in a timely manner – provided I have them sent through my forwarding address in the UK. The one and only time I had them sent directly to my address in Spain the items were never received despite being sent out twice. Here is what occurred on that occasion.

28 November 2011

I have been holding off writing a review for a while now on an experience I have had with Yours Clothing but I am afraid the issue has simply gone on too long and they have failed to respond to the last four emails I have sent querying the order situation. The only person who consistently responds is the person who manages their twitter account – and they have always been helpful and interested in my increasingly disillusioned tweets about my order! The same cannot be said for Customer Services who have failed to respond on numerous occasions.

I placed an order on the 29th September 2011 for three items totalling just over €100 to be shipped to my address in Spain. Their site states that deliveries take between 7 and 15 days. The item was despatched in a very timely fashion and so I waited for their delivery on the understanding that no other company has issues sending items to us at our current address. No information was provided about the delivery as items to Spain, at that time anyway, were sent untracked. It appears this has now changed on their website for orders over €75.

3 weeks / 15 working days passed and I was still waiting. I contacted Yours Clothing via their customer service form and, at length, they responded. After some brief exchanges they finally launched an investigation which they advised would take a further 7 days to complete. I waited once more. 9 days later I emailed querying the results of their investigation because I had not heard anything. They did not respond to my question with any details about the original delivery but offered to resend the order – with the exception of one item which was now out of stock. They offered a partial store credit or refund for this item and, since I wanted more items from their site, I opted for the former.

I waited again for a response and, finally, on the 4 November 2011 they resent the order and supplied a store credit. I ordered some more items from the store but had them sent to a family members address who then sent them on. Even baring in mind this they were received within 7 days by me.

But I was still waiting for the replacement items from the original order to Spain. Last week I emailed to state the items had still not been received. The last three emails to Customer Services, Sophie W of Size Up, and Victoria W of Size Up have gone unanswered. The only person who has been consistently helpful is the individual who operates their twitter.

Today I checked their site and delivery to Spain now has the additional message.

When you spend over €75 before delivery your order will be sent fully tracked using DPD.
Orders below €75 will be sent by Royal Mail and then through the country postal service but untracked (here)

In the interim period, whilst waiting for the two parcels from Yours Clothing, I have consistently received my post from other companies and family/friends back in the UK without issue – whether sent via regular post or via a courier. We live in a town with relatively good postal service compared to anywhere else we have lived in Spain.

I am still waiting for my order and a response from the staff of Yours Clothing and Size Up. I have tried to remain patient and do appreciate that sometimes parcels go missing between the UK and Spain but even I find it difficult to believe two parcels have mysteriously not arrived at their destination when we have no issues receiving items at this address from anyone else.

It is now 2 months since I placed my order and I still do not have the items I ordered.

Update 28 November 2011: 12:30

I have just finished a live chat with Victoria of Yours Clothing who notified me she was unable to do anything further until 4 December 2011 because they had already resent the items on 4 November 2011. Not only were there large delays in her response but once I requested the complaints address she abandoned the live chat altogether and proceeded to say nothing further. If I was disapointed before I am infuriated now by the lack of quality customer service received from Yours Clothing over this order. I have always loved their clothes but I am afraid this experience has been extremely upsetting. I´ve taken a copy of the live chat transcript. The ignored emails requesting updates and the totally abandoned live chat just demonstrate that their customer services have a lot to be desired.

Update: 29 November 2011

I finally posted feedback on the missing transaction on feefo. Yours Clothing responded with the following:

We received your message on the 28.11.2011 which we replied to on the 29.11.2011, we are still waiting for a reply. We have also emailed you asking if you wanted a refund as the items are now out of stock, however we have received no response.

So they finally received my last email on the 28th and responded on the 29th by offering a refund via email. Sad thing is I have received no emails from Yours Clothing offering any such thing – and, before anyone asks, I did in fact check my spam folders. I have emailed them once more and accepted their offer of a refund for the items not received. I could cry I am so disapointed as the items were for wearing on a special occasion. Whilst I can appreciate parcels go missing the worst thing of all was having to nag endlessly for responses from Customer Services at Yours Clothing and being made to feel like a nuisance for doing so. Many emails went unanswered, and if they were answered then I clearly did not receive the responses. Although I love their clothes I doubt I will ever shop with them again after the treatment I have had over this order. I am trying to be fair and realise that occasionally parcels go missing. They´ve fulfilled every other order to me provided it was sent via a UK address and then forwarded on to me in Spain. Maybe when I have simmered down I can be a little more philosophical but its not the missing items which anger me as much as the communications issue and the experience of having a Rep completely abandon a live chat because I dared to ask for a complaints address and complained that waiting two months for delivery was just a tad too long…

Update 2 December 2011

After much contemplation I decided to go for a store credit. I still love most of the clothes on Yours Clothing and the top I DESPERATELY wanted was now on sale.  I received my store credit today and made a new order of the items I wanted. A few hours later I received the despatch notification.

Although this order was a nightmare on balance Yours Clothing have more often than not delivered. There are issues with the Spanish postal service and, just maybe, this order fell victim of this. Yes, the customer service experience was frustrating but they came through in the end.

75% off Plus Size Clothing & Free Delivery with Yours Clothing

Since discovering them a few months ago I have had some fabulous outfits from Yours Clothing. They are currently having a 75% sale and I must say I am tempted to expand my wardrobe further (if the credit card company will allow it!).

I´ve been given a free delivery code for myself and my readers.

Code – FREEDEL
Valid- 22nd Dec till 7th Jan
Vouchercode – Free standard delivery with all orders over £50 including sale – upto 75% off and items from £2

Go to Yours Clothing to take advantage of this offer.

H&M: Stop using idealized CGI bodies to display your clothing

Super-airbrushed representations of women and girls are getting out of hand–and now H&M isn’t even bothering with real models, instead choosing to use computer generated bodies to sell their clothing. They use computers to create slender, flawless bodies and then paste real models’ heads onto them, creating an illusion far beyond the usual Photoshop retouching.

H&M has defended their actions, saying that they use CGI models “to show off the clothes,” but we know that these are no mannequins: they’re idealized, impossible bodies designed to look “real,” with the implication that it’s possible and desirable for their customers’ bodies to look the same way. We agree with the Norweigan Broadcasting Corporation, who said “This illustrates very well the sky-high aesthetic demands placed on the female body. The demands are so great that H&M, among the poor photo models, cannot find someone with both body and face that can sell their bikinis.”

It’s like SPARK’s Bailey Shoemaker Richards says: “Wouldn’t it have been a better idea to make (or, I don’t know, hire) a group of models with diverse body shapes and sizes to give girls a real idea of how their clothes will fit?”

The technology that H&M uses has the potential to improve an online shopping experience, not limit it. Why not let customers create CGI bodies based on their own measurements, allowing them to get an idea of what the clothing might look like on their own frames? It’s time to get honest, H&M: drop the fake bodies or expand their sizes and shapes.

Help the cause and sign the petition:-

Coming soon!

For sometime now I have been keeping a fashion journal as part of my main site elsewhere. However it has become so popular I have decided to branch out and start a new blog covering plus size fashion for us big and beautiful ladies here in the United Kingdom and Europe!

Stay tuned for posts on the latest styles and store news from across the web :)