On the subject of M&S.....

I have fallen out of love with Marks and Spencers recently. It is almost entirely due to their A/W 2012 campaign. The slogan is 'For every woman you are' sent me into an utter rage. Right at the start of the advert you'll see the same dress on a standard model, a plus sized model and an elderly model. Initially I found the ad really exciting and applauded them for trying to be inclusive. The thing is, the clothes they offer (even the clothes that appear in the ad) don't live up to that promise. I found this out because the one item I really wanted from the ads was the brightly coloured abstract dress. I found out when I went to the website that this dress is part of the Limited Collection, and therefore is only available up to a size 18. For every woman I am eh M&S? I'm a size 22 woman who wanted to spend money on a dress advertised in your oh-so-inclusive campaign. Shame you don't do my size, because I would have rocked it! So I decided to pick out some dresses I liked from the website .....

3 of these dresses are from the Limited Collection, so only up to a size 18. 2 of them go up to a size 22 so that's a bit better (for me personally as a size 22 anyway, even though the forest dress was sold out in all the larger sizes, as if often the case). That leaves one dress that goes up to a size 28. That seems more than just a little bit crap to me. Having a mother who is incredibly loyal to M&S, and who (up until a recent illness) was a size 24 for many years, their recent size limitations have really irritated me. You might be okay up to a size 24 if you want some drab brown trousers, but not for much else. I got particularly angry recently when I noticed that some of the Woman range only goes up to a size 18. Errrrr.... does that mean that women over a size 18 aren't actually women? What are we then?!. And don't get me started on their undies. A few years back I could get amazing bras from their Ceriso range - balconettes, plunges, padding, bright colours, polka dots, lace and satin - i.e. sexy bras. Now I search for a 40DD and this is what I get....

You should have seen what it looked like before I selected 'underwired! I could seriously die of boredom. My breasts deserve better than this boring pile of un-sexy nonsense. Why did you stop making nice bras in big sizes? Yes you do big cups, but some women need a big band too! Lord knows how women larger than me cope with this. All my bras used to come from Marks & Sparks. Now just 2 of my 30-odd bras are from there, and you guessed it, they're both plain white / nude t-shirt bras. Neither of which are very comfortable may I add.

Judging by the models used for the limited collection M&S are targeting a younger clientele  Errrr..... M&S, do you think all young women are under a size 18? I don't think you need much market research to find out that that is not the case. Something that any decent clothing company should know though, is that fashionable women under a size 18 (no matter what age) have quite a few shopping options. Below are some dresses that caught my eye on the Topshop website....

So many lovely dresses. 882 to choose from in fact. Quite a lot of choice then!

But I don't want to give my money to Topshop, or River Island, or Oasis, Or Miss Selfridges. I want to give it to the company that I've been shopping with all of my adult life - and much of my childhood, hand in hand with my Mother.

To sum this all up Marks and Spencers, I'm the customer going down to your food hall and spending my hard earned cash on your ridiculously expensive food. I've walked through your shop floor, I've seen how hard your trying to be more trendy, and it's working for me. You've got my attention. Am I not your target audience? I may be a 30 year old size 22 woman, but I wouldn't be seen dead in at least 70% of your Plus range, because I'm too stylish to be fobbed off with a load of stretchy black trousers and baggy white t-shirts. What I want is what all the other customers want. I want the good stuff. The 'inspired by the catwalk' stuff. If you don't want to make clothes for me, or for other plus sized ladies and if it really ISN'T for every women we are, then your special campaigns are nothing but typical, cynical advertising.