Battle of the High Street stores

Lifestyle takes one for the team and reviews the shops we students know and love:

Zara –

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that every UK girl must be in want of a Topshop wardrobe” is a mantra that has long since been outgrown. The Battle of the High-Street stores has recently rewarded a new, triumphant victor: ZARA. Dubbed ‘The Kate Effect’, ZARA has seen sales rocket thanks to our very own Duchess occasionally being photographed sporting many of the brand’s garments.

ZARA has been crowned as one the best ‘fast fashion’ houses: the Spanish store favoured for being able to mass produce designer quality style clothes for a quarter of the price. With all this said and done what can you expect from the brand and their stores? As students, we’re always a bit strapped for cash and ZARA appears to be able to deliver the goods and supply the key season pieces. Whether it be the tailored blazer, studded knit jumper, cigarette pant or beautiful dress in the ‘ZARA’ palette of cool greys, navies, black and cream or an occasional spring yellow or coral; ZARA designs remain both timeless and current. ZARA oozes European nonchalance and vivacity, but brushing all the fashion hyperbole aside, ZARA triumphs over several of its counterparts due to the affordability of its products. However, you can easily pick up a bohemian scarf to discover with shock that it’s a £69 cashmere delight…

Whilst ZARA does appear to offer a wide range of affordable, well-made pieces, the customer service is perhaps a little lacking. In order to experience the hugely important article research, I wandered into the Westfield’s London Shopping Centre jungle in a state of blissful naivety. I began the shopping pilgrimage to the pillars of inevitable debit card abuse, screaming kids and hot changing rooms. It was this experience which exposed ZARA’s most serious problem, the bad service! The staff were surly, unhelpful and ridiculously nonplussed, in fact, it was almost admirable how little they cared about the customers. Perhaps they were caught up in the dream-scape of the new Spring ZARA catalogue collection, but then, aren’t we all.

If you can look past the negatives, then ZARA has it all: European chic tailored clothes with a range of prices, fabrics, colours and customers. And if you really can’t cope with the moody girls at the ZARA tills then you can always revert to their website. Isn’t the internet a gift!

Rebecca Webster

New Look – 

Remember that scene from The Devil Wears Prada where Meryl Streep lays into Princess Diaries for her blue jumper? She explains how fashion struts onto the catwalk, gleaming and proud, and then gets filtered down through the boutiques and the ready to wear collections, through the fancy department stores, then Topshop and Urban Outfitters have their way with it, before it collapses, exhausted, into the gaping mouth of the low end chain store.

New Look is where fashion comes to die. It’s the metaphorical bottom of the high street, just one mark up from Primark.

There’s a certain whiff you get on walking into a New Look store; fake leather shoes, plastic tops and the overwhelming odour of cheapness. Clothes with fake tan and make-up stains litter the floor more haphazardly than in a teenager’s bedroom, next to shoes that never quite fit properly but cost less than the average night out, although that’s probably how long they’ll last.

New Look epitomises everything that’s wrong with this rampant consumer culture; children working in sweatshops getting paid pittance to work their fingers bloody so we can buy a top for less than a fiver, wear it once, then throw it onto a landfill.

Half the clothes are blatant Topshop rip-offs (ironically, not a new look). Fashion works on plagiarism, but not so flagrant that all I need to do is walk across Royal Priors to find an almost identical shirt at half the price and less than half the quality of style.

Here everything is a bit overdone; florals look tacky, lace is cheap and denim falls apart the second you look at it. There should be an age limit; it’s the kind of place suited to the generation who voluntarily listen to One Direction and shop in Claire’s. For uni students, it’s more for throwing together a cheap Pop outfit, than finding your new favourite dress.

There’s a free delivery service to store for items above £20, and they offer decent 10% student discount (occasionally going up to 20%) meaning everything costs less than chips.

Chiara Milford 

H&M – 

H&M – the Swedish titan of the high street. Arguably one of the most student-friendly retailers, look no further to solve your oh-god-I’ve-spent-my-loan-in-library-café-and-don’t-have-anything-to-wear-to-smack-tonight crises. Possibly its greatest asset is rack upon rack of jersey basics that change in shape depending on new trends each season. The bodycon skirts of 2010, skater skirts of 2011, the 2013 favourite of every style of cropped top imaginable… For £3.99, you can have it all.

Ever noticed there’s always a section at the back of each store with crazy neon tees and lamé leggings? That’s DIVIDED. The great thing about this diffusion line is that you can try out questionable new trends without breaking the bank. Just realised you need a flamingo outfit for POP tonight? You need to be a farmer for ski tour? Get down to H&M and you’re covered. Colour is huge with this brand, and you can guarantee whatever shade has been mentioned as the next big thing will be out in force on the rails days later in trousers, blazers, shoes- you name it. A special mention must go to jewellery- huge bundles of rings for under £3, an impressive array of ear cuffs and chains and enough statement necklaces and collars to change your neck adornment as often as you change your underwear.

Where H&M truly comes into its own is its designer collaborations. Within the last few years they’ve launched hugely successful collections with Viktor and Rolf, Karl Lagerfeld, Roberto Cavalli and Matthew Williamson. What you pay for is what you get- whilst what you buy might not last as long as your other items (for jeans, coats and other investment pieces I’d say go elsewhere) H&M provides a quick, cheap fix for crazy urges for pops of colour or a change of image – so next time you’re dithering about buying the crazy dress covered in pink zebras in the sale for £5, just get it. I did, and it’s great fun.

 Laura Bird

Topshop – 

Whenever I am out shopping on the high street, Topshop is always my first port of call. I know I will find an array of the latest fashions inspired by catwalk shows and celebrity style icons. If I want to get the ‘Alexa Chung’ festival look, I can pick up some cute denim cut off dungarees, wedges and oversized sunglasses.  If I’m looking for a dress for a ball or formal event, I always head to Topshop to check out their Limited Edition Dresses range. You can pretty much expect to be able to find whatever outfit you need for any occasion, from a full length gown to jogging bottoms – or even a novelty purple dinosaur onesie.

Of course, all this comes at a price, and compared to other high street fashion stores Topshop can be a little too expensive. If you want a whole outfit, it is likely to set you back over £100 which can really stretch a student budget. However, Topshop do offer a 10% student discount all year round and they frequently take part in student lock-in events, such as Leamington’s very own Royal Priors Student Takeover last October.

Even though I am nearly always dressed in Topshop, there are a few things that bother me about the high-street brand. Often I feel that Topshop assume that all women have the figure of Kate Moss, all their models are stick thin and they do not stock clothes above size 16 (for that matter, I haven’t even seen that many 16’s on their rails). Also, there is that small issue concerning tax avoidance, and the brand’s commitment to ethical trade has raised concerns with charities and welfare organisations.

However, no high street store is perfect, and to me, Topshop is better than most.

Anna Laycock