Daughter and I are having a few days away together at the end of this week, which will include some shopping in London. Next year she has to have a suit for school, and thinks we will find something exciting in London. Apart from Oxford Street I don't know London clothes shops at all. So.. where should we look for a suit that is:

a) short (as daughter fondly imagines I will pay a small fortune for a designer suit and a further small fortune to have it "tailored" - ie shortened ridiculously);

b) fashionable, but maybe slightly quirky;

c) not too dear?

All help hugely appreciated!

Top Shop might be a good starting point. Should tick all the boxes.

But we have a Top Shop here! Is there somewhere where we might find something a bit out of the ordinary but not stupidly expensive?

Ok, well I didn't know that!

Perhaps you could tell us which shops you do have, then... There's no hint on your profile as to whether you live in another big city or in a village in the Outer Hebrides.

Anyway, the Top Shop on Oxford Street is massive and I'm sure it has ranges not available elsewhere.

You haven't said how old she is. I bought some beautiful clothes in Zara for my daughter recently for a family Christening.

OK! Sorry! I'm in Bristol so we have all the same shops as everywhere else... Was just hoping that a trip to London might turn up something different. I loathe Oxford Street - way too busy for me - though it is highly probable that daughter will love it and that it is our best bet for something reasonably priced. Anywhere more civilised to look too?



She's about to turn 16. The suit is to wear in 6th form at school.

Almost anywhere on the planet is more civilised than Oxford Street. Try the King's Road, or High Street Kensington, or Hampstead, or perhaps one of the two Westfield shopping centres (although personally I think they're even more hideous than Oxford Street).

Covent Garden ?

I know it's a normal shop, but I got a lovely (trouser) suit in H&M - this is going back a bit, so not a frumpy 36-year-old's suit, I promise
If you can wander then you may have good luck - the Covent Garden/Seven Dials area has quite a few shops that are out of the ordinary (but not Camden-not-for-school out of the ordinary...mostly!)

I agree that H&M is a strong contender. Daughter already mentioned that a friend has a nice suit from there, and I recently found her a black skirt there which I thought was smart and she thought was adequately skimpy!

I can find Covent Garden, but which way is Seven Dials? I used to work near Chancery Lane, a long time ago, so know my way round a little bit.

It would be nice to have an excuse to go to Camden - and then the ice cream parlour at Chalk Farm (!) - but I rather suspected it might not be the place for schoolwear .

I second the H&M idea - they've vastly improved their ranges in the last couple of years. The Regent Street and Knightsbridge shops are particularly good, they do have different selections in different shops.

You may also want to try Muji (there's one on Carnaby Street) and Uniqlo (on Regent Street and Oxford Street). Both do reasonably priced stuff of good quality. It is unlikely to be extremely funky, but it isn't boring.

It's kind of the opposite side of Long Acre to Covent Garden, but west a little bit towards Charing Cross Road. If you come out of Leicester Square tube station walking towards Covent Garden, then shortly on your left is Monmouth Street - that leads up to Seven Dials, i.e. where the seven roads meet.

Monmouth Street is the home of the lovely Gudrun Sjoden shop, though certainly no suits in there

As packed and horrific as Oxford Street is, and as 'routine' as the department stores are, simply by being bigger branches you do get to see a wider range. Selfridges can fun if you have lots of time to waste (though jolly expensive, so good for browsing rather than buying!)

What type of suit must it be? Skirt / Trousers? Any restricted colours? After all a 'ladies suit' can be anything from this:


to this:


to this:


The other option is perhaps a blazer:

Which can be dressed down as seen or dressed up with navy or cream trousers and a shirt.

Depends on what the school policy is IMO.

It can be a skirt suit or trouser suit - ie something you can wear with a blouse - but daughter doesn't want a trouser suit. Colour-wise, the current head girl has got away with cream, but it's meant to be dark - black, blue, dark grey, that kind of thing.

Daughter requires the skirt to be above the knee - the further the better - and pencil style, probably.

Could only be the mind of a 16 year old girl !

See if she likes the '50's-'60's style stuff - will not have a pencil skirt but does look very feminine. I do find the 'corporate' style suits look very masculine and in my opinion often look a bit odd with a skirt!

Mind you not sure I'm a girl to be taking fashion advice off - I like old stuff be that cars or furniture or fashion so am really not in touch with the latest in Cosmopolitan or Glamour magazine ...

Don't envy you trying to help her look - suits for women are so hard to find as SO many styles to choose from. Boys have it so much easier - choice of about 3 acceptable colours (black, grey, navy blue), all going to be fairly similar style. About the most exciting thing they get to choose is the cufflinks and tie!

We had this situation with my daughter who is not pencil thin and also not tall. We visited Next and were successful there.

You might think about going to Westfield shopping centre near the BBC (Wood Lane area?). There are lots of fashion shops in there. Similarly there's the new centre at Stratford. Then you could "do" quite a few shops in one hit without having long walks in between.

Here is a totally off the wall suggestion. Go to Marylebone and look in the charity shops. A couple of friends (male) said they found great designer stuff going at knockdown prices. They said this only works in the Marylebone charity shops and not in charity shops in other parts of London that they knew of.

It always used to be the case for the charity shops in Knightsbridge too.
Actually, I think Oxfam has a designer outlet on Bond Street...

Makes sense! Those are the posher bits of London

Many thanks to all! I think I'm going to be worn out...

I'm about to leave home, and am not sure I'll have access to a computer again before the "great shop". I'll let you know if I pull through...

Best of luck, Halka....

Hampstead, Kensington and one right next to Harrods, Charity Shops with very good quality stuff.

Have to say very glad my girls went to a 6th form comp where dressing as Goths, Punks, Emos etc was acceptable! Anything rather than looking like your mum!

Thank you!



Very, very little chance of her looking like me if she wears a suit and an above knee skirt. I am one of these people that can do nothing unless I am comfortable (ie scruffy) and I've always kept my legs very well covered!

We ended up with a very sober grey suit from Hobbs in Covent Garden, with which we were both reasonably happy. I would have preferred to pay less but was delighted I did not have to spend hours trudging up and down Oxford Street. Of course, we still ended up window shopping in Oxford Street but the pressure was off by then so I could just about tolerate it!

One of the 6th form comps near us has a 'business wear' dress code.

It's funny how achieving something like this seems to be a major victory. At least it did in our house.

I have to say my son was a lot easier - basically if something fitted and didn't look too fuddy duddy he was done!

Anyway glad you were successful Halka!

....warning topic diversion
Please! Should one use a tailor, one can have fun chooosing the cloth for one's suit or jacket, the lining, the buttons, etc. I have a nice antique gold coloured Donegal tweed jacket with a multi-coloured fleck. Tailoring is cheaper in the sticks than London For a selection of bow-ties one needs to go to somewhere like Burlington Arcade or Jermyn St.

From my mum's constant lament (she is a qualified fashion fitter), it is easier for men to get decently outfitted than for ladies. I gave up on most hight street outlets about 15 years ago - they think men are all 5 ft 11in plus and built like a match-stick, or aged 19.

A decent suit from a proper tailor outside London is about twice the price of an "expensive" suit from M&S.

...back to topic.....

Not everyone can afford to spend many hundreds on a suit. My suits tend to cost ariund 200-250 GBP, can't justify spending more on my salary.

I do have trouble finding something in my size as I am slim and and not particuarly tall at all. However it is possible to find something at a decent price and quality that will fit.

I was being slightly tongue in cheek I'm not made of money.

I get quite cross with the standard of what passes for suits by the likes of M&S and others. They're asking for GBP200 - 250 or more for a "decent" suit. They are often badly made - sleeves are often poorly fitted and poor quality fabrics. My mum is a qualified fashion fitter which is one step down from a tailor, so I've had some training in what to look for! Have a look at whetther the jacket buttons line up properly. If there is a pattern in the fabric is it even and matched on joins? Sleeves should be smoothly inset.

A made-to-measure suit (bespoke is much more expensive) - which will fit properly and be made from a decent cloth that will drape and wear extremely well will set you back (outside London) about GBP450 upwards. Jacke tonly about GBP300. I have a suit in the wardrobe that is 10 years old, made from twisted wool worsted. It still fits well, doesn't crease, and looks good. Yes, it's twice the cost of a high street suit, but it lasts much longer and fits much better. I have another suit which is 30 years old - still looks very good - only trouble is it may have shrunk.... or perhaps I'm slightly less thin than when I was 22 when I bought it.

The alternative is an old-fashioned gents outfitter that sells classic off-the-peg styles (e.g. Brook Taverner). You can do well with these and they will do things like shorten jacket sleeves etc to make a better fit. The right size jacket with the sleeves the correct length makes a big difference.

I see similarly-dressed sixth-formers at the local schools. When did 'Sixth form' become equivalent to 'if you're lucky, you'll get onto the bottom rung of the People In Suits ladder", rather than the opportunity to explore subjects you liked in depth?


You clearly perspire less than me....especially when wearing a suit....