It used to be that the young ladies from boring towns in the SE would travel up to London to go get the new outfit.
The granddaughter (5,10, blonde, dancer, white slavers please mention your $ amount) went with a friend today to London to potter about and they bought new outfits in which to do so.
Something has changed. Quite possibly two things. What is a la mode might be decided online these days, and so everywhere. And clothes are now so cheap that the new outfit is, well, it’s not something one needs to go and do, it’s something which one just does?
5,10, blonde, dancer, white slavers please mention your $ amount
Lolz, though I suspect an Ecksian response would seem pansyish in comparison if anyone actually tried.
Did they? May be a certain class of young ladies going up to town.
Commoditisation of fashion via media and retail chains. Shifts in transportation and manufacturing.
What I remember would be being dragged on the trip to the nearest, largest town with an M&S or Dot Perkins or A&N, Debenhams or something. Probably Brighton, may be Croydon, Worthing or Eastbourne.
My sister certainly would do that. Home town, then Romford then London as the most desirable place to go.
The big difference is that in the 1960-70s, you had to go to town to get the clothes from the “in” boutiques. By the tail end of the 1970s you had chain stores like Top Shop, Miss Selfridge in a boutique style that was regarded as providing reasonably priced copies of what was in fashion. In more recent times via the internet you get clothes that are so cheap people either buy them and wear them once or send them back for a refund after the night out.
It’s fair to say that there are cheaper clothes available, but really good clothes still cost quite a decent amount. Strip away crap like designer labels, and just better material, more colours, better cut and stitching cost more.
I thought that the high street would survive well for some time because of women’s fashion, that you have to try it on, and feel it and so forth, but the thing that’s killing it is choice online. There are thousands of retailers out there, and they’re all using things like Pinterest and Instagram. Girls share things with their friends that they like and so forth.