I have just been shopping to try and find something colourful to wear for a party. I am an average size, not fat, not thin, a size 12 in my thirties. I don’t buy a lot of clothes. I pretty much wear the same things every day, leggings, sweatpants, T shirts, and I have a couple of black dresses I love, All Saints body con dresses I wear usually with a leather jacket or denim jacket if I am going out. My main criteria is I like to be comfortable. I am not super fussy but I like clothes to feel good so I am happy to shop brands like Jigsaw, Reiss and whistles. I like Joseph too but cannot really afford it unless I find something secondhand.

I had to have a rant about high street fashion as I went in search of something colourful. A friend of mine is having a party and the dress code is bright and colourful. I didn’t want to spend a lot, I was thinking a trouser suit, maybe in orange or pink, or a pair of Pucci esque flares with a plain bright T shirt maybe. Just something colourful and fun that looked modern and was OK quality. I didn’t think it would be that difficult. I had half a day and a couple of hundred budget max for the outfit.

First I went to River Island. The only colour I could find was in the beachwear section where the fabrics were way too flimsy for the UK in April. I probably haven’t been in this shop for 4 years. I remembered it being quite fashion forward and pretty OK quality, I still have River Island T shirts I wear, why I went there first but what a shock. Trousers in bad material with elasticated waists that cost £40. They looked like hospital trousers literally. I saw one lead pinstripe suit, more of a work suit than casual in cream back ground and black or navy pinstripe that was OK, the only thing I thought maybe but not colour and not right for a party more job interview vibe.

Next I tried JD sports. I’d heard about a new athleisure line Aybl available in bright colours, supposedly a bit like Bo and Tee. The choices were limited, the men’s and juniors section were the largest sections, the women’s section was really small at the back of the shop and the shapes and quality for me was very poor.

I decided I’d try TK Maxx. I was in and out of this shop in less than 5 minutes. I found one pair of pink Phase Eight trousers for £30 but couldn’t find anything bright to wear with them. I was left contemplating Juicy Couture velour flares, in style 15 years ago in raspberry or yellow. I didn’t buy them.

H&M was last ditch attempt to find something. The window display was animal print dresses in 100% viscose and loads of flared jeans in muted tones, creams and browns. I don’t know who baggy flared jeans flatter, not me. The rest was either baggy tracksuits in plain colours, browns, greens, greys, navy and the most notable thing was loads of clothes on rails that were all creased. Nothing had been ironed. It looked like someone had just unboxed all these clothes and shoved them on hangers. It just wasn’t very appealing. There were a lot of people in the shop, it was busy. I couldn’t believe anyone would want these clothes.

I left H and M empty handed thinking there was a massive opportunity for a fashion brand to swoop in with some decent quality well thought out collections and clean up.

Starving I went to Marks and Spencer’s for a sandwich. I did window shop the new collection, what looked like badly cut, short in the body T shirts with turn ups on the arms, again all plain solid colours, white, black, blue. Nothing colourful or artsy. I couldn’t face going in. I stood outside and watched a marketing video. The clothes were so boring, a cream long short and collarless waistcoat suit, a gorded linen, sleeveless dress to the knee, the kind of thing I’d expect to see a sixty year old women wearing to church.

Even in the marketing video the clothes weren’t appealing. I wondered who was buying these clothes. And then on the way back to the car I looked around me to really notice what people were wearing and thought to myself, everyone is as stuck as me.

I was so busy shopping I didn’t take any pictures. I’ll add some when I get a chance to snap the experience.