Let’s just set the record straight here. All Australian women do not walk around in baggy undies or wear plastic shoes. It’s not hard to find decent quality underwear and leather shoes.

If the elastic goes immediately on the knickers you wear or you can only find plastic shoes in the shops then I would suggest that the shops you are using are – er - a little downmarket. KMart might be good for car oil or kids toys but you’re not supposed to buy your shoes there (even if they do sell them). It’s possible to get cheap and nasty clothes and shoes in the UK and they're also readily available in most KMarts in Australia (and Best & Less and Big W). Like most places if you pay cheap you get cheap.

Rarely spend more than $100 on a pair of shoes and have never, ever in my whole life bought any not made from leather. Leather shoes in your standard High Street shoe shop seem to be around the 50 pound mark so I don’t see that $100 is extortionately more expensive. Wouldn’t know where to find a pair of non-leather shoes here. Which shoe shops sell them?

Also never had a problem with my knickers falling down. And neither will anyone who buys a decent brand - which means avoiding those cheap ones at the supermarket.

Nicky....

firstly....I want to say I agree with everything you have said!!!


secondly....Ohhhhhh are you gonna be accused of being defensive and not able to take a joke and all those good things, now!!

You are braver than me!!! I read the other post about not being able to buy decent clothing here and thought I must be living in a different Australia to the other people who were posting!!! But I was too scared to say so - don't like people "shouting" at me

Plenty of decent clothes if you look around. OK, so I do miss Next, but that's more a style thing. But there are no particular clothes I'm planning on buying when I go back and visit the UK.

Its like when I moved from Oz to the UK....It took me ages to find the shops I like here...I just knew Oz shops because I grew up with them...It took me a good year to really get used to the shops and the brands that I like...

I suspect that someone will say -
"Oh, but I cannot afford to buy reasonable knickers. I only earn Aussie dollars"!

I happen to prefer the ones I've been sent from M&S, to the ones that were bought in Myers.......personal opinion, thats all. And I have to say that the knickers I bought in Primark (about as downmarket as you can get) are still servicable after a year.............

I thinjk in Oz there's less 'middle market'. You either buy at K-Mart or Myer with little in between. This gap was filled in the UK by the like of Next and others and I suppose would include M&S, Debenhams and, indeed, Gap.

Finding a good qulaity work shirt for $50 is hard for example. I could get a crap one for a lot less or a decent one for closer to $100.

Nicky, didnt you realise that women in Australia have been walking around for the last 200 years with no shoes & no knickers saying "Why cant we have a M&S here?"

jayr, just out of interest, could you get a decent work shirt (by this I assume you mean business shirt?) for 20 pounds in the UK?

Its no so much the fact that you pay "more" for it and the aussie dollar factor i'm afraid does come into it, but the quality of the stuff when you do pay for it doesn't seem as good.

Thats where next, M ans S and my Dotty P petites, (god i woould kill for a pair of jeans that don't come up to my arm pits and arnt 6 ft too long.) come in. And before you tell me, yeah target do em, but again, they are still to long and more expensive than normal jeans AND i don't like the cut of them.

If some one could come up with alternatives i would be a happy bunny (not that i'm unhappy now..... )

Blimey, now my sick mind's boggling about how Polly defines the 'serviceability' of *knickers*....

:scared:

Anya.

Just as an aside, please can we rename this thread 'NEW BOOTS & PANTIES' in honor of the late, great Ian Dury?

Anya.

To put it "briefly" - ones that still have perfectly good elastic!

Actually I think Jayr has summed it up the best - its the middle market that is lacking. You can get cheap or expensive, but very little in the middle.

I'd usually get mine from Debenhams where you could get decent ones for that price and sometime a bit less, I still wear some that were GBP16 with a double (French) cuff. M&S and Next would usually be from GBP22 or 25 upwards. Mind I hate spending money on clothes but want decent stuff. Myer & DJ sales cannot be faulted and thats when I buy now.

OK, Dagboys idea of *decent* shirts are Stephen Brothers & Thomas Pink, not sure if you can get those in Debenhams for 16 pound. Ive now weened him onto Van Huessen (he did have a few that I bought him in the UK, but he wasnt overly fussed ), which I usually buy at Myers. Normally they are around $60+, but agree about the sales, I always manage to get them when the sales are on & save a packet. Hardest thing I have found is getting the french cuffs, he doesnt like anything with a button & always wears cufflinks. I sometimes struggle to find them, seems that most aussie men dont know how to put cufflinks on or something?

I think my interpretation of decent means 'just decent'. I would much prefer a wardbrobe of 'good' shirts! I stick now mostly with Van Heusen and Galton type shirts for between $50-90.

I have a collection of 20 or 30 pairs of cufflinks and will not wear standard cuff for work. There is little availability but DJs in town is a bit better than Myer, especially if you are looking for different sleeve lengths (i.e. longer or shorter arms)