Loopy About Lycra (Morgan)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	Morgan
Date:	22/02/01 (225 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great up to date fashions, seem to wash and last well, incressingly common on the high street

Disadvantages: Only for the skin and non body conscious amongst us, can be expensive

It has to be said that French brand Morgan have cornered the lycra niche in the market! When I think of Morgan I instantly think of the lycra based figure hugging clothing. I am not sayind that this is in anyway a bad thing. I am just warning that for the body conscious consumers and those of us who prefer to leave a little to the imagination Morgan may not be for you.

Morgan have started making a much bigger impact on the UK of late. A few years ago you were more likely to find a Morgan concession in a department store like The House of Fraser, however now they are opening more high street stores of their own all the time.I would describe the brand as being at the higher end of the High Street on par with shops like Kookai and Jane Norman.

The Morgan brand is definitely created with the younger, more slender women in the clothing market in mind.Firstly, Morgan are always featuring the latest trends, for instance there are lots of leather and metallic style clothing around at the minute (Spring 2001). They keep up to date with catwalk trends, providing the look at a fraction of the price.

From the many Morgan stores all over the country that I have been in, they are always clean,and designed to be very light, bright and airy, in creams and natural woods, I presume mainly that this is because they have a lot of bright clothing and this shows them off at their best.

As I said I do like Morgan and I have bought many items of clothing from there over the past years. However,over time I have come to realise that there are very few pieces of clothing that are not lycra based. I have a lovely matching skirt and top from 2 years ago, which although I wear less and less was one of those things that I could not wear enough. It is highly lycra based, but has washed very well as a result and still looks as good as the day I bought it. By far the most popular item that I would say I love Morgan for, is their ability to always have excelle
nt tops. Whenever, I have a wardrobe crisis, which is very common I have to admit, I know that I can head down to Morgan and pick up a top that I can throw on with a pair of black trousers or a skirt. Be it vest tops, cap sleeve tops, short sleaved, long sleeved they will have something to hand.

Yes, on one hand there are many benefits to lycra, it stretches, it washes well in most cases and if you have the figure it can look great. However, there are also a number of negative issues too.

As with other similar store Kookai it appears that only skinny and the non-body conscious amongst us can get away with wearing Morgan top to toe. Whilst most of us will wear a lycra top, how many of us are willing to wear a lycra dress or skirt? With the majority of the women in the UK being a size 14 and over this is highly limiting. Indeed on investigating the sizing policies at Morgan finding anything above a 14 or their "large" which resembles a 12/14 at the best is very difficult. Hence, they are potentially alientating a great section of the population that will not be able to wear their clothes and will not want to risk the embarrassment of trying.

A related issue that I touched on it that Morgan have a tendancy to cut very small. What they classify as a 12 is most certainly a 10 in a lot of other stores. I know that I hate trying on clothes in this store as it always makes me feel miserable when I am a 10/12 by most shops standards, but practically obese in Morgan!! Thankfully most of their tops come in small, medium or large!

Another complaint that I have is their ability to ruin nice clothing by placing their logo either all over it or in places you don't want it. I have having the dangly metal tags with Morgan written on them attached to the sides of dresses and tops for everyone to see. I find this quite distasteful. I do actually have a T-shirt with Morgan written on the front, however, I chose it like that and I we
ar it casually with Jeans, however it is quite another matter when I buy a dress to go out in for the evening. The end result is that they often charge expensive prices for good that look tacky to be quite frank. For me if clothes are good enough there is no need to splash the label all over them, people will ask you where you got it from.

Morgan's pricing is not cheap, however it is around the same as most other high street stores of its standard. Indeed Morgan Sales are the opportunity to really get some great bargains.

To conclude, I like Morgan and will always have a wander round to see what they have in store. However,I'm in my twenties and to be honest the allure of Morgan is starting to wear thin. I much prefer places like Oasis that seem slightly more feminine and have more class about them.

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