Monsoon was never really a place that caught my eye - I don't know why, I was just never tempted to go inside and take a look. However, after looking everywhere for a dress to wear to a wedding a couple of years ago and finding a gorgeous one in Monsoon, I have shopped there ever since.

Monsoon is a British shop selling Women and Baby's clothes. They are also joined with the accessories shop 'Accessorize'.

Monsoon is such a lovely shop; it has a lovely 'luxurious' feel to it and I love how classy the stores are.

~ * Prices * ~

You can expect to pay between around £12 - £200/£300 for any one item in the shop. They have a bridal section and this is the most expensive section - however the clothes in this section are very beautiful.

The clothes in Monsoon are very expensive; One thing which I hate about Monsoon ; mainly because the prices are not affordable. I tend to buy the 'odd item' when I am in Monsoon and could never afford to buy a few items like you would be able to in shops such as New Look which is a shame. Because of this I sometimes just browse the store looking at the beautiful clothes even though I know I won't be able to afford them.

~ * The Good * ~

The shop has some beautiful clothes; very classy and 'expensive looking'. It is a very unique kind of place where you won't find clothes like them.

I love how you are treated 'special' in the shop (obviously because you are paying extra). They even wrap some items (shoes etc) in paper tissue for you and put them in a nice bag which I think is a nice added touch.

The staff are generally very nice and friendly. I find that the staff in the Bridal section are the nicest. They are very friendly and act like 'personal shopping assistants'. For example when I bought my dress for the wedding, they were telling me 'try this with it', 'try these shoes' etc and so I found this very helpful especially as I am not very 'experimental' when I am putting outfits together.

Whenever I wear something from Monsoon, I get loads of compliments from people telling me they 'love my dress' etc. I find the clothes to be very flattering, flattering my curves.

~ * The Bad * ~

Whilst I love the shop, sadly I have had some bad experiences with some of their products (I don't buy many of their products - I probably own about 6 of their products) and out of six, three of them have left me disappointed.

The first item was a pair of black heels with an open toe which I bought from Monsoon for £55 a couple of years ago. I bought them to wear to a wedding and I wore them once for a night out. On the night out (this was the only second time of wearing them), whilst on the dance floor someone accidentally stood on my foot and the front of the shoe 'ripped open' - The shoes were ruined! The person who had stood on me wasn't that big or heavy either! I was so stressed out that night because the shoe would just not stay on my foot and my foot kept slipping out of the shoe as there was nothing there to keep my foot in the shoe. I was afraid of stepping on broken glass on the club etc. In the end my friend had to ask a member of the bar staff at the club if they had an elastic bank to hold the shoe together so that I could actually walk. So all in all not what you expect from a pair of £55 shoes and so I took them back to the shop.

Unfortunately we had lost the receipt for the shoes and so when we took them back after a lot of 'umming' and 'ahhing' in the shop - they didn't seem too helpful at first and I was quite annoyed especially as I had paid £55 for the shoes and only worn them twice. In the end they said that as the shoes were sold out we couldn't have another pair of the shoes (which I didn't want anyway if they were going to 'break') and we couldn't have a refund as we didn't have a receipt. So the only thing we could do was choose something else from the shop for the same value.

In the end I chose a pair of blue navy trousers for work for £55. I was pleased with my purchase, but guess what? After a few wears bobbles began to appear on the inside thigh area and began to get holes in them. In the end I could not wear the trousers as they would'rub' my legs and were very uncomfortable to wear. I didn't take the trousers back as they had been a replacement for another item that had failed to deliver.

Another item I purchased was a dress (the exact same dress that I bought for the wedding - I now have the dress in green (the won I wore to the wedding), red and black. Each dress cost between £90 and £110 so all in all very expensive (for me). The black and green dress have been great and I have worn them many times. However, the red one; even though it is the exact same dress (consisting of frills which are sewn on') however on the red dress they have come undone on one side which makes the dress look stupid as one side is hanging much longer than the other side. I actually had to sew it to try and make it look like it was supposed to.

However, despite these disappointments I would still recommend Monsoon as it is such a lovely shop with lovely fashionable items.

Thanks for reading!
May 2012
Xdonzx / xd-o-n-z-x