Hit and Miss

Primark
Product 6 Primarks 'love to party' collection for the christmas season is made up of a collection of outfits for its wide range of customers, snow white sheer blouseswith assymetrical drapery and nipped in sleeves boast elegant button detail at the shoulder, tunics are simple in shape but come in bright festive crimson reds and burnt oranges with heavy gold and silver embellishment adorning the necklines whilst kneeskimming bodice hugging dresses show off a iridescent colour palette with teasings of metallic catching in the light and sheer fabric contrasting with the woollen shift dresses and cardigans that come in vibrant peaches and greens.
Experience 7 The window displays lure you in cleverely showing off all the fashion retailing awards they have won in 2011 but the brightly coloured outfits are easily missed as the prices are more of the focus, leaving you often wondering while in primark how much has been compromised within a garment to make it such apparent 'value for money'. the store itself was surprisingly tidy with the first half of the store consisiting of 'winter warmers' and 'love to party', making it easy to find what you were looking for, many of the sections also had matching accessories making your shopping time in there even less and the experience even easier.
Value 5 Primarks main marketing appeal and what makes it 'the fashion store' for such a wide range of customers is because of its apparent value for money, and while i cant debate this point over the basics range they have instore, when it comes to looking at their 'love to party' collection as value for money i cant help but debate this idea. For the younger target market gold and cream dresses with ruffle detail and slight pufball skirts are priced at £15 but with such scratchy slippery material (100%poly), loose threads and badly sewn in details and even when styled on the mannequins an extremely bad fit, these disappointments in the quality of the garment begin to show up everywhere you look; harsh chunky silver hook and eyes down the front of a beautiful teal bolero (£10) and silver thread adding a cheap quality to otherwise beautiful heavy fully lined woollen dresses (£15) really show that by not thinking about the smaller details (or in some cases thinking too much about them) they are slowly driving customers into other shops, where an outfit for christmas can be bought for about the same price but will still be of good enough quality to get out time and time again, i wonder whether the same can be said for those garments sitting in primark this winter.

Newlook                                                                                          
Product 6 Sequins, lace, velvet and embroidery all fight for you attention as you first walk into the store. Skirts and dresses come in different texturised velvets, metallics, rich purples and royal blues. Pussy bow collars, sheer fabrics, heavily embellished 'flappers' style tops and sequinned dresses are all beautifully displayed alongside more wearable products, leggings that come in velvets lace and sequins and shift dresses that are simple in shape with beautiful gold and black embroidered lace and sheer slightly gathered skirts.
Experience 7 The window displays at new looks coventry store do not do the products inside any justice, the outfits on show look cheap and tacky with a large section of the display being given to a huge range of metallic clutches being hung on 'invisible' string, so it is a pleasant surprise as you walk into the store and are straight into the 'christmas' collection. Textures and prints are contrasted together to make it a visually exciting experience to start looking at what new look has on offer, '30% off' signs scream at you from almost every rail making it hard sometimes to get a look at anything with so many excited shoppers ripping things of off the hangers, im glad i went shopping here on tuesday and not on a saturday as i feel that such offers wouldnt of been quite as pleasant on such a shopping day so close to christmas.
Value 6 New look is definetely a store that is beginning to seriously compete with 'higher end' stores like topshop and riverisland, but with prices going up they seem to nearly always have to be having a range of discounts in store to make these clothes that arent as good quality as the former stores mentioned affordable to their target market. A heavy fully lined silver sequin dress retails at £39.99 but so many sequins are already missing and the sheer heaviness of all this detail giving you a less than flattering silhouette. Velvet dresses (£) are lovely in the rich royal blues and purples but the gold metallic one scratches at you, compare this to the exact same one in topshop that is beautiful next to your skin and is £32 i know where i would rather go. However Newlook do offer beautiful embroidered tops and lace dresses, simple in shape, fully lined and with gold and black lace accenting the blue/black colours and costing £24.99 i almost nearly bought this for myself.

Topshop
Product 8Topshop is the high street store that epitomises 'British fashion' and its christmas collection fights with the slight tackiness of metallics and sequins seen in other stores with no detail being too small enough, and the results are a collection that cannot be beaten on the highstreet. Black sequin jackets are paired with black and white playsuits with lace collars contrasting the heavily structured fabric, soft cream jumpers with gold beaded embroidered swallowss can be contrasted with a black velvet polka dot devore effect skirt to create outfits that are so beautifully styled on the mannequins as an alternative look, challenging the more typical party dresses of other stores.
Experience 4 The Topshop store in coventry is very small and as you look round the collection you are watched by all the shop assistants that boast effortless style and 'cool', they are more than offputting in my case they were rude, wanting to know anything about a collection they will not comment on in fear of you being a worker of one of there rival stores, coming in to steal there ideas. hearing my friend comment how they had moved their jewellery section they immediately accused us of such and then proceeded to follow us all round the store, although i think there clothes are beautiful as are the window displays and the inside of the store (with giftcards being hung off little white wooden trees) i would think twice before returning there.
Value 8 Although Topshop is in a completely different price range compared to primark/newlook with dresses for the christmas season retailing upwards of £32  (for a gold velvet 'flippy dress') the quality is amazing and as is the style of the clothes, when your shopping in topshop you are paying not only for the clothes but also nowadays the topshop label, which gives you basically access to a style that has been made for you, making your wardrobe effortlessly chic. Black sequin jacket retails at £55 but with no visible flaws and much finer more thought out embellishment it is a nice alternative to the stereotypical 'sequin party dresses' and unlike them can also be worn all year long, making it perhaps better value for money, however you would still need a dress to wear under it..