I love summer clothes shopping. Despite the changeable British weather, there’s something happy-making about snapping up a few breezy and colourful fashion pieces at the start of summertime.
It’s only right to dress the part. Shakespeare likened feminine beauty to a summer’s day, after all. But how to satiate those shopping urges when you have an August holiday to save for and two spendthrift teenagers off school for what seems like an eternity?
And so, we move from the Bard of Avon to the brightly lit fashion aisles of Asda, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons, because as Falstaff famously laments in Henry IV, “I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse.”
But seriously, supermarket own-brand clothing lines – among them F&F at Tesco; George, Studio Edit and G21 at Asda; Nutmeg at Morrisons; and Tu at Sainsbury’s, which also has Everbelle and For All The Love under its umbrella – are my secret weapon this summertime. This year, more than ever before, they’re a hotspot for cost-friendly, boutique-style treasures that trend-hop from power-casual to free-spirited folksy to airy elegance in a way that’s stylish, affordable and refreshingly unfussy.
“Our boho black tiered ric-rac trim dress is the new version of one that [fashion-editor-turned-Instagram star] Erica Davies loved earlier in the year. It has gorgeous billowy sleeves, is super forgiving and is only £26,” says Liz Evans, the chief commercial officer for non-foods at Asda.
The tiered minidress she was referring to quickly sold out after Davies featured it on her feed, proving that social media is helping to dismantle old stigmas associated with dressing in supermarket-bought designs.
You can believe the hype, because fashionistas who also buy from designer brands and premium boutiques are flocking to their local superstores to stock up on key holiday looks. Glamorous influencers Sarah Ellis and Philippa Ross are a case in point. Both in their 30s, the pair run London-based clothing label Wat The Brand and are best known for their fashion and lifestyle platform, We Are Twinset.
The pair recently posted a reel which shows them cooing over F&F Clothing co-ords as well as Tesco’s “super chic” swimwear collection and cream crochet beach trousers, a dead ringer, apparently, for a pair by Melissa Odabash. These style mavens are immaculately groomed; they swing Bottega Veneta handbags and bask in the peachy glow of a Shu Uemura skincare routine.
It just goes to show that trolley-dash fashion is going places: from the prosaic environment of a busy superstore to a luxury holiday destination for poolside posing.
According to Rachel Bines, the merchandise planning manager at F&F, the “matchy matchy” soft tailoring loved by Ellis and Ross has been a huge hit; “Since its initial drop in last month, the brand’s cream and black floral embroidered Cornelli co-ord has almost sold out, as has our matching beige and cream Schiffli shirt-and-shorts set,” she says.
So why should our supermarket fashion bargains be communicated in hushed tones as if their very existence is an unspeakable breach of fashion etiquette? Even Ellis and Ross whisper that they are “going rogue” as they enter Tesco’s fashion department. I’ve met many people who struggle with this: either they say it coyly as if they are asking for Imodium at the chemist’s, or conspiratorially as if they’ve found a fiver down the back of the sofa, slightly shifty and embarrassed about their “win”.
“A great deal of work has gone into refreshing our total brand look and feel this year – customer response has been unequivocally positive and we’ve seen some great year-on-year sales numbers across all of our channels,” says Asda’s Liz Evans, whose stats show that George clothing sales grew by 3.4 per cent to £1.5 billion in 2023 and that the business logs an average 260 million visits a year to george.com.
Whereas previously, supermarket style winners were almost exclusively sleuthed out by influencers as “dupes”, or affordable copies of things that were financially or geographically out of reach, own-brand supermarket clothes are increasingly becoming fashion desirables in their own right, and are being showcased as such. What’s more, it can now sometimes be hard to discern between a supermarket look and an ensemble several times the price.
Take Tu’s barrel-leg jeans.
Since they first launched in February, they have proved so popular that the bow-legged silhouette now comes in a variety of colourways and has featured on the brand’s top 10 bestseller list for the past eight weeks.
Gigi Hadid, Blake Lively, Katie Holmes and Julianne Moore have been photographed wearing this voluminous denim style in iterations from upscale labels, but fashion editors have raved about the Tu version, available for £22, with some saying they look as good as high-end designs by the likes of Frame, Agolde and Citizens of Humanity.
The balloon look of the barrel isn’t for me. I prefer the Everbelle collection of long, wide-leg jeans which segue with this season’s boho chic trend popularised by Chloe’s new artistic director, Chemena Kamali, and her muse du jour Sienna Miller. I love the high-waist ecru version, made of pure stiff cotton for a retro look that’s clean, crisp and well-structured. They pair perfectly with Tu’s crimpled linen-blend peasant-style blouse (very Isabel Marant and only £18) and the brand’s chunky espadrille platform sandals (£20), which I genuinely mistook for APC ones, which retail at more than £300.
The question is, if I saw this outfit styled in the imagery of my favourite contemporary label – currently a tug between Parisian brands Rouje and Soeur – would I click to buy? The answer is a resounding yes, though I’d pass on the platforms – with several post-operative pins in my feet, these non-bendy numbers made me wobble and waddle like a penguin, so more Ministry of Silly Walks than Sienna Miller.
The verdict: tie
I loved the boho looks equally. Neither the cream blouse nor the cream jeans looked like they’d been pulled from a bright orange bag. With the right gold accessories you could really dress up this Tu style. The fact that the jeans are £28 and pure cotton means they’ll wash well and you can enjoy more than a plain baked potato at the next summer barbecue.
The faux leather trimmings on the bag let it down; a classic Provençal style raffia basket bag with thin straps is always a winner and these are cheap to pick up in most high street stores right now.
Linen dresses always make me think of lavish travel adventures. You only have to look past the frozen peas to find them – in fact, according to Sainsbury’s fashion communications team, “linen” has been a leading search term at tu.co.uk since the start of May, with the brand’s black ultra-wide-leg linen trousers (£22, available from sizes 8 to 22) proving to be the biggest hit in this fabric category.
The khaki linen utility dress I tried on from George was too fiddly for my liking. Sophisticated safari style works best, I think, when it’s streamlined, with fewer buttons, ties and tucks – think Meryl Streep in Out of Africa kitted out in plain cotton drill shirts and classic tea-dipped linens. Jigsaw comes up trumps with this simple button-down brown linen waistcoat dress which gently flares out at the waist.
More accomplished is Asda’s Studio Edit range stuffed full of sculptural silhouettes, big floral prints and loosely tailored pieces that look much more expensive than they really are, seemingly inspired by the same Scandi design codes as Cos and Arket.
Verdict: High-end wins
You have to accept that linen creases, but these lines should flow with the silhouette, not sit in isolated areas like little areas of distress, which is what happens when there are lots of different components such as turned-up sleeves, loops and a belt. It’s not long before you feel a bit dishevelled, like you’re wearing a scrunched-up paper bag. I loved the hat though, with those delicate perforations.
For those who love a jaunty two-piece, F&F is the place to cruise the aisles for coquettish linen shorts and fitted waistcoats. However, with no dedicated website, a persistent gripe on social media comments is that many styles and sizes are impossible to find in store. The irony being that these so-called “quick grab” clothes are fast becoming as elusive as coveted fashion collectibles.
I did manage to try the brand’s sandy-toned linen vest and trouser combo, which I rather liked, especially the bottoms, which had a nice weight and length to them with gentle pleats below a high-rise waist. The gilet was too loose (only size 14 was available), so the stylist had to pin it back. It still didn’t feel right. That’s the thing about waistcoats, if they aren’t a close fit, the material awkwardly shifts about, as if pulled by invisible strings. No wonder magicians like them so much.
The verdict: High-end wins
I wanted to channel cool garçonne style à la Cate Blanchett at Cannes in this F&F two-piece, but the top was too loose and I think the colour washed me out. Blanched, you could say, like a flimsy cabbage leaf. The trousers were well cut with nice slimming front pleats and long loose legs, better suited to high heels.
Jigsaw won me over again though, with those linen bermuda shorts with contrasting front stitching which give the illusion of a smaller waist and flattened tum.
Finally let’s talk floral dresses – summer’s staple uniform for cool comfort and unabashed femininity. Everyone has one. Everyone wants another. La Double J and Queens of Archive have dreamy S/S 24 collections bursting with bold blooms printed on billowing silhouettes.
They evoke a sense of nostalgia and balmy Mediterranean nights spent in good company. You just want to twirl around in them and pretend you’re in a Federico Fellini film. These are investment pieces. The blue Double J dress I’m wearing is crafted from silk twill from Lake Como and costs £870. Queens of Archive is a female-owned brand based in London which specialises in vintage-inspired bespoke prints and fabrications, with prices ranging from £195-360.
Nutmeg at Morrisons doesn’t quite deliver the same fairy-tale romance, but the brand has some great mid-to-long length floaty dresses to help you harness the most carefree version of yourself. The brand is particularly good with sleeve choices spanning capped, three-quarter length, butterfly and flared at the wrist.
Tiered pure cotton dresses feature bold prints shaped like Matisse cut-outs, while smooth-shaping maxis like my green one are doused in little blossoms and designed with a delicately frilled neckline and hem. Made of washable workhorse fabric, the style, yours for just £18, is as pretty as one from Rixo or Reformation and more than £100 cheaper.
The saving won’t get you tickets to see Taylor Swift, but it may get you a day return to Paris on the Eurostar, so you will have somewhere suitable chic to wear it. If someone asks where it’s from, say Nutmeg loud and proud, or translate to “noix de muscade” for a little phonetic aggrandisement.
The verdict: it’s a tie
This Double J dress feels exquisite and makes that expensive swishy sound, as if it’s whispering the word “expensive”. I don’t wear patterns, but I did fall in love with this silky number. Poor old Morrisons had a tough act to follow.
Having said that, the green floral Nutmeg maxi definitely belies its £18 price tag and could give similar but more expensive versions a run for their money. If you’re saving money, the supermarket option could make you feel just as special as a design that would take you way over budget.
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