Next fashion clothing has forever been the safety net of UK highstreet fashion. You know its not going to be too outhere, but will be upto date enough not make you the laughing stock of your friends at the Wetherspoonhs on a Friday night! Great! But now the clever boys and Gals at Next have come up with a new concept - under the website and brandname of www.branddirectory.co.uk this new site features all the major UK brands and a few risque fringe brands as well.

 We checked out the site this morning and have a full review coming soon - but in the meantime, go and visit for yourself and see what you think!

Clothes Shop - UK Fashion to your PC!

Its that time of year - Mothers Day ( and then Next on the calendar is Easter - but we’ll come to that later! ), and if you’re anything like me you will not have a clue what you can buy dear old mum ( I can already see the text coming in - ” Less of the old!! ). Now you know me, if I could, it would be clothes shopping at Bluewater for the day, but alas I got my clothes shop genes from some distant 4th generation or something, because they definitely did not come from her!

So a wander around the town center to see if I can be inspired, and I noticed Next have updated their windows - so purely out of selfish reasons I popped in to have a nose, and realised that Next clothes shop should in fact be called Next Mothers Day shop - they have everything!!

Next Clothes Shop is more than a Clothes Shop

Thats lesson no 1!! They do homeware, flowers, and if you’re online ( which you are, because you’re reading this!! ) you can jump on the Next site and even order wine!

And the great thing is, Next have been around so long, that even dear old - oops, I mean dear mum has heard of them! In fact, the likelyhood is she may even have a directory!

So get down to Next, check out their other departments and amaze Mum with quality and what she’ll class as youthful fashion!! - The truth is Next clothes are fashionable enough not to be unfashionable, but not cutting edge fashion enough to be too fashionable for mum!

How many times can I mention fashion in one sentence - answers on a post card please!!

Does that read right? Clothes Shop Clothes Shop? Probably not, and no, we haven’t developed a keyboard stutter - what we have developed is the most exciting thing since Kate Moss released her Topshop range! - our own clothes shop right here on www.clothes-shop.net!!

 So what will it be all about, and what will we stock? Well, details are locked away in Chief Editors desk, but whilst I was delivering Starbucks and cakes to her desk, i did catch a glimpse - we’re talking ladies fashion, mens fashion, leading brands, accessories and exclusive discount codes for registered clothes-shop.net readers!!

Better still this cutting edge store will let you shop clothes from a selection of stores such as Next, Laura Ashley, Top Shop and River Island all from one place!

So when can you start this new shopping experience ( can you tell i’m excited!! ) - the launch date is pencilled in for April 1st - no April fools i promise you! But i’ll keep you posted as i get more info!!

So this blog is about clothes shopping, and i’m going to make the brief and hopefully correct assumption that all of you have at some point been clothes shopping? Correct? Yes? Good, then i’ll continue ( and if you’re reading this and haven’t ever been clothes shopping - shut the computer off NOW, and do it!! please!! )

So whats the point of this blog post - what could i possibly teach you? Well read on, and just maybe your next clothes shopping trip will be even better!

 Online or Offline

A seemingly simple choice, but bear in mind the following -

If shopping online, have you got time for the clothes to arrive, and also to send them back should the size / style not be correct?

If going to your highstreet / shopping center, whats the parking like? is there a Starbucks nearby? Can you go during off peak times thus preventing the hassle of queing for 20 mins each time you want to pay for something!

Now what i do, and i accept i am not normal, and am receiving some therapy to help me, is make a list - and then another list!

My first list details all the clothing i must buy that day, followed by anything else i might be interested in. Then i make a second list of all the shops i will be likely to need to  go in to complete my first list! Still with me?

Ok, so now with my two lists, i can decide whether my clothes shoping can be done online successfully ( which is my preferred choice - after all, nothing better than kitting out a new wardrobe with Holby City on in the background and a glass of wine next to my mouse! ), or whether an offline trip is needed! If offline, i also make the distinction between going into town - read as a traditional high street - or should i go to the nearest shopping center? If anyone has ever been to Bluewater shopping center, you’ll know what kind of shopping heaven that place is!

Usually, all the stores in the High Street are available online - Top Shop, River Island, Marks and Spencers, New Look, and many more!

So its been updated for a while, but whats everyones opinion of the new Next logo? Just in case you haven’t seen it - check it out below :

So all they’ve really done is rounded off some edges and switched to a lower case text - big deal? Will actually, I think it is - as one of the premium and dominant forces on the UK Highstreet for the last 20 years, Next has built itself an unassailable reputation as a safe and quality clothing supplier for a variety of ages and occasions. So did they really need to come up with a brand new logo with a whole new identity? No.

Well, my dear clothes shop fans, why change it at all? Now this i do understand - the old logo was very nineties - perhaps even 80’s ( i can’t remember much from that era ), it was in big black capitals, and may have even been a little aggressive! This new one is far more friendlier - and I concede it does look a little cool!

Ok, all of this is a long way round asking - who’s got your favourite logo and whose do you hate ( and why!! )

Write again soon,

The Clothes Shop Crew

Well there’s so much going on in the world of Clothes Shopping I was torn on what to blog to you all about today! On the one hand there’s plenty of slaes on down the High Street ( ok, just quickly, River Island and TopShop are the best - i’ll blog more, but in the meantime get down there!! )

However, whats really caught my eye is the Next website ( www.next.co.uk ) and their obvious slant towards Christmas shopping. Now I have long been both an advocate and a critic of Next in terms of clothes shopping for differing reasons. On the one hand, I find their stores uninspiring and guilty of being too safe, but the clothes ranges have managed to keep up with the times, and their quality is undisputed. So what they have done with the website, in my opinion, is perfect.

Its good looking, easy to navigate, maintains the Next brand, and is a “must add to favourites” for anyone looking to do any clothes shopping online. It basically just replicates the Directory, but is laid out in such a way that it is easy to shop.

So on my daily trawl of the clothes shopping sites ( oh what a job! ) i was intrigued by the Christmas gift section being promoted on the homepage of www.next.co.uk - always one to take inspiration I clicked through. I was not disappointed!

What immediately hits you is that Next are so much more than just clothing - they do everything ( well, not everything - but everything I need!! ) - home furnishings, flowers, chocolates and wine!! Heaven! They have even introduced a gift finder called Santa’s Helper! Needless to say, ontop of the compulsory ( to me anyway ) clothes shopping, i have now also purchased Christmas presents for several nearest and dearest. All of which I would probably not have thought to go into the high street incarnation of Next for! So a big thumbs up for the Next online store and Christmas here I come!

Company magazine has once again run its popular High Street Fashion Awards 2007, with a record amount of readers taking part this year! The winners were revealed at an all too trendy breakfast at Harvey Nics in Knightsbridge.

River Island Scoops Top Place

River Island won the main award for the 2nd time in a row, beating off all the competition! In all, the independently owned fashion chain came away with four Top Clothes Shop gongs -

Ok, so everyone has a favourite store for different reasons and different occasions, but after some heated debate and a little bitch slapping ( ouch! ) we