Disclaimer: I know this post is going to sound completely counterproductive to everything I normally talk about but hear me out. Bear with me. Before anything else, I want to start by saying I am fully aware of how ironic this is coming from me.
I’ve literally spent the last year preaching about how to not buy into fast fashion and only buy sustainable fashion pieces you know you’ll wear over and over. So yea… I fell for the Primark co-ord trend. Same.
Every. Girl on my FYP has been wearing it for the past three weeks.
I haven’t been able to avoid it whether I’ve been scrolling through Instagram, TikTok or even Pinterest.
Everyone from the barely followers micro influencers to my favourite Fashion Editors have been flaunting this £28 matching set and making it look like they spent an actual & Other Stories ensemble. Firstly, how. It all began when I saw this really cool girl I follow (who has the best style, by the way) wearing this sage green linen-looking co-ord.
I legitimately thought it was COS at first. The comment section was raving – people asking where she got it, if it was designer, all of the usual reactions you see when something looks way more expensive than it really is. When she dropped the deets saying it was from Primark, I literally gasped.
I screenshot her post and sent it to my shopping banned with my friends with the caption ‘no fucking way’. For almost a whole week I resisted. Moral standards and all that jazz.
I was also doing so well in my no-buy this year I didn’t want to break the streak. I hadn’t bought any clothes in two months which is honestly a big accomplishment for me. But then it started popping up more and more.
I felt like if I didn’t get it myself I would burst into flames from the FOMO. My work friend Georgia who is honestly always on top of these things wore it with some old vintage Levi’s I’ve been eyeing up for a while and lowkey spiralled into one of those overthinking cycles we all know all too well as a millennial/Gen Zer. I was suddenly convinced I needed this matching set I hadn’t heard of a month ago.
After that, I couldn’t go one step near Primark without seeing someone wearing it. Literally. I saw a girl in front of me in Starbucks wearing it and from behind she looked so boujee and expensive.
There I made up my mind, I was getting it. Okay so before I go any further, I literally made a TikTok about how we shouldn’t be impulse buying shit we see influencers wear on the reg. Prepare for a lot of irony.
So first of all, navigating through Primark was.. a trip. I have no idea what it’s like inside your local Primark but mine (which is located in the city centre) is absolutely insane. Picture being crunched between two people trying to look at clothes whilst they shove garments into your hands.
Then once you’ve fought your way through to the changing rooms, you have to queue to get in. Like a literal changing room queue. I felt so out of place.
Like every other person walking around had been to Primark hundred times before and knew their way around like the back of their hands. Me on the other hand, was rubbing my necklace against every rack and rail listening to the other people ahead of me in the queue mumbling about where they’ve misplaced their favourite viral item. Once I found the disaster zone that was the matching set section it was literally a mess.
Clothes were strewn everywhere, way too many clothes on the rail (implying that they probably rejected way too many that should’ve gone on) no order with the sizing and literally a million hangers on the floor. It really did give me The Fallout Shelter vibes but make it fashion. After digging through what I can only describe as a mound of rejected clothing, I found the shirt I was looking for in a medium.
HOWEVER, the trousers were nowhere to be seen in my usual size of a 10. I almost gave up and left but decided to just get a size 12 instead. Who cares if they’re a bit baggy?
Wide leg trousers are meant to be oversized anyways. Changing rooms were hell. 40 minute wait.
Unnatural lighting. And seriously, everyone trying on clothes in there were filming themselves doing up the buttons/zip of the garment for their Instagram stories. Takes one to know one.
But yea, I tried it on… Okay so here’s the thing, when I first saw it on myself, I wasn’t dissapointed. I actually thought ‘wow this isn’t bad at all’.
The material wasn’t as itchy as I thought it would be and the shirt actually had a nice boxy shape to it that actually looked like it was supposed to be that way rather than just badly made. It definitely felt like a synthetic material, like one of those clothes that have a slightly plasticy texture to them? But it wasn’t the worst quality I’ve seen from a fast fashion piece.
The sleeves were a nice length on the shirt, and it buttoned nicely around my chest. It actually had a pretty nice funnel neck which I thought instantly raised it up a few notches. Styled together they actually did have that effortlessly matching set vibe I’ve seen all over social media.
As for the trousers, they were hit or miss. The 12 was way too big around my waist but my god the length was perfect and it actually had the wide leg shape that everybody’s been loving lately. I figured I could just belt it to make up for the size and hey £14 isn’t cheap anyway so I wasn’t expecting it to fit like a glove.
So I bought it. £28 for a full matching outfit. Cheaper than I would normally spend on a shirt from Urban Outfitters… As I walked out of Primark with my cute lil bag in hand, I was already thinking of ways I could style it to make it look more high-end. Gold hoops?
Check. Big ring light? Check.
Take it from the angle where you can see my bedroom behind me but also where it doesn’t look like I’m taking a picture in my bedroom? Double check. Content brain will never turn off, am I right?
Back at home I got changed and tried it on again. But this time, I tried it on in the crappy lighting of my bedroom as opposed to under my ring light at Primark. And guys.. it looked cheap.
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Like when you buy a top that looks so soft and luxurious in the changing room but once you get home you realize it’s 100% polyester. The material didn’t look as flowy as it did IRL. In the stores, it could’ve passed off for linen but the minute I got home and looked at it in natural lighting it definitely had a shine to it that gave it away as a polyester blend.
It wasn’t see through unwearable but it just didn’t look as high quality as I thought it did in-store. I decided to wear it anyways. Full content blown.
I wore the whole co-ord to meet up with my friends for brunch and strutted around fully confident. Paired it with my go-to accessories; gold hoop earrings, a cute vintage belt to cinch the trousers in and my go-to white leather platform sandals from Zara that everyone always asks where I got from. From a far, the overall aesthetic was great.
Like actually great. It had that slightly messy but put together look that makes co-ords so great to wear in the first place. Trust me, it started to go downhill from there.
Firstly, the trousers started to stretch out even more. Like they were already pretty baggy around my waist but after wearing it for a couple of hours they just continued to get bigger and my belt had to work even harder to keep everything looked somewhat decent. Secondly, sweat.
Oh my god did it sweat. I felt like I was continuously sweating. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before but seeing as it was obviously synthetic (we’ve already established that), it generated so much sweat!
Every. Single. Time.
I wore it. I was literally drenched by the time we left brunch and went to walk around the shops. My friends Hannah and Jess both gave it 100% honest reviews when I asked them (honestly the only time my friends will ever be this rude to me).
Hannah told me it looked great from far but ‘you look like you’ve been swimming in that top’. OBVIOUSLY it did. But from far.
Jess examined the material and made a face at how synthetic it was. ‘It looks so good from far out tho’ she said, which isn’t a compliment… trust me. So yea I decided to wear the pieces seperately for the rest of the week to really test them out. And guys they actually aren’t too bad when worn seperately.
The trousers with a plain cotton t-shirt is actually quite a nice lounging outfit? Comfortable and those trousers are way too baggy to look intentionally baggy without the top. The shirt works really nicely with a pair of jeans but you have to be careful how you style it.
Maybe throw on a denim jacket? Overall they work quite well as individual pieces but definitely not together. So then I thought maybe it’ll look better on camera?
Obviously. So I did a whole photo shoot with it. Drove myself crazy trying to film the ‘perfect TikTok angle’.
Got my ring light shining, found the best angle where you can see my face but also the pretty flowers I have outside my house and snap. Post it with the caption ‘Where do you guys get your affordable clothing from?’ Double tap city. But guys.. when I filmed some try-on content with it, that’s when I realised how bad it actually was.
Film always shows things that a picture can conceal. The way the material moved looked cheap and you could really tell how synthetic the material was when the light hit it at certain angles. I even had to edit my video to strategically place my angles so you couldn’t see how bad the material looked.
It wasn’t as great as I made it seem… But after wearing it a couple more times I’ve come to a conclusion. If you’re looking for cute affordable pieces that you know you’ll wear over and over and over then no this is not for you. However, if you’re looking for a cheap piece to take pictures for the ‘gram’ or even wear once to an event it is perfect.
Here’s why; For £28, it’s actually not as bad as you think. The material is what you expect for that price. Doesn’t feel as good as natural materials would but definitely isn’t the worst.
The shirt is super cute and pairs so nicely with the trousers. The material doesn’t cling to your body like some clothes do so it is better for warmer weather. The fit is also what you’d expect; baggy around the waist and big on the shoulders but skinny at the ankles.
The length on both the shirt and trousers are great too. However, like I said before, the material is very obvious it’s a polyester blend. Which means when you start to sweat it sucks it all in?
The material won’t hold up well after multiple wears and washes. You’d have to be very careful when washing this too; I’m probably going to have to hand wash this to make sure it lasts. It also isn’t as high quality as the influencers make it out to be.
Sure, from far it looks great but up close its obvious where your £28 went. So would I recommend buying this co-ord? Absolutely.
But again, only under certain circumstances.
If you’re looking for a cute and affordable photo op or just something to wear once then go ahead and buy it. But if you’re looking to buy clothes that you know you’ll love wearing over and over, then I’d save up your pennies and invest in something of better quality that you’ll actually enjoy wearing and won’t make you sweat through your makeup.
TLDR: Moral of the story? Don’t waste your money on things just because you saw it on Instagram. Learn from my mistakes.
EDIT: I washed the set for the first time last night and it’s definitely started to show signs of wear. The shirt is okay but will need a good iron as the material has kinda lost it’s shape. The trousers are EVEN MORE baggy around the waist than before.
I’d say I’ll only get about three more wears out of it before it’s unwearable. Moral of the story? If you want it to last longer than a couple of wears DO NOT BUY IT.
