STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

ITA!

About four year ago or so, I would always go into the Bennetton store in Santa Monica just for kicks. I thought the stuff was cute for the price and I LOVED the store's cleanliness and how bright the clothing was. The SM store is done in all white, so it really highlighted the clothing choices.

Now I go into the stores and I can't bear to spend the prices for the quality. I think a lot of the materials used are cheap and don't justify the price tags at all. I've never tried any of it on, so I have no idea how things fit.

I agree, although I actually buy work clothes there fairly often because I can actually find things that fit, which is not often the case in BR, Gap, JCrew, etc.
I think there has always been a disparity within the store - some stuff is good quality, well-constructed, lined (often the winter clothes) and a lot of the summer stuff is made of kind of gross unlined synthetics.  Overall I agree that their prices are too high (not sure if it's gotten worse recently since it's a European company and the dollar:euro exchange rate is so terrible) but they usually have amazing sales. 

I've had good luck with the work clothes that I've bought from there. I got a white suit for half price, it fits great and wears really well...I definitely would have paid full price if it were in a different color.

I also got the dress and jacket that I wore to be sworn in to bar. Most of the time I just wear the dress without the jacket, and it fits like a glove. I get more compliments on that dress than any thing else I wear. 
I can't remember how much it cost though, I think the dress was around $70.00 but the jacket was on sale.

But I've also bought a few shirts from there that didn't make it past one wear. So for me it's hit or miss...

I used to love this store in the early to mid 90's- although some of the stuff was a tad pricey, the quality was much better that it is today. Now it seems like alot of polyester-y type materials that are poorly constructed, even though some of the stuff is cute.

I did buy a nice trench coat from there recently that I love, but overall,  Benetton is definitely not the store that it used to be...

just my humble opinion...

I just went into Benneton for the first time in ages on Friday. I thought teh clothes were super cute but pricey. They had a few really adorable sundresses that I could not justify spending $150 dollars a peice on.