Who are they?
New Look are a high street clothes store that sell clothes for men, women, boys and girls. There are frequent one off offers where customers are able to gain between 10 and 20% off of purchases. Unlike competitors, such as River Island and Topshop, New Look are affordable. Their clothes are also good quality fashionable clothing which are somtimes from AX paris and Apricot as well as other brands.You can also find three for two offers on things gifts such as Me To You stationary, mugs and clocks as well as other nifty gifts that are good for Birthdays or Christmas stocking fillers. There are also a selection of clothes for different occassions such as; work, partying, casual day out, bedtime, special occassions and underwear. Accessories also range from scarves to gunglasses and ear-rings.
Layout & Presentation
When you walk into the New Look store there is a designated area for childrens clothes separating the boys from the girls as well as designated areas for men and womens alonside shoes. However the store is generally split into two (male and females) and within either section you will find the "generation" clothing section which is the childrens area. You will also see New Look's "Inspire" range which is specifically for larger people dress sizes generally being 18-24.
Starting with the shoes, there are some shoes which are hanging up and these are between flats and copyies of UGG boots or other types of boots. You will also find shelving where shoes are presented and depending on what shelf you are looking at will determine the type of shoe you are looking at. You will generally find that heals are on the shelves and these will range from Kitten to platform stilletoes and shoes to shoe boots and boots. They are separated onto different shelving to make this easier for the customers I imagine but to me there isn't anything specific to say what type of shoe you are looking at and by looking around the shoes you're at risk of impulse spending.
Moving on to the clothes, these areas are all vastly the same in their layout whether you're looking at men's women's or children's clothes. You will find one area with sale items, an area for typical work clothes which mostly consists of; shirts, shorts, trousers, blasers, blouses, cardigans, jumpers, dresses, jumpsuits and occassionally tights (this differs slightly dependant on gender). You will then find clothes for casual wear which involves a dedicated area for jeans and then your basic every day tops and jumpers, coats, leggings, jeggings, joggers, tees, crops, skirts, shorts and dresses (again depending on gender). The same will go for other occassions of clothing.
Finishing off with accessories these will be found laid out similar to the shoes as you find that belts, scarves, purses, handbags, ear-rings, necklacffes, bracelets, bangles, etc... will be hanging up as there are no accessories that are shelved.
Selection and Range
The selection is quite decent in my opinion and I always find something that I could wear to work or on a night out and even for casual wear.
A lot of their clothing are also flexible in the way that you can wear them as a lot of the basic clothing you can use for work - which I do - or you can wear something which is more for work as casual wear, depending on what it is. They also have their own ranges such as AX paris, Inspire, Generation and Apricot.
Starting off with the work range you will find that it is a very typical work look and I get the impression that it would be more for people who work in an office or a school or more so for people aged under 30. Obviously a majority of the work wear is black, white and grey but still quite nice. I say typical because a lot are dresses, skirts, trousers, blouses, shirts and blazers or similar sort Jackets and cardigans. These range from £5 to £35 but majority of them are around £20 which I find to be quite reasonable.
Moving on to the basic wear range you will generally not pay more than £30 for this and the starting price is just above £2. Everything is obviously basic and there is nothing overly eyecatching about them but with a few accessories you can make them a bit more entertaining but otherwise they're very plain and are items that I find I would probably wear when I need to nip to the shop or for work and will generally keep using them for a couple of years as they don't ever really go out of fashion.
On the other hand, I find that the partying / special ocassion / clubwear is quite varied and on the majority - very pretty. I have purchased a couple of dresses for a night out and have always had compliments. There are various different types of dresses from shift to bodycon and gracian to lacey. Like the work wardrobe, I find that some of these dresses can also be worn flexibly for a night out or for day wear or even work. I wouldn't say all of them - but some you could get away with it. Dresses I find usually range between £15 and £50 depending.
Thinking about the casual wear you're looking at £10 to £60 and I wouldn't say all of them are as nice as what you might find in some of the other shops i.e. River Island but they're still nice enough and apparently quite popular as the clothes are quite flexible in what you're wearing them for.
Availability
This is where New Look let me down a little. I'm a size three in shoes - embarassing at 19 I know - and for me this is difficult enough to get my shoe size and sometimes I end up having to go for a size four. I always look and generally the only sizes that they have in shoes would be fives, sevens and eights and this seems to be for the ones that I like all the time. However I always ask one of the staff members if they have my size and generally they do but they don't show the availabiltiy on the shelves as much - which I think they should. If I look online at New Look it's more or less the same scenario so I think they need to re-think their stock levels for more satisfied customers.
Unfortunately the same scario goes with dresses and being a size 8 - I tend to only find one or two of one dress or top in my size and I think that this is really appauling as there should definitely be at least five of each on show but it doesn't seem as though the staff at New Look regularly top of the shelves and rails or at least I've never seen them actually do this.
In store Customer Services
As stated previously - I tend to have to ask one of the staff members for certain shoes in my size and generally they manage to find them but sometimes they offer me the same or a similar shoe in my size or the next size up. Generally they are quite friendly, happy, bubbly and polite - that's always going to get the thumbs up from me. However, on one occassion one woman thought it would be hilarious to say they didn't sell midget shoe sizes. I was calm about it and said that I can't be a "midget" at 5ft 7 and there was no need to try and make a joke of it as I didn't think it at all funny. On the whole though that has only ever happened once and I think she might have just been a one off.
Quality
I've been into New Look a lot over the years and I find that the quality is exceptionally good. E.g. I have purchased a pair of shoes at New Look which have lasted for a fair few months and then I've purchased a pair of shoes from River Island which have scraped lasting a month. However, although I find that the quality is exceedingly good and tends to last a longer than expected time I do find that they do lack a bit and this would be probably 1/10 items that they sell as sometimes the stitching comes undone and it's just not the best quality in my opinion all of the time. I am purely saying this as a "It happens probably once out of ten purchases" and not often do I ever have any problems with what I've recently bought from them.
My thoughts and conclusion
I have rated New Look 4/5 stars as yes they are good quality and affordable but there are a couple of things that made me bring their rating down. See below for the pros and cons.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Mostly excellent quality - Most items I have brought have been excellent quality and lasted a long durable time.
- Value for money - Good value for money and quite affordable
- Offers quite regularly on for discounts up to 20%
Cons
- Availability of stock - Don't have many items in stock of that size or any at all
- Quality can lack - 1/10 times I have found an item hasn't been the best quality and not lasted as long.
Overall, I do think that New Look have a couple of improvements that could be made but I wouldn't say anything major. I do really like their clothes range and I do believe that they are good quality and affordable to the public. I've always been a very happy customer and I doubt I'd be stopping my shopping their any time soon.
An affordable way to a New Look 
