River Island

Used to love the clothes here, but now ½ of the shop seems to be Rhianna «gangster» clothing. Nothing says classy like seeing a 40 year old
woman wearing a «G Forever» shirt or a «onesie”(and no I’m not talking about me…)
I’d still shop here for jeans though as they last forever, well worth the price if you can find some you like!

I was able to get in some retail therapy on my lunch break today and took advantage of River Island’s half off sale. I picked up a cute dress for under € 20, which I was thrilled about. What was really frustrating is how understaffed they were for a sale like this. I waited in line to pay for 15 minutes, and at one point they had four cashiers at one till trying to solve an issue while their tills went unmanned. Problems happen and sometimes people need help, but four people trying to solve one problem while there’s a huge queue of people waiting?

I love River Island… this store is big and has a great selection! I especially love the kids section here because it is the biggest one i’ve seen with sooo much to chose from. The style and quality is very good and keep a very fashion focused 4 year son of mine very happy!

When River Island lay claim to ranges like ‘Urban Angel’, Retro Sailor’, Pretty Grunge’ and ‘Futuristic’ I react in a very unenthusiastic way. It’s like onomatopoeia or a game of ‘Say What You See’. These titles eradicate any sense of captivating ambiguity from the clothes themselves. When you finally get to see the clothes that these names allude to it is clear that in reality they suffer from a massive deficiency in any of the ‘urban’ or idiosyncratic ‘retro’ style once smugly referred to.
This is the perfect example of a humdrum shop that’s been around for years suddenly trying to play catch up with the more uncompromising (referring to them not conforming to monotonous fads) stores now gaining popularity with the idiosyncratic hipsters of today. River Island is trying to be eccentric but can’t even execute the admin side of things properly.

In contrast to the other River Island (see my review for River Island on Grafton St; in essence, too much crazy design shit on the clothes), the one located in Arnotts on Henry St is pretty good. They still have a load of bullshit t-​shirts and some almost nice jeans, but what they also have is a damn fine suit department.
If you want to purchase a suit for yourself and don’t want to to run the risk of looking like an old man, River Island should be your first stop. I bought my first (and to date, only) real suit in River Island, and some four years later it is still on the go.
They are meant to be moving River Island from within Arnotts to the Ilac Shopping Centre, so that should be a funny one: I doubt if any on River Island’s nattily dressed patrons have ever set foot within the grotty confines of the Ilac (though this was anounced about a year ago, and since everything has gone to shit even worse since then, economically speaking, this move may have been put on hold).

I adore River Island! I visited the store during the sales last year, I never visited River Island before. The store was clean and spacious and the staff were very helpful. You could pick up trendy fashion pieces here, most of the clothes are aimed at the younger market but there are few key pieces suitable for all. River Islands tops are by far the best, and the dress sizes there are perfect, not too big or small! I came out with loads of bags from River Island during the sales, although the pricing is average, not cheap, I did get my moneys worth from the sales. The quality of the clothes are very good as well. Well worth a visit!