Its strange we have not had a review for a fashion product for quite sometime. Remember when I bragged about snagging a pair of the Banana Republic Sloan pants (which are very popular, very famous) on sale? Well, I have been wearing them for quite sometime now. Its not all good but its not all bad either. Read this if you are considering these. I thought this review would be helpful. Maybe the aspects I disliked about the trousers would not bother most other people so much and I am just annoyingly picky? 🙂
The Store and Shopping Experience: If you have ever entered a Banana Republic store you would know its quite a enjoyable shopping experience. Its definitely way above the H&M, Zara, Forever 21 experience. It has nice dressing rooms and helpful staff. (This is pretty much all you need except so many stores get that wrong!). I went to the store on Cheapside. The ground floor has all the women’s stuff but of course, as expected, the petite sizes are relegated to the first floor along with kid’s clothes and accessories.
The Stocking: I have never been able to find my size in their stores for most of their trousers. (I usually go either to the Cheapside one or the one in Regent Street). For the dresses its been easy but they usually seem to have 10 items in one size (never the one I want) and nothing else. So the stocking is a bit weird. I wanted trousers in my size in plain black but the only ones in my size were these ones with slight white dashes across it. I kind of gave up and just picked these up.
The Sizes: The fantastic thing about BR is their extensive petite collection. Atleast compared to most other stores. The pants I picked up from their petite collection.
The not so fantastic thing is that BR is an American brand who don’t realise they are not in America. So they have US size labels which is the most annoying thing. I have had to return items not realising I have picked up a wrong size. I picked up XS which is my normal size but for BR I need a XXXS. No kidding. I have seen women have confused conversation with the salespeople with no resolution. There is no proper sizing conversion chart either – they usually have the standard conversion chart which shows US sizes in numbers against UK sizes in numbers, for instance, US size 6 is equal to UK size 2. Except that does not help when the sizes are in S, XS, XXS and so on. Its just a lot of endless confusion.
Outfit details: trouser from Banana Republic (all in similar style), white shirt from Zara (unavailable, others), black blazer from Mango, red pumps from Zara, coffee flask from Amazon and wallet from Aspinal of London.
The Fit: The trousers fit great in the dressing room. The fact that I didn’t even need to shorten them is nothing short of amazing. After a scientific study, I can confirm to you that less than 1% of the trousers I have bought or worn did not need to be shortened. So this pleased me immensely.
The Quality: The hem on one leg came half undone. Soon after I bought them. I suspect I bought it like that and didn’t bother checking. But it did annoy me. And let me not be unkind. I have had these for about 6 months and worn them about 5-6 times but maybe they will hold up great after many wears – we’ll see.
The Maintenance: The Banana Republic Sloan pants are dry-clean only. Thats a lot of maintenance. For the purpose of this review (and because I am cheap) I did throw them into the machine for the first wash. They came out quite crinkled and not so sleek so I realised dry-cleaning is probably the safer option.
The Price: I ended up getting my pants on a discount – maybe about £40. However, the Sloan pants actually range from £55 to £60. So not cheap at all. And also keep in mind the additional dry cleaning and tailoring costs that maybe required.
Ok, so what did I like? I love the fit and the fact that there was no additional tailoring required. And the store is a lovely one.
And what didn’t I like? The dry-cleaning bit, the need to hem it again, the fact that getting the size you need is complicated to ascertain and a hit or miss to find.
What did I hate? I have an aversion to pants that make balls in your knees. I don’t know how else to explain this but basically after wearing it a while, they don’t lay flat against your knees. Focus on my knees on the picture you will know what I mean! And I absolutely hate it.
Ok summarise – will you buy them again? Will you recommend them to a friend? Nope, I will not be buying them again. The balls thing really annoys me so until that is fixed, no way. And the whole dry-cleaning thing. For the love of this planet and my pocket, I cannot. Bottomline, I just don’t think they are worth the price.
I might recommend it to friends with all of these caveats. I know some of you might be wondering what is wrong with her with the balls on knees thing! If thats ok with you and you get most of your clothes dry-cleaned (or own a dry-cleaner), go right ahead. I am sad about missing this great fit though.
Do you have any stories about the Banana Republic Sloan pants? Or any stories about Banana Republic in general? (Or any gossip about anything – we would definitely love to know that!) Also, I would be happy to answer any questions you might have about this. However I definitely don’t want to scare you off these trousers. Go try them out if you can before you make up your mind. Don’t take my word (and idiosyncrasies) for it!
If you like your trousers bright and summery, or if you are looking for summer dresses, some fun new swimwear, or are generally tired of the pressure of summer and just want to wear black – we have it all here. Please follow or like our Facebook page or our Instagram if you want to see more pictures and you can subscribe to our blog on the main page of the blog.
Thanks for reading!
– Anisha
You’re so beautiful! Love your look and these heels are dream!
-xx, Sia
Ooohhh! Thank you! Strangely I have had the heels forever! But I have to be honest- they are not comfortable but I love the colour and shape so have been hanging onto them. Thanks so much for the compliment and for reading!
Love this look! London is a great city too!
http://www.maggiekrol.com/made-for-walkin/
Xoxo, Maggie
A really great post! I love a good and honest product/experience review and this is perfect. Annoying about the quality, but you look amazing, especially with the red heels.
Thank you Goergia! I was quite upset about it but I also expect much more because they are quite expensive you know? Glad you enjoyed the review. I did think the outfit was a little boring so the red heels were much required! ☺️
Nice 🙂
Hello from the other side of the Atlantic! I own five pairs of Sloan pants and absolutely love them. Finally a pair of stylish pants that fit my curvy hips but don’t gap at the waist! All of the Sloans I’ve purchased have been of the highest quality… no loose hems or faulty fabric. The Sloan fit is looser through the leg than in your pictures; no balling at the knees or snug at the calf. I suspect that your pants shrunk when you washed them — something you should never do when the label reads “Dry clean only”. Yes, dry cleaning is expensive, but that’s what most higher quality fabrics require. About the sizing labels… we have the same problem over here. We get European clothes/shoes with the associated sizing and the shop clerks just learn to convert the sizes to US for customers. I’m sorry that you didn’t like the Sloans more but I’m sure there’s a perfect pant out there for you. Good luck in your search.
Hey Sioban. Thanks for your review! I definitely think I got a crappy piece and honestly didn’t bother checking before I picked it up either. But I did have the balling effect even before I washed them. I would agree with you about dry cleaning quality fabrics but my issue is that this is not! Its the general cotton, polyester mix and not a quality fabric at all. I think I am prejudiced since I would not mind dry cleaning some beautiful silk but for this item dry cleaning it so not worth the money and environmental effects. Have you tried any of their other trousers? Thank you for the luck – I will need it!
Girl, you missed out on the best of the Sloan pants. I know I’m getting late to this post. But I have been wearing the same 4 pairs of Sloan pants every week for the past two/three years. And still have 3 out of the 4 I purchased. These are the only Pants I wear every week, and only pants! But BR changed their Sloan pant about a year/ two years ago to a new material and cut. They are completely different. I know this because I have the old version and ripped (my fault) blue pants, went in to buy a new pair and they are 90% different. The only this that is the same is the clasp and zipper, the pockets aren’t even the same as the old ones. But I will say they, they last FORVER!! The three I have still look brand new and I wash my in my wash machine and dryer – no dry cleaning. Hope I find the old version in the gap or old navy because I hate the new version and cut
Haha. Thank you so much for your fun, juicy, informative comment! This makes a lot of sense actually. Everything I had heard about the Sloan trousers didn’t make any sense to me after I tried out these ones but now it does. I have never understood why companies change thing which are working well and don’t change things that are not! If you do ever come across the old Sloans please let me know! Although I am sure you are in the USA with access to Old Navy – we don’t have the stores here sadly.
I purchased 3 pair of Sloan fit slacks for work. I absolutely adore them, but, I did have all 3 pair dry cleaned. All 3 pair shrank an entire size! hem is way shorter! I’m going to try and un-shrink them with room temp. water and conditioner. Wish me luck! I’m going to need it.
Are you serious! How did they shrink if they were dry cleaned? Oddly mine didn’t shrink although I just put them into the machine. This is pretty ridiculous. Ok, let me know how it goes!
I’ve had my sloan pants shrink at the dry cleaners as well. I started washing them at home. Sometimes they shrink, sometimes they don’t.
I have had the same experience actually so after that figured its definitely not worth dry-cleaning!
Thank you for this post! I , too, loved these in the fitting room, love the petite sizing,etc. But now that I’ve brought them home, I’m not so sure. I hate the balls in the knees look too, so I think I’ll be returning these. I’ve often wondered if that issue bothers anyone else!
Haha – I guess you will always find someone with your problem on the internet! Did you keep them or finally return them?