River Island

So reading the other reviews, I’m almost embarrassed to admit how much my friends and I liked this place… but it really made our trip!
I like the style, and while the price to quality ratio I will agree is a bit off (quality’s not great for the price), there are still some great finds if you look, and I bought a gorgeous sexy dress I’m completely in love with for € 47 along with a few other casual items — so no complaints here!

The Grafton Street branch of River Island sees their same mediocre hoard of clothes spread across a bigger floor space than any other within the city. More of the same in way of unexciting high-​street casual wear desperate to pull off ‘cool’ but at best achieves something not entirely objectionable.
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.

I would pretty much second all of Cathal C’s comments on River Island, if anything I’d be a little harsher.
It’s just racks upon rack of unnecessarily over-​designed, fussy, horrible stuff that doesn’t fit anyone well and is more often than not a darn sight more expensive than the high street competition.
I have only one thing to add to this: the stairs, they have to be the most awkward stairs of any shop in Dublin. I don’t know if architects know what the perfect incline and increment for stairs is, but I know that the stairs in River Island couldn’t be further from it. They’re just ever so slightly too steep and too narrow, which leaves them navigable and acceptable but just plainly awkward … Anyway that’s enough of that.
Boo!

River Island is a great place for accessories — their jewellery, shoes and bags are really good and pretty reasonable. But I think that their clothes are overpriced. Not CRAZY expensive, but still pricey for what you’re getting. Like I personally think that € 40 for a vest is a rip off, and jeans for € 70/​€ 80 that are covered in glitter just don’t do it for me.
Don’t get me wrong, most of their stuff is nice, but it wouldn’t be my first port of call when going on a bit of a spree.

River Island saved my trip. I’m a girl that wears her favorite jeans until they rip, and boy did they rip when I was in Dublin… right down the inseam. I popped into River Island where I was able to find a new pair of jeans that were reasonably priced. Sure they were a tad expensive, but then again I was in desperate need for a new pair of jeans. I didn’t really buy into all of the other clothes — as the other reviews post it’s a bit too glitz and glam for me.

River Island on Grafton Street sells clothes for clubbing but it actually feels like a bit of a club itself. It’s glitzy, the staff are preened and the Pussy Cat Dolls or some such tune is usually pumping from the speakers.
I’d class River Island as one of the more expensive and glam high-​street shops with a lot of sequins, gold and silver sprinkled over the dressy clothes. It stocks work and play clothes for groomed and glamorous girls but I wouldn’t stop in here for casual gear, certainly not if your tastes are a little rough round the edges (ie you’ve no intention of ever wearing fake tan). A whole floor is dedicated to shoes, bags and accessories downstairs so if you’re a fanatic, you’re likely to stumble across something to tempt you.
In general, I think it’s a tad over-​priced but a good place to pop into if you want to vamp it up.

River Island, on Dublin’s Grafton St, is a little bit of a puzzler. I wouldn’t shop there terribly often, but sometimes it’s nice to have a little bit of a change from shitty Dublin-​sized H&M (more on Dublin’s miniature multiples in a later post).
There are often decent clothes in River Island, and you can pick up a nice pair of jeans for a reasonable price. But Lord above, there’s one thing they do that wrecks my head: going flicking through the racks, you see a pair of jeans and you think to yourself, «Hmm, they look like pair of trousers I could really go for. Nice colour, good cut, they look the right length. Yeah, nice.»
Then you turn them around to look at the back and you see this crazy lime-​green or silver or metallic blue motif that covers the entire seat and continues half-​way along the left leg. Why must River Island take a perfectly serviceable pair of trousers (or t-​shirt or hoodie) and ruin them with bizarre, jarring designs? I just don’t get it.
And if you see a sale sign in the window and think that you might pop in and have a look, don’t; if the normal stuff is bit too mad-​motify, the stuff they put on sale is like Kadinsky on acid. Just avoid the sale signs.
If you can find some of the few items of clothing not adulterated with progressive art, go for it. But you’d be one of the lucky ones.