Are high street clothes getting worse quality?

[FajarVega]

I feel like clothes don’t last the way they used to. Things I buy now seem to lose shape after a few washes. Am I just choosing badly or has anyone else noticed this?

Yes and that’s the problem.. it’s quite a big jump up in price.

Well, you’re wrong!

I almost never encounter poor quality anything - but as we’re talking about clothes … Yes, the High St appears to be mostly crap - so one has to make a conscious decision to look further afield, but it is possible to buy decent quality to suit most budgets. Whether pre-owned or in the sales, or from outlet stores. (Having the time, knowledge or inclination to do this repeatedly is a different matter.)

I’ve bought one cheaply made thing this year, which became unwearable after two laundry cycles - but I fully expected that. Everything else from this year’s shopping will probably outlast me.

I have found Seasalt to be good quality and wash well but of course a lot of MN won't buy from there as it is seen as 'frumpy'

The quality of even upscale brands like Jigsaw and Whistles is awful too. In the 2000s you could buy lovely things in natural fibres which were great quality from high street brands, even the supermarkets (anyone remember the Tesco cashmere?) — now, all synthetics, badly made, terrible fit, poor stitching and finish, even at shops charging a lot. I’ve stopped buying and am just wearing all my existing clothes into holes! The only places I find good basics from now tend to be Uniqlo (as a pp also said), and sometimes Hush (and I had to send back some of their items recently as the quality was poor, so I’m not hopeful for them). I despair. I’ve taken to buying stuff on eBay now.

70 new items a year?! I buy about 4 (excluding underwear).

It’s definitely better to spend £200-300 on a single cashmere or wool/cashmere jumper and then look after it by washing infrequently and carefully. That jumper will still be beautiful in 10 years which is a pretty modest cost/year.

All my decent stuff that has been bought in recent years I bought when we lived in Denmark 2020 to 2022 - bought in Sweden Denmark and Germany - I swear they get better stuff, be it coats, boots, tops

Wool, cotton or cashmere jumpers, cotton or linen shirts, leather skirts, cotton trousers and jeans with minimal elastane are all available at different price points. I think there are plenty of clothes made of natural fibres out there. Most retailers’ websites let you filter by fabric.

Absolutely agree. I bought a pair of wide leg tencel trousers from M & S in the summer and the overlocking on the seams had an edge like it was a knife blade, which was annoyingly very itchy. I hoped it would be less so after washing but no. The same with the last lot of M & S multipack knickers, the leg elastic was so tight and the edge of the picot edged elastic was again very sharp.

Joules have changed the neckline of their Harbour top, and made the top shorter (“new shorter length”). I don’t want shorter, tops need to be longer!

I’m a larger size, and what I find is as the size gets bigger widthways, it does not correspond lengthways. One should expect items to be in proportion but they are still so short and I am 5’6 so not overly tall.

I bought a lovely dress from White Stuff a few years ago, with tiers in an alternate pattern and buttons all the way up the front. Really nice fabric. They brought it out in another colour way and while very slightly different (only bottoms at the top), the main style was identical - same neckline, same sleeves, same tiers etc. ordered it and it did not fit me at all, there was about a three inch gap where the buttons did not meet. But was the same size as the original one which fits beautifully. How can the sizes be so inconsistent? I complained to White Stuff with photos hoping they might at least offer me some kind of small token voucher (I’d bought it through Next and had to do a 40 mile trip to return to store it or pay to return it). It got me nowhere!

I agree with this. The quality of clothes and other things (like chocolate) from brands I used to like, have dropped. As have "non-branded" items on Amazon, for example if I just want a cheap camping chair or dish clothes.

I'm trying to be much more discerning on where I spend my money, buying more premium where I can (e.g., clothes from Sezanne) or getting really cheap tat from Temu when I don't care (e.g., just bought some compression travel bags from there, not Amazon).

I wonder whether the average Brit will be priced out of "premium" and international products that we used to afford - like branded alcoholic drinks (don't buy Bailey's, buy sainsbury's own), European cars (buy a Chinese SUV), clothes that survive the wash... wages have stagnated for years

Absolutely. I know my style and like to wear my clothes for many years.

I’m in my fifties and the quality of high street is so poor now I either make my own (about 50% of my clothes and all my pyjamas) or buy boutique brands (expensive but well made) and country wear, which is usually pretty good, but again, expensive.

Fashion is a huge problem on many levels and the exploitation of textile workers throughout the world is something for another thread but being a dressmaker myself it is something I think a lot about and it does influence my choices.

I personally really like Seasalt clothes, and have purchased many items from them. They are quite limited in their petite range though, imo, and I have had to return some lovely dresses, as the regular length was just too long for me. I would not class their clothes as frumpy, or care if that is what others may think.

I've got some good quality thicker Seasalt tunics. However I also bought a thinner summer top which started to unravel in the seams after one wash.

I bought a couple of packs of knickers from Sainsbury's, none of which lasted beyond three washes, and in a couple of cases started to unravel on the first wear!

M&S knickers seem so far to be okay, but the rest of their clothing is appalling quality. I used to always buy tops and jeans there, and still have a gorgeous 20 year old Per Una lined and padded jacket. The quality of their clothes these days is appalling, dreadfully made acrylic in black, browns, and navy.

The quality has definitely got much worse. I was in Next recently, looking at some basic tops, and the fabric was so thin I could see my hand through it, which is normal now sadly. The shape and finish were poor too. Next used to be good quality.

The young’uns tend to think that Old People look back on the past with rose tinted specs and exaggerate things like this. But the proof is in the old clothes we’re still using. My DD went through a box of clothes I had abandoned in the loft due to no longer being slim (sadly!). She picked out some fantastic “vintage” stuff that I would have bought in the 90s, including items from Next that you would have thought were a really premium brand. It was all stuff I’d worn and washed a good few times, not new, but it was all perfect - really well made, great fabrics, nicely finished with attention to detail.

I am also still wearing some outdoor brand base layers from at least the 90s, possibly 80s. And some other equally ancient basics.

How can the sizes be so inconsistent?

It's because they're made by different manufacturers, sometimes in completely different countries.

And each manufacturer ends up making different sized size 12 or whatever.

Another recommendation for the book Leas by Patrick Grant for some really thought provoking thoughts on this subject.

I’ve just had some of his knickers and socks via Community Clothing and they are better quality than anything I’ve seen in decades.

I bought my first Seasalt items this week, two pairs of cords. They’re a nice colour and fit alright but they’re far too long (not a problem) - The quality of the fabric though, is awful, they’re chunky corduroy but its so thin it practically see through, and they’ll wear out in a minute. They were £70 a pair and they’re both going back purely because of the poor fabric.

I also bought a pair of Rundholz drop crotch black velvet trousers which I’m keeping, they’re beautiful, thick, warm and very well made, but ridiculous that I take a small when I’m a solid 14.

I’ve just finished that. The first half was very good but the message was spoiled a bit by the second half being just one long advert for his company, Community Clothing. Put me off a bit.

Others will think differently, that’s fine, I won’t be debating it.

Yes. I’m searching on Vinted for a lot of older stuff now. Clothes I bought in the likes of Topshop and Oasis in the early 2000s are all cotton (I didn’t even notice that then) and have lasted. Nowadays you’re hard pushed to find anything that’s not a polyblend and the workmanship is dreadful. In the last few years, I’ve started to look at clothes marketed for men in shops. Usually much better quality, obviously hard to get sizing that works.

Me too. I used to buy a lot when I was young and when high street quality was better, now I’m in my fifties, finacially secure, and buy three or four items a year.

I spend £250 - £500 a piece on items that are great quality and beautifully designed from places like House Of Bruar, House of Valerie, Palaver, the now defunct Cabbages and Roses and outdoor shops. I buy real basics from M&S - not bras, M&S bras are the worst!

I’m in my fifties and have always loved fashion - this approach feels right for me now but I do realise that I’m very privileged to be able to do it.

Point taken. But I am the person without the time/inclination/knowledge to 'find' this stuff.
With regards to clothing I am tall with a 34' leg, I am also plus (plus) sized so my options are somewhat limited I find!

I'm small and curvy so buying clothes that fit and sit well was never the easiest, and men's clothes are not an option if I don't want to look like I'm wearing daddy's old shirt for painting. I don't have a £££ budget, don't live in a cosmopolitan city and know my limitations of executive function well enough to know that I'm not wasting money on failed returns on anything less than a 90% chance of something fitting.

Most of the time I come out of a changing room and hand it back because it's just cut oddly.

I've got some M&S wide leg trousers from the last time they were in fashion, fit well, thick, soft fabric. I tried some new ones the "same" now they're back in fashion... but the cut was really saggy on the belly that even my mum-tum couldn't fill, but the next size down would be too tight everywhere else.

I'm still wearing a lot of clothes from 2000-2015.

There’s cheaper fabrics being used - definitely. But not for everything. Merino wool and cashmere are widely available. Wool mix coats and trousers too. I’d pay more and buy less and look at better high st stores.

Quality is terrible now. After a disaster with several M&S jumpers last year, one I did return but the others were binned. I bought three Primark jumpers, the cream one was washed once after four wears and had now been binned.
Also some PJs from Tu at Sainsburys are so bobbled after about three washes, dreadful state, don't know what the solution is.
I'm buying clothes that I know will barely last two months.

@BogRollBOGOF - buy online (with the help of meticulous measuring and reading of item details) and employ executive function to source and use a decent alterations service. Mass produced clothes are never going to fit everybody.

(I live in a city and have been into a shop changing room once this year.)

I'm starting to think I need to dust off my sewing machine.

Hardly anyone here wears anything other than athleisure. Even the primary school teachers are in leggings and a cheapo polo shirt. Maybe it's lack of demand?