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?

Heavens, where are you? Maybe it’s time to move?

I agree. I enjoy the search for new boutiques and brands, buy a lot, return a lot, use Ebay to buy and sell put a lot of effort into fashion as a hobby and getting really interesting stuff.

But I also think its not too much to ask to just be able to pop into town and kit yourself out in decent clothes when you need to. Its what I did before the world went to hell in a handbasket.

I’m sorry, but I really don’t think that most retailer websites let you filter by fabric.

Don’t you just put the fabric you want into the ‘Search’ facility?

(I probably search for linen about half a dozen times a day on websites I like in spring.)

Sadly, I don’t think so. Hobbs used to be great. Lots of wool fabrics and interesting designs. Now not only is it really uninspiring, but 90% is polyester.

most other brands are the same.

Even when clothes are made from wool or linen, the quality is really poor.

Someone mentioned Patrick Grant’s book, very good. I recommend Community Clothing for basics - not cheap but mine look as good as new 20 washes in

You can search by fabric on Vinted, although with all the sizing changes that might be too much hassle for many. I have found lots of linen, cotton, wool and cashmere things that way, also leather shoes (sometimes just the wrong size for the buyer but as new). Can be hit and miss though, and you can't try them on which is the advantage of shopping in the shops.

At least most stores can't mess up jeans made of jean material!

Absolutely agree
Went into H and M recently and more than one garment had literal holes in it the coat hangers on other items pulling stuff out of shape.

I don’t use Vinted.

On the other hand all my Joe browns stuff from last 2 years is washing ok and looking ok - maybe too boring for many but I’m fine with it

Unfortunately they can mess up jeans. I have been searching for a pair for at least a couple of years, and am really struggling where it used to be easy.

Last week I tried on three sizes to get a pair which fitted my waist/hips (my actual size were way too big) but by then the legs were too tight. I then ordered another pair, in my actual size, which once again were far too big. I buy Levis from the US as it's the only way to get a pair which I know will fit me. Jeans these days also often have polyester and viscose in them, as well as being far too stretchy, and they are often too long - and I'm not short.

Sadly yes.

You have to pay a lot of money for anything half-decent, so I’ve had to very much adopt a ‘less is more’ approach to clothes buying. Which isn’t such a bad thing, I guess.

I like Margaret Howell, Sandro, Free People and Reformation. I love Zimmerman too, but that’s expensive so has to be in the sale / at an outlet.

Edit to add: I’ve got a corduroy dress from Topshop and a top from Laura Ashley that I wear together and are about 15 years old. They are excellent quality and cost pennies in comparison to what it would cost for a similar outfit of that quality today. It feels like clothes quality plummeted in quite a short space of time?

Agree with the poster who said it’s lack of demand. Quality clothes are expensive to produce in terms of both fabric, the skill of the person making the garment, and the amount of time that they take to make. Most people don’t want to pay for that. How many times do you see people on here saying, ‘I buy from XX (insert expensive brand) - but only in the sale’!

The problem is that these brands can’t survive if people only buy heavily discounted items. The solution for companies like Jigsaw has been to lower the quality and charge a lower price that people are willing to pay (or at least take into account the fact that they will have to sell it at a discounted price).

I have just replaced my pyjamas, as the ones I had were getting tatty and I've gained weight. I don't like to spend a fortune on things like that, so had hoped for something at least half decent for about £30-£35 each, and wanted four or five pairs, so I could put one in a 'just in case' hospital grab bag. No joy. I had to give up on pure cotton and settle for poly/cotton blend, and the ones I ended up with are fairly poor quality. They'll have to do, as it's too near Christmas to start again, but they are no better than ones I'd have thought would cost about a tenner five years ago. I'll try again in the sales - and try not to get run over and taken to hospital before then😉

My heart sinks when I see all the crap in shops destined for who knows where, landfill maybe?

I fancied a new winter jumper so went to FatFace and Whitestuff. Their jumpers used to be great, sadly now all acrylic and polyester.

Yes likewise

i have started repairing my cashmere

again the quality of the older cashmere is so much better, no bobbling

While it’s a valid point that some (most?) consumers don’t want to pay for high quality clothes, the brands lowering their quality in response to this are not lowering prices at the same time.

The issue is quality has plummeted at the same time as prices have gone up and up. If Jigsaw, Whistles, Reiss etc maintained 2010 pricing when they introduced poorer and poorer quality, it would be less of an issue.

Buy one good jumper a year instead of 7 cheap ones or however many you mention here! In three years you’ll have a nice collection that if you take care of them, will last a decade or more.

Just had a quick recce and M&S, Hush and John Lewis all do.

This is because the cost of producing clothing has massively increased. The cost of fabric has shot up, energy and transport costs have increased, wages in the countries that produce clothing have increased etc etc.

People don’t want to pay the increased costs associated with producing clothes, so the quality drops instead.

Most people nowadays don't get to experience what truly good quality clothes feel and look like.

The aim nowadays is to have twenty cheap dresses instead of one good quality one. Coats and shoes and bags for every occasion and in every colour to "go" with every outfit rather than building a smaller, classic wardrobe.

I maintain that if we had to organise the disposal of our own rubbish and old clothes we'd all be a lot more concientious about it. As it is, it's buy cheap, chuck in the bin, no need to worry about what happens to it or try to repair.

I don’t disagree with any of this.

I don't know though, I wasn't really wealthy when I was young and bought stuff from New Look or Top Shop, yet that clothing now looks amazingly well produced in terms of being lined, properly tailored and so on.

I don't think it's just the consumer issue, I think the manufacturers and retailers like selling fairly shapeless cheap to produce clothes and we like the cheapness, so it's on both sides.

I honestly look at the quality of the leather jackets I used to have from the supposedly cheap shops 20 years ago, or the tailored trousers and wonder where it all went wrong.

I don't find many shops cheap cheap anyway...which is why I'm still mining Vinted but what's going to happen when that final crop of 2000's clothes is gone, I don't know.

I look at the quality of my bravissimo dresses ( and I have many) and the fabric, stretch, stitching and fit all look and feel incredible compared to what’s out there now and this is only maybe 5-10 years ago - and we’re mainly around £70 at the time

I didn’t know Bravissimo made clothes. I see they they don’t now.