To think that clothes are such poor quality now?

[Pythone]

(And other products too, really!)

I saw this tweet which summed it up: twitter.com/lingerie_addict/status/1494349028296900613?s=24

I've been thinking this for months - the difference between newer things and things I bought pre about 2017 is so stark. E.g. a nightdress from John Lewis which looked nice on the website, but then in real life the material is so thin and is only printed on one side, so the other side is just white with the design sort of showing through. Everything from mid-level shops seems to feel like the "cheapest of the cheap" from a decade or two ago, sometimes even like a fancy dress costume level. Thin fabric, weak construction, terrible finishing, strong chemical smells when you open the bag, and looking bad after a few washes. I bought a dressing gown from M&S and the pockets are just coming away at the sides even without being used.

In the mid-2000s I'd buy cheap things, often as part of a costume for a party or for a one-off outfit, and they'd just end up as part of my regular wardrobe for years. These days it's hard to imagine anything lasting that long, never mind things that weren't really expensive to start with.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I've never bought anything from & other stories since my mum bought me a jumper from there that looked lovely but then literally fell apart the first time I wore it - the seam just completely unravelled. It might have been a one-off piece of bad luck but it put me very much off!

White Stuff and Fatface are rubbish quality. Seasalt is better.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow wow, are you my twin??? I have done a degree in fashion, been designing for about 10 years now, and leaving the industry next month. I am 33.

For basic cotton tops I buy from www.landsend.co.uk, they are expensive but the quality's pretty good.

I’m older than you!!! Much older 58! I’d had enough of the shallowness of it by 30.

A shipment of clothes in a boat had gone down in a massive storm that killed loads of people. And the buyer concerned was going mad about her t shirts. And l was thinking, yeah but loads of people are dead….. big of a watershed moment!

Boden are good quality. They have a 365 day quality guarantee which is excellent and uncommon these days. I bought a t shirt recently and was really impressed, not cheap but it will last.

Jigsaw quality is still good and is often very reduced in their sales. I got a dress recently reduced from £155 to 46. There’s a particular style of linen wrap dress that they do every year that I love. The original one still looks like new. I also have lots of wool mini skirts from there.Brand Alley and eBay also good for reduced prices.

@blueghost I hear you! I’ve just taken an office job for the first time in over a decade. Sold all my wool/lined suits and have been searching replacements - feeling some offerings are actually “joke” clothes. Yes, at 50 what I REALLY need is a lime-green unisex shiny 3/4 sleeved piece of flammable tat teemed with a paper-bag waist and ankle swinger length.

Plus all the usual shops seem to have an “interesting”
Concept of what passes for workwear these days. Why don’t we all just get onesies and call it a day?

I’m looking at importing from the US - don’t let me down Macy’s!

Out of interest, for those of you who do make your own clothes, where do you buy your fabric? It can be a bit of an issue getting that at a reasonable price and quality, especially if you can’t tolerate synthetics or have problems with specific dyes.

I was rather proud of myself for getting a pair of Levi’s (70s slim) in the sales half price, decent denim at last. They are true to size though, I have to warn you!

I think boden has gone down in quality a lot but seasalt good. Their cuts can be a bit odd though, maybe a bit frumpy
I live in outdoor / hillwalking type clothes though now as I’m fed up being cold all the time!

Just had a look at Jigsaw and Boden. Not impressed! Also why are so many of the models unable to stand up straight or fat?

@cookiemonster2468

Boden are good quality. They have a 365 day quality guarantee which is excellent and uncommon these days. I bought a t shirt recently and was really impressed, not cheap but it will last.

That’s not my experience, with the exception of the shoes. Too much polyester and viscose.

[quote Pythone]@JunkIsland That's interesting about menswear! I generally don't fit into men's clothes (too short and not the right shape!) but for basics like t-shirts to sleep in I might look into getting some. I think there's always been that disparity between men's and women's clothes but I didn't know that they hadn't had an equivalent decline. So I guess now the disparity is even worse.

(Just a vaguely related rant: I'm so envious of men's jumpers! Long sleeves, thick fabric, nice colours! So many women's jumpers seem to hang off the shoulders or have shorter sleeves or be cropped or drape weirdly and sometimes you just want a warm, cosy, jumper-shaped jumper without paying hundreds of pounds for one that still might look bad after one wash!)[/quote]
I buy my sleeping T's and my basic sweatshirts from Cotton Traders. The quality is still good and I can't wear them out no matter how hard I try.

I get a lot from Cos, Arket, Other Stories.

These all fall under the H&M umbrella & they have so much purchasing power because they are so big. Similar for Inditex, Arcadia couldn't compete with that. And then it's UK competitors Asos & PLT had the advantage of being online only which makes a huge difference to profits.

But Philip Green didn't invest profits back into his companies preferring to pay massing dividends, wrongly assuming brands will dominate forever.

@ThomasinaGallico

Out of interest, for those of you who do make your own clothes, where do you buy your fabric? It can be a bit of an issue getting that at a reasonable price and quality, especially if you can’t tolerate synthetics or have problems with specific dyes.

I get mine from lots of different places depending on what I want and what I'm making.

I don't have issues with dyes etc thankfully.

I use a quite a lot of enzyme washed linen which I get from a local supplier - you can get it from most fabric suppliers though so its a case of finding it for the right price. I'm well known at both my local fabric shops and often buy up roll ends of things that have taken my fancy.

Needlecord I get from where ever I find a pattern I like - I've bought quite a bit of Whale Cord from Dalston Mill Fabrics

Jersey/ knit fabrics and fleeces I tend to get online from a seller who trades as 'Northern Monkey Makes'.

I use the Minerva Crafts site quite a bit but they can be on the expensive side, I can spend hours browsing on there though and looking at what other people have made.

My wardrobe stables are plain enzyme linen dresses (with pockets) and skirts, flowery/ patterned needlecord skirts (with pockets) and whale cord pinafore dresses (with pockets).

I tend to make fairly simple jersey tops. I've got a couple of jumper/t shirt patterns I know fit me well and they get used over and over again in various different colours and materials.

The next 'make' on my sewing table is going to be this chalk and notch dress - I haven't decided exactly what fabric I'm going to use yet, it may even be a black linen similar to the pattern photo.

thefoldline.com/product/fringe-blouse-and-dress/

It’s mumsy and extremely expensive for a cotton sweatshirt. Anyone?

M&s as example, used to use UK factories and quality, fit and fabric we're excellent and quality. Then they moved production abroad and I all went to shit.
This has happened to so many brands. Barbour is another one. Joules, utter cheap dross now, yet still trading on the jolly British 'designed' bullshit.
Thankfully I have all the (good quality now 'vintage' clothing I'll need to see me through the next 20-30 years, and only replace hosiery and underwear as required, though Seasalt, Brakeburn and Ebay are the best bet these days.

How is a basic hoodie mumsie?

Dd 15 pinches it all the time. Is she ‘mumsie’ too?

I’ll get ‘Mumsie’ written on it, then everyone will know?

Who gives a fuck whether you think it’s mumsie or not? I don’t😂

M&s as example, used to use UK factories and quality, fit and fabric we're excellent and quality. Then they moved production abroad and I all went to shit

They had to, to stay in business. Nobody wanted to pay traditional prices for traditional British-made clothes. I think about the lovely things I had from M&S in the 1990s when I was doing my accountancy training and I could weep! Beautiful Italian fabrics in suits. Cotton knit jumpers. Well cut trousers. Then all of a sudden anyone in the mid-market had to go cheap because everyone decided that a skirt should cost no more than £8 and a T shirt couldn’t be more than £5 because that is what Primark charged.

I think it was a Mumsnet thread I read ages ago, where someone who had worked for M&S in one of their London stores was regularly assailed by customers telling her that she had a cheek trying to charge £12 for a T shirt and it was robbery. This is in the last 10 years.

Most of the summer dresses are expensive and cheap rubbish viscose material, Jo Browns, Boden and Superdry guilty of this.

Yes, margin is really important. I used to work in buying for Topshop, whenever we did made in Britain specials the margins were like 20% but we could balance it out with the overall margins.

You can still make high quality items abroad.

It’s the fact that M and S moved down market that made its clothes crappier.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow yes but will the items be profitable? Topshop used to make leather shoes in Brazil as did other high street stores, the cost prices became prohibitive.