Quality of material or style?

[balkanscot]

Do you go for the quality of the material when choosing your clothes? Or the cut/style/fabric pattern/design?

I have torn my hair so much over some lovely pieces but when it came to material, they were polyester! (not envy) I usually abandon any planned purchases because as much as I love the style I cannot bear to wear polyester, no matter how cutting edge or lovely design appears to be.

To illustrate the point I have been looking for a nice, breezy, summer dress with sleeves. Found
this dress, it ticked all the boxes apart from the material - poly-bloody ester, and lining , and costing well over £100 - NO WAY!

Does anyone feel torn this.way?

I don't feel torn, it's no decision to make. Natural fibres only, it doesn't matter how pretty it is. I know I will feel uncomfortable in polyester or acrylic so it's not worth my attention to even consider wearing it. Looking pretty is not worth feeling uncomfortable for and I know I can find something else that also looks good.

I think most really cheap clothes do look cheap .im talking market stall or those cheaper than primary stores .
Other than that I’m not too fussed .
Got a lovely dress from Asda that looks as good as one I got from John Lewis

You can spot cheap clothes a mile off. I’d go for decent fabric every time.

I disagree that you can spot polyester and it always looks cheap. I have seen the most outrageously gorgeous, diaphanous Oscar de la Renta dresses costing several thousand and they don't look in the slightest 'cheap'.

I go for style over fabric most times. I think most cheap clothes, look cheap, no matter what fabric- cheaply made cotton and linen still look bad, whereas a well made quality synthetic can look amazing. it's mostly in the quality of the seams, the hems and the pattern matching that makes a difference and in whether it's lined, well finished and well cut.

I don't really find polyester particularly uncomfortable. It can be sweaty I suppose if it's close fitting.

Ideally I would like both, I am quite sensitive to texture so need nice fabrics but I don't want to wear boring clothes because of that!

Polyester comes in many grades, you can get that awful scratchy surf that new look seems to love or you get some that's silky smooth. However it is not good for the environment. Neither are jeans unless you go for particular brands . This article is interesting goodonyou.eco/category/made-from/

Yes, I realise that polyester doesn’t necessarily mean cheap or bad style (e.g., that Hobbs dress isn’t exactly cheap). But just the thought of it as a summer dress makes my skin crawl. And I absolutely love the pattern.

Apparently recycled polyester is now a thing, too. Has anyone tried it? Am tempted by this top.

I lusted after a lovely summer Whistles dress a few seasons ago, the fabric print was gorgeous and I read on their website it was made out of viscose (I don’t have a problem with viscose at all). When I got to the shop to try it on... just by touching the fabric it felt so incredibly thin and disappointing that I couldn’t bring myself for trying it on, so I just left the shop after pawing at it for ages umming and aahing. The point is that the feel of the fabric and its quality trumped the lovely daisy design. Sigh.

Saying all this, I have a dress from George at Asda (I bought it from a charity shop) that is polyester, and it feels lovely! It's a nice heavy satin, but I can only wear it in the winter, and the same for most velvet things I own (ditto the fabric.)
I had loads of velvet things but charity shopped most of them because even though they were lovely they made my hair all static-y and I hated it. So now I try and find cotton or viscose velvet instead. (Although I rather regret not having one of the tops I got rid of.)

When I was upgrading my wardrobe, I did looks of research and tried to only buy things that were the perfect shape, colour, natural material, pattern etc. It's not easy being that rigid. Sometimes, I think 'f*ck it' and buy what I like even if it isn't the best colour/style/made out of polyester.