Quality of clothing on high street

[Neverplayleapfrogwithmrpipes]

I am in my late 40s and I have pretty much worn the same clothes for the last 20 years, maybe adding in leggings and base items. I have recently lost 4 st and I have been shopping for clothes in the sales.

It’s really struck me in most of the high street shops, that lots of the clothes are quite poor quality, threads hanging, bobbling on jumpers, snags and pulls and bits hanging off. I know the sale items do get a little pawed over but it’s really not good for sustainability for items to be so short lasting.

Zara and new look seemed to be the worst.

I still own a top and a skirt I bought in new look in 1999 and they are still going strong.
Is it just me or are clothes poor quality nowadays?

Any suggestions for long lasting clothes are v welcome x

Just bought some pyjamas from Next. They were £28 for one pair of 100% cotton. They are full of holes! I messaged Next and they said they’ve had complaints from others and refunded me. Also their online reviews shows I’m not the only one who had issues.

Also bought a pack of 5 x knickers - again, poor quality and didn’t last long.

Meanwhile things purchased years ago still look lovely. (Some Chinos from M&S still look brand new and I brought them in 2018 and wear them a lot!)

I don’t trust Next anymore which is a shame ☹️ and our only shops in town are Next, New Look and Primark! all the rest closed down.

Following for inspiration!

I saw a dress today by a popular brand for over £120 that was the most rubbish and thin fabric and looked like something you could get at Primark for less than twenty quid. It looked cheap to boot too. How brands think they can put out such dire quality items is beyond me.

Women’s clothes have really gone down hill. The decimation of the High St (which will continue with everyone shopping online) and all the stores that have gone has IMO resulted in less competition and a reduction in quality (think Ted Baker, Oasis, Karen Millen before it became part of Bo Ho, Warehouse).

Even the more premium / ‘high end’ stores like Reiss, Jigsaw & Whistles are full of over priced man made fibres.

I looked at a jumper in Whistles just before Christmas. It was wafer thin & 100% polyester - it was £79! Call me old fashioned but I would expect cashmere for that price.

I do like Uniqlo for staples / basics. Great quality that washes well & fairly priced.

I agree that the decline of the high-street is related because some of this fast fashion looks fabulous in photos and you cannot discern the fabric quality as you could in person.

I agree, I won't buy anything now that is 100% plastic/pu/acrylic/poly/nylon. I don't mind a blend if the natural fibres content is high. I also won't buy viscose as it's so thin and creases so badly. It just means I buy less, which is no bad thing I guess. The better stuff is still available in all the high street stores, it just takes a while to find it amongst the dross. I wish stores would make that a bit easier by adding the fabric composition to the sales tag.

Decent clothes are still out there but expect to pay a lot more for good quality.

My go-to now for warm sweaters is Celtic& Co - about £120, and basic sweaters for my chilly office - Woolovers at £70 each. This year I failed to find any wide legged wool trousers I liked. Try Brora, browse JLP or look in your local individual boutique.

I still get jeans from Boden but it's definitely getting harder.

Rouje's "Gabin" dress is a prime example: a premium brand, looks stunning in photos and it's not cheap, but when you get in person it's a light and flimsy viscose.

I bought a jumper from Celtic &Co two years ago, taken care of it and washed it appropriately and the stitching has completely come away under the arms so massive holes under the armpits. I’m going to have to try and sew the holes up but flipping annoying with what was quite an expensive jumper. So I’m not terribly impressed with their quality.

I bought some boots from Celtic and Co last year and they were so bad I sold them on Vinted. 😞

You need to go nor only by fabric (natural only), but also by country of manufacture. French made clothing is good, as is most EU made stuff. Or try for UK made if you can find it.

I’ve been thinking the same, was sale shopping this year and even ‘high end’ high street has rubbish fabric mixes and so much knitwear was ‘made in china’ (looking at you, Reiss)

I don’t know if it’s been that way for a while and somehow I’m only just noticing but at current prices I put a few things back on the rail that I’m sure I would’ve bought in previous years.

Its crap isn’t it? I don’t buy so many clothes anymore and am at a stage of repairing the ones I have when they get a bit holey. When I do buy new I go for Toast, Cos and for my ‘cheapy’ bits Sainsbury’s because frankly they’ve been better quality than Zara and Mango.

A careful peruse in TK Maxx will turn up some decent linen and cashmere but at the same time I’ve had some bits from there that have fallen into holes quite quickly.

M&S and John Lewis I’ve found some decent stuff but certainly every label needs to be examined as there’s a lot more cheap crap in there than there used to be.

The sad truth is that we were sold fast fashion and gobbled it up, so our expectation is now cheap clothes, lots of them. That doesn’t go hand in hand with good quality production.

We need to vote with our feet. I do wonder who is buying all the man made fibres but then I see posts on a couple of fb style and beauty groups I’m in where people are 100% lapping up the Shein and Primark, because they think it’s normal to buy clothing weekly or fortnightly.

It gives me the horrors that so many of these clothes are going to sit in landfill not even rotting for tens of thousands of years.

(Sorry, it turns out I’m quite passionate about this).

Even french brands are now mostly manufacturing abroad, including Agnes b. Sorry don’t know why keyboard has shifted to italics!

It adds a certain je ne sais quoi though!

I miss real shops badly but I'm also trying not to fall into the trap of romanticising the 'old days' too much. Without online shopping I wouldn't be able to browse Toast or Community Clothing or Cos or Massimo Dutti or even Uniqlo, never mind small independents, none of which were ever going to open up where I live.

So is the glass half empty or half full? It depends on my mood. I do know that there's been thread after thread on this topic and that I've often seen posters try and make recommendations only to get shouted down. I guess I'm sick of talking about it so maybe I should get off this thread.

I am not buying any more man made fabrics unless a mix with natural, no more acrylic jumpers, I now buy mostly marino wool or cashmere, cashmere in the sale I usually buy one or two a year, so have built up a small collection, and marino wool jumpers I buy from marks and spencer.

I agree! Can’t find anything nice any more so I buy second hand or make my own.

Yeah I've noticed this as well. Garments are being made on the cheap by the looks of it. Bulk made. I have clothes from years ago that are still in really good knick. Bought a jumper from F&F three months away and it's already bobbling. What is going on.

Price is definitely no longer an indicator of quality and I have a Primark items that have performed better than brands that really should be able to do better! Recent gems are Tu jeans and underwear, Uniqlo for knitwear / t-shirts, Seasalt for a cardigan. I find more quality in menswear items, including more natural fibres, heavier weight cotton, half lining in trousers - so if they can do it for menswear, why not women's clothing?

Clothes used to be a lot more expensive.

I have a long sleeved jersey top I bought in 1997. It was in the sale in one of those concessions in Debenhams - Sisley I think it was and cost me £30. That was a lot of money to me back then.

It used to have a design on the front but that has worn away over the years but the material hasn't deteriorated one bit.

Thick and stretchy, no bobbling or fading.

I don't know what the equivalent would be these days but a £40 high street jersey top wouldn't come anywhere close to the quality back then.

It's all very underwhelming and sad. I think I'd be ok with the new world if you just had to decide to spend more and buy better (1x£50 t-shirt over 5x£10 t-shirts) but as pps say there often is no relation to quality, it's just branding.

The things I have from Seasalt seem good quality. Not exactly cutting edge but some of their plain stuff is quite versatile.

It's going to help with my low spend 2025 but the environmental cost just seems devastating. Especially the plastic.

No don’t go Flo! Your contributions are always really valuable.
Quality definitely used to be better, I’m still holding on to a pair of M&S leggings I bought in the 90s ( made in U.K.) the textile is lovely and I’ll be gutted when they finally fall apart. One more year …

They did cost more and I bought very wisely. I used to wait for the sales to try to upgrade my wardrobe and had items from sales that cost considerably more than new high street items today, such as blouses from labels long since gone, but they were just much better made, detailing that you never see now and looked as good at the end of the day as they did when first on and were worn so much more often, as I had less in my wardrobe. I can remember Italian 100% wool trousers, £39.99, from M&S, early 90s and they were worn till they literally wore away, jumpers from Scotch House that were indestructable and shoes that did not start to break down into stickly masses after a couple of years and were easy to repair. I still have four blouses, of a longline graphic print style, from Next, from when they first opened and they truly are light years from what's on the rack now!

I totally agree with you
Price is no guarantee of quality either.
Even with natural fibres, the cotton is thin and not finished properly and twists when washed
Now I buy pre owned on Vinted as I can tell the older labels on my favourite brands and if it's it good condition to sell after wearing then it's decently made
One brand I do buy is Brakeburn in sales but viscose is slowly replacing cotton there too
Can you tell it's a bugbear of mine!

You have a point and Mumsnet, let alone lots of other sites, have introduced me to on-line items / brands I'd never had found and I love the convenience of online, just miss not worrying whether what I buy will do the job it needs to!

I think our posts are worth the effort though, as I'd be hopeful that enough calls for quality would be heard by someone, somewhere and I believe that on-line brands such as Community Clothing are key to pushing the messaging that there is a market for new, but better, using natural fibres..... I believe there is a campaign to push wool back as a fibre used in more high street production as I type, so it's worth making a noise on this subject.