How have we accepted substandard clothing

[anonMH]

I have a teenage daughter and y2k and late 90s ‘vintage’ clothing is very ‘in’ - hence I am on vinted etc looking at the very clothes I wore in my youth.

It has struck me that the quality is incredible - embroidery, proper pleats and waistbands and lots natural fibres. I had known this was the case with more traditional fashions from St Michael’s and C and A - but many of the clothes are from Primark and New Look. It seems that we were initially lured with very cheap pricing and poor fabrics and workmanship and now it’s no longer cheap - with poor fabric, along with no darts, waist bands, women’s shaping. It seems to be all smocking, elastic , unlined and so on. All the vintage shops in my town are sports wear/ shell suits/ carhartt and so on - I need to find these clothes!

Examples below. Wish I hadn’t dithered on the teal skirt. Although I am v reluctant to spend the £25 some sellers are asking for vintage primark clothes!

It wasn't cheap back then. I remember clothes in the 90s costing similar to what you'd pay today and this is from river island, next etc.

People paid a lot more for clothes comparatively speaking back then.

There was a lot of crap then too, but that got binned so only the good stuff was saved. About a third of things from New Look in 2000 disintegrated in the first wash. My mum eventually banned me from buying clothes there

For the same reason farming is knackered. The pursuit of cheap all the time. Not enough people care about quality so we’re fed cheap crap all the time.

It was much cheaper if you compare like for like. I’ve got a beautiful mon soon skirt from the 90s, 100% silk, really heavy, thick glossy fabric, a beautiful drape as it’s so well cut and such lovely material . It was less than £100. You’d be looking at really ‘luxury’ brands and hundreds of pounds now. I’ve also got a lbd from monsoon, also pure silk, beautifully cut, lined etc, it was £80. Back in the early 2000s as a recent graduate on a low ish income I brought stuff from jigsaw, whistles etc and it was all natural fibres. Now it’s two or three times the price for polyester tat.

If you think Y2K stuff is good, you should see clothes from the 1950s. Unbelievable quality, some of them used couture techniques. But also very, very expensive at the time. If you’ve ever looked at 2nd hand furniture you’ll have seen how tiny wardrobes were then. There’s a reason for that, people had very few clothes.

But back to the thread, I’d argue we didn’t notice the drop in quality after the 90s because it didn’t happen immediately. The manufacturing was outsourced overseas and prices started falling (or at least not going up) but at first the quality looked the same to most of us ordinary shoppers. The British high street was an amazing place in the early 2000s - house of cards of course but a fabulous one for a while. I’d say it was only after the banking crash that clothing quality really tanked and by then it was too late.

I think we lost proper mid range clothes. You can buy cheap or expensive

I also remember places like next selling clothes for a similar price when I started work. So about £30 for basic office trousers. The bank of England inflation calculator says these woukd be £82 now but it can get basic office trousers for £30 still.

Cost and convenience. Everyone's after everything as cheap as possible. Corners are cut. We are now a society of consumers, always looking for the next new thing. It's unnecessary.

See also furniture and household goods.

People also want cheap food, the quality has tanked there too - which is why we have a glut of UPF and all the resultant health issues.

It is because people don’t want to pay for decent clothes or fabric. Clothes have got cheaper and cheaper. I have some very old clothes in my wardrobe(s), including a dress that is nearly 50 years old. The older ones, I just don’t want to throw away because even though some of them have been worn many times, they are still in better condition than the newer things that I buy. I also make my own clothes and the fabric that I buy is so much better than the fabric in the majority of shop bought clothes.
This is also a problem for the environment. There are so many cheap clothes in landfills.

Ive got some Karen Millen clothes from the 90’s and the quality is lovely but they were expensive. I had 2 long skirts, a pair of trousers, a blazer and 2 tops. ( one faux leather and one sheer) and I rotated them as my “going out” outfits. Remember the days of dressing up to go out ? The other interesting thing is the sizing which is noticeably different from today.

I miss natural fibres. I remember real leather handbags being on sale in oasis late 00s and not too expensive.

I just bought a cardigan from next for autumn that is made of synthetic crap and I know will bobble up after a couple of washes. I'm investing in a decent de bobbler this autumn. No modern wardrobe should be without one.

I don't accept it anymore. I could not tell you the last time I bought anything from New Look, Zara, H&M, or Primark. I check the labels before I buy anything and if it if doesn't feel good quality and if it is not mostly natural material I don't buy it. Admittedly I have reasonable disposeable income but I am also more selective about what I buy, I avoid overly trend pieces so I know I will still want to wear what I buy for years to come.

People don't want cheap clothes and food sp much as can't afford the alternative, in most cases.

I worked in Miss Selfridge from 1986 on a Saturday. I saw a suit in Next I wanted for Christmas, wool Prince of Wales check. My pay was £1.75 an hour.
The jacket was £69.99 and the trousers £29.99.
For comparison my parents’ house which is worth £200k now had just been valued for £15k.
So £100 was a wedge.
I managed to save my wages, did some glass collecting, my mum gave me £30 towards it and I can remember giving out leaflets for nightclubs in my Uni.
I still have the suit because it’s sentimental. It would survive the apocalypse.

I was shocked that M and S had so much polyester a few years ago, I wouldn't buy from Primark but m and s is disappointing

Yes this may be true but half a century ago most people had better clothes but by today’s standard had so few in their wardrobe. If they went out they knew exactly what they were going to wear because they usually only had one going out outfit.

People were more likely to make their own 60 years ago

The thing that brought this home to me was visiting Dartmoor Prison museum which had a mannequin with a 1980s flight risk uniform (like a brightly coloured tracksuit) and omg the quality 😮
Beautiful heavy cotton.

I think unlining of quality coats was a shame - the material sags and bags quickly without lining and so hard to get on and off as it clings to the clothes,
Not piutti g proper cuffs and often collars on shirts - I can see they are time consuming to make, several pieces to fit together but never look as fi ished

I think this post is sentimental and that there was lots of polyester ans cheap material rubbish available in say, the 1980s. I say this because my mother worked fora fashion house in the 1950s and I spent my childhood with her despairing at the poor seams and the quality of materials. There were some brands better than others but there was a load of dross. Quality existed in the 1950s and 1960s but people have fewer clothes. The development of nylon and polyester saw major deteriorations. As an example just remember the grunge of the 1980s when we walked around wearing loose grey sacks.

Totally agree, Jigsaw was my favourite shop and the quality was amazing . I also had some beautiful coats from Monsoon, you just don’t see the quality now and the price of average quality clothing sold in John Lewis is ludicrous.

Where do you tend to buy your clothes from?

There were less cheap clothes shops in the 1980s and if you shopped in one you knew you were taking a chance

I remember school shirts being made of nylon - it was a great boon, cheaper and easy to drip dry and no ironing (this in the days before tumble driers)

To be honest, I started work in 1980, and it was pretty challenging to find pure cotton or silk blouses. M&S had very few, Laura Ashley its frillies which weren't really for work.

Ditto dresses but there was more wool about. I had a couple of fab wool dresses from M&S in the early 80s but I think they were £25/£35 then.

I think it's much easier to find mid range natural fibres now: Seasalt, White Stuff, Cos, Nobody's Child, etc. I think I bought more expensive stuff then: Jaeger, Liberty, Austin Reed, etc., because High Street quality was so diabolical, with the exception of M&S Italian tailoring in the 90s when you could buy a really well cut wool suit for about £100.

I also think that retailers realised they could sell worse quality for the same price….many high end retailers today sell polyester for hundreds of pounds.

i do think some high street names have a good mix of price and quality. I have Uniqlo jeans and knitwear that lasts, same with M&S merino (suspect same supplier as Uniqlo). And there’s community clothing, but I’ve never actually kept anything of theirs, which tells you everything…