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!

while yes, there was crap available then too and the prices were higher for the better quality items, normal high street shops did sell the quality products for a bit more, now it’s only the luxury brands - with luxury prices.

I do think when brands like M&S do produce a decent quality item, we need to reward them by sharing and buying! Make them realise they can do the good stuff and we’ll buy it.

It's the faff of looking after better clothes too. I've got some fabulous vintage dresses, but they're dry clean only because of the fabric and patten. That's £16 a clean!
I've tried the DIY stuff in the tumble dryer, but it didn't clean enough.

Tbh with knitwear I find if you want both quality and design you do have to pay for it. Or know exactly where to look for good sale prices. Or buy pre-owned.

I hardly have to buy any new knitwear because what I’ve bought over the past decade lasts and lasts. But none of it is from the High St.

This year, having a bigger clothes budget than usual and a great need of replacements, I ended up making a conscious decision not to go for 'quality classics' because everything I liked was dry clean only. We don't even have a dry cleaner locally, I have to send it away. And I dirty my clothes!

In the event, I'm having a lot of fun with cheap clothes. They're not particularly well made, but they're natural fibres - and viscose; the stuff's a godsend - and I can justify buying 'too many' of something because I simply like it.

I've also done my final charity shop dump of the good clothes I bought when I was well off and much thinner. This made me think of what many have said above - those items were proportionally more expensive than they would be today. I remember paying £80 each for some silk shell tops at Monsoon. The fabrics were pretty (and washable) but I reckon you can get the same for about the same price today.

The point about survivor bias is a good one! There was plenty of stuff that didn't last to the next year; you're only seeing items that have lasted 30 years.