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!

As a mid 90s and early 00s teen, I remember having barely any casual clothing. It was dresses for smart occasions or school uniform. Non uniform days were excruciating as I simply had no clothes or other shoes other than school shoes or PE trainers.

I didn't have a job and my mother refused to buy things from Tammy Girl or Miss Selfridge, they were expensive too. The one Topshop jumper she bought when I joined sixth form is still worn today, it looks as good as new.

I have that very monsoon teal cami! Bought it about 25 years ago. Wore it a few weeks ago. It's still in great condition. Agree about the quality.

Started work in 1979 and spent a fair amount on my clothing, having a taste for good quality inherited from my parents approach to clothing. I have a pair of beautiful Italian leather shoes, purchased in 1979, from Grants of London, for £69 , slightly more than 25% of my monthly salary then. No material degradation or glue failing and still in my wardrobe!! I also made a beeline for Next, when it first opened in South Molton Street, early 80s, and their tailoring was beautiful, as they were part of Hepworths and it showed. I'd wait for sales to buy items from expensive brands, and even Harrods was affordable in the 80s. No problem with some artificial fibres or mixes, but they were not all equal and I find that we have far less variety of fabrics now, less construction details, lack of linings, poor quality notions and even a lack of style variations. I have leather bags from the 80s that leave designer bags far behind and although I have real wool jumpers from Uniqlo, M&S (including menswear), I do miss retailers like Scotch House.

I still have some M&S skirts and cardigans with the British Wool trademark, and labelled made in the UK. It is the feel of fabrics that is also important to me... so like to go to a shop and choose.

Yes makes me laugh when item is described “with wool” like 4%

why can’t it be all wool

Recycled polyester is the best

Yeah like I really want to drape myself in recycled polyester

From Next Directory, it says 1990s and I'm assuming 1995 though may have been a bit later. Prices are in dollars - the 1995 exchange rate was $1.5 to £1 sterling.

I've used the Bank of England inflation calculator.

100% cotton sweatshirt $42 : £28.00 : £59.48
100% cotton joggers $40 : £26.67 : £56.65
100% cotton vest top $14 : £9.33 : £19.82
100% cotton rugby top $40 : £26.67 : £56.65
100% cotton shorts $24 : £16.00 : £33.99

1988 was a whole other kettle of fish! The first Next Directory, it had fabric samples glued in (wonder what poor sods had that job). UK.

Linen-look blouse, 53% ramie,43% polyester £21.99 : £63.25
Blazer, lined, 55% polyester, 45% wool, £64.99 : £186.94
Pleated skirt, 100% polyester crepe, £29.99 : £86.26
Sunglasses £19.99 : £57.50

I'd say we're getting better value now. The sportswear would cost about the same today as in 1995, and the smart outfit probably not far off 1988 prices.

I imagine our below-inflation prices are due to a combination of pressure on suppliers, improved logistics and thinner margins. But should we be expecting to pay £186 for a blazer in 55% polyester?

My clothes budget doesn't change according to prices, I just buy in greater volume when they're cheaper. Then you get into the whole ethical debate about tight conditions on manufacturers & suppliers, and I don't know. It's more complicated than cheaper = worse.

It was an interesting little project, though!

Bay Trading and Pilot and internationale were mixed in with my charity shop late 90s clothes. Miss selfridge and top shop were expensive, so as a pp said, occasional wear.

However, I still have a hooded, cropped cardigan from pilot and jeans from Topshop. Both pushing 30 years old now. Bay Trading had some great blazers i wore for years.

The Next sportswear I showed is from 1991. Didn't find this out until after I'd posted - it means the inflated prices for 2026 would be 12% more than I calculated.

I've got a Topshop cardigan I bought in 1992 that's still in decent condition - lovely cream cotton, very thick and heavy with a big square collar.

How has high street fashion changed so little in 30 years??

The 1996 offering could easily be from 2026.
But 1996 is not like1966!

That's so ridiculous it's almost funny!

@GarlicAnything - you might be interested in this woman on Instagram, if you're buying only natural fibres plus viscose.

She used to work in fashion/textiles, & only buys clothes made from natural fibres - lots from thrift shops (aka charity shops! She's in the US though).

Her style only partly overlaps with mine - it's mostly very neutral/beige, & is almost entirely free of pattern or ornament - whereas I love colour (including black!), & am a bit of a magpie around shiny/sparkly/shimmery things!

But I admire her ethos, her personal style (which really suits her), & how comfortable she looks in herself! I very much like posts like this one, where she isn't afraid to attack charity shop finds & transform them into something that's more wearable to her.

It might not be your thing at all - or you might cast a fresh eye on your wardrobe of natural fibres!

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DcGfGmWujyw/?igsi=MWMyOGQ5dml1ZTgwZA==

Thanks, @EleanorMc67! I like her red and green skirts in that post - and already have similar. My recent 'haul' (new and made in Turkey) includes two Big Skirts that have stitched-down pleats at the waist, but they aren't stitched far enough for my liking. I'll be sewing them down further, which should make them more fitted to the hip and very bouffy where the pleats end. < sharp intake of breath from S&B - yes, I want a hip bulge! >

You've read me pretty well - her style is closely adjacent to mine 🙂

Oh, thanks so much for posting that picture of the Next Directory with the wee squares of fabric samples! I had forgotten all about those ... wish I'd kept mine (though admittedly there could be a few in my mum's loft ...!!!).

Me+Em charges more than £186 for a blazer with a high polyester content ... & people buy it. If it's a very good cut & is well-made, & it's a good-quality fabric, then I think it's ok. But I do try to buy fewer synthetics.

It is indeed quite a complicated issue. There are probably many interconnected reasons as to why clothing is (proportionally) so much cheaper now than in the 80s/90s. But it does, ultimately, boil down to the fast-fashion industry takeover that occurred then. Manufacturers, at these larger scales of production, can lower margins & therefore encourage people to keep on buying clothes. But they also use far more synthetics than before, move factories to where it's cheapest, use more basic techniques & cuts & less fabric ... all of which have associated impacts upon workers, the environment - & quality of course ...

I think, though, that not enough people care? Despite all the bad press associated with Shein, Temu & the like, they're continuing to grow. And I'm afraid I don't buy into the "It's all I can afford, so you're being elitist" defence - not when Vinted/DePop/eBay have opened up the secondhand clothing market so successfully.

On a very recent thread, where the OP had asked if she could wear the same outfit to two weddings on the opposite sides of the world, someone replied saying that they would be "mortified" if they did that & it was noticed. And said that there was no good reason to wear the same dress twice, when for the price of a bottle of wine you could buy some lovely new dresses from Shein ...

Unfortunately I think that attitude is really common - as humans we've become increasingly greedy, & expect vast choice at ever lower prices.

Yes, I liked those ones too - good colours!

I wish I was good at machine-sewing myself ... they make alterations look so quick & easy on Insta 😶

They're never quick & easy, even when they are! Videos skim over the amount of measuring, pressing, pinning, checking, tacking, pressing again, untangling the bottom thread that's got snarled, unpicking that, pressing again and ... pressing 😬

It's the only time I use my iron. Can't get away with a swift blast of steam!

I think the biggest difference is that people are starting to look at clothes as long-term purchases again. I’d much rather spend more on one well-made piece with good materials and construction than replace several cheaper items every year. Leather is a good example of this quality leather can last for years and often looks better with age.

The shameful thing is that my (paternal) granny was a seamstress!

I did learn how to sew (both hand & machine) - convent grammar school in the early 80s, when three years of home economics lessons included cooking & sewing. And I was quite good but very painstaking & very slow - & never kept it up. Cooking was my passion instead.

Nowadays it's much easier to pay someone to alter things for me! And you've just listed all the reasons why I never really enjoyed sewing in the first place!

So was mine - she taught me to sew when I was a child, not formally but we'd make dolls' clothes together and she showed me what to do. I was given one of those antique manual Singer sewing machines when I was 10 (I still have it) and I used to make things on that in my teens.

Nowadays it's altering, mending or customising clothes that I do, `I don't make from scratch - by the time you've bought material etc. it's not a particularly cheap way to go and I just don't have the time or energy for complex projects.

I noticed the 1996 trainers look. The last couple of seasons it has been presented as "the latest" to change the white trainers with skirts and dresses for more "retro" trainers with colours!

I mean that monsoon top looks like it has a d* on it, but also monsoon was never cheap clothing.

in general I agree though, fast fashion means lower quality items as people don’t need to keep them for long.

My daughter has got me into buying second hand clothes. There’s a couple of excellent second hand shops near me. I can buy excellent quality tops, dresses and jackets at a reasonable price and I expect to keep them for years. With new clothes, I now look to more quality brands online that yes, you pay out more for, but if looked after, should last years. I’ve started buying shoes from higher quality brands and found I have saved money because they last five years instead of one.

I think Amazon, Shein, and all those fast-fashion online retailers are looking for profit to the nth degree. They don’t care about quality or craftsmanship. There are influencers online buying boxes of crap to parade for clicks. It’s all a bit grubby now. It’s so bad for the environment. The internet has played a huge part in demand. I try and remember the human cost too, the labour laws in countries where a lot of clothes come from, and I’d rather not be a part of that.

Although C&A were considered a bit 'cheap', I had some lovely clothes from there - a long black leather coat which cost £49, a beautiful cotton velvet evening dress with scooped neck and flared skirt and a proper net underskirt, and some nice cotton separates from their 'Clock House' boutique. These were late 80s/90s. I used to buy clothes from Richard Shops, Next, Country Casuals, Laura Ashley and concessions in department stores. I am pretty sure they were all made using quality materials.

Oh, god, I went looking for some good pics from C&A and got sidetracked by this depressing reminder that my high street (2026) size 16 is actually a 20 in 'real' sizes. I see my own shape in this advert ... for outsize fashion 😬

They had some utterly bonkers ads, too! Posting these for WTF value only.