The Declining Quality of Clothing & Goods

[maybelaterblue]

Where something is made shouldn't matter, it's the materials, manufacturing process, and individual skill that goes into a garment that will determine quality. You'll find that the same factories making shirts for Zara are making shirts for Calvin Klein or Burberry, same process just with a different material. My dad is a garment technologist and QC, and sees better products in Morocco, or Macedonia and Romania, than the so-called premium factories he visited in Italy and Spain, due to the investment in machinery and education for workers. In the West many people look down on "factory workers" and think that in poorer countries they are being exploited in sweatshops due to a few blown-up media stories, but this is not the norm. Opportunities are different and ordinary people are providing for their family with a steady wage and benefits. (I feel this has gone off on a tangent and sounds somewhat naïve or rose-tinted, but I can assure you he has some horror stories from Ukraine and China).

It frustrates me that good quality but inexpensive basics are so difficult to find. With my eczema I really only wear natural fabrics eg. cotton, wool, silk, but I'm finding that I just don't buy clothes anymore because I can't find what I want (which is another kettle of fish) at a decent price. Especially the last two winters, I saw a serious decline in the quality of coats on the high street and nothing in-between that (eg. Jaeger, Theory, Maje) and top-end designer really measured up either. There seems to be acrylique in all jumpers as well which is the worst, so itchy! Polyamide on the other hand is not so bad, it softens lambswool and provides some stretch to prevent shrinking.

 

[eizhowa]

^Calvin Klein and Burberry shirts mus be of horribly poor quality then. Because the seams on Zara shirts are just awfull. I am sure there are exceptions, but the things I have seen at Zara does not look good close up...

I find that to get good qualiy basics at a reasonable price (I am an unemployed student atm) I have to search throught all the shops early in the season. They change the cut, fabric and colors every year, so I can never go back to the same place. It is very odd that basics can't just be basics year after year...

I agree about polyamide and wool. I like havin 5-10% in my wool coats, but almost everything is 20-30% these days, and my hair looks like hell because of the static:/

 

[Nymphaea]

A couple of years ago jeans were made of sturdy thick cotton, nowadays mostly it's all very thin cotton, wears out after one year! Annoying. I want the old good quality back.

 

[eizhowa]

My best friend has a pea coat from Topshop. She bought it 10 years ago, and it still looks brand new even though she wears it every winter. I consider that coat to be of very good quality....

 

[squilliam]

I remember when H&M was cheaper and had better quality clothes, then it became more expensive and the quality went down. I don't get how ZARA cam charge high prices for some really poor quality stuff, I ordered a pair of shoes from them once and they were made in Spain and the quality wasn't that good. Some of the sale stuff at their store was partly fraying too. I hear Desigual is bad too

 

[LetThemEatCake09]

It is very depressing, everything is 10 times more expensive and you'll be lucky to find a shirt that survives the washing machine. I really don't know what to do, I used to buy only from Kenneth Cole because it's more affordable and their clothes fit me the best but it's like that, you give them ONE WASH on the machine, and that's it, it already looks old and worn out after just one wash. After two or three months I need to buy a new shirt because my wardrobe just looks unwearable. I haven't been able to buy much clothes in the last three years, and I look like a pauper basically, whereas I remember having shirts that would last me 5 years or so 10 years ago, so upsetting.

Does anyone have any inside knowledge about kenneth cole? Or am I just crazy?

 

[fashionista-ta]

Not sure of the options you have, but that's exactly why I send everything to the cleaners. Washing machines are very destructive to clothes, especially when it comes to fading. If you must use them, it's good to have an excellent machine and use the gentle/sweater cycles ...

 

[LetThemEatCake09]

Not sure of the options you have, but that's exactly why I send everything to the cleaners. Washing machines are very destructive to clothes, especially when it comes to fading. If you must use them, it's good to have an excellent machine and use the gentle/sweater cycles ...

That would be too expensive/impractical

 

[HeatherAnne]

^ Not to mention all of the terrible chemicals.

And the thing is, we shouldn't have to hand wash stuff that (as LetThemEatCake pointed out) we used to be able to buy at a fraction of the price and have last for years on end.

Though as *Bianca* pointed out earlier in this thread, washing machines also have much longer/rougher cycles than they used to.

I feel like it gets worse every year. A.P.C is my latest wahhh. The quality of A.P.C. is now more on par with what J. Crew used to be and J. Crew is now The Gap quality and The Gap quality is basically Wal-Mart quality.

 

[LetThemEatCake09]

^ Not to mention all of the terrible chemicals.

And the thing is, we shouldn't have to hand wash stuff that (as LetThemEatCake pointed out) we used to be able to buy at a fraction of the price and have last for years on end.

Though as *Bianca* pointed out earlier in this thread, washing machines also have much longer/rougher cycles than they used to.

I feel like it gets worse every year. A.P.C is my latest wahhh. The quality of A.P.C. is now more on par with what J. Crew used to be and J. Crew is now The Gap quality and The Gap quality is basically Wal-Mart quality.

they use terrible chemicals in cleaners? I didn't know lol. I wonder how do people clean chanel suits and stuff like that.

 

[eizhowa]

^Chanel goes in the washing machine. Duh. And then in the dryer.

And yes, the dry cleaners uses chemicals, not water to clean clothes.

 

[fashionista-ta]

But it doesn't have to be perc, which is horribly toxic ... there are much better options. My cleaners also hand washes for the same price as dry cleaning.

PS Let me know how your Barbie doll likes the Chanel suit after you wash & dry it

 

[maybelaterblue]

Does anybody find though, that "handwash only" or "dry-clean only" items just end up not getting cleaned all that frequently?

I don't know if it's the cost, the time, or just laziness, but these days I tend to spritz my wool items liberally with a mixture of water/rosewater and hang to dry, rather than go through the whole process. Also some items eg. Ralph Lauren 100% cotton jumpers are fine to go in the washing machine (note. my machine is like 20 years old) on a 30C cycle, despite the label saying hand-wash only.

I remember when H&M was cheaper and had better quality clothes, then it became more expensive and the quality went down.

I agree with this, the same at Topshop. Although I still find gems in H&M, particularly the Studio/Trend lines. They are a higher price point, but often marked down 50% or more in the sales.

 

[tangerine]

I have never found the quality at H&M or Zara to be very good, these always seemed like disposable fashion to me. I do agree that quality has slipped across the board. It's odd because, although with the internet/social media it seems like fashions spread everywhere faster and are "so yesterday" sooner, there hasn't really been much innovation in the styles themselves and today's cheap, crappy t-shirt or jeans is not very different from yesterday's slightly cheaper, slightly less crappy t-shirt and jeans. We are just being forced to keep buying more of the same crap because now it is not made to last.

 

[MiliC]

Yes! I'm noticing this a lot too. And only in the past couple of years. Before that, the quality used to be okay. But now although they pay attention to detail, the very quality of the materials used is sinking.

 

[Snow-White]

Zara is the worst of the lot! I took a top back there because it ripped at the seams after maybe one or two wears, and I had purchased it full price. It was lose for me so no question of it ripping from being too tight!! and even the store agreed to take it back!!! I have never known Zara to take back anything.

 

[fashionista-ta]

Quality is important to me, and I don't even darken the door of places like Zara, Forever 21, H&M, etc. I try not to beg for disappointment I did have one massive fail recently from Elie Tahari, but in general, paying attention to quality on the front end seems to work well. (In the case of the Tahari, construction is good but fiber content is not. The worst pilling I've seen in decades ...)

 

[Phuel]

^^^ I’ve nothing against those chains you’ve brought up fashionista, they do serve their purpose to a large population. But you’re right: To complain about quality of material and construction from these chains is really begging for disappointment.

The quality of even some premiere designer pieces, in particular cashmere ones, is a tad startling… I’ve come to expect even with designer pieces that I will need to alter them in some capacity— whether that’s securing all the buttons, replacing buttons for better quality ones, or enforcing certain areas, etc. At this point, I feel that's the only way to own premiere quality pieces-- that, or you carefully source the materials and take it to a skilled tailor to be made to your exact specifications. It’s an effort, but at least you have pieces that are truly all yours.

 

[fashionista-ta]

With high-end goods, I guess the complaint I have is fabric. The blouses I have from Lanvin that I've had awhile are the most luscious, buttery silk. The latest one is viscose/acetate. All the fabrics are good quality, but the earlier ones are truly luxurious. The same thing is true of the leathers. I guess you really want the companies you're buying from to be in good financial shape ... that seems to make a real difference in the end product.

I'm sure some of the fabric choice has to do with its properties (e.g., how it drapes), but still if I look at the arc of everything they've produced, I see a change across the board, not just in my own closet.

In terms of quality of knits, at the high end, I'm very pleased.

 

[Lucie Tamara]

Beautiful Clothes for Realistic Price Points

I could not agree more with this. (Edited)


There is nothing worse than a jumper that falls apart after the first few wears, or washes. When I was growing up there were brands you could trust for their quality, GAP being the most significant one that springs to mind. Quality control today seems to be dismissed, brands don't seem to care anymore, the fabric they use is of poor quality, the way the garment is made is not carefully done.