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How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

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Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#21

Post by on_and_off »

>. And: If there aren’t any pills on the garment when you try it on (not even on the collar, cuffs or inner thighs), the item gets a major thumbs up.

From my understanding, this is something that manufacturers have been gaming a lot by treating cheap quality wool so it is very soft and does not pill while in the store but after 2 or 3 washes you will realize that it pills like crazy. While that rougher wool (because it has longer fibers) might be itchy in the store but it will soften up and won't pill.

Same thing with selvedge denim. 10 years ago it was synonym with quality.

Nowadays it means absolutely nothing (when it isn't just a fake selvedge).

Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#22

Post by on_and_off »

settsu wrote: post #14

It's interesting how synthetics were mostly lumped together and largely undifferentiated. To be fair, that post is over 5 years old and some seemingly significant advances in fabrics for consumer garments have become widely available in the meantime. I've personally come to feel cotton is vastly over-rated as a clothing material for anything but cost-saving goals (which certainly is an important factor.) Of course th…

merino + lyocel make for some awesome underwear.

I have progressively replaced all my socks and boxers with ones made from these fabrics.

Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#24

Post by elliekelly »

In high school during the summers I worked as a seamstress making vastly overpriced custom curtains for an interior designer. I learned a quick & dirty method of judging the quality of just about anything made of fabric: look at the fabric grain relative to the primary vertical seams (pant legs, jacket sleeve, shirt torso).

The angle at which a piece of fabric is cut can drastically change the shape/fit of the item but "cheap" items are often made quickly and not much care is given to lining up the pattern correctly before cutting. If you've ever had a t-shirt that always seems to twist on you, it's because of the way the fabric was cut. On the other hand, if someone has taken the time to line up the pattern with the selvage, you can just about guarantee they haven't cut any major corners with the rest of the piece.

The fabric "grain" should be parallel to the seam. Take a look at Primark seams and then take a look at Brooks Brothers seams and you'll immediately see the difference/know what to look for. Expensive jeans seem to be the biggest offender in my experience.

Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#25

Post by mc32 »

dhd415 wrote: post #15

In a previous life when I wore suits to work on a frequent basis, I got interested in this topic and spent way too much time learning about it. I now have a closet full of quality clothes that I wear much less frequently, but, for whatever it's worth, they'll last me the rest of my life. There's a lot of good info in this article, but there's also a lot more beyond it. For example, it mentions (accurately) that the f…

I think a rough proxy for fabric quality is the mill a textile comes from. Speaking in very general terms mills in Italy and Japan produce some good textiles (and not so good ones), but because they are expensive countries they tend to be on the higher end. Some east coast denim mills tend to be good too.

Stitching done in Portugal is pretty good too. Of course, you can find good cheap tailors in underdeveloped countries too.

Buying quality forces you to be more conservative: that which you buy needs to look in-place (if not in-style) for many many years. You can’t buy al courant and hope it will look stylish five or ten years down the road.

Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#26

Post by on_and_off »

fouc wrote: post #16

I hate the complete lack of transparency in garments. We need to know all the details, including the weave? For someone that sweats a lot in hot & humid climates, why does one white cotton shirt show the sweat, and another doesn't? Why do I feel cooler with a thicker cotton shirt than a thinner one?

Garments are so complex !

It still has so many handmade parts in the process and stuff that sound simple when you don't understand it like sizing is actually very complex (and not solved IMO).

To answer your question, even between 2 100% cotton shirts, depending on the density of the cotton used, its type, and the way it is weaved, 2 cotton shirts can be radically different.

Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#27

Post by o09rdk »

settsu wrote: post #14

It's interesting how synthetics were mostly lumped together and largely undifferentiated. To be fair, that post is over 5 years old and some seemingly significant advances in fabrics for consumer garments have become widely available in the meantime. I've personally come to feel cotton is vastly over-rated as a clothing material for anything but cost-saving goals (which certainly is an important factor.) Of course th…

I had a similar reaction.

Polyester and nylon are underrated in my opinion; they're very durable and breathable, and the odor can be mitigated with a blend, or by careful washing and use of enzyme-based stain treatments. I get frustrated a bit by the trend toward 100% cotton t-shirts, for example; cotton-polyester blends almost always last much longer and are more breathable. I understand the concerns about production of synthetic materials but it would be nice to see recycled polyester be used more often.

My favorite fabrics are wool and linen, but polyester and nylon can be extremely useful.

As a counterpoint to things like modal, viscose, etc. they're very soft but can take forever to dry, which I don't like. They're extremely absorbent but also hold on to moisture for a long time.

Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#28

Post by cannonedhamster »

jimmaswell wrote: post #8
dahart wrote: post #7

This is really cool! I’ve complained recently to several people near me that it’s difficult for me to know whether the clothes I’m buying will last. It doesn’t seem like there’s much correlation between price and quality, so frustrating to spend more money and have something fall apart. Now I have a nice detailed guide. > [...] almost every garment needs a little tailoring to make it fit the contours of our shape. Ho…

It seems even basic clothes tinkering takes some skill. I had a pair of jeans with a hole, so I patched on a piece of an old pair whose legs were too long. Kept eventually coming off. Maybe a sewing machine was needed.

Having experience repairing fabrics, but not nearly an expert in it, there is something to be said for the art of it. You need to know how much of the surrounding fabric to anchor your stitches to, how often to double back to lock in the stitches, and very importantly to make sure you're making the stitches tight enough. I'm sure that there's some far better advice out there, but if you sick with it eventually you'll learn to make solid stitching by hand.

Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)

#29

Post by readhn »

What a bunch of BS. The author is ignoring elephant in the room - cost of honestly paid labor and cost of good quality materials. You cant make quality things using "slave" labor (made in "3rd world countries" for a few cents/buck an hour). Good stuff is a product of love. There is no love in made in china goods.

The bottom line with clothing these days is that most of it is made using "slave" underpaid labor and more often than not - cheap materials.

If you want quality - you will have to pay up. (and no, if something is super expensive it does not mean its high quality! you have to know what and from who you are buying!)

Case in point mens shoes. A good pair of shoes these days (made with quality materials and using honestly paid labor) - will cost you $200-300-400 and up. (American, British, Italian or Spanish shoe makers) This is basically the floor of the good shoe market today. Thats just the reality. If you want to pay your people honest wages and if you want to make things with quality materials (and im not talking any ultra luxury here, just good every day stuff) - you will have to price your product accordingly. there is no way around it.

You can not talk about quality of anything without discussing people who made the product.

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