Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you give some trending examples that are not just phones strapped to the body?
That isn't what techwear means https://www.grailed.com/drycleanonly/an-introduction-to-tech...
Oh, I see. Thanks!
How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
261–270 of 292 posts
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you wear them daily? Even boots from Alden or Viberg should be rotated with at least one other pair.
Yeah, any leather shoes will wear out much faster if you don't let them sit and dry out after wearing. Shoe trees can vastly prolong the lifespan of a pair of shoes.
Are you stomping through mud puddles daily with your shoes?
Regular foot sweat should be long since evaporated away with just an overnight stay in the shoe closet unless perhaps you live in an un-airconditioned house in a swamp.
I wear the same pair of leather shoes every day and in the end it's the soles that wear out, not the leather. They aren't even fancy shoes, just run of the mill Dockers.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#263Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you wear them daily? Even boots from Alden or Viberg should be rotated with at least one other pair.
Huh. So you are saying if I have 2 pairs of identical shoes, A and B, if I wear A for T months, then B for T months, by alternating every day I should get >2T months out?
You absolutely get > 2T out. Potentially up to 4T.
This is because much of the wear on your shoes does not come from steps and hitting the ground. It comes from sweat and moisture inside the shoe, and the inside of your shoe takes a REALLY long time to dry out fully.
If you wanted to extend of life of a shoe without rotating pairs you can also buy a shoe drying rack. This is what a lot of people in construction do with extensive work boots.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#264Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ever wonder if cheap commodity exporting countries might play this as a form of covert economic aggression?
It's an interesting thought but I think there's little basis to believe there is a concerted effort here, as the average consumer is very aware that the quality of, say, a screwdriver from China, is very different from that of a German made one. I think it's just an unintended consequence of a race to the bottom in cheap, disposable manufacturing. Even then, I'm unsure if on an aggregate level the progress in materia…
But times are changing, now it’s also possible to buy great screwdriver from China and inferior from Germany.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, any leather shoes will wear out much faster if you don't let them sit and dry out after wearing. Shoe trees can vastly prolong the lifespan of a pair of shoes.
Are you stomping through mud puddles daily with your shoes? Regular foot sweat should be long since evaporated away with just an overnight stay in the shoe closet unless perhaps you live in an un-airconditioned house in a swamp. I wear the same pair of leather shoes every day and in the end it's the soles that wear out, not the leather. They aren't even fancy shoes, just run of the mill Dockers.
That's a great failure mode as you can simply get them re-soled.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#266Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you stomping through mud puddles daily with your shoes? Regular foot sweat should be long since evaporated away with just an overnight stay in the shoe closet unless perhaps you live in an un-airconditioned house in a swamp. I wear the same pair of leather shoes every day and in the end it's the soles that wear out, not the leather. They aren't even fancy shoes, just run of the mill Dockers.
That's a great failure mode as you can simply get them re-soled.
Theoretically, but the couple of times I've checked it would cost pretty much the same or more to re-sole my shoes as it would be to buy a brand new pair. It's pretty hard to find anybody who even does that anymore, and their clients are people with extremely expensive imported dress shoes.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#267It'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 productio…
On the other side, I absolutely despise polyester. I hate the way it feels to the degree that I absolutely refuse to wear anything containing it.
I do have some nylon clothes for camping, bit I wouldn’t wear them every day either. Natural fibers are just much more comfortable for me.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#268Textile quality, tailoring and fit, or a good price: in general with very few exceptions you pick two. I am a fanatic about my clothing quality and have searched high and low to find the right quality. Fit is, in general based on taste, and price is really limited by your time to search sales. I’ve arrived at the conclusion that Loro piana, Brunello Cuccinelli and to a lesser degree Zenga provide the very best qualit…
At least Zegna is quite a bit cheaper than Loro Piana, so it might be a better value, at their main lines. Diffusion ones like Z Zegna might be iffier. But pretty much everything is getting to the "not what it used to be" stage.
ZZenga and the old Zenga Sport seem to be of nearly the same quality, more forward designs and fewer exotic materials (mostly cotton and synthetics, with some wool). I generally find their sportswear to be very nice. If ZZ didn't add some of the louder Italian branding, like Emperio Armani, it would be the best quality/value tradeoff.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least Zegna is quite a bit cheaper than Loro Piana, so it might be a better value, at their main lines. Diffusion ones like Z Zegna might be iffier. But pretty much everything is getting to the "not what it used to be" stage.
ZZenga and the old Zenga Sport seem to be of nearly the same quality, more forward designs and fewer exotic materials (mostly cotton and synthetics, with some wool). I generally find their sportswear to be very nice. If ZZ didn't add some of the louder Italian branding, like Emperio Armani, it would be the best quality/value tradeoff.
You're more likely to find items made in low-cost countries those lines, though. I had Sport jeans fall apart much sooner than I expected (which for gauze-thin linen isn't that much to begin with), while E.Zegna stuff has been going strong for 10+ years now.
But at least it's not Armani Exchange, which is H&M quality at best.
Re: How to assess the quality of garments (2014)
#270Personally I've always considered clothes (or "garments" if you prefer) to be a necessity and as long as they were comfortable, fit ok, and lasted a good while to be sufficient.
Style is pretty far down on my list of wants. Levi's and a good T-shirt are enough for me, but no so much for my wife. She complains on occasion about my lack of interest in style and status symbols.
The best dressed man I've ever met was the owner of Hennessy Cognac. I helped build custom cars for him and his son back in the `70s. One day I commented on how nice his suits were, and that I'd not seen him wear the same one twice.
He told "I wear a new suit everyday. I have three tailors in Italy making them for me. They send me swatches of material each week and I select those I like."
I commented "You must have a closet bigger than our house." and he told me "No, I give them all away after I wear them. I'd give you one if you were my size." He went on to say he donated them to places where they could help those who couldn't afford a nice suit and needed one to get a good job.