How to assess the quality of garments (2014) • Hacker News Board

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

#71

Post by bnjms » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 3:47 AM UTC

kingludite wrote: post #50

I get what the article is getting at, its lovely for what it is trying to do. my take: Cloths are what people you meet look at. They create a mood in the spectator and leave an impression of who you are. First you have to figure out who you are, who you use to be and who you want to become. Who are the people you meet? they use to be what? who do you want them to be? After doing that you pick cloths that compliment t…

I thought this growing up. My favorite clothes were all chosen for function over fashion. Took me some years to accept fashion as an important function. Now I think like you.

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

#72

Post by tonyarkles » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 3:51 AM UTC

mmmrtl wrote: post #67

megablast wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is bunnyhug a common term?

saskatchewan!

Sigh. Correct :)

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

#73

Post by paulcole » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 3:58 AM UTC

mandelbrotwurst wrote: post #61

kingludite wrote: post #50

I get what the article is getting at, its lovely for what it is trying to do. my take: Cloths are what people you meet look at. They create a mood in the spectator and leave an impression of who you are. First you have to figure out who you are, who you use to be and who you want to become. Who are the people you meet? they use to be what? who do you want them to be? After doing that you pick cloths that compliment t…

Is everyone not heading to a funeral? ;)

Not me! I’ll never go to one and have it in my will that there won’t be one when I pass.

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

#74

Post by technofiend » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 4:02 AM UTC

projectileboy wrote: post #55

dhd415 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What kind of clothes are you looking for? In general, it's hard to find stores where you can walk in and be assured that anything they carry is high quality. Even the high-end department stores such as Saks Fifth Ave. and Neiman Marcus are going to carry a lot of "fashion" brands that are expensive but not necessarily good quality. Some local boutiques (e.g., Louis Boston though it too has declined in recent years) m…

Your comments have been really informative. I have no knowledge of fabrics or clothes, but I can second Bill’s Khakis. I had a pair that lasted many years - looked and felt better than maybe any other pair of pants I’ve owned.

Based on Bill's prices I feel compelled to mention signing up for their email list yields a 30% discount code. That's a $48 discount on one pair of pants.

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

#75

Post by kingludite » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 4:04 AM UTC

bch wrote: post #70

kingludite wrote: post #50

I get what the article is getting at, its lovely for what it is trying to do. my take: Cloths are what people you meet look at. They create a mood in the spectator and leave an impression of who you are. First you have to figure out who you are, who you use to be and who you want to become. Who are the people you meet? they use to be what? who do you want them to be? After doing that you pick cloths that compliment t…

> everyone is heading to a funeral. Like they got tired of carrying their soul [...]

I did manage to move the not so nice thoughts to the end of the train. Now if I could just learn to stop writing/talking/thinking(?) before we get there the world would be a happier place.

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

#76

Post by technofiend » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 4:13 AM UTC

nimbius wrote: post #39

Disclosure: I'm coming from a blue collar background as a master diesel mechanic Quality is build + aesthetic for me. Some brands i wear include Texas jeans, Chippewa boots, and all american clothing company. The quality from domestic apparel is in my experience massively superior to foreign brands. Carhartt jackets for winter are incredibly warm and gave great value, but their aesthetic isn't always popular. They la…

>but their aesthetic isn't always popular.

My Carhartt clothing is some of the best made and longest wearing I own. You're going to laugh but Carhartt is trying to go upmarket and establish themselves as a fashion brand in Europe! Imagine my surprise to trip across a Carhartt store with a wall of gimme caps / trucker hats on display in Frankfurt, Germany!

Hopefully they expand their profitability by getting their name out there rather than cutting costs on material and quality but I've already seen some Amazon reviews alleging the new stuff is sourced out of China with a drop in quality. If that's actually true and it's not just counterfeits flooding Amazon I'll be looking at Schaefer or Cinch next.

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

#77

Post by dehrmann » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 4:14 AM UTC

dhd415 wrote: post #35

mc32 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 count…

Looking at the mill for a fabric can be helpful, especially for wools. Mills such as Holland & Sherry and Scabal have built a reputation for quality fabrics though they're generally not household names so they do not yet have the motivation to go down-market to increase their sales (unlike Zegna which has become semi-famous and now makes some lower quality fabrics). That said, you won't find their fabrics except on t…

Since you mentioned HK, any opinion on Simpson Sin?

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

#78

Post by jboydyhacker » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 4:17 AM UTC

dhd415 wrote: post #31

dlivingston wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any high-quality clothing stores that you recommend?

What kind of clothes are you looking for? In general, it's hard to find stores where you can walk in and be assured that anything they carry is high quality. Even the high-end department stores such as Saks Fifth Ave. and Neiman Marcus are going to carry a lot of "fashion" brands that are expensive but not necessarily good quality. Some local boutiques (e.g., Louis Boston though it too has declined in recent years) m…

Any opinion on Outlier dungarees. They are expensive but the quality seems darn good.

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

#79

Post by Fins » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 4:20 AM UTC

tsunamifury wrote: post #33

Textile 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.

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

#80

Post by ValentineC » Tue, Jul 23, 2019, 4:24 AM UTC

buttikin wrote: post #34

jimmaswell wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you don't have a sewing machine, and you're interested in repairing/tailoring your own clothes (and most importantly you have the time) it's well worth looking into historic sewing methods. Hand sewing can be just as strong if not stronger than machine sewing, it just takes the right techniques and the time and patience to sit there and do it. I've found the two most useful stitches I've picked up are the felling…

> Proper denim jeans are quite hard to mend though even if you know what you're doing, especially if you've worn through/blown out the inner thigh region. Wherever you've sewn will become a new point of stress on the denim and it is likely to just pull away the weave of the fabric from that point.

This happens to every pair of mine, and is always the reason I am forced to retire them. Do you think it'll help if I reinforced the inside with old denim from another pair?