9 ms·

Back in '08-'09 Forever 21 was my favorite clothing store. They had styles there that fit well, looked good, used comfortable fabric, and was relatively cheap.

Back in '08-'09 Forever 21 was my favorite clothing store. They had styles there that fit well, looked good, used comfortable fabric, and was relatively cheap. Given how the economy was doing at the time, it gave Forever 21 an advantage: clothes 2-3x cheaper and clothes quite a bit more enjoyable to wear. But the fabric they used disintegrated on me, as woman's clothes tend to. (Men get thicker fabric, but at the expense of being less stretchy. Women like to show off their curves.) The problem with this being that no one else made the styles I enjoyed. It was a fad that came and went. It doesn't exist in thrift stores. I don't even know what to call it, so I can't find pictures in an image.google search. Forever 21 made products I liked, but then they switched and I (and my friends) couldn't find anything that came close since. The last time I bought clothes at Forever 21 was in 2010. Since then H&M has caught on like wildfire taking over the market Forever 21 once had. They do a lot of the same, but their clothes are even cheaper (why?) and in my current wardrobe my favorite clothes have come from H&M. I'm afraid the same fate will come to H&M that has come to Forever 21. Or maybe H&M will learn from F21's mistakes. Only time will tell.

atoav 7y ago
My girlfriend worked as a weaving technician and she said the H&M stuff got much worse over the past decade and subjectively it is true. The stuff literally disintegrates if you have it in the drier to often. Sadly enough this is also true for the men’s wear. I certainly try to spend a little more and get quality stuff. Second hand stores can also be great because you can find great quality stuff that feels better after the 20th wash than the H&M stuff feels fresh out of the store.
- jesterson 7y ago
  I personally can see how H&M quality went down in last 10 years. Around 10 years ago it was decent quality for reasonable price, not it's just things I'd avoid even touching.
  - zuzun 7y ago
    I would say their quality improved. For example, 10 years ago their t-shirts were really thin with skewed cuts that became evident once you tried to fold them. Now the t-shirts are made of much thicker cotton and the cutting follows a proper pattern.
  - appkate 7y ago
    Same experience. Never buy anything from H&M again.
- HenryBemis 7y ago
  Most brands, especially the low priced ones has reduced the quality of the weaving and textiles, and that contributes to the fast fashion. Your sweater stretches a bit and you go buy a new one (or so they think). I remember I had bought some sweaters in the late 90s from Topman in the UK and they looked brand new 7 years later. Now, nothing from Topman is nearly as good. Now though I stick to brands such as COS, yes they do cost x5 or X10 what H&M costs, but the difference in the clothe is evident.
  - ghaff 7y ago
    I don't need or buy nearly as many of the standard business casual outfits as I used to when I went into an office regularly. (Things have gotten even more casual at conferences etc. as well.) But I've found a number of my go to mail order catalog places that I used to order from like clockwork have really gone downhill over time. I still buy from them sometimes but the quality definitely isn't what it used to be.
  - Gwypaas 7y ago
    COS is still H&M but their more upper market stores and style, though I have to agree the quality is fairly nice.
  - zuzun 7y ago
    I'm not sure if my memory serves me right, but my impression was that most of their clothing was made in Portugal when they were in a few flagship stores only. Once they scaled their production to a worldwide online shop, more things were made in countries like Bangladesh or China. I felt like this blurred the line between them and the cheaper H&M Premium Quality stuff.
  - magduf 7y ago
    >Now though I stick to brands such as COS, yes they do cost x5 or X10 what H&M costs, but the difference in the clothe is evident. Yeah, but do they really last 5-10 times as long? If not, then from a purely economic point-of-view, they're not as good a deal. Spending 10x as much for something that lasts 2x as long really doesn't make economic sense: you can buy 2 of the cheaper thing and still spend 1/5 as much money.
- magicalhippo 7y ago
  Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? So they optimize for price, so you can buy more pieces of clothing so you have something to wear, rather than longevity which "nobody" cares about. That said, it's not just the clothes for women. I tried buying some jeans at H&M, twice. Both times I wore a hole in them in less than a month. I'm not doing anything special, just a regular office guy. I usually buy Diesel jeans and they last at least a couple of years each.
  - oh_sigh 7y ago
    > Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? No.
    - magicalhippo 7y ago
      Guess I should have been more explicit with some <sarcasm> tags. Still, a lot of women buy clothes that only gets worn once or twice (or not at all).
  - jackmaney 7y ago
    > Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? ... No. What the fuck is wrong with you?
  - cwingrav 7y ago
    > Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? Unfortunately, yes. This is what tends to happen. My wife complains about how this is so much the case in women's fashion. Fashion is designed to encourage consumption. People buy new clothes, new appliances, etc just because of color and style. This drives cheaply made products, since they aren't going to last long anyway. Really wish we could move away from this and get back to quality products that last. But, until people get past fashion, I can't expect this will happen.
    - calvinv 7y ago
      you can still buy quality products that last, you just have to pay more
- ajsnigrutin 7y ago
  > The stuff literally disintegrates if you have it in the drier to often. Sadly enough this is also true for the men’s wear. H&M stuff for me never tears or gets holes. Mine just stretches in places where it shouldn't stretch (eg. T-shirt sleeves - how the hell do those stretch?! I don't have steroid-monster arms. I have a <1 year old t-shirt where I can put my whole head through the sleeve (usually by accident), and there's still some space left, and i remember it was fitted well when new... So yeah, it's my 'yard work' shirt. ).
  - atoav 7y ago
    Depends on the time scale. H&M shirts I have are extremely thinned out over the years compared to other shirts I have since more than a decade. I cannot eliminate the possibility that the quality varies with the area where they sell it (I am in Europe).
- Robelius 7y ago
  I have similar experiences with H&M, and a lot of other cheap basically colored shirts. It’ll feel great at first. Then I’ll leave it in the dryer for a few minutes too long, and the fit completely changes while the material looks degraded. I’m more than happy to spend $30+ on a simple shirt that won’t change its fit after a few cleanings, but struggle to find a consistent brand. If anyone has recommendations, please let me know.
  - llampx 7y ago
    > I’m more than happy to spend $30+ on a simple shirt that won’t change its fit after a few cleanings, but struggle to find a consistent brand. Yes I face this problem as well. It seems that no matter how much you pay, you get the same clothes manufactured in the same sweatshops but you pay extra for a "better" logo/brand. I like Zara, but it is debatable if they actually do have better quality for the higher prices they ask for.
  - Retric 7y ago
    Style is rather personal but for reasonably long lasting clothing without extreme prices. Patagonia or other backpacking suppliers or mid ranged department stores between Macy’s and Nordstroms. The next rung up for most brands aka Banana Republic > GAP can be hit or miss, but you really need to give up on low end stores. That said quality is visible when you’re buying. Ultra thin cloth just can’t last.
  - dashundchen 7y ago
    > I have similar experiences with H&M, and a lot of other cheap basically colored shirts. It’ll feel great at first. Then I’ll leave it in the dryer for a few minutes too long, and the fit completely changes while the material looks degraded. Hang dry and use a lower spin speed in the wash. It takes a little more planning and time, but I hang dry almost all my clothes and I have t-shirts from H&M type store that are 8 years old and still holding up. Some higher quality clothes brands are even older and look pretty much brand new. I can get clothing to last until the fabric actually wears out - elbows in dress shirts, knees in pants etc and even after that you can sometimes convert them to shorts with a little sewing.
  - 7y ago
cerebellum42 7y ago
>Since then H&M has caught on like wildfire taking over the market Forever 21 once had. They do a lot of the same, but their clothes are even cheaper (why?) and in my current wardrobe my favorite clothes have come from H&M. I'm afraid the same fate will come to H&M that has come to Forever 21. Or maybe H&M will learn from F21's mistakes. Only time will tell. That's a rather weird characterization in my opinion... H&M stores in roughly their current form have been around a lot longer than Forever 21. H&M is also 4-5 times the size of Forever 21 by revenue.
- eyko 7y ago
  Perhaps they're talking about the US market? In Europe, H&M has been big for as long as I can remember (since the late 1990s, which is when I started shopping for clothes).
  - dehrmann 7y ago
    I mean, they're European, and all.
- samstave 7y ago
  H&M revolutionized the fashion cycle. In a not good way. Watch this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/
- proverbialbunny 7y ago
  >That's a rather weird characterization in my opinion... H&M stores in roughly their current form have been around a lot longer than Forever 21. H&M is also 4-5 times the size of Forever 21 by revenue. My apologies. Faulty assumption on my part.
  - seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    H&M is very European (Swedish), I think they’ve only been in the states for less than a decade. I’m more of a C&A person myself, H&M always struck me as too urban (in Switzerland at least).
Milner08 7y ago
H&M is much, much bigger than Forever 21. Forever 21 barely exists out side of North America, but H&M can be found everywhere. I mean everywhere. That may be a factor in how cheap they can be - The scale of the business.
- kalleboo 7y ago
  Sounds like the article that part of their demise came from a botched fast international ramp-up. Perhaps they didn't have the expertise (or funds?) to scale up.
- samstave 7y ago
  Watch this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/
  - dang 7y ago
    Please don't post the same comment multiple times. It lowers the signal-noise ratio.
- aedron 7y ago
  H&M is the Ikea of clothes.
  - mortenjorck 7y ago
    This is a good analogy for multiple reasons: Both Ikea and H&M hit a variety of price points and tend to have quality commensurate with them. I’ve bought a $30 dresser at Ikea and $7 T-shirts at H&M, and both were about as durable as you might imagine. I’ve also bought a $200 dresser at Ikea and a $100 coat at H&M, and they’ve held up as well as comparable products twice their price.
    - fragmede 7y ago
      They are also both Swedish!
- 7y ago
bgeeek 7y ago
Before H&M you need to talk about Gap. Their local store to me in the UK is almost always permanently empty. I still use them to buy basics, but always shop online. Superdry, the same - it's always empty, but I'm not a fan of big logos on clothes so wouldn't buy Superdry. Uniqlo hasn't yet made the same mistake of opening stores almost everywhere. You can shop online with them, but there aren't many stores outside of the capital in the UK. In the UK it really does look like shops on the high street are struggling with the physical costs as opposed to shopping online.
- shp0ngle 7y ago
  I am from Europe, but currently live in Asia. I felt in love with Uniqlo. It's just perfectly what I want from a clothing store. I have heard Uniqlo in Europe and US is different from Uniqlo in Asia and they try to position themselves as slightly more expensive; I can't really tell.
  - ubercow13 7y ago
    Uniqlo in Thailand at least seems to be more expensive than in London as far as I recall
  - namdnay 7y ago
    FWIW I tried uniqlo in tokyo (biqlo store) and it was nearly identical to the stuff in london
    - magduf 7y ago
      I shopped at Uniqlo in Japan too, and it seems nearly identical to the stuff in the US (DC). The prices are slightly lower, and you can get it tax-free if you're a tourist, so I stocked up on some things while I was there.
donkeyd 7y ago
> I'm afraid the same fate will come to H&M that has come to Forever 21. Wasn't looking too good last year [0]. Not sure how they're doing now though. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/business/hm-clothes-stock-sales.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/business/hm-clothes-stock...
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
samstave 7y ago
If you haven’t already, Watch this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/
dehrmann 7y ago
> Men get thicker fabric, but at the expense of being less stretchy Not sure if it's the thickness or the fabric. Men's clothes are more likely to be cotton, women's have more synthetics to get stretchiness and better draping. Not sure what that does for durability, but it might explains issues in the dryer. I'd also be curious to know the staple length of the cotton used by fast fashion brands, but I'd bet it's shorter.
- magduf 7y ago
  I wonder how many of these "issues in the dryer" are caused by people using the high-heat setting on the dryer. I have clothes that are both cotton and synthetic (like exercise/sports clothes) and I really don't have durability problems with any of them, except for cotton shirts "pilling" on the back where they're tucked into my pants after I've had them for a long time. But I always run my dryer at the lowest heat setting, use the sensor drying set for least dry, and then hang-dry stuff when it doesn't come out completely dry. Even my cheap synthetic cycling jerseys from Aliexpress are holding up just fine.
  - sct202 7y ago
    I agree that a lot of the issues are with the dryer. So many expensive clothes and textiles are rack dry or hand wash only, that it's kind of unfair to compare something cheap that you treat roughly versus something expensive you treat delicately.
- amyjess 7y ago
  When I transitioned to female, one thing I was told early on was that I shouldn't put my tops in the dryer anymore, because the dryer will wreck them. So nowadays I hang-dry all my tops. And one interesting side-effect of my transition is that I actually like the feel of clothes now. Stretchy materials are so much more comfortable. I've never been able to stand the feel of cotton against my skin, and I'm so glad I get to wear clothes made of stretchy softness now. If I had my way, everything I wear would be made of rayon and spandex.
  - 7y ago
delfinom 7y ago
>(Men get thicker fabric.) Hahahaha. Not anymore sadly with most brands. Profit maximization has fixed that in the last few years.
wazoox 7y ago
> H&M has caught on like wildfire taking over the market Forever 21 once had. They do a lot of the same, but their clothes are even cheaper (why?) Because of ruthless exploitation of the poor: https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/25/world/asia/bangladesh-factory-fire/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/25/world/asia/bangladesh-fac...
flanbiscuit 7y ago
Your experience with F21 is how I felt about H&M but going from 2001 to 2005. It was still a really new store in the US at the time and brought that European slim fit that worked best with my body type which so many American brands lacked at the time. I still pop into H&M once in a while but it's definitely not my main store anymore, I honestly don't know what is. I feel like H&M really popularized fast fashion more so than F21 but I'm also looking at this from a very male (albeit queer pseudo fashionable male if that makes a difference) pov. Granted stores like Old Navy already had cheap clothing at the time but it wasn't really considered "fashion", it was more like everyday super casual wear.
- proverbialbunny 7y ago
  I had no idea H&M was older. I think it's comes down to cuts at the end of the day. There is a style that fits a body type perfectly and the wearer loves it, but then that style disappears. Or at least that is how it works for me. The cuts that fit my proportions best tend to look and feel the best. eg, skinny jeans made it hard for me to lift my legs for some of them and low cut / boot cut felt like they were falling down on me, but they weren't really falling down. But give me some jeggings and I'm a happy camper.
magashna 7y ago
H&M makes clothes that seem to have the texture and quality of tissue paper. I understand they are cheap but I assume shopping there is like being the poor man in the boot theory of socioeconomic unfairness.
- himlion 7y ago
  Perfect for my children though. the pace at which it breaks closely matches them growing out of it. Probably not so good for the thrift store market I guess.
robotstate 7y ago
By purchasing clothes from H&M, you're supporting child labor and horrible work conditions. There's a reason the clothes are as cheap as they are.
Blackthorn 7y ago
> their clothes are even cheaper (why?) Slave labor. It's why my family won't shop there anymore.

atoav 7y ago

My girlfriend worked as a weaving technician and she said the H&M stuff got much worse over the past decade and subjectively it is true. The stuff literally disintegrates if you have it in the drier to often. Sadly enough this is also true for the men’s wear. I certainly try to spend a little more and get quality stuff. Second hand stores can also be great because you can find great quality stuff that feels better after the 20th wash than the H&M stuff feels fresh out of the store.

jesterson 7y ago
I personally can see how H&M quality went down in last 10 years. Around 10 years ago it was decent quality for reasonable price, not it's just things I'd avoid even touching.
- zuzun 7y ago
  I would say their quality improved. For example, 10 years ago their t-shirts were really thin with skewed cuts that became evident once you tried to fold them. Now the t-shirts are made of much thicker cotton and the cutting follows a proper pattern.
- appkate 7y ago
  Same experience. Never buy anything from H&M again.
HenryBemis 7y ago
Most brands, especially the low priced ones has reduced the quality of the weaving and textiles, and that contributes to the fast fashion. Your sweater stretches a bit and you go buy a new one (or so they think). I remember I had bought some sweaters in the late 90s from Topman in the UK and they looked brand new 7 years later. Now, nothing from Topman is nearly as good. Now though I stick to brands such as COS, yes they do cost x5 or X10 what H&M costs, but the difference in the clothe is evident.
- ghaff 7y ago
  I don't need or buy nearly as many of the standard business casual outfits as I used to when I went into an office regularly. (Things have gotten even more casual at conferences etc. as well.) But I've found a number of my go to mail order catalog places that I used to order from like clockwork have really gone downhill over time. I still buy from them sometimes but the quality definitely isn't what it used to be.
- Gwypaas 7y ago
  COS is still H&M but their more upper market stores and style, though I have to agree the quality is fairly nice.
- zuzun 7y ago
  I'm not sure if my memory serves me right, but my impression was that most of their clothing was made in Portugal when they were in a few flagship stores only. Once they scaled their production to a worldwide online shop, more things were made in countries like Bangladesh or China. I felt like this blurred the line between them and the cheaper H&M Premium Quality stuff.
- magduf 7y ago
  >Now though I stick to brands such as COS, yes they do cost x5 or X10 what H&M costs, but the difference in the clothe is evident. Yeah, but do they really last 5-10 times as long? If not, then from a purely economic point-of-view, they're not as good a deal. Spending 10x as much for something that lasts 2x as long really doesn't make economic sense: you can buy 2 of the cheaper thing and still spend 1/5 as much money.
magicalhippo 7y ago
Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? So they optimize for price, so you can buy more pieces of clothing so you have something to wear, rather than longevity which "nobody" cares about. That said, it's not just the clothes for women. I tried buying some jeans at H&M, twice. Both times I wore a hole in them in less than a month. I'm not doing anything special, just a regular office guy. I usually buy Diesel jeans and they last at least a couple of years each.
- oh_sigh 7y ago
  > Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? No.
  - magicalhippo 7y ago
    Guess I should have been more explicit with some <sarcasm> tags. Still, a lot of women buy clothes that only gets worn once or twice (or not at all).
- jackmaney 7y ago
  > Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? ... No. What the fuck is wrong with you?
- cwingrav 7y ago
  > Well apparently women are supposed to only wear a piece of clothing once or twice, no? Unfortunately, yes. This is what tends to happen. My wife complains about how this is so much the case in women's fashion. Fashion is designed to encourage consumption. People buy new clothes, new appliances, etc just because of color and style. This drives cheaply made products, since they aren't going to last long anyway. Really wish we could move away from this and get back to quality products that last. But, until people get past fashion, I can't expect this will happen.
  - calvinv 7y ago
    you can still buy quality products that last, you just have to pay more
ajsnigrutin 7y ago
> The stuff literally disintegrates if you have it in the drier to often. Sadly enough this is also true for the men’s wear. H&M stuff for me never tears or gets holes. Mine just stretches in places where it shouldn't stretch (eg. T-shirt sleeves - how the hell do those stretch?! I don't have steroid-monster arms. I have a <1 year old t-shirt where I can put my whole head through the sleeve (usually by accident), and there's still some space left, and i remember it was fitted well when new... So yeah, it's my 'yard work' shirt. ).
- atoav 7y ago
  Depends on the time scale. H&M shirts I have are extremely thinned out over the years compared to other shirts I have since more than a decade. I cannot eliminate the possibility that the quality varies with the area where they sell it (I am in Europe).
Robelius 7y ago
I have similar experiences with H&M, and a lot of other cheap basically colored shirts. It’ll feel great at first. Then I’ll leave it in the dryer for a few minutes too long, and the fit completely changes while the material looks degraded. I’m more than happy to spend $30+ on a simple shirt that won’t change its fit after a few cleanings, but struggle to find a consistent brand. If anyone has recommendations, please let me know.
- llampx 7y ago
  > I’m more than happy to spend $30+ on a simple shirt that won’t change its fit after a few cleanings, but struggle to find a consistent brand. Yes I face this problem as well. It seems that no matter how much you pay, you get the same clothes manufactured in the same sweatshops but you pay extra for a "better" logo/brand. I like Zara, but it is debatable if they actually do have better quality for the higher prices they ask for.
- Retric 7y ago
  Style is rather personal but for reasonably long lasting clothing without extreme prices. Patagonia or other backpacking suppliers or mid ranged department stores between Macy’s and Nordstroms. The next rung up for most brands aka Banana Republic > GAP can be hit or miss, but you really need to give up on low end stores. That said quality is visible when you’re buying. Ultra thin cloth just can’t last.
- dashundchen 7y ago
  > I have similar experiences with H&M, and a lot of other cheap basically colored shirts. It’ll feel great at first. Then I’ll leave it in the dryer for a few minutes too long, and the fit completely changes while the material looks degraded. Hang dry and use a lower spin speed in the wash. It takes a little more planning and time, but I hang dry almost all my clothes and I have t-shirts from H&M type store that are 8 years old and still holding up. Some higher quality clothes brands are even older and look pretty much brand new. I can get clothing to last until the fabric actually wears out - elbows in dress shirts, knees in pants etc and even after that you can sometimes convert them to shorts with a little sewing.
- 7y ago

cerebellum42 7y ago

>Since then H&M has caught on like wildfire taking over the market Forever 21 once had. They do a lot of the same, but their clothes are even cheaper (why?) and in my current wardrobe my favorite clothes have come from H&M. I'm afraid the same fate will come to H&M that has come to Forever 21. Or maybe H&M will learn from F21's mistakes. Only time will tell. That's a rather weird characterization in my opinion... H&M stores in roughly their current form have been around a lot longer than Forever 21. H&M is also 4-5 times the size of Forever 21 by revenue.

eyko 7y ago
Perhaps they're talking about the US market? In Europe, H&M has been big for as long as I can remember (since the late 1990s, which is when I started shopping for clothes).
- dehrmann 7y ago
  I mean, they're European, and all.
samstave 7y ago
H&M revolutionized the fashion cycle. In a not good way. Watch this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/
proverbialbunny 7y ago
>That's a rather weird characterization in my opinion... H&M stores in roughly their current form have been around a lot longer than Forever 21. H&M is also 4-5 times the size of Forever 21 by revenue. My apologies. Faulty assumption on my part.
- seanmcdirmid 7y ago
  H&M is very European (Swedish), I think they’ve only been in the states for less than a decade. I’m more of a C&A person myself, H&M always struck me as too urban (in Switzerland at least).

Milner08 7y ago

H&M is much, much bigger than Forever 21. Forever 21 barely exists out side of North America, but H&M can be found everywhere. I mean everywhere. That may be a factor in how cheap they can be - The scale of the business.

kalleboo 7y ago
Sounds like the article that part of their demise came from a botched fast international ramp-up. Perhaps they didn't have the expertise (or funds?) to scale up.
samstave 7y ago
Watch this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/
- dang 7y ago
  Please don't post the same comment multiple times. It lowers the signal-noise ratio.
aedron 7y ago
H&M is the Ikea of clothes.
- mortenjorck 7y ago
  This is a good analogy for multiple reasons: Both Ikea and H&M hit a variety of price points and tend to have quality commensurate with them. I’ve bought a $30 dresser at Ikea and $7 T-shirts at H&M, and both were about as durable as you might imagine. I’ve also bought a $200 dresser at Ikea and a $100 coat at H&M, and they’ve held up as well as comparable products twice their price.
  - fragmede 7y ago
    They are also both Swedish!
7y ago

bgeeek 7y ago

Before H&M you need to talk about Gap. Their local store to me in the UK is almost always permanently empty. I still use them to buy basics, but always shop online. Superdry, the same - it's always empty, but I'm not a fan of big logos on clothes so wouldn't buy Superdry. Uniqlo hasn't yet made the same mistake of opening stores almost everywhere. You can shop online with them, but there aren't many stores outside of the capital in the UK. In the UK it really does look like shops on the high street are struggling with the physical costs as opposed to shopping online.

shp0ngle 7y ago
I am from Europe, but currently live in Asia. I felt in love with Uniqlo. It's just perfectly what I want from a clothing store. I have heard Uniqlo in Europe and US is different from Uniqlo in Asia and they try to position themselves as slightly more expensive; I can't really tell.
- ubercow13 7y ago
  Uniqlo in Thailand at least seems to be more expensive than in London as far as I recall
- namdnay 7y ago
  FWIW I tried uniqlo in tokyo (biqlo store) and it was nearly identical to the stuff in london
  - magduf 7y ago
    I shopped at Uniqlo in Japan too, and it seems nearly identical to the stuff in the US (DC). The prices are slightly lower, and you can get it tax-free if you're a tourist, so I stocked up on some things while I was there.

donkeyd 7y ago

> I'm afraid the same fate will come to H&M that has come to Forever 21. Wasn't looking too good last year [0]. Not sure how they're doing now though. 0: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/business/hm-clothes-stock-sales.html https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/business/hm-clothes-stock...

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

samstave 7y ago

If you haven’t already, Watch this https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3162938/

dehrmann 7y ago

> Men get thicker fabric, but at the expense of being less stretchy Not sure if it's the thickness or the fabric. Men's clothes are more likely to be cotton, women's have more synthetics to get stretchiness and better draping. Not sure what that does for durability, but it might explains issues in the dryer. I'd also be curious to know the staple length of the cotton used by fast fashion brands, but I'd bet it's shorter.

magduf 7y ago
I wonder how many of these "issues in the dryer" are caused by people using the high-heat setting on the dryer. I have clothes that are both cotton and synthetic (like exercise/sports clothes) and I really don't have durability problems with any of them, except for cotton shirts "pilling" on the back where they're tucked into my pants after I've had them for a long time. But I always run my dryer at the lowest heat setting, use the sensor drying set for least dry, and then hang-dry stuff when it doesn't come out completely dry. Even my cheap synthetic cycling jerseys from Aliexpress are holding up just fine.
- sct202 7y ago
  I agree that a lot of the issues are with the dryer. So many expensive clothes and textiles are rack dry or hand wash only, that it's kind of unfair to compare something cheap that you treat roughly versus something expensive you treat delicately.
amyjess 7y ago
When I transitioned to female, one thing I was told early on was that I shouldn't put my tops in the dryer anymore, because the dryer will wreck them. So nowadays I hang-dry all my tops. And one interesting side-effect of my transition is that I actually like the feel of clothes now. Stretchy materials are so much more comfortable. I've never been able to stand the feel of cotton against my skin, and I'm so glad I get to wear clothes made of stretchy softness now. If I had my way, everything I wear would be made of rayon and spandex.
- 7y ago

delfinom 7y ago

>(Men get thicker fabric.) Hahahaha. Not anymore sadly with most brands. Profit maximization has fixed that in the last few years.

wazoox 7y ago

> H&M has caught on like wildfire taking over the market Forever 21 once had. They do a lot of the same, but their clothes are even cheaper (why?) Because of ruthless exploitation of the poor: https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/25/world/asia/bangladesh-factory-fire/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2012/11/25/world/asia/bangladesh-fac...

flanbiscuit 7y ago

Your experience with F21 is how I felt about H&M but going from 2001 to 2005. It was still a really new store in the US at the time and brought that European slim fit that worked best with my body type which so many American brands lacked at the time. I still pop into H&M once in a while but it's definitely not my main store anymore, I honestly don't know what is. I feel like H&M really popularized fast fashion more so than F21 but I'm also looking at this from a very male (albeit queer pseudo fashionable male if that makes a difference) pov. Granted stores like Old Navy already had cheap clothing at the time but it wasn't really considered "fashion", it was more like everyday super casual wear.

proverbialbunny 7y ago
I had no idea H&M was older. I think it's comes down to cuts at the end of the day. There is a style that fits a body type perfectly and the wearer loves it, but then that style disappears. Or at least that is how it works for me. The cuts that fit my proportions best tend to look and feel the best. eg, skinny jeans made it hard for me to lift my legs for some of them and low cut / boot cut felt like they were falling down on me, but they weren't really falling down. But give me some jeggings and I'm a happy camper.

magashna 7y ago

H&M makes clothes that seem to have the texture and quality of tissue paper. I understand they are cheap but I assume shopping there is like being the poor man in the boot theory of socioeconomic unfairness.

himlion 7y ago
Perfect for my children though. the pace at which it breaks closely matches them growing out of it. Probably not so good for the thrift store market I guess.

robotstate 7y ago

By purchasing clothes from H&M, you're supporting child labor and horrible work conditions. There's a reason the clothes are as cheap as they are.

Blackthorn 7y ago

> their clothes are even cheaper (why?) Slave labor. It's why my family won't shop there anymore.