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Guys (broadly) don't care what the name of the fabric on their furniture is, or what their curtains are made of, and do not shop using those terms. Even getting

Guys (broadly) don't care what the name of the fabric on their furniture is, or what their curtains are made of, and do not shop using those terms. Even getting very slightly into male fashion has put me far ahead of most guys as far as knowing words common in male fashion. The vast majority of guys don't give a damn what "twill" is, or "bluchers", let alone what you call the kind of uphostry on their couch. I recognized some of the fabric words. Were I not married, I would have recognized far fewer. I couldn't have told you what most of them actually mean, just that they're to do with fabric. [EDIT] In fact, on reflection, I find it surprising that women (generally) shop for furniture based on anything to do with the kind of fabric on them, or would be particularly likely to be able to tell you what kind of fabric is on their furniture. I've always known women to shop for uphostered furniture the same way guys do, which is by looking at options until they see something that looks OK, then sitting on it to test. Curtains are another story. I'm pretty sure my wife does put in fabric names when searching for curtains, and might be able to name what some of ours are. Shopping for uphostered furniture based on fabric type seems more like a rich/poor divide than male/female, to me. Like, it doesn't even get interesting until you're way out of most people's price range, does it?

deleted 5y ago
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rcoveson 5y ago
> Shopping for uphostered furniture based on fabric type seems more like a rich/poor divide than male/female, to me. Like, it doesn't even get interesting until you're way out of most people's price range, does it? That doesn't stop car people who can only own a single, entry-level car from caring about all sorts of dimensions that don't meaningfully affect the boring commuter experience. And each of those dimensions has vocabulary words associated with it, which adds to the fun. If you feel a connection with a domain, be it furniture or computer hardware, you learn all the words and form lots of impractical opinions (again, because fun). It's not exclusive to rich people. All the fabric, fashion, and color stuff probably has all sorts of cultural implications. "Seersucker" just "screams" "summer", or something. Stuff like that. It's fun. But you only have space for so much of it in your head, so with all the other categories of things, you just go based on surface-level experience. Maybe there's a correlation between wealth and the number of topics you have lots of highly-specific opinions about? But my guess based on experience is that it's a personality trait independent of wealth.
- brimble 5y ago
  AFAIK nearly all upholstry for the furniture most people buy is either fake leather of one sort or another, or some kind of boring synthetic fabric. Kinda like how all wall-to-wall carpet most people buy is synthetic fiber and not very interesting, until you get into stuff outside most people's price range, when things like wool and all kinds of weaves and styling and textures enter the picture. Below that it's like: How thick pile? Feel good on feet (if you're not used to better) because only cheap, or feel bad on feet because very cheap? With maybe some patterning considerations for very low-pile carpet. (to be clear, that's the price range I'm usually operating in when looking at that kind of thing, too—there's not much to get excited about) I'd expect all the interesting choices with names that carry over into other parts of fashion not to enter the picture, with furniture, until you start to head into "designer" territory. The big overstuffed things out on the floor with price tags attached and big "SALE!" signs and such, seem rather same-y.
  - rcoveson 5y ago
    Sure, but again, think of the relationship with furniture and fashion like the typical male relationship with cars. Magazines, movies, celebrities, blogs, shopping way outside your price range without any intent to buy when you have nothing to do... I imagine all these things apply. Most guys I know learned about cars from hours of Top Gear, and drive used Honda Accords. I'll bet there's an equivalent for learning and caring about fabrics, furniture, and clothing.
    - brimble 5y ago
      Of course enthusiasts exist, I'm just skeptical that women knowing the names of fabric on their furniture is at all common under a certain SES level, at least. I've seen women care about and know the names of fabric in curtains, use those kinds of words to describe them, and shop using those words, in multiple cases. I've never seen it with furniture, but I also don't know anyone who can/would spend money on interior designers, go to the scary rich-people (for very small values of "rich") section of Nebraska Furniture Mart except out of curiousity, order custom or trendy vintage furniture et c. The most sylish and best-looking (but not most expensive) furniture I see in my regular life is from Ikea. I can't even say for sure I've ever sat on a chair that wasn't just some undoubtedly-very-cheap weave of polyester or something else along those lines, but that's because my friends and family range (in background and attitudes, if not in income) from the Fussellian low-prole through his Middle. I'm assuming there are interesting fabric choices in the stores (or parts of stores) that no-one I know shops in, but there don't seem to be out in the po' folks' sections, where the majority of people shop. Doubling (or more) the price of a couch to get a kind of fabric worth remembering isn't on the table for most people—except, yes, maybe enthusiasts or people rich enough that that's the only kind of furniture they buy.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

rcoveson 5y ago

> Shopping for uphostered furniture based on fabric type seems more like a rich/poor divide than male/female, to me. Like, it doesn't even get interesting until you're way out of most people's price range, does it? That doesn't stop car people who can only own a single, entry-level car from caring about all sorts of dimensions that don't meaningfully affect the boring commuter experience. And each of those dimensions has vocabulary words associated with it, which adds to the fun. If you feel a connection with a domain, be it furniture or computer hardware, you learn all the words and form lots of impractical opinions (again, because fun). It's not exclusive to rich people. All the fabric, fashion, and color stuff probably has all sorts of cultural implications. "Seersucker" just "screams" "summer", or something. Stuff like that. It's fun. But you only have space for so much of it in your head, so with all the other categories of things, you just go based on surface-level experience. Maybe there's a correlation between wealth and the number of topics you have lots of highly-specific opinions about? But my guess based on experience is that it's a personality trait independent of wealth.

brimble 5y ago
AFAIK nearly all upholstry for the furniture most people buy is either fake leather of one sort or another, or some kind of boring synthetic fabric. Kinda like how all wall-to-wall carpet most people buy is synthetic fiber and not very interesting, until you get into stuff outside most people's price range, when things like wool and all kinds of weaves and styling and textures enter the picture. Below that it's like: How thick pile? Feel good on feet (if you're not used to better) because only cheap, or feel bad on feet because very cheap? With maybe some patterning considerations for very low-pile carpet. (to be clear, that's the price range I'm usually operating in when looking at that kind of thing, too—there's not much to get excited about) I'd expect all the interesting choices with names that carry over into other parts of fashion not to enter the picture, with furniture, until you start to head into "designer" territory. The big overstuffed things out on the floor with price tags attached and big "SALE!" signs and such, seem rather same-y.
- rcoveson 5y ago
  Sure, but again, think of the relationship with furniture and fashion like the typical male relationship with cars. Magazines, movies, celebrities, blogs, shopping way outside your price range without any intent to buy when you have nothing to do... I imagine all these things apply. Most guys I know learned about cars from hours of Top Gear, and drive used Honda Accords. I'll bet there's an equivalent for learning and caring about fabrics, furniture, and clothing.
  - brimble 5y ago
    Of course enthusiasts exist, I'm just skeptical that women knowing the names of fabric on their furniture is at all common under a certain SES level, at least. I've seen women care about and know the names of fabric in curtains, use those kinds of words to describe them, and shop using those words, in multiple cases. I've never seen it with furniture, but I also don't know anyone who can/would spend money on interior designers, go to the scary rich-people (for very small values of "rich") section of Nebraska Furniture Mart except out of curiousity, order custom or trendy vintage furniture et c. The most sylish and best-looking (but not most expensive) furniture I see in my regular life is from Ikea. I can't even say for sure I've ever sat on a chair that wasn't just some undoubtedly-very-cheap weave of polyester or something else along those lines, but that's because my friends and family range (in background and attitudes, if not in income) from the Fussellian low-prole through his Middle. I'm assuming there are interesting fabric choices in the stores (or parts of stores) that no-one I know shops in, but there don't seem to be out in the po' folks' sections, where the majority of people shop. Doubling (or more) the price of a couch to get a kind of fabric worth remembering isn't on the table for most people—except, yes, maybe enthusiasts or people rich enough that that's the only kind of furniture they buy.