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Even back in the 1980s, my mother stopped making clothes for us kids when the price of fabric was more expensive than the price of the clothing it would make.

Even back in the 1980s, my mother stopped making clothes for us kids when the price of fabric was more expensive than the price of the clothing it would make. Going back a decade, the 1976 children's book "Benny Uncovers a Mystery" from the Boxcar Children series takes place in a department store, with this scene at https://archive.org/details/bennyuncoversmys00gert/page/52/mode/2up?q=seams https://archive.org/details/bennyuncoversmys00gert/page/52/m... > "No, don't buy that blouse either," said the small woman, who stepped between Violet and the salesclerk. "Not that blouse," she repeated. "Look at those seams — that blouse won't last more than a few washings." ... > I'm surprised that Furman's has been selling blouses that are so poor. I will have to talk to the manager about this." The author, Gertrude Warner, born 1890 so in her 80s when she wrote that, was already complaining about the lower quality of clothing available in department stores. In the story (spoiler!) the small woman ends up being the new owner of the store, who plans to put in higher quality goods. In real life, we know that store would have gone out of business, as we moved to the era of "it's so cheap I don't care if it falls apart after a few washings". I could see spending ~$1000 for several wardrobe items, but only because I don't face much social pressure to change my wardrobe to reflect changing styles, and even then, I don't know how to judge clothing quality to know if it's $1000 for clothes that will last for decades, or will fall apart after a couple of years.

Over2Chars 2y ago
Wow, I'm surprised to see something that recent on quality. I recall reading an 1850's novel that talked about the demise of home clothing manufacturing, as factory production started taking off I guess. The trade off is definitely long term quality for short term cost, not just in the seams, but in the cloth material quality as well. I guess we need an education in clothing quality to appreciate this kind of thing?
- eesmith 2y ago
  I'm pretty sure when machine-made cloth started in the 1700s or so, people complained its quality was worse than handmade cloth by experts. The trend to fast fashion and now ultra-fast-fashion, driven by ever-increasing marketing pressure to buy the latest, constantly-changing trends, despite expose after expose showing its huge environmental impact, shows that education wouldn't be enough. How would one even evaluate cloth material quality online? We know the ads for a Hardee McWopper Burger show some amazing looking hamburgers made using exactly the same ingredients as sold by the stores; a look achieved by expert designers and photographers. I expect the exemplar used for online marketing will be equally ... optimized .. for appearance. Those are factors for why I don't do online clothes shopping.
  - Over2Chars 2y ago
    Here's the first hit on a quick quack from the Duck: https://www.wikihow.com/Spot-High-Quality-Clothing https://www.wikihow.com/Spot-High-Quality-Clothing
    - eesmith 2y ago
      Which shows the importance of in-store purchases over sight-unseen. > Popular high-quality brands include Levi Strauss & Co I regards that as highly suspect advice. I stopped buying jeans because even name brand jeans weren't durable. Another quick quack finds https://www.thebubble.org.uk/culture/the-decline-of-quality-how-did-we-end-up-wearing-rubbish/ https://www.thebubble.org.uk/culture/the-decline-of-quality-... saying "A recent experiment demonstrates this decline in quality over the last 30 years, through testing Levi’s jeans, whose slogan states (ironically) that ‘Quality never goes out of style’ . Two pairs of Levi’s jeans were put to the test – a pair manufactured between 1985 and 2000, and a pair manufactured between 2017 and 2018. The experiment found that the older jeans were stronger and wore less quickly than the newer ones, even through the fabric was much older." It links to https://thecorrespondent.com/416/fashion-unravelled-why-you-get-holes-in-your-t-shirts-faster-even-when-you-pay-more https://thecorrespondent.com/416/fashion-unravelled-why-you-... which adds "Even high-end brands sometimes seem like they don’t last much more than one season." Ha. And "The most expensive pair seemed to be primarily intended for people who value style more than sustainability." Disgusting.
      - Over2Chars 2y ago
        I provided a link to the first quack because it showed the nature of what I was talking about: a "positive" education on quality, namely what to look for. One can digress into arguments about Levi's or nit pick any particular website/video all day. But quality is just one factor, and if locally produced goods were of inferior quality to imported goods, it might be still be preferable to buy domestically produced goods.
        eesmith 2y ago

Over2Chars 2y ago

Wow, I'm surprised to see something that recent on quality. I recall reading an 1850's novel that talked about the demise of home clothing manufacturing, as factory production started taking off I guess. The trade off is definitely long term quality for short term cost, not just in the seams, but in the cloth material quality as well. I guess we need an education in clothing quality to appreciate this kind of thing?

eesmith 2y ago
I'm pretty sure when machine-made cloth started in the 1700s or so, people complained its quality was worse than handmade cloth by experts. The trend to fast fashion and now ultra-fast-fashion, driven by ever-increasing marketing pressure to buy the latest, constantly-changing trends, despite expose after expose showing its huge environmental impact, shows that education wouldn't be enough. How would one even evaluate cloth material quality online? We know the ads for a Hardee McWopper Burger show some amazing looking hamburgers made using exactly the same ingredients as sold by the stores; a look achieved by expert designers and photographers. I expect the exemplar used for online marketing will be equally ... optimized .. for appearance. Those are factors for why I don't do online clothes shopping.
- Over2Chars 2y ago
  Here's the first hit on a quick quack from the Duck: https://www.wikihow.com/Spot-High-Quality-Clothing https://www.wikihow.com/Spot-High-Quality-Clothing
  - eesmith 2y ago
    Which shows the importance of in-store purchases over sight-unseen. > Popular high-quality brands include Levi Strauss & Co I regards that as highly suspect advice. I stopped buying jeans because even name brand jeans weren't durable. Another quick quack finds https://www.thebubble.org.uk/culture/the-decline-of-quality-how-did-we-end-up-wearing-rubbish/ https://www.thebubble.org.uk/culture/the-decline-of-quality-... saying "A recent experiment demonstrates this decline in quality over the last 30 years, through testing Levi’s jeans, whose slogan states (ironically) that ‘Quality never goes out of style’ . Two pairs of Levi’s jeans were put to the test – a pair manufactured between 1985 and 2000, and a pair manufactured between 2017 and 2018. The experiment found that the older jeans were stronger and wore less quickly than the newer ones, even through the fabric was much older." It links to https://thecorrespondent.com/416/fashion-unravelled-why-you-get-holes-in-your-t-shirts-faster-even-when-you-pay-more https://thecorrespondent.com/416/fashion-unravelled-why-you-... which adds "Even high-end brands sometimes seem like they don’t last much more than one season." Ha. And "The most expensive pair seemed to be primarily intended for people who value style more than sustainability." Disgusting.
    - Over2Chars 2y ago
      I provided a link to the first quack because it showed the nature of what I was talking about: a "positive" education on quality, namely what to look for. One can digress into arguments about Levi's or nit pick any particular website/video all day. But quality is just one factor, and if locally produced goods were of inferior quality to imported goods, it might be still be preferable to buy domestically produced goods.
      - eesmith 2y ago