Judging quality of clothing at a glance

Besides what other’s mentioned, supposedly the $500 designer jeans will often have things like intricate embroidery that the mass-market jeans lack.

Many people are surprised to hear that there’s actually quite a large clothing manufacturing industry in Los Angeles. But according to an NPR story I heard a few years ago, while most mass-market clothing is manufactured overseas in low wage countries, much of the really high end stuff is made in the USA. At least part of the reason, according to the story, is that intricate embroidery I mentioned, which the overseas factories simply aren’t capable of.

Except isn’t embroidery easy to add with sewing machines designed for the purpose? I know my sister-in-law had one and when her kids were little, they wore stuff that she made and embroidered.

It’s possible I misrememberd the story and it wasn’t embroidery, but something else that’s difficult to add. The gist was that the high end designers are adding decorative flourishes that are difficult for the overseas factories to do.

If you’re able to find the story, I’d like to read it. I have heard that one advantage of domestic production of clothing is fast turnaround. There’s this concept called “fast fashion” in which the designers and retailers try to introduce clothes within weeks to appeal to new trends, and that’s not possible when the stuff has to be produced in Asia and sent over on ships (especially not now). From what I’ve read there are European clothing chains that specialize in this (Zara, H&M, etc) and they use factories in Europe to produce these clothes.

You are thinking hand-stitching and finishing, which is more expensive and usually seen as superior to assembly-line machinework.

What do you mean by “5 times better”? There is a bottom line determined by the cost of the cloth and the time spent sewing, stitching, finishing, etc., everything by hand, but the final price is quite simply whatever the designer feels like. The only constraint is that if all the other designers are selling jeans for $500, you probably will not price them at $5000, and if T-shirts go for $1000 then why would you charge $100. Note that if your designs are bad, nobody will buy your clothes anyway :slight_smile:

ETA maybe you mean “lasts 5 times longer”? The quality of the materials and workmanship can make a huge difference, but I am not sure what the ultimate factor would be for, say, jeans.

Terry Pratchett’s Boots Theory may have some application here:

Back in the early days after dinosaurs roamed the earth my sister-in-law worked in the fashion industry in Manhattan. She was the one who would sew the outfit that the model wore in photo shoots for catalogs and such.
Because of this, I had a much greater exposure to details of high quality women’s clothing than most random guys would. She would often point out tiny features that appear in good stuff vs. common off-the-rack clothing.

I haven’t sewn clothing in years but I’ve been involved in textile arts all of my life. While I can’t estimate cost or designer by eye, I can tell a good quality piece of clothing and usually the materials used from across the room.

I think it’s like bird-watching. Once you know what to look for, you just get in the habit of seeing things that are easily missed by the untrained eye.

Now, please don’t ask me what kind of car that is over there. I have no clue and will probably forget less than 60 seconds after you tell me.

The totally subjective viewpoint of the consumer. For the connoisseur, the $500 shirt is worth that much based what he knows went into it and that he values. The man-on-the-street meanwhile looks at it and says “five-farking-hundred?!?!?!”

To a fair extent.

First, there is some correlation between price and quality in mens clothes, but less than people think. A number of high end names command high prices but are made of mediocre fabric, are unremarkable, do not fit well or do not hold up well over time. Some cheaper brands are well made, fit great and are less old-fashioned.

Clothing which fits badly or is made of cheap materials is fairly obvious. That said, off the rack stuff from decent stores is often of decent quality and may or may not fit well. Some of it is excellent.

It is easier to judge mens suits by feeling the fabric or the fit by seeing the person drive, dance or raise their hands. Many small things are not often seen with cheaper suits. Even so, cost does not always equal quality. An expensive suit can be a hideous colour, look ridiculous, or be the wrong material given the weather.

Women’s clothing is tougher. Don’t know it as well and cheaper copies are often directly from the expensive ones so still can look good. Some women could get away with wearing anything. Very stylish women are rarer than you might think and this is independent of her other qualities.

Ties in particular should be made of nice material, but the match is much more important than the cost.

These days, it should be said, suits are not always the most appropriate clothing in the way they once were. This is more true after Covid. Many women actually do not much like men in suits, seeing just this as a turn-off, unhip, paternalistic or egotistical. However, in my experience quality women visually do. Even so, ties are not worn nearly as often as they once were, even with suits, and sometimes it is best to combine quality clothing with stuff that is cheaper but more fashionable.

At the moment, charity and second hand shops are full of quality suits discarded by those who now think them archaic. They cost very little but vary a great deal.

When I was working in Japan for an American company, we sometime dealt with US consultants, and there was a guy who was like this. He wore really nice suits in an industry which was mostly average Joes, but it was because his clients were securities companies and such.

Once we were out for drinks, and he suddenly turned my tie around to see the label. He laughed and said he had though so, but had no idea why a (our company) employee would have an Armani tie. Apparently, he could tell. I didn’t tell him that the tie was birthday gift from my girlfriend.

I never had to buy high end suits, I could get mine at Nordstrom’s on trips back to the States.

I like the look of a good suit and tie, but I fully understand why some men hate neckwear. Pretty sure I would, too. For me, the hatred is for dresses, hose, and high-heeled shoes.

To me, there’s nothing quite like a man in a well-tailored, classic tux. When done right, it’s a great look. Not that I move in any circles where I see them - I think my dad is the last person I actually saw in person wearing a tuxedo, and he’s been gone for 20 years. But there’s always some celebrity red carpet event to get me my fix. :wink:

Oh they like me when I wear a suit. :smiley:

Then again, it may be the moms in my kid’s class are so used to seeing me dressed like a hobo that it’s shocking bumping into me wearing a $1200 suit.

I don’t think Nordstrom’s is all that inexpensive.

My general philosophy is if I have to wear a suit, it mind as well be an expensive (within my budget) one with good tailoring. Otherwise, I can just wear the typical “Deloitte casual Friday” consultant’s uniform of a dress shirt and puffy vest from North Face or Patagonia.

I used to work with a couple guys some years ago who only wore suits all the time. Even though we worked at a very casual tech company/digital agency. That was just a weird affectation they had (possibly imitating Barney Stinson from HIMYM).

Nordstrom’s isn’t cheap, but not Armani class by any means. I liked that price range of suits because the salespeople are really good at color coordination, so you could make sure the suit, shirt and ties really matched, in addition to getting a good fit.

You can pay a lot for off the rack. No doubt you do better than I, but some high end American stores can be pricy.

You can still get a good fit by taking a well chosen second hand garment (“vintage” to the pretentious) to a decent tailor. I am not the easiest fit but have found some used stuff that fits me well. Made to measure is good if your measurements never change with time. Made to measure is cheaper in China or India than it is in Britain.

Beyond a certain level of quality you may be paying for the prestige or boost of confidence you may or may not feel. Part of the reason like Polo shirts are popular is avoiding the fuss of too much sartorial bother.