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How to Think About Quali...
HOW TO THINK ABOUT QUALITY IN CLOTHING 🧵 There have been a lot of discussions here recently about clothing quality. Many have involved oversimplifications, exaggerations, and sometimes misinformation. So here's a thread on how to think about quality in clothing. (View Tweet)
First, there is such a thing as "clothing quality." If you want to read a sensible guide on how you can judge this as a shopper, you can read this post I wrote many years ago. It has a lot of practical information. https://t.co/PvfxTsqaRz (View Tweet)
However, Twitter is not designed for sensible info. It's made for hot takes and outrage. So this thread is about how I think "quality" is often misunderstood and overstated. It's also about how luxury brands rarely offer "the best." (View Tweet)
I will include prices where I can because this is an important element in understanding "quality." I will also pepper this thread with information designed to bait you into hate-replying and hate-retweeting me, so I go viral. (View Tweet)
First, let's set some groundwork. When people talk about quality, they often mean durability. Izzie Ramirez alludes to this in a Vox article about how stuff is actually worse now. Many people believe that clothing across the board is less durable. https://t.co/KYJpIhshcg (View Tweet)
I can't speak for womenswear, but I don't find this to be true of menswear. As long as you avoid the cheapest of cheap clothes (e.g., Zara, H&M, Shein), most things will last just fine. Nowadays, the design is more likely to wear out before the seams. (View Tweet)
Quality is a nuanced concept. And it only has a loose relationship with price. Quality depends on the designer's intention and the customer's preferences. The cost will also depend on the particularities of where a garment was made and the factory's capabilities.
Factories don't like stopping and restarting their production line. Or doing things that they're not used to doing. Sometimes a garment costs a lot bc the brand used a factory that's not well-equipped for a certain operation. This is just about how the factory is set up. (View Tweet)
When people write about quality, they often use vague language, such as "luxury" or "handmade." There are rarely any technical details. So I will run through some comparisons showing high and low-priced garments, show how luxury brands cut corners, and what quality can mean. (View Tweet)
Oftentimes, quality means it took more time to make the item. Look at these two denim shirts: Kapital ($300) and Wrangler ($30). The Kapital is made with flat felled side seams and a neatly finished hem, whereas the Wrangler has messy overlock stitches.
Added time can also come through the level of handwork. These are bespoke trousers ($1,500) from Tailor's Keep in San Francisco. Pattern was drafted from scratch & adjusted through 3 fittings. Except for long seams, everything was done by hand (sewing needle & thread, no machine)
By contrast, these Kit Blake trousers ($271) were made by someone sitting at a sewing machine. Is there any benefit to making trousers by hand? Certainly, drafting a bespoke pattern for one person should mean a better fit. But what about attaching waistband by hand vs machine?
Bespoke tailors say attaching a waistband by hand allows for a more forgiving stretch, whereas a lockstitch is more likely to break. But this is because they only have basic sewing machines. A factory may have special machines that can make the sort of loop stitches done by hand (View Tweet)
For the most part, the handwork on those bespoke trousers is done for the sake of craft. Whether the material benefits can be achieved using a less costly method will depend on the machines at a factory. Let's move on to another example. (View Tweet)
Sometimes "higher quality" can mean "better durability." But it's not always the case that paying more gets you a more durable item—you have to know what to look for. These Stevenson jeans ($325) have leather-backed buttons. The Our Legacy jeans ($375) do not.
The Stevensons also have a higher element of craftsmanship. The belt loops were made by hand, not by machine. They are single-needle sewn throughout, even in places where you see two rows of stitching. This was done to mimic jeans from the 1920s and 30s
Since the Stevensons are made from raw, selvedge denim woven on slower shuttle looms, they will also fade in a very particular way over time. By contrast, the Our Legacy jeans have been pre-washed and distressed, and they will not result in this more natural faded look below
Let's turn up the heat on hot takes. Luxury brands such as Loro Piana, Tom Ford, and Cucinelli are often portrayed as being "the best in quality." But are they? Here is a Tom Ford leather blazer ($7,500) against a Savas leather blazer (cost unknown but less than Tom Ford)
If you look closely at the TF jacket, it has a horizontal seam across the lower half of the body and sleeves. This is a way for manufacturers to cut around the blemishes on a hide and get more yield out of their materials. Result looks a bit like Frankenstein's monster.
Luxury brands cut costs in other ways. Here is the chest of a Brioni sport coat ($6k) compared to an Atelier BRIO Pechino sport coat (cost unknown). The chest and lapels on the Brioni have been padded by machine, whereas the BRIO has been padded by hand
What is hand padding? It's a process that involves a tailor carefully bending and sewing multiple layers of material using a sewing needle and thread, which gives flat pieces of fabric a three-dimensional form. See this video: https://t.co/5fYW2PBjlx (View Tweet)
This is done to the chest and lapels to give them shape. In a tailor's workshop, this will take many hours; in a factory, it can be done in a matter of mins using something like a rollpadding machine. Compared to the tailor, this takes less skill: https://t.co/8NF3vJRL8U (View Tweet)
Does it make a difference to pad by hand vs machine? This is a matter of debate. But ultimately, quality here is about aesthetics, not durability. Look at how the lapel rolls beautifully in the left pic but is flat in the right pic. Roll is the result of stitching and ironing
Luxury brands also finish their edges by machine. Left: lapel on Cucinelli sport coat ($3k) was finished by an AMF machine to imitate the look of hand pick-stitch. Right: lapel on bespoke Steed sport coat (also $3k) was finished by a pick stitch authentically done by hand.
The takeaway here is that quality can mean many things: handwork for the sake of craft, an operation done to achieve a certain look, and sometimes durability. But even durability is a complicated concept. What about durability of design or your emotional connection to the item? (View Tweet)
Sometimes durability is contextual. 3sixteen makes durable t-shirts ($50) cut from heftier pure cotton. Collars are triple-needle stitched, so they never sag. Orlebar Brown's t-shirts ($140) are more luxurious but less durable. It depends on the tradeoffs you want.
A lot of people are paying for quality that they can't even identify, such as the idea of handwork, even if they can't tell when the stitching is done by hand or machine. Can you tell which buttonholes here were done by hand and which were by machine? What about lining?
The point of this thread is not to encourage you to climb up the quality pyramid and buy increasingly expensive things, but to think about what you value in a garment—durability, aesthetics, craft—and to develop a taste for things. (View Tweet)
A few months ago, I talked to Carolyn Yim, whose family has been in the cashmere biz for three generations. She said she wishes ppl had the vocabulary to describe clothing details the way coffee nerds describe notes in coffee. Having the right language helps you identify things (View Tweet)
The Wrangler shirt is lower quality than Kapital. I'd be bummed if I paid $300 for a shirt with a serged hem. But it has other aspects I like—fabric, fit—and I think it looks great when worn. Instead of focusing on a vague idea about quality, figure out what you like in a garment
