Decline in clothing quality?

[Anonymous]

Hi OP, if you search the board, you will find multiple threads on this topic.

Those of us in our 40s who, 15-20 yrs ago, built our first collection of real, quality work clothes specifically at Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, a handful of Nordstrom finds ... those days are way, way over. It sucks.

[Anonymous]

I'd be disappointed if I shopped all the places you mentioned.

How about up your game?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP, if you search the board, you will find multiple threads on this topic.

Those of us in our 40s who, 15-20 yrs ago, built our first collection of real, quality work clothes specifically at Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, a handful of Nordstrom finds ... those days are way, way over. It sucks.

Yes. The only hope is that we made career choices that allow us to buy much more expensive clothing, or stayed thin enough to wear vintage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd be disappointed if I shopped all the places you mentioned.

How about up your game?

Ok. Where would I shop to do that?

[Anonymous]

Say what you want but I’ve been quite happy with Talbots quality. You don’t have to pick the frumpy styles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be disappointed if I shopped all the places you mentioned.

How about up your game?

Ok. Where would I shop to do that?

Saks
Revolve
La Perla
Agent Provocateur
Elie Tahari

Or just find designers you like and buy them from wherever. Stella McCartney, Rag & Bone, Chloe.

The places you've been shopping are all pedestrian fast-fashion trash. Truly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, there’s absolutely been a decline. I’ve been searching for some specific items that should be high enough quality to last a decade (wool coat, thick wool sweater, solid boots that can withstand resoling) even without costing many multiple hundreds. I’ve been feeling like I’ve somehow gotten priced out of the high quality items that used to be available at mid-range prices. I’m 49 if that matters. And despise fast fashion for the waste it promotes.

There is no reliable midrange anymore. The brands that used to be midrange are mostly crap now because most consumers don't value quality, just the price. I graduated from college in 1995, and when I was buying suits to start working, the low end but still decently made suits in Macy's, Lord and Taylor, etc. were about $120-150 for women. Given the inflation, the starting point should have been somewhere in $300 range now, but Macy's is full of $100 suits and the quality us atrocious.

There is literally no midrange. I used to like Reiss, but even that seems cheap now. I was in Saks yesterday and tried on a beautiful Giorgio Armani blouse. It didn't have a price tag on it. I assumed it was around $500/$600. The salesperson went to check. When she said $1300 I was like - you've got to be kidding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP, if you search the board, you will find multiple threads on this topic.

Those of us in our 40s who, 15-20 yrs ago, built our first collection of real, quality work clothes specifically at Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, a handful of Nordstrom finds ... those days are way, way over. It sucks.

Yes. The only hope is that we made career choices that allow us to buy much more expensive clothing, or stayed thin enough to wear vintage.

OR… work at home and wear loungewear LOL

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be disappointed if I shopped all the places you mentioned.

How about up your game?

Ok. Where would I shop to do that?

Saks
Revolve
La Perla
Agent Provocateur
Elie Tahari

Or just find designers you like and buy them from wherever. Stella McCartney, Rag & Bone, Chloe.

The places you've been shopping are all pedestrian fast-fashion trash. Truly.

DP. Idiot, the point of the thread is *they didn’t used to be*. Also LOL at the brands you suggested to avoid this problem.

[Anonymous]

Really went downhill during the Great Recession. I even have "cheap" clothes (Target, Walmart) made before then that have started to wear out. Clothes since the recession, barely last a year if they are less expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd be disappointed if I shopped all the places you mentioned.

How about up your game?

Ok. Where would I shop to do that?

Saks
Revolve
La Perla
Agent Provocateur
Elie Tahari

Or just find designers you like and buy them from wherever. Stella McCartney, Rag & Bone, Chloe.

The places you've been shopping are all pedestrian fast-fashion trash. Truly.

DP. Idiot, the point of the thread is *they didn’t used to be*. Also LOL at the brands you suggested to avoid this problem.

Okay, lady. It's clear you have no taste so we don't really need your snotty comments. I was answering the OPs question directly. Sorry that went over your head. Maybe you can try to keep up or just take a nap.

Maybe your family puts up with your name calling but it's really an absurd overreaction here.

[Anonymous]

I used to work at Banana Republic in the late 90s. Everything was quality natural fibers - wool, cotton, silk. Suits and work pants were always fully lined. Sturdy stitching, shell buttons, well-made. As a high school student, the prices were high to me, but there were frequent sales. Even GAP and Old Navy back then had cashmere and silk items (I still have some of them). Now, BR is full of poly blends. There are still wool blends, but they're much lighter weight or lower wool %, and usually not lined. Most blouses are poly. It's too bad. I think the rise of fast fashion (H&M and Forever 21 didn't exist in the US back then) made it hard to compete and keep selling higher quality, higher-priced clothing.

BOSS seems quality, but the price point is much, much higher than BR was back when BR sold quality clothing.

[Anonymous]

The problem is also that shoppers have gotten cheap as dirt in the last twenty years. As others have noted, BR was pretty good quality 20 years ago. So I specifically remember buying a really nice pair of linen pants there in 2001. This was before BR had frequent storewide sales. Those pants were $80, and on my $27k salary at the time, felt extravagant.

I checked on google and $80 from 2001 is worth $125 today. But BR has only raised the list prices for their pants to maybe $100, AND they have weekly 40% off sales. Which means most people are getting their pants for $60 these days at BR. In 2021 dollars!!! Taking into account the 40% constant discounts, BR would need to have pants at list price of over $205 for them to actually cost $125 - the equivalent of what they were charging in 2001. Can you imagine if BR listed pants at $205?? And sold them for discounted prices of $125? People would lose their minds, because no one pays that anymore. Instead of keeping track with inflation, they’ve effectively slashed their prices by almost half compared to twenty years ago, because that’s what customers want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is also that shoppers have gotten cheap as dirt in the last twenty years. As others have noted, BR was pretty good quality 20 years ago. So I specifically remember buying a really nice pair of linen pants there in 2001. This was before BR had frequent storewide sales. Those pants were $80, and on my $27k salary at the time, felt extravagant.

I checked on google and $80 from 2001 is worth $125 today. But BR has only raised the list prices for their pants to maybe $100, AND they have weekly 40% off sales. Which means most people are getting their pants for $60 these days at BR. In 2021 dollars!!! Taking into account the 40% constant discounts, BR would need to have pants at list price of over $205 for them to actually cost $125 - the equivalent of what they were charging in 2001. Can you imagine if BR listed pants at $205?? And sold them for discounted prices of $125? People would lose their minds, because no one pays that anymore. Instead of keeping track with inflation, they’ve effectively slashed their prices by almost half compared to twenty years ago, because that’s what customers want.

This is right, and I think you could take it 20 years prior and see another iteration of clothing prices dramatically loosing ground with respect to inflation. When I was in college, I commandeered some pieces my mother had purchased while working retail as a college student, and the quality was better still. Now the only place I find similar quality fabric is buying designer used. Meanwhile designer prices (new) seem to have doubled during COVID.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I used to work at Banana Republic in the late 90s. Everything was quality natural fibers - wool, cotton, silk. Suits and work pants were always fully lined. Sturdy stitching, shell buttons, well-made. As a high school student, the prices were high to me, but there were frequent sales. Even GAP and Old Navy back then had cashmere and silk items (I still have some of them). Now, BR is full of poly blends. There are still wool blends, but they're much lighter weight or lower wool %, and usually not lined. Most blouses are poly. It's too bad. I think the rise of fast fashion (H&M and Forever 21 didn't exist in the US back then) made it hard to compete and keep selling higher quality, higher-priced clothing.

BOSS seems quality, but the price point is much, much higher than BR was back when BR sold quality clothing.

+1

My older cashmere and wool items from BR, J Crew and Lands End are a different universe from what they are selling now.