Where do you buy your clothes?

[nikaiyo2]

Imho Mango, Reiss, All saints etc are neither one thing or another. They are mid range fashion brands, they are not particularly high quality.

Howlin by Morison https://morrison.be/collections/howlin make fantastic knits.
As do https://www.jamiesonsofshetland.co.uk/ or https://www.johnsmedley.com/uk/

Most of them are made in the U.K.

Canali are fabulous quality https://gb.canali.com/ if you want a very traditional gents over coat, honestly buy a second hand Canali on vinted or eBay, the quality is beyond comparison to a diffusion line.

[Super Sonic]

TKMaxx for jeans (wrangler £35) other brands available, they do Ben Sherman shirts for £40, other cut price brands.
Also M&S, charity shops.

[BananaFama]

Socks in Asda ,pants in M&S .

[wolfracesonic]

BananaFama said:

Socks in Asda ,pants in M&S .

That list seems pretty final, do you wear anything else or is that it?

[bitchstewie]

And this is the difficulty.

The coat I got is nice but I'm not under any illusion I've bought anything other than something that should hopefully last "a few years" but not a generation etc.

Uniqlo tee shirts are £10 M&S are £8 Zara are £13 AllSaints are £35 are they 4x the quality or just the logo?

Likewise jumpers are anything from £20 to £100 and I'm not at all sure there's a significant leap in quality from M&S/Uniqlo to say Reiss or AllSaints.

Next feels like a jumble sale but I have a horrible feeling pop their stuff in a Reiss or AllSaints store and it would seem different.

How the hell do you distinguish quality from marketing fluff?

And I'm not going to buy a £200 Sunspel even if the quality is there as I can't justify that

[ILikeCake]

I've gone all hippy in recent years and try and do sustainable/ethical employment.

Rapanui isy go to for socks, pants, t-shirts, jumpers.

[wyson]

Suit supply I mentioned before was a noticeable step up in quality, very good value for money, if you are looking at the smarter clothing.

Reiss and AllSaints aren’t any better than normal high street brands in terms of quality. For what you get, I think both brands are overpriced.

Quite a few youtube videos talk about what to look for.

So one of my Bolongaro Trevor tops, it was trimmed with leather, had brass fixings and some sort of panelled construction which made it drape in a particular way. All those details cost money over a normal highstreet top with plastic buttons, much simpler tailoring etc.

But stating the obvious, generally, like with anything in life, you get what you pay for. If you want to pay Dacia money, you can’t expect Audi materials etc.

Edited by wyson on Friday 10th November 19:05

[Sheets Tabuer]

Flannels, head to toe in stone island me, I'm well hard.

[nuyorican]

At the toilet store.

[skinnyman]

Late 30's with 2 kids, so 90% of my clothing comes from Next these days, or Go Outdoors as I tend to wear more 'tactical'/outdoor clothing these days.

My winter coat is 12yrs old now, still looking good, that was from Next too.

Footwear wise I've completely given up on modern trainers and mostly wear sketchers stuff

[i4got]

Easy brand plain t-shirts £5 a pop at Matalan. £7 if you want a pattern/logo. Perfectly adequate quality , good fit, and good price.

[Gtom]

It’s almost always Next. I know the sizes, I can order on the app and if I don’t like it, it’s a 15 minute drive to take it back. When I’m browsing I often look at more expensive stuff but then think ‘na I’m not spending that’.

It was different when I was on the tools buying workwear, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at spending over £100 on a pair of work trousers.

[Squadrone Rosso]

Marks & Spencer mainly, not jackets though. Shoes typically Clarkes or more recently, Sketchers.

53 year old bloke so wear mostly Chinos & Shirts when I’m not in shorts or Lycra…lol

[nute]

America. Used to be dead cheap but much less so on my last visit.

[grumbledoak]

Uniqlo for T-shirts.
Levis store for jeans.
M&S socks.
Pants were China via Amazon this year.
Shirts are the only thing I shop around for, and I wear them less and less.

[Actual]

I don't like t-shirts made from thin material or clothes that size up small or shorter in the body. I don't want to carry a logo and I struggle to find good plain clothes with no design or branding.

[Legacywr]

skinnyman said:

I've completely given up and mostly wear sketchers stuff

Edited for you

[nikaiyo2]

bhstewie said:

And this is the difficulty.

The coat I got is nice but I'm not under any illusion I've bought anything other than something that should hopefully last "a few years" but not a generation etc.

Uniqlo tee shirts are £10 M&S are £8 Zara are £13 AllSaints are £35 are they 4x the quality or just the logo?

Likewise jumpers are anything from £20 to £100 and I'm not at all sure there's a significant leap in quality from M&S/Uniqlo to say Reiss or AllSaints.

Next feels like a jumble sale but I have a horrible feeling pop their stuff in a Reiss or AllSaints store and it would seem different.

How the hell do you distinguish quality from marketing fluff?

And I'm not going to buy a £200 Sunspel even if the quality is there as I can't justify that

What do you mean by quality?

Fabric?
Manufacturing?
Longevity?

Honestly, imho, there is no difference in tangible things between m&s and the brands you list, I would say m&s might prioritise quality over many fashion brands. Same goes for the big brand names, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Boss etc. In particular these brands there is a massive difference in quality between their full price stuff and their discounted lines.

Buy a pack of 3 boxers from Ralph Lauren outlet store for less than the price of one pair at full price you will tell instantly what cost 3x the price.
Edwin jeans, the difference between the Made in Japan lines to the cheaper lines is huge.

Literally all high street fashion is of similar quality, it’s not designed to last forever but would you want it to?

Have a look at https://www.endclothing.com/gb and read some of the brand stories, the smaller brands have much greater ability and willingness to manage quality. They do genuine sales making some of the pricing more reasonable.

Shirts for work? I buy them from Tesco/ Sainsbury’s, they cost nothing, are semi disposable, I have 2-3 nice shirts for meetings etc. I always used to have nice shirts but the amount I ruined after 2 or 3 wears got tiresome

[wyson]

How did you ruin a shirt after two or three wears?

[wyson]

For shoes, Rose Anvil, a shoe maker has a great youtube channel where he takes shoes apart to analyse their construction. Someone mentioned Balanciaga before so as an example, he said their shoes weren’t constructed in a way befitting their £800 or £900 price, being made with the same materials and construction as regular trainers costing less than £100. You are basically paying for the style, as per Reiss and AllSaints.

He rates Crown Northampton, which are hand made shoes using top quality materials, which can be can be resoled and remade.

https://crownnorthampton.com/

Lots of videos like this for men’s suits, waterproof jackets etc.

I went to a North Face outlet and got one of their ‘deals’. Having watched several videos on jacket construction etc, I could tell the jacket was built down to the price they were charging. As mentioned in a post above, this is very typical for outlets. In no way was it comparable to their jackets costing hundreds more, sold retail, although superficially similar at a casual glance.

Edited by wyson on Saturday 11th November 07:22