Current Events > Durability/longevity is the most overrated thing with clothing

(+) Yeah! (+)

In the sense that if you pay more money somehow that thing will be more durable, like there's a proportional relationship between quality and hardiness.

Bull. My wardrobe is full of zara and h&m shirts and underwear that never die. Hell I have one pair of boxers that I bought in a knock off street stall in bali 15 years ago that is still completely fine, no holes or stretching.

Meanwhile all the expensive, boutique stuff I own is infinitely more fragile.

A nylon polyester shirt will last longer than a merino wool sweater, go figure.

There is a marginal increase in durability between gutter basement clothing and quality crafted clothing, but I think an actual decrease in durability once you go beyond that.

Planned obsolescence.

Luxury goods can make more money from dumb rich people with disposable money.

Notti posted...

Planned obsolescence.

Luxury goods can make more money from dumb rich people with disposable money.

Maybe but I suspect there's a simpler explanation in most cases: There's a sort of bell curve when it comes to craftsmanship vs durability.

Shoddily built things will fall apart easily and are cheap to make. Well built things are only slightly more expensive to make and will last a very long time. But well built things out of luxury materials are no more durable but might be more precious.

You can apply that to anything (like say, a couch for your living room). With clothes, it looks like this:

1. $30 boots from walmart: terribly constructed, cheap to make, no durability
2. $400 redwing boots: well constructed, quite expensive, very durable. If you spill wine on them, no big deal.
3. $3000 handmade specialty italian suede boots: well constructed, very expensive, not durable at all. If you spill wine on them it's a disaster.

Your topic title made me think you meant you don't value durability. Expensive clothes are just an all around scam so it comes as no surprise that they're not durable.

Squall28 posted...

Your topic title made me think you meant you don't value durability. Expensive clothes are just an all around scam so it comes as no surprise that they're not durable.

I used to buy in to more expensive clothing as a means of it being longer lasting, and then found that there was basically no relationship at all between durability and quality when it comes to clothing.

Exceptions for footwear but even then it's not a linear scale. Once you're spending more than like, $80 for shoes there is no more durability you're getting out of it.

I just would rather rotate through 5 pairs of $20 pants than have 1 pair of $100 pants that is 5x as durable.

I really value dyed clothing that over time can get faded along with me