The share of household spending on clothing has gone from 10%+ to under 5% in Western countries. When you're spending that much, it's not a surprise that clothing was "BIFL" both in quality and upkeep (repair rather than replace).

The overall revealed consumer preference has been "more and cheaper", not "less and higher quality", which still exists as a niche if you are willing to go down the tailoring route, not off the peg.

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dtech 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

The thing is mainly there are no quality options available. It's mostly all cheap shit or slightly more expensive, but still equally shit. So how can this reveal preference if there are no options?

I would argue the surge in vintage clothing ecosystems is an indication there is an unmet demand.

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Gigachad 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There’s certainly options above temu junk. Maybe it doesn’t meet your bar but I’ve found the 100% cotton stuff from Uniqlo to be massively higher quality than the average. I’ve got tshirts from them I’d guess I’d worn and washed 80+ times.

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scrlk 13 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You can still go to a tailor and commission jackets, trousers and shirts, made with the same quality of fabrics and manufacturing techniques. With shoes, you can still go and buy hand welted shoes.

It all comes at a price but I don't disagree that we have a barbell problem here (ie cheap fast fashion or bespoke, with nothing in the middle).

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Borealid 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

There absolutely are still rich-people brands that sell absurd quality at absurd price.

See, for example, Marine Layer in San Francisco, or boutiques like Red Ants Pants.

	▲	boelboel an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Not just rich people, I pay maybe 3 times more for my T-shirts than the average person. I'm certain they last me at least twice as long, probably 3 times and they're way nicer to wear.

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vanviegen 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's not actually "revealed consumer preference" for quantity over quality. It's just that it's impossible for the average consumer to assess quality.