quality isn't real
I’ve tried to stay away from watching online fashion content for as long as I could. I like to think that it keeps me grounded, and that because of my diligence, I’d never end up making an impulse purchase I’d regret. However, my streak broke this June. My search for polyester galaxy wolf hoodies on TikTok Shop opened the floodgates, and I’ve been consistently watching short-form fashion content everyday for the past couple months. I don’t dislike a lot of what I see, but there’s one genre that I’ll always scroll past: Pick-Ups videos.
It’s not the clothes being shown off that I dislike—it’s the discourse that they provoke. Somewhere along a creator’s script, they’ll find a way to bring up the quality of their pick-up, and word-dump some reasons they think a piece is high-quality. They’ll highlight specific features they associate with quality, like fabric origin or construction details, as if they’re objective measurements of high quality clothing. While these factors do contribute to a garment's worth, the way they’re framed teaches viewers that the quality of a garment is dependent on some arbitrary checklist of physical attributes. This can result in people devaluing their existing wardrobe and making unnecessary purchases in pursuit of "higher quality" items. We also need to consider that the concept of quality in fashion is a lot broader than how soft a sweater is, or how heavy a hoodie is. You can’t always see and feel whether a piece has been produced under fair labor practices or with eco-friendly production processes, but these are both important factors that go into evaluating quality.
I don’t think quality is a good metric for fashion in general because it’s entirely subjective. A high-quality garment has attributes that you deem valuable; it shouldn’t have to check all the boxes of some list of qualities made by an online fashion bro. Polyester’s notorious for being a sign of bad quality, but I’d argue that a pair of Lululemon’s Align leggings (which are 89% polyester) are made with better quality materials than any pair of super-hyped Acne Studios denim out right now. But that’s like comparing apples to oranges. To see why quality is an entirely arbitrary concept, let’s take a look at a material that’s commonly brought up in conversations about quality: leather.
There are dozens of Youtube channels and TikTok accounts that have blown up reviewing leather (like that guy who cuts expensive bags in half), and they all make the same mistake: they assume that there’s some set standard that decides leather product quality. I watched a couple hours of reviewing content, and found three qualities they all value: grade, thickness, and hardness. Here’s why they aren’t good indicators of quality:
Leather grade:
There are four grades of leather: full grain, top grain, genuine leather, and bonded leather. I’ll ignore bonded leather in this section because it’s made up of more chemical goop than actual leather. Full grain leather is commonly understood as the highest quality leather, and genuine leather is understood as the worst quality.
Full grain leathers are leathers with unaltered outer layers.
Top grain leathers are leathers that are taken from the top layer of animal hide
Genuine leathers are real leather
From these definitions, we can see that these terms don’t tell us much about how good or bad a leather is, and that there’s a lot of overlap between the different grades of leather. I’m a believer that genuine leather is a useless term—it just tells us that leather is leather. Full grain leathers are traditionally valued because nothing’s done to treat the outermost layer, so high-grade tanneries would have to be selective with the pieces of hide they culled. However, full-grain leathers don’t have to come from perfect hides, meaning that imperfections that existed on the animal during its lifetime can be visible. A consumer that doesn’t want visible distressing on their leather isn’t necessarily going to want full grain. However, if you want some character prebuilt into the boots you wear or the bag you carry, ‘lower quality’ full grain leathers might be for you.
Full-grain leather; imperfections are imprinted in the hide
Leather thickness:
The misconception here is that thickness implies durability, and that durability implies quality. This is definitely the case if we’re looking at leather that’s made to be put through rough conditions, but different leathers have different purposes. Kangaroo and lambskin are both the thinnest leathers I’ve ever felt, but they’re still valued for their aesthetics. They’re not necessarily lower quality than cowhide, despite being less durable in most cases.
Kangaroo Leather Carol Christian Poell Boots (0.8mm thick)
Sole hardness
This one’s specific to leather footwear. A hard sole is valued because it’s supposed to be an indicator of durability. This isn’t true—a hard sole isn’t any more resistant to abrasion or gradual wear than a softer sole. Converse soles are harder than industry-standard Margom soles, but will wear down years before. Running shoes have arguably the softest soles out there, but will last hundreds of miles of hard work. If you want a flexible, lightweight shoe, get a soft sole. If you want a shoe with more stability, go for a hard sole.
Margom sole on Common Projects Achilles Low
Final Thoughts
The same misconceptions about quality appear in every category of clothing out there: denim, suiting, sneakers…the list goes on. So if quality is so arbitrary, how can we define it? The answer is personal. Figure out what you like and dislike. The easiest way to do this is to get hands-on. Visit a retailer that stocks designers known for their attention to detail. Look for clothes that aren’t mass-produced: this is typically a good sign that somebody who genuinely cares about their work is making them. Wear some clothes, get a good feel for them, and find out what attributes you care about and don’t care about. Then, if you’re not willing to spend thousands on your wardrobe (like most of us), go out and look for those attributes in more affordable options. Vintage is almost always your best option—mass manufacturing wasn’t nearly as widespread 50 years ago. There’s a reason those clothes are still intact today, and there’s the added plus of knowing that they’re not ending up in a landfill. TLDR: buy clothes with qualities that you enjoy, not because some dude on the internet told you they were good.
If you’re still reading, here’s where I’d go to get a good hand feel for clothes if I had to start over and figure everything out again:
Traditional Designers (these can all be found at Saks Fifth in Union Square)
Hermes: Has a 200-year long track record of top-tier craftsmanship. Even though they can produce their product lines at scale, each individual item is made by multiple artisans
Bottega Veneta: Known for its leather products and strict quality control
Loro Piana: Committed to textile innovation; easy to find in-person and get hands on with new fabrics
Issey Miyake: A lot of polyester, but used intentionally to add to the clothes, rather than to cut costs like it’s typically used for
Artisanal Designers (harder to find in person)
John Alexander Skelton: Uses specially sourced vintage textiles (also look at Bode for this)
Geoffrey B. Small: Hyperfocused on finding top-of-the-line materials. Every aspect of each fabric used is meticulously sourced to serve a certain purpose
Carol Christian Poell: Very experimental leather types: horse, bison, deer, and kangaroo (the thinnest leather you’ll find). Treated with finishes and colors you won’t find from anyone else.
A Diciannoveventitre: Very stiff, durable leather that shows a lot of the character of the animal it came from. Construction is very consistent
Places (Local-ish)
The Archive SF, 5911 Geary Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94121: Stocks various artisanal designers (CCP, Guidi, Boris Bidjan Sabieri, etc.)
Self-Edge, 569 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110: Stocks various Americana-inspired brands. Come here to look at a lot of denim
Cotton Sheep, 572 Hayes St, San Francisco, CA 94102: Stocks Japanese (mainly Americana) brands
evan kinori, 1367 Valencia St, San Francisco, CA 94110: Only location in the world. Every product is slowly produced and is made with fabrics you won’t be able to get easy access to.
