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Quality
Control in the Closet
By Judith Rasband
Malls and shopping centers are full of people
looking for the latest in fashion and for best-buy bargains. “But
I cringe,” says one mom who wants to remain nameless, “when
someone holds up a piece of today’s trash fashion and says,
‘Oh, isn't this cute.’ People just don’t know
what quality means anymore.”
Exactly what does the word quality
mean? It is admittedly confusing to some people and means different
things to different people of different age and lifestyle or personal
style.
Quality is the degree of excellence that something
possesses. In the closet, the "something" is clothing,
and quality refers to getting your money's worth — real value
for the money you spend on clothing.
Many people are becoming more concerned about
quality in clothing. This is largely due to falling quality in style,
fabric, and construction, combined with rising clothing prices and
manufacturers who are cutting corners in garment construction to
lower their own costs. Raw edges, hems left hanging, and slashed
collar and cuffs are in our stores and selling stores at regular
prices. With consumers willing to pay for them to make the anti-statement,
we run the risk that manufacturers may decide “why bother
finishing anything.”
If we can get past trash fashion trends and
the pop-culture anti-statement styles, most people recognize when
a garment has real quality. The clothes look terrific, feel wonderful
and serve you well over a longer period of time. Best of all, they
can make you look terrific and feel wonderful as well.
Putting the emphasis on looks, feel and durability,
quality in clothing can be discussed in terms of the design or style,
fabric, construction and fit. Each of these factors contributes
to the quality of a garment.
We often use the words poor, good, better and
best, or high, medium and low, to describe quality. A poor or low
quality garment looks poorly made. Fabric is often flimsy or coarse,
threads hang loose, seams may pucker and twist, collars and hems
may curl. While it looks cheap, poor quality clothes don’t
necessarily sell cheap.
A better or higher quality garment is made from
quality fabric, looks terrific inside and out, and hangs nicely
on the body. Although it may or may not cost more than its poor
quality look-alike, higher quality clothing lasts for years and
years.
Whether you are shopping for women's, men's,
teens or children's clothing, the standards for recognizing quality
in clothing are similar and often the same. When you can recognize
the best quality on the rack, you have a shopping edge at every
clothing store in town — retail, discount, off-price or second
hand. You can improve your image and save yourself time, money and
clothing mistakes. Check out these quality indicators before you
buy.
Price can be a reliable indicator of quality,
depending on the style and number of steps required in the construction
of a garment. Each step in manufacture takes time and time costs
money. The more carefully a construction step is done, the more
time it takes. More construction steps mean higher price, but more
steps carefully done also means higher quality. Handwork is especially
expensive.
For example, a full skirt requires
more fabric than a straight skirt and may therefore cost more. A
garment with many or oddly shaped pattern pieces requires more seaming
and careful handling than a garment with few, comparatively simple
pattern pieces. That is going to raise the cost. Plaids, stripes
and prints that require matching at the seams require more labor
and are thus more expensive. A basic blazer that requires only 30-40
steps to make may sell for $60, while a finely tailored jacket with
hand work that requires 60 to 100 steps sells for $120-$250.
Nevertheless, be aware. You can find all quality
levels at all price levels. It pays to look around.
Designer labels and brand names
are never reliable indicators of quality. Some designers are so
busy putting their names on large volumes of clothing from underwear
to skiwear that they have no time to oversee the workmanship. Much
of the work of manufacturing is done by licensees — someone
licensed to simply use the designer's name to help sell the product,
usually at a higher price.
In this case, the designer seldom inspects the
finished clothing for quality of construction. You pay extra for
the designer’s name and publicity, not the product. As a result,
you can find high-priced designer clothes that look cheap and seem
to fall apart the first time they are cleaned. Exclusive designer
originals, with only a few garments of each design cut, carry an
even higher price tag. You pay for the privilege of wearing an exclusive
design. Even then, names predict quality only when they identify
a product that, through past experience, you have found to be satisfactory.
Advertising is another
questionable indicator of quality. Clothing advertised as beautiful,
wonderful and well made, with "savings up to one-half,"
is not a reliable indicator of true value. "Sale priced"
could still be too high if the regular or original price was jacked-up
to make the sale price sound good. Emotional appeals in advertising
are aimed at common insecurities and induce the less informed consumer
to buy, regardless of poor quality.
There is good to high quality clothing
in our stores, but you have to look for it. Educate yourself by
looking first at the most expensive clothes in the best stores in
town. Try the clothes on. Try on a $100 suit and then a $390 suit
in similar style. You will see and feel the difference in quality
your first time out. You'll discover that quality can vary even
among the same style on the same rack. Buy the best quality
at the price you can afford. Having seen and tried on the best,
you'll be better able to spot the best quality at any price at any
store. With practice, you'll get so you can recognize quality and
savings, quickly and easily.
© 2007 Conselle Institute of Image Management
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