Comment by jazzyjackson
7 hours ago
There's still good fabrics out there you just have to pay for them. I've mostly replaced my wardrobe now with natural undyed cottons and wools from the likes of "unbleached apparel" and "industry of all nations". There is cotton grown in new mexico, socks spun in north carolina. "Filson" makes a few things in Seattle. Don't skip the stuff made in Peru or India neither.
I really like the look of those unbleached + un-dyed shirts, but Unbleached Apparel and Industry of All Nations don't seem to have tall sizes :(
Do you have any brand recommendations?
$.02:
- American Giant is pretty good for their pullover hoodies. They'll wear out at the cuffs first, but I've kept a single hoody in use for like five years with some repair stitching.
- Standard Issue makes good waffle knit shirts. They'll last a few years depending on how often you wash them.
- Duluth Trading makes some good cotton shirts and boxers. Quality has declined slightly, but they're the best plain cotton shirts and boxers I've found so far.
- Big John makes denim jeans on old Levi looms. They even use cotton stitching.
- Carhartt makes some okay dressy dungarees. Their work pants are worthless these days though (in my experience). They've been pivoting to lifestyle for a few years now.
- Filson in my opinion has declined, but they're still pretty good. The socks are great, but they're overpriced.
(Only posting this because I've struggled finding decent clothes myself and it's hard to tell what's good when you're shopping online)
Darn tough for socks and Brunt for hoodies, I would add to this list. I'm hard on clothes and they survive me.
3 replies →
> Carhartt makes some okay dressy dungarees. Their work pants are worthless these days though (in my experience). They've been pivoting to lifestyle for a few years now.
Carhartt are the most durable clothes I own. Whatever Levi’s did, their jeans went from lasting years to literal months before they would rip. Had the same 3 pairs of Carhartt work pants for half a decade with no end in sight.
Maybe something changed between 2020 and 2025, shrug
2 replies →
Outside of what has been mentioned here (thanks folks for some new brands) I've found clusters in Canada and Portugal of great clothing brands making quality products with good materials:
Canada - Anian (https://anianmfg.com/) for wool products. - Reigning Champ (https://reigningchamp.com/) for cotton tees.
Portugal - La Paz (https://lapaz.pt/) - Isto (https://isto.pt/) - Portugese Flannel (https://www.portugueseflannel.com/)
I also like this site No Man Walks Alone to find quality brands. It is about learning how to spot quality though in stitching and fabrics. Wish there was more educational materials out there on this.
Rather than focus on brand, I'd recommend developing a better eye and learning how to identify durable, high quality fabrics.
While looking at the brand might be a good heuristic to rely on in the short term, the temptation is too high for vendors to take advantage of their brand power to offload cheaper fabrics for higher margins, I'm looking at you H&M and UNIQLO ...
Along these lines, watch these two videos from Bernadette Banner to learn how to identify fabric types and learn how to identify quality features in clothing:
https://youtu.be/qtJ5ukWundY?si=xzOyiwrrt8oTgpii
https://youtu.be/fuVU64m1sbw?si=5reXwGwVu2j5pTL1
H&M is awful, but Uniqlo has some great products that will last. I’m a big fan of a few of their t-shirts, especially the heavy cotton tees. You really gotta get your hands on each product to know what’s worth the money though.
2 replies →
And this where the (independent!) physical store shines. I wish we had more discerning tradesmen these days. Something important went with the brick and mortar stores.
Some of these exist now in the form of (maybe) physical store (or online-only) plus youtube personality, of course.
I went through an Uniqlo last month and was very disappointed at how just about every sort of basic article of clothing I was looking for was at least 30% polyester. Polyester has its place, the fact its not breathable and cheap does make it genuinely useful in moderation to help warm certain articles, but I don't want it in every single basic t shirt and pair of pants.
You can still get high quality or at the very least 100% Cotton clothes there but you'll have to seek them out and they know people will pay a premium for them so they tend to be 2x or more the price of the popular Airism t shirts for example.
I did give up entirely on trying to find outerwear there that was at least roughly >80% organic materials like cotton or wool which was probably my biggest disappointment. You can find nice basics with good quality fabrics at many brands. But Uniqlo 10 years ago was my favorite for wintertime because they're one of the few that had affordable coats and outerwear that made use of real wool + down with good quality lining, excellent heat-tech jackets that used a great blend of breathable fabric + artificial ones to keep you warm but not sweating. I've worn an Uniqlo duffel coat, peacoat, and several jackets every year for the better part of a decade and they still hold up excellent besides some pilling on the coats that I haven't fixed yet.
They don't even really seem to carry proper coats anymore in their stores nor decent jackets, everything seems like the cheap polyester fleeces and puffer coats that everyone else has.
1 reply →
It's even more complicated. Many brands don't manufacture their own products. Or only manufacture some of them. They license to many manufacturers, typically. The same manufacturer may make the same or similar products for multiple brands too, even further complicating things.
As you've said, you really can't judge by the brand.
Nudies jeans are worth the premium (ish) price, and have lifetime free repairs. Extremely comfortable too. Going on 5 years in my current pair
Supima Cotton t-shirts from Lands End are great. Or, "100% Pima Cotton" from anyone else.
they gave two :)
my own recommendation is spend some money, and look at tags. I shop at JCrew and higher end fashion companies, but still check material and care labels.
T-shirts from Muji
Snow Peak has high quality clothing that isn't absurdly expensive. It's very nice and fits well. If you want something higher end I also like Norse Projects. If you want lower end look at Champion - specifically Reverse Weave.
18East if you want cool shit made in India