What you should look for before buying to know if a garment is of good quality

Clothing is one of the industries that moves the most money, but this does not mean that clothing is of better or worse quality. And it is that this is what most bothers buyers, who do not know how to distinguish if a garment is good or bad just by price.

It’s very hard to tell if a shirt is good or bad just from the fabric. And it is that in the world of clothing there are a large number of variables that are not taken into account. That a garment is made of cotton or polyester does not indicate greater or lesser quality.

Unlike the automotive sector, where cars have to come with complex and detailed metrics to make it clear what their performance is (torque, boot capacity, type of engine, seat material…) In the world of fashion this does not happen.

We can only know what material the garment is made of. Nothing more. And that, unfortunately, tells us nothing. That is why we are going to review what the experts say about it. Let’s go there:

The weight of the clothes is not differential: Some might argue that there are ways to tell which brands make better garments based on facets like hand-stitching, fabric weight, or GSM (grams per square meter).

But the weight of the fabric can also be misleading. Otherwise weight and GSM are mere preferences that are largely meaningless to the look and feel of clothing.

“Made in” labels don’t carry much weight: It can be hard to ignore the old idea that clothes made in China are of lower quality than clothes made in Italy. But you should.

Yes, it is true that China produces many low-quality items and many high-end items are made in Europe. Country of origin labels are sometimes helpful in determining quality, but you don’t have to read the entire history of a label.

And more importantly, with the globalization of fashion supply chains, many brands have products that are made in multiple countries. In this way the “Made in” has less and less importance.

Avoid synthetics: A general rule of thumb is that fast fashion companies use synthetics as a cost-cutting measure because their business model is based on low prices. For this reason, most garments made with a mixture of synthetic materials are frowned upon.

But keep in mind that when designers use synthetic materials, they do so to improve feel and drape, not to cut costs. Hence, there are synthetic garments that are very expensive.