High vs. Low Quality: How to Spot the Difference

I grew up with a mother who was somewhat of a fashionista herself. In the 90s, way before thrifting was cool or trendy, she had this incredible ability to walk into a thrift store, scan a rack of hundreds of items, and instantly pull out the one high-quality designer piece hidden in the pile. I was always the best-dressed baby. Because of her, I grew up intuitively knowing the difference between quality clothing and, well, everything else. But recently, I realized that while I knew what quality looked and felt like, I didn't actually know how to explain it. Intuition is really hard to teach. If I just tell you, buy what feels good, that's not actually helpful if you're starting from zero. So I did a deep dive. I researched garment construction, read through all of the sewing forums, and analyzed my own closet to break down exactly what makes a piece of clothing quality. Welcome back to It Girl Academy, where we explore how to become the best version of ourselves through beauty, style, mindset, and how we navigate the world. I'm Asia Jackson, your It Girl student class president, and you are now signed up for Quality Clothing 101. If you would like to see more videos like this, give this one a thumbs up and subscribe to enroll in It Girl Academy. Before we get into the flowchart, we need to know what quality actually looks like. And I'm so excited to partner with Fabrique for this portion of today's video. Fabrique is a global collective designer brand that works with over 250 designers. And these are people who have designed for houses like Hermes, Dior, Bottega, you name it, to create exclusive limited edition pieces. So you get both the design and the craftsmanship without the traditional luxury markup. So you still get a nice quality bag or coat or whatever, but they won't cost you $5,000. Let's take a look at the Rialto bag, for example. This was designed by Valeria Massai, who actually used to be the leather goods director at Bottega Veneta. You know that one iconic Bottega bag? Yeah, that was her. This bag is absolutely stunning. It's made of Italian full grain leather. It has a double flap design, and it has this 18 karat gold electroplated triple lock clasp. Hardware is a huge indicator of quality, and we'll talk about that a little later in the video. Another cool thing about this bag is that you can actually wear it four different ways. So it's very versatile. I also picked up the Rotana wool blazer designed by Caroline Smithson. Caroline has previously worked with Louis Vuitton as an advisor and has over 20 years of experience in the fashion industry. So this blazer is made out of 100% merino wool, and it has like this gorgeous herringbone pattern. I love British tailoring. I personally much prefer it to Italian and American tailoring, so I really like the fit and silhouette of this blazer. I think it's like the perfect combination of structure and effortlessness. I also got a few other pieces like this combo that I'm obsessed with. Both of these pieces were designed by Lars Dizon, who used to be the designer director at Burberry. The rye bunny ear scarf collar coat is made from merino mohair loop wool, and the bunny ear scarf collar is so playful but still very elegant. It's a beautiful color. I absolutely love the boucle wool texture. Perfect. On the bottom, I'm wearing the camber A-line wool tweed skirt. You guys know that I love pleated and A-line skirts. A-line silhouettes are so flattering on bodies with narrow hips. This Edith sculpted look gathering top in merino wool knit is the perfect example of an elevated basic. It is essentially a long sleeve top that you can wear by itself or under blazers or coats, but it has these cool cutouts and gathering details that give it a little style. It kind of reminds me of those Roman draped sculptures. You know what I'm saying? This top was designed by Rajik Wong, who is a designer from China and has won awards like Star Creation Champion, Audi Young Designer Award, and many more. I got a lot of questions about this top in my last video, and yes, it's from Fabrique. It was designed by Mark Tan, who was Elle Designer of the Year in 2020, and he actually started designing clothes for the Danish royal family at age 12. Hello? I love the ribbed knit in this cardigan. It contours the body really nicely, and the fabric is also really dense. It's made out of 100% merino wool and has these gorgeous hand-sewn pearl buttons. This is another perfect example of an elevated basic, in my opinion. This is the Audrey plaid wool coat designed by Dawei. I'm so sorry if I'm not pronouncing that correctly. He was Elle's new fashion talent winner and was the first Chinese creative director at Kasha Elle. I love the herringbone pattern on this coat. It is so classic and so elegant, and again, it has that English tailoring that is both relaxed and refined. And lastly, I got this fun skirt designed by Giulia Goretti da Flamini, a former Rome Fashion Academy graduate who previously worked at Ferragamo. This is a faux snakeskin leather that has this really cool 3D embossing and matte two-tone finish, which gives it that extra dimension that you don't really see on other clothing. So I thought this was really fun. If you are interested in experiencing Fabrique quality for yourselves, I do have a discount code which you can check in the description box down below. Thank you so much Fabrique for sponsoring this portion of the video and supporting us here at It Girl Academy. Okay, we first need to talk about the business of quality. There are tons of reasons why most fast fashion garments are of lower quality, but one of the biggest reasons is simply because they are mass produced in such massive quantities. When a brand is just turning out millions and millions of units, cutting a corner like using thinner fabric, skipping a lining or rushing the stitching speed saves them millions of dollars in time and materials. Now, don't get me wrong. Every single business, including the ones that I love, is in business to make money. That is the point. Never get it twisted. This is capitalism, baby. However, priorities between brands might differ. So some brands maximize profit by cutting corners to increase volume, while other brands prioritize design and craftsmanship, believing that profit comes from delivering a desirable product that lasts. Now, let's talk about a couple of myths that always come up on the subject of quality clothing. When we talk about quality, we usually think of natural fibers or perfect stitching. And while those are important, I do want to introduce a little nuance here. Number one, fabric composition isn't everything. We often hear, you know, natural fibers, good. Synthetics, bad. But it's not really that black and white. Sometimes, and I would even argue most times, the fabric composition of something is entirely contingent upon the structure and the design of the garment. So you might see a percentage of nylon or polyamide in a high-end dress because the designer needed that specific material to make the dress drape in a certain way, or to prevent a pleated skirt from losing its pleats. What I'm really trying to say here is, don't write off a garment just because it's a synthetic blend. Look at why it's a synthetic blend. If a cheap, shiny, thin 100% polyester blouse is meant to mimic silk, this is cost-cutting. They don't want to pay for more expensive fabric, so they're giving you polyester. But if a designer adds a percentage of elastane in a fitted bodice or a dress to ensure that it moves with you and doesn't rip at the seams, you know what that's called? It's called engineering, which is a good thing. And the most common is, sometimes a brand will raise the percentage of synthetic fabrics relative to the natural ones simply to keep the overall cost down because their target customer is not interested in buying a $600 100% Scottish cashmere sweater. Now, am I saying that you should completely, entirely ignore the implications or effects that synthetic fabrics can have on the environment? No, of course not. But I do think that we could all be a little more mindful and intentional and critical of our consuming habits. I used to be a huge fast fashion shopper in my early 20s. It's what I could afford. But if I were to go back in time, I would tell myself, you know, you probably don't need to buy this much. If you can't afford to buy better options right now or better quality options, maybe you just don't need to buy that many things. You know, that's also an option. But also not everything from a brand or category is going to be of the same quality. Some fast fashion pieces are of much better quality than others, and some high end designer pieces are also of much better quality than others, even if they cost the same amount of money or more. Quality is subjective to your life. So anything that you're thinking of buying should pass your lifestyle filter. For example, a heavy 100% wool coat is technically high quality. But if you have sensitive skin and the coat feels too scratchy, as wool can often be, you are not going to wear it, diva. And what a waste of money that would be. Let's say you love the outdoors and you buy a fleece lined nylon jacket to keep you dry and warm. Just because nylon is a synthetic fabric doesn't mean the jacket is not of good quality. In this case, nylon was probably chosen for durability and wear. And if you have some sort of disability or you have kids that take up a lot of your free time or anything that prevents you from regularly going to the cleaners to dry clean your clothes, then dry clean only garments are probably not going to be the option for you. I have a cashmere sweater that I am absolutely in love with. It's my favorite sweater in my entire wardrobe, but it's not my most worn sweater simply because number one, it's cream colored and number two, I paid a lot of money for it. I opt for my lower quality, more affordable sweaters for day to day home tasks like, you know, doing the dishes or cleaning the apartment, because I won't feel as bad if those got ruined. Not everything in your wardrobe needs to be the best quality. Quality should sit at the intersection of durability, meaning that it lasts and desirability, meaning that you actually want to wear it. So I just wanted to provide a little nuance there. I've seen all of the discourse on TikTok and it was a little infuriating. No one was thinking about the bigger picture, but also you could just be watching this video and not agree with anything that I just said. And that's totally fine. It's your prerogative. All right, girls, class is officially in session. Here are the four audits that you need to perform in order to determine if a piece of clothing is quality or not. Now, before you even touch the clothing, just look at it first. If this is something that has a pattern like stripes or plaid, look at the seams. Does the pattern match up? This is something that's called pattern matching, and it is a huge indicator of quality. So let's take a look at this herringbone weave on this blazer that I got from Fabrique. Do you see this seam right here on the sleeves? You see how the herringbone pattern is not interrupted by the seam? Now, the reason why this is an indicator of quality is because you essentially lose money by doing this. Let me explain. It all comes down to something called fabric yield. Now, to match a pattern, a factory has to cut the fabric in a very specific way so that the pattern matches up and repeats. In order to do this, you often have to cut off more fabric than you would if you weren't going to match the patterns. So you can cut it where the pattern would align on the other side. And the reason why you lose money by doing that is because you are cutting off more fabric that can't be used for another jacket. Now, for some brands, that loss is not worth it to them. But if a brand or a designer does match the patterns, that means that they are spending more money just for aesthetics, which usually indicates that that brand or that designer cares about the art or craftsmanship of fashion and not just the business of it. You know what I'm saying? Now you can touch it. And we are really looking for two things when we do this. Feel the density of the fabric. Does it feel thin or does it feel thick and plush? In the textiles industry, they measure fabric weight in GSM or grams per square meter. Side note, if you're into stationery like I am, this is also how they measure paper density. Just FYI, if you've ever seen that on a journal. Brands that are cutting costs will use lower GSM fabric because it's thinner and uses less raw material, just like paper in journals. Unfortunately, thinner fabrics tend to develop holes and fall apart faster. So you really want to avoid excessively thin fabrics. It's usually not an indication that it's of good quality. And you also want to feel the texture. So does the fabric feel smooth or does it feel a little fuzzy? So fabrics like cotton and wool are spun from fibers. And long staple fibers or long fibers are long and can be twisted tightly, which makes the fabric feel more smooth. And short staple fibers have these little loose ends that stick out. And those little ends eventually tangle together and form what you probably know as pilling. So if a sweater already looks pretty fuzzy, there's a chance that it's made of short staple fibers and will pill super quickly. Hardware in details like buttons and zippers are some of the easiest ways to identify quality. Hardware is usually the first thing to fail in clothing, and it's never fun when it does. So what you're going to do is you're going to take the zipper or the hardware and you're going to put it to the back of your hand and you're going to feel the temperature and you're going to ask yourself, is it cold? So the idea here is that metal is cold and plastic is room temperature. And plastic hardware and zippers are super prone to warping and snapping, which is not great if you machine dry your clothes. So let's take a look at this bag again. I mentioned earlier that it has this 18 karat gold electroplated triple lock clasp. When I touch it, not only is it like cold, but it also is pretty heavy. So weight in hardware is usually an indicator that it is a solid metal base rather than a hollow plastic base that is just coated in gold paint. So hardware is one of the easiest ways to determine if something is quality or not. The buttonhole check. I'm not going to lie. When I was writing my script for this video, I had to do more than a few double takes during this section because it looks insane when it's written out. So you want to take a close look at the buttonholes and you want to check if there are any loose threads hanging out. So when a buttonhole has dense, tight stitching around it, it prevents the fabric from fraying from the constant buttoning and unbuttoning of the of the shirt. And if there is loose stitching in the button area, it's usually an indicator that the machine was running too fast or they were using cheap thread. So I actually own a couple of button up shirts from a pretty established and expensive brand. And there are loose threads all throughout those shirts, including the buttonholes. And this is a really good example of how individual pieces from a brand can be of lower quality than others. Like I own other clothing from this brand and the quality is far superior to these shirts. So I just figured that because these shirts are such an iconic staple of this brand, they are probably mass produced in gigantic quantities and there's a lack of quality control when you're producing that much stuff. And people are going to buy these anyway because of how iconic they are to the brand. So just because they're from an established, expensive brand doesn't automatically mean that they're going to be of nice quality. So that's why I recommend doing this quality check for every piece of clothing that you buy, regardless of where you're shopping. Now turn that garment inside out. A pretty outside can hide a messy inside. That's how I feel every single time I put makeup on. Now, if it's a coat or a jacket or something like that, take a look and see if it has a lining. And a lining actually serves a mechanical purpose. So it reduces friction and it allows the jacket or the coat to drape correctly without catching onto your body or catching onto your clothes. So a lining actually serves the exact same purpose that a slip does under a dress or a skirt. Linings also act as a barrier against sweat and are sometimes added to something to increase the durability. Unless it is double faced, which means that the coat was double woven and so it's finished on both sides. A wool coat with no lining usually indicates that the brand is cutting corners. Next, check the seams. Check the stitching. If the stitching is uneven, crooked, or inconsistent, probably not the best quality. If the seams are tearing apart, it probably wasn't constructed properly. No matter the seam style, you really want to look for garments that have tight, even stitching with no exposed seams. And the reason why stitching and seams are so important is because this is what literally provides structure for the clothing. Good stitching enhances its durability and honestly, it just looks better. Just like we discussed at the beginning of the video, you want to make sure that this piece passes your lifestyle audit. So you need to start asking yourself some questions. You know, does this work bag fit my laptop in it? It doesn't matter how high quality the bag is if you can't fit your most basic necessity into it. Perhaps you want to dabble into some outdoor activities. Perhaps you want to try to get into hiking. Now, there are tons of high quality hiking jackets on the market that cost hundreds of dollars. But should you buy those right off the bat when you don't even know if you like hiking yet? I always like to say, buy the best quality of what you can afford for what you're using it for. Not everything in your closet needs to be the best quality. Now, do I think that you should prioritize quality? Absolutely. But you also need to consider your budget and how you're going to use the item. And a lifestyle audit will help you determine whether you should skip or splurge on a certain item. There are a million other different ways to check for quality, but personally, I found that these are the easiest to spot and are the most obvious indicators of whether something is of good or bad quality. I always hear some people say things like, you know, luxury and designer items are only expensive because of the brand name. And that is actually true for some pieces. But another side to that is some pieces are more expensive because they just have better craftsmanship. There was more time and care put towards quality and construction so they didn't have to cut corners just to make something cheaper. And that's exactly why I created this video. No matter where you shop or how expensive or cheap something is, you always want to do a quality check first. Do any of my fellow It Girls have tips for identifying quality clothing? Leave them in the comments down below so that we can all learn together. Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you again, Fabrique, for sponsoring a portion of this video. If you want to see more videos like this, give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to enroll in It Girl Academy. I'll catch you guys next time. Peace!