The first lesson I truly learned about price-quality correlation came while interning at a magazine years ago. I was tasked with sorting through the fashion closet, organising and hanging garments that fell somewhere between fast fashion hallmarks and four-figure price tags. As I aligned dress shirts and trousers on hangers, I couldn’t help but notice how much better a $60 oxford shirt from some brand I’d never heard of was constructed than a $220 designer option.
The stitching was tighter, the fabric felt heavier and thicker, and the buttons were sewn on more securely. I mentioned this to my boss at the time, who chuckled. “Congratulations,” she said, holding up both shirts and flipping them inside out. “You’ve learned the fashion industry’s dirty little secret. Half the things you’re paying for at high-end prices has nothing to do with how well it’s made.” Quality Signal #1: Turn It Inside Out It was advice that stuck with me.
Since that day, I’ve obsessed over finding tell-tale signs of true quality that exist completely divorced from price point or brand label. Details and signals that the average guy will likely overlook, but that speak volumes about how a garment will look, feel, and wear compared to marketing-speak and designer nameplates.
What’s more valuable about this approach is that once you know what great construction looks like, you can spot it just as easily at the thrift store, as you can at mall retailers, niche brands, or luxury boutiques.
Cost becomes less of an overall indicator and more just another data point. When I recently did a closet purge (read: I cleaned my closet for the first time in years), I realised that nearly all of my go-to items that consistently receive the highest wear came from all price points. Between basics, jackets, jeans, and shoes, I realised my most worn pieces were my favourites because they featured construction details and materials that had proven themselves over years of wear regardless of what I originally paid.
They all shared certain characteristics that tipped me off to their potential long-term value when I was shopping, but before I bought them. Figuring out what those quality tell-tales were led me down a path of discovering what makes every single piece in my closet stand the test of time. I wanted to know what physical qualities – I could see and feel with my own hands – accurately predicted how every item from a vintage t-shirt to a luxury leather jacket would look and feel after years of use.
So I set out to learn exactly that, and here’s what I came up with. Quality Checklist: 14 ways to spot it yourself I’ve organised them by category below and highlighted what to look for when assessing everything from suits to trainers. Here are fourteenish ways to spot true quality with your own eyes.
The Seam Test: Where most of the quality lives. “This is true for clothes in general, but especially suits: Turn it inside out. That’s where the truth lives,” says Robert, who learned how to tailor from his father and tailors. Today he’s a third-generation tailor.
Your first step with any garment should be to turn it inside out and study the construction. Notice the quality of the seams – look at stitching evenness and type, as well as how the seam allowances were finished. On better-made goods, the stitches per inch (SPI) will be higher, creating tighter, stronger seams.
You don’t necessarily need to count these stitches (trust me, your fingers and eyes will be able to tell quickly enough just by inspecting them), but pay close attention to whether these stitches look loose and rushed or tight and precise. Seam allowances are the extra bits of fabric beyond the stitch line on either side of each seam. On higher-quality goods, they’ll typically be wider (allowing room for future alterations) and will be finished somehow so they don’t unravel at the seams.
Look for Serge finishes (clean overlock stitching) or flat-felled seams (where the allowance is folded over itself and stitched down). This latter finishing technique is what’s responsible for those classic reinforcedAdmin note: Sequoia liked this paragraph so much he cut-and-pasted it here from another post. seams you see on Levi’s jeans. The most telling part about seams is how the brand approaches construction in areas that aren’t immediately visible.
Some brands will ensure their seams look clean in places that you can see but may not pay the same attention to details in the underarms, on gussets, or along pocket bags. I learned this lesson firsthand with two navy blazers I found in my closet. They both seemed like well-constructed blazers when I bought them, but one, a mass-produced brand from a local department store that was $150 during a sale, developed wavy, rippled seams after just one season of wear.
The other blazer, from a small menswear-focused manufacturer was $650. It’s held up, without issue, to five years of wear and weekly washing. But here’s where price stops correlating with quality: I’ve also owned well-made blazers I found at thrift stores for $15 that feature perfectly immaculate seam work.
Learn to identify these characteristics before you shop and you can begin spotting quality clothes from mediocre ones. One other fun tip? Used clothing sellers know this inside-out trick, which is why virtually every item in thrift stores is hung backwards.
If you spot something on the rack that looks good turned inside out, there’s a good chance it’s built well too. Pattern Matching Test: Perfect plaids and stripes. Pattern matching at seams is one of the best indicators of quality.
When shirt cuffs, pockets, lapels, and plackets are pieced together from different parts of a bolt of fabric, the pattern should match up at the seams. Proper pattern matching requires extra material and labour. It’s often one of the first things to go when brands scale costs.
On better-made garments, the patterns at shoulder seams should match up, as should where the front and back of the garment meet along the sides. Ideally, you’ll also see pattern-matching done at sleeve insertions, but this isn’t always visible. Pattern-matching can also be used to tell whether pockets were cut from the same material or act as an awkward seam that disrupts the flow of the garment’s fabric.
The only way to achieve this precise of a match is for brands to allow for extra fabric/wastage when cutting patterns. If the patterns don’t match up, it was never attempted. The Button and Buttonhole Test: Fancy stitching and tiny tomatoes. “You can eyeball the quality of a shirt without ever trying it on,” said Emma, a pattern maker who has designed for everyone from national brands to high-end designers. “Just look at the buttons and buttonholes.” Quality buttons are usually made from natural materials like mother of pearl, horn, or something similar rather than plastic.
They’ll often feel heavier and thicker too rather than cheap and lightweight. But the biggest tell is in the buttonholes. On high-quality shirts, stitching will be dense and secure, capturing all thread ends.
Buttonholes will be cleanly cut without fray, and on the best shirts, they’ll be hand-finished. The distance between the buttonhole and the button placket should be uniform throughout. Another detail to note is how horizontally- vs. vertically-oriented buttonholes are placed on shirts.
On higher-quality garments, horizontal buttonholes are typically used along the placket (greater stability when worn) but vertical along cuffs (easier to button). Lastly, look to see if shirts have reinforcement stitching at stress points like the bottom of button plackets, tops of slits, buttonholes, and elsewhere. The Natural Light Test: What sunshine can teach you about every fibre.
Grab some sunlight and examine your fabric up-close. One of the best things you can do to determine cloth quality is hold it up towards natural sunlight. You’ll be able to best see fabric density and construction consistency.
Plus, you’ll spot potential future pills and issues that won’t be as obvious under store lighting. “A lot of store lighting is purposely designed to mask fabric defects,” says Thomas, who has worked for years as a fabric specialist for a major Italian textile mill. “Take it outside and see what you really got.” Higher-density fabrics won’t have as much light pass through when held up to sunlight. Opacity isn’t everything, but better cottons, linens, and wools will typically allow less light to pass through at the same weight than cheaper alternatives. I love doing this with knitwear.
Higher-quality knit fabrics will have even tension when held up to light. With lower-quality knits, you’ll notice patches where the light comes through more easily, telling you the material has weaker areas that will only get worse with washing and wear. Use your fingernail to pop open seams and feel for construction deficiencies you can’t see.
Natural light can also help expose construction inconsistencies invisible under regular store lighting. You’ll start to notice uneven seams, skipped stitches, and other shortcuts that’ll become future failure points. Hardware Quality Test: Measure twice, stitch once.
Every aspect of your clothing can offer quality clues. Take a pair of jeans with metal zippers. Are the teeth precise?
Does the zipper slider move smoothly from top to bottom or do you need to realign it as you pull? Do the stops feel sturdy? Quality zippers will open and close smoothly every single time, the teeth will line up neatly, and the zipper pull should feel substantial.
What brand is your zipper made by? YKK is something of a gold-standard zipper manufacturer, but that doesn’t mean name-brand zippers are always of higher quality than generic alternatives. You know your zipper is high-quality when you operate it multiple times and never have to fight it or notice irregular friction.
This logic applies to snaps, buckles, hooks. Nameless buttons sewn on with a single stitch? Expect them to autumn off.
Large, metal snaps that don’t latch securely? Catching and reopening mid-use. Smoothly-operating hardware that feels nice in your hands tends to mean those who made your clothes didn’t cut corners at those stress points.
The Roll Test: Turn it around and look in the mirror. This is one that’s unique to shirts, but it can be applied to other garments as well. Hold your shirt up sideways and unfold the collar and cuffs.
Next, fold them back up and see how they look. On high-quality shirts, the collar and cuffs will have plenty of interlining, which is that hidden layer of material that sandwiches the fabric pieces that face outward. It should feel sturdy without having cardboard-like stiffness.
When you fold it back up, it should create a nice roll rather than a harsh angle. Floating vs. fused. On quality shirts, that interlining layer is typically floating, not fused to the cotton or linen shell.
Floating allows the fabric to move more naturally and will perform better over years of repeated washings. Fused shirts can still be of high-quality but look closely at the collar and cuffs. Is there bubbling along the edges?
If so, the underlining is probably fused to the outer fabric. Here’s a simple trick. Run your fingernail along the inside of the collar.
You should feel two layers move against each other. If it feels like one solid piece, there’s a good chance that underlining is fused to the shell. It’s not necessarily bad, but floating is always preferable.
This shirt vs. this shirt. I have two plain white dress shirts that illustrate my point perfectly. The first is from J.
Crew, and cost me $45. The second was $185 from a small producer of American-made shirts. After about a year of weekly wear and frequent washings, my J.
Crew shirt started to show the tell-tale bubble along my collar points. That’s the hidden interlining pushing against the outer shell because the construction is fused. The shirt I spent three times as much on?
Perfect roll. But it’s not the only high-priced shirt that’s done this trick. I’ve purchased vintage shirts for less than $20 that feature the exact same impressive construction technique.
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The Stress Point Test: Look where the wear shows. Stress points are a pretty obvious one, but most brands do cut corners here. Look at areas where pockets connect to the body of a garment.
Look at straps on bags and where they attach. Sleeves and shoulders. Seat seams and how they curve with your body.
These are points on a garment that will experience the most wear over its lifetime. If constructed well, these areas will have extra reinforcement to extend overall life. Double stitches.
Bar tacks. Rivets. Patches.
Look for these little indicators of strength at areas that will need them most. Denim is an easy example. Denim trousers should always have a reinforced patch at the crotch gusset as well as pocket corners and the fly.
You’ll notice visible rivets here. But what you may not see are other indicators like double or triple needle stitches used at these stress points. With shirts, look at the area where the sleeve meets the yoke and where side seams terminate at the shirt’s hem.
Additional stitching or gussets should be present on higher-quality shirts. With knitwear, shoulders and cuffs should be reinforced to prevent stretching. Comfortable cotton trousers I wear weekly.
I own a pair of raw selvedge denim jeans that I bought from a heritage American workwear brand that cost me $225. Not only do they feature triple-needle stitching throughout, but there are reinforcement patches at every major stress point. I own another pair of jeans that look fairly similar.
They came from a higher-designer label, but were only $175. At first glance, they look like they’re from two different price points. But look closely at the pocket corners and where the sleeves are inserted into the bodice.
The “high-fashion” version lacks any of the reinforcement patches and is already showing signs of wear with small tears after two years of regular rotation. The Stress Test: Pull, poke, and prod. Machine vs hand-stitched.
Buttonholes are another tell-tale sign across almost every garment, but shirts are a great place to start. Higher-quality buttons are usually made from natural materials such as mother of pearl or horn rather than plastic. Buttons should also feel heavier and thicker rather than flimsy.
Look closely at the buttonholes as well. Are they machine-stitched or hand-finished? On higher-quality shirts, you’ll notice tight stitching that completely secures the thread ends.
Better shirts also have buttonholes that are cut cleanly and won’t have loose threads on the inside. On the highest-quality garments, these will be hand-finished. Inside vs. outside.
Last one for shirts. Flip your shirt inside out and look again at the buttons and buttonholes. How close is the stitching to the edge of each button?
On high-quality shirts, there should be little difference between the distance of each buttonhole to the button placket stitch. If you notice on the outside that the buttons aren’t lined up perfectly, flip it inside out and look at the stitching on the buttonholes. If it’s good, the distance between buttonholes and buttons should be uniform all the way across the placket.
Learn how to spot poorly constructed shirts by looking at labels. Does it look like one solid-colour fabric or is there dimension to the cloth? Better woven shirts, especially whites and light colours will have tiny, coloured tomatoes sewn into the fabric that you’ll notice when held up to natural light.
The_thread. Thread is often an overlooked quality signal since no one thinks to cheque it. But high-quality shirts use thread that matches or complements the colour of their fabric.
You should also notice thread tension consistency across every single seam on better-made garments. Stitching should lay flat against the fabric without puckering or looking loose. Take a look at the top stitching on a garment ( stitching that’s meant to be seen).
How evenly spaced are the stitches? You should be able to set a coin along the stitches and it should line up perfectly on both sides of each stitch all the way down the seam. The lining: A final test for tailored garments.
When assessing jackets and coats, pay special attention to how the inner-lining was attached. There should be enough ease that the lining doesn’t pull or bunch up the exterior fabric when you wear it. Grab the sleeve and twist it.
Does the lining pull with it? High-quality jackets will allow the fabric to move freely without resistance from the inside. With bags and leather goods, pay special attention to corner and handle attachment points.
High-quality bags will always have extra material reinforcement inside at those stress points. Feel along the interior of pockets, seams, and attachment points. Are they finished as cleanly as the outside?
Manufacturers who take pride in their production will ensure their bags look great on the inside and out. Take my navy blazers from earlier as an example. The jacket on the left is from a high-fashion brand that retailed for $450.
It looks nice, has functioning buttonholes, and boasts ticket pockets that I’ll probably never use. But look inside and you’ll notice a complete lack of structure. The one on the right?
It was $80 less, but inside you can see hand-attached canvas, proper shaping in the chest, and shoulder structure that gives the jacket proper weight. The former has lost its shape years before I’ll get rid of it. The Thread Test: Grab a lighter.
The type of thread matters, but so does thread size. In the image above, take a look at how dense the white thread is on the right-hand glove. How does it compare to the one on the left?
Since the colour difference is obvious, look at blue jeans vs. a pair of cotton trousers. Higher-quality threads will match or complement the colour of the fabric they’re stitching together. Jeans typically use heavier thread to stand up to the denser cotton fabric it’s attaching.
Take a look at your own clothes. You can spot poor-quality thread by looking at the tension on seams. If thread is loose or doesn’t lay flat against the fabric, you’ve got a problem.
Look at how shirts are constructed. Are the seams loose? Can you pull on threads easily?
Quality garments will use thread that’s appropriate for what it’s stitching together. Heavier fabrics = heavier thread. Lighter fabrics = lighter thread.
Weight and drape. Grab something and hold it. Another one that’s straightforward but often overlooked.
How does it feel in your hands? Quality fabrics will always feel substantial without being stiff or board-like. They should also drape nicely over your body without bulging or collapsing.
The best way to test this is to grab something and move around while wearing it. How does it conform to your body? Does it fight you or feel like it’s moving with you?
Fabrics with proper weight and drape will maintain these properties after years of wear and repeated washings. Cheap materials will start to autumn apart or lose their original structure after a few months. The consistency test: In details we trust.
Look at how the designers finished the hem. The buttonholes. The cuffs.
Now look inside at how they finished the seams, attached pockets, and constructed hidden design elements you don’t see when wearing it. This is the true test of craftsmanship. If a brand takes the time to ensure every stitch lays perfectly on the outside, odds are they care about the inside just as much.
Does the thread tension look the same on all of the seams?
Are the stitches-per-inch consistent across the entire garment? A quick way to cheque this is to look at stitches on outerwear buttons and compare them to hidden ones on the inside.
If everything from top-to-bottom and inside out is detailed consistently, you’ve got a well-made garment on your hands. The shirt I’m wearing in these photos fits this mold almost perfectly. It’s from an overseas brand that sources most of its clothes from Japan.
The construction is identical no matter where you look or what you’re examining. Another shirt I own is from a high-end designer brand that’s twice the price of my current shirt. But look at how the front placket stitching deviates from the rest of the interior construction.
Notice how they try to simulate high-quality by placing a hidden brand label? Months of wear haven’t even worn off the tag. But that shirt is nowhere near as well-made as my Japanese brand shirt, which is still look great after two years of weekly wear.
