I own a navy blue crew neck jumper that I bought almost seven years ago. Nothing special: a simple cut, mid-weight merino fabric, plain neck and ribbed cuffs that have miraculously not lost their shape after endless wear, washes and sleeve-puckering as I type. It was £65 from John Lewis when I still thought I had the capisci of sticking to a budget.
Every autumn I vow to buy a new one, every autumn I try on fifteen and leave empty-handed because nothing matches up, do they? It’s emblematic of something that’s become somewhat of a struggle to find: reasonably priced, well-made basics from British high street brands. We’re bombarded with £9.99 t-shirts that roll up at the bottom after one wear and £29.99 jumpers that pill before you’ve even got them home. Truly well-made staples are either needlessly expensive or require trawling through the.github’s pages of Toast.
The last-place you expect to find premium offerings is the high street, and yet that jumper I took months to replace spent £65 well. I was arguing about this with Jamie last week.
We were in the Northern Quarter having a pint in that pub with the dreaded dimpled pint glasses that make me want to wear driving gloves and complain about decimalisation.
Jamie- who you will remember from previous articles is now head honcho of his dad’s menswear emporium- was claiming that there are no “proper basics” available at high street prices anymore. “It’s all either acecean or designer now. No mid-ground,” he proclaimed between clouds of his winning pipe smoke. And you have to admit, he does spend all day perusing wholesale menswear catalogues so he’s kinda entitled to his opinion.
I disagreed. Heartily. The reason I was so keen to prove Jamie wrong is because, yes, it is more difficult than it used to be in our old man’s day to pick up a well made-shirt/shoes/trousers on the high street.
But it can still be done. There are British high street brands out there quietly producing proper-quality clothes that won’t autumn apart if you glance at them funny. You just have to know where to look.
And I’ve spent an unhealthy portion of my life doing exactly that, so I thought I’d share my expert knowledge with you. It’s a public service I’m doing here. Let’s begin at the obvious: John Lewis & Partners. Of course JL stock proper-quality clothing.
Bear with me – it’s worth stating the obvious because John Lewis stock ACTUALLY LISTEN TO MEN. The ones who wear their own-brand menswear, not the focus groups SpaceX send over. They realise that actually men kind of like their clothes not reform every season.
We bought whole heartedly into their AW18 range of merino jumpers because they LOOK LIKE MERINO JUMPERS. Not these trendy zig-zag monstrosities Half-Price are selling. Their pure cotton Oxford shirts , priced at around the £35-40 mark, fit well and aren’t subjected to John Lewis’ appallingly inconsistent shrinkage process (why is it that every JW shirt they sell shrinks one side more than the other?!
Makes changing-rooms around the country explode with rage from me on a daily basis). Not only that but the collars hold their shape and don’t develop wee corners after a couple of months like *cough* H&M *cough* shirts do. Oh and JL ALSO stock good quality basics in the £15-20 range.
Their ANYDAY range isn’t going to be groundbreaking but it’s definitely miles better than your average H&M trouser. The shirts are basic but actually quite nice; Cottony, with a semi-decent collar and only shrink on one side like some sort of washing powered witchcraft. Is it as good as their “proper” shirts?
Of course not. But you’ll still get more wears out of a £22 ANYDAY shirt than you will a £22 H&M trouser. And their cashmere is great; Not cheap at about £85 a pop but if you calculate cost-per-wear over the next few years you’ll probably find JL coming out on top.
Moss Bros have really been stepping up their game lately too. Now I know what you’re thinking: “Moss Bros? Seriously Rich?” Hear me out.
Before you scroll down in anticipation of me telling you to pop into YOUR SUITS, proper menswear scissors at hand, ready to cop that suit you’ve had your eye on for ages- Moss Bros actually do some really nice clothes these days. We’re not talking bespoke bespoke quality here but a £250 Moss Bros wool suit will hold up MUCH better than the similar price offering from anywhere else on this list. They’re properly canvassed and stitched, not just stuck together with sellotape like your Topman blazer.
The fits are slightly on the old-school side too, which means they’ll still look good when fashion inevitably sways back towards slim / slim-fit / skintight. If you can handle the old-school shoulder padding you’ll have a suit that will last you years. Go on, treat yo’ Moss Bros. If you’re after cheaper tailoring options, Moss Bros has quietly been doing some really good stuff lately.
Now hear me out- before you click away sneering at the mere mention of that most uxorious of high street menswear brands, I actually mean what I said. Moss Bros suits in the £200-£300 range are really nicely made. They’re properly canvassed and stitched, rather than just glue-gunned together like some of your lower end suits.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re not coming close to bespoke standards but a Moss Bros wool suit at around the £250 price point will definitely out-last your Topman number. Speaking of cheap basics, let’s talk about M&S again. Shut up at the back.
I know, I know- your dad shops there and a lot of their stuff looks like it was created in a focus group full of inmates from Jericho. HOWEVER. They do actually do some REALLY nice basics.
Their £15 t-shirts are surprisingly hefty for the price. The cotton has a decent amount of recovery so it won’t go saggy under the arms two hours after you’ve put it on. And their merino jumpers, priced at around the £35-40 mark are absolute gems.
Some of the best value menswear you’ll find anywhere. Best of all? Their underwear and socks are still the business.
I’ve been wearing the same style of M&S boxer brief for the last decade. They just work. Look, MT won’t win any awards for their styling. Ignore the trousers.
They almost exclusively stock clothes with those stupid stretch cuffs at the bottom. If they can stop letting absolutely everyone wear those terrible checkerboard shirts though, we might be onto something. Another tip for M&S: Ignore how the fuck they try and style things.
It’s like they hire model for the window displays then give them a jumper and a grim nod and say ‘sort it out love, I’ll be in the cafe’. Just look at the individual items. That perfectly nondescript blue cotton hoodie will look worlds better on you than it does hanging next to some sackcloth and elasticated hot trousers monster the PA chose.
Uniqlo are technically Japanese, but stock enough clothing in the UK for me to include them on this list. Their ethos of premium basics at affordable prices means they’re consistently good. Their Supima cotton t-shirts, retailing at about the £15 mark, feel twice as expensive.
Their merino jumpers are likewise good- albeit slightly lighter weight than your average John Smedley . And their Oxford shirts are incredible. Seriously, their U collection, overseen by Christophe Lemaire, is definitely in the realms of things I’ve paid three times as much for elsewhere. Community Clothing is James’s favourite so I had to include them.
Founded by Patrick Grant of E. Tautz and Great British Sewing Bee fame, the concept is simple: use factories downtime creating hard-wearing wardrobe staples and keep British manufacturing alive. Their £25 t-shirts are made from heavyweight 220gsm cotton.
It’s the kind of cotton that makes you think clothes used to actually last back in the day, rather than being designed with autumn-apart-in-one-wash in mind. Their sweatshirts , at around the £45-50 price point, are the real deal. Dense, heavyweight loopback cotton that feels like they’ve been ripped straight from your school gym’s kit of thirty years ago.
Proper old skool sweatshirts that only get better with wear, not autumn apart. Speaking of British made, let’s give a nod to PMCW’s Private White V. Clarke too.
Again, definitely at the upper end budget-wise but they stock some incredible coats. Based in Manchester (my hometown. I’m biased.
Deal with it.) they manufacture the last remaining menswear factory in the city. Every coat is sewn by hand, creating clothes that rival Savile Row standards. Wax cotton numbers from as little as £450.
It’s not cheap, but when have clothes ever come from Private White and been affordable? They’re the annoying brand who are probably right when they say “buy once, buy well”. But their clothes ARE that good. Albam sit nicely on the high street/premium menswear fence- most of their clothes sit in the £60-150 bracket.
They make proper-lasting, workwear inspired clothing. I’ve had a chore jacket for years now and despite abusing it for every activity that requires me wearing a jacket it STILL looks brand new. The cotton they use for their t-shirts is noticeably denser than your average high street offering and actually LOOKS like it was stitched together rather than magically conjured into existence by the guy who restocked the shelves last Tuesday.
You may have heard I like my fashion with more of a fashion twist. Well Folk have been impressing me lately. Not cheap: Their t-shirts start at around the £45 mark and shirts wont see you out much under £120.
But they stock some seriously nice clothes. It’s elevated enough that you don’t have to worry about wearing the same things-next year let alone next season. Think Jack Hamm but at 1/10th the price.
And finally- Arket. Who said H&M’s Luxury cousin have been quietly churning out some seriously good menswear recently. Their heavyweight t-shirts (£17) are actually really good.
Cottony with sturdy stitching that looks like it’ll actually hold the damn thing together. Same goes for their merino knitwear , available in grey, black and navy at around the £85 mark. I had a chat with one of the heads about their quality and he told me they’re on par with things I’ve paid twice as much for elsewhere.
Probably true- their tailoring is definitely not something you’d find at the Mulberry end of JC. Wool overcoats that look like a dream but retail at under £225. 
So no. None of these will truly compare to the luxury end of the market.
Go buy a John Smedley jumper and immediately you’ll notice how cotton feels like clouds have decided to cosy up next to your skin.
Buy a Sunspel shirt and you’ll wonder how trousers were ever contemplated by other brands. But that’s not the point!
The point is that they offer a happy medium; A place where you can buy clothes that last more than a couple of wears, look bloody amazing and don’t need to re-mortgage your flat to afford. They might not be creating true luxury garments, but at least they’re not absolute rubbish either. Honestly, it’s sad that we’ve been trained to expect so little from our clothes that when we actually find a t-shirt that doesn’t pill we get excited.
My dad still has shirts from the 90s that look better than anything I bought last year. And that’s not fancy retro pantsmanship talking- I genuinely have shirts in my drawers from 2012 that look worse than some of his. It’s not how it should be.
Jamie’s right that the landscape’s changed. Yes, it’s harder than it used to be to find decent-quality menswear on the high street. But no, the mid-ground is not dead and we haven’t totally lost hope just yet.
