Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

Let's not give Wes Streeting any more ideas about ways for retailers to be made to apply pressure to customers re lifestyle adjustments.

 

I think it's easier with kids clothes though because you are buying a different product. The styles for the toddlers are not the same as the styles for the tweens.
And with adult styles, each size will need the same quantity of buttons, zips etc. I often find the cost of a zip for a garment is nearly as much as the cost of the fabric.

 

Yes they do, and yes there are. I have worn Craghopper trousers for years. They are the only trousers I have which fit really well and are of a body length to fasten around my waist, at least at the point I think of as my waist. Although I could certainly do with losing a pound or 50 I'm fortunate to carry the weight fairly well spread. I'm not the body type with a 36" waist and a 60" beer belly flopping over the top.

 

I think it's because for manufactured clothing, the fabric is only a small part of the cost (most of it's cheap stuff these days). Most of the cost will be in the design, factory costs (machines, building maintenance etc), labour, packaging, transportation, retail costs (shop, warehouse, staff etc), advertising and above all, profit all the way along the chain.

When you make your own (and don't charge yourself for your time) the fabric cost is a higher proportion, although other bits and pieces like snaps, zips etc can add up.

 

And I have to say, if ready-to-wear clothes fit you well and you don't have "designer" tastes, you can often buy things cheaper than you can make them. Most of us who sew do it because we can make things that fit better. With a pattern that I haven't made before, the pattern alterations can take longer than actually making up the garment. Mine are quite significant - short everywhere but mostly in the upper torso, narrow shoulders and upper chest, slight sway back, big bust, even bigger waist, etc. Some of that came with age and these days I need more alterations than I did when I was in my teens, twenties and thirties. In some ways it's harder than going shopping but it is worth the effort.

 

Depending on what I'm sewing, it can take a day to a week to make a new item of clothing. The time involved includes preparing the fabric - ironing if needed, making sure the fold is on the grain line, prepping the pattern pieces and laying them out, matching fabric patterns, making fitting alterations as needed, cutting out, interfacing, sewing each dart and seam, ironing as I go. Zips, buttonholes and fasteners add more time.

I usually buy fabrics in the sales and have a supply of zips, threads and buttons bought in sales and local events where sewists/embroiderers/knitters and patchworkers hold a sale to get rid of their excess items. I also have a stock of interfacings, linings, trims and bias binding.

If I counted up the hours and included rent and power for my sewing room I would come in at high end price and quality levels. As it is I can make a fitted outfit - dress, top and trousers, jacket, coat, suit, evening dress for anything between 10€ and 100€ and they last me years.

I have a narrow back and an hourglass shape so bought trousers never fit my waist and blouses and dresses that fit my bust often droop off my shoulders or bag at the back. Much less bovver to make from scratch and I also hate shopping and changing rooms.

 

I'm sure that's true @JennyJB but we are talking an industrial sized scale where even a small fraction of the cost will be millions/billions to the industry over the year. We also should consider that clothing is one of the highest carbon footprints of any industry, reported as 10% of global emissions in some calculations making it more than air travel.
I'm not really fussed about a standard cost, was just curious why really. It seems in the past that a few outlets have tried to charge varying amounts for different sizes but there was a backlash big enough for them to stop. I found this article about one such incident and the comments seem to suggest that the majority think a varying price is acceptible but obviously not in practice.

New Look reviews clothing prices amid 'fat tax' row

 

Seems obvious to me. If you need wood to make a 6' high fence over 20m it's going to cost you less than the same wood for 40m. The supplier should subsidise the cost of the longer fence?

 

In the case of the clothing industry, it's never going to be the supplier that subsidises anything - it will be the smaller-sized people. Because nothing ever gets standardised on the lower cost to end user option.

 

The article is correct when it says it can take nearly twice the fabric to make a bigger size than a smaller one ...... if you are making one garment. Fabric only comes in specific widths (depending on the loom it's woven on). With smaller sizes you can fit, for example, the front and back side by side, but there comes a point as you go up sizes, at which the pieces won't fit side by side, then you need twice the length (less if you can manage a partial overlap). on an industrial scale I think they could get over that by for example cutting the front for the largest size alongside the back for the smallest and vice-versa, if they are using the same fabric for a range of sizes. But that assumes that they're all being cut at the same time in the same place, and it ain't necessarily the case.

 

If OH needs new trousers, I have to take a tape measure to check that the body length is enough to comfortably reach his ‘waist’. There is one smaller high street store that sells trousers with a suitable fit, with other suppliers, there is an awful lot of buying/ ordering, and taking back if he finds them too tight. ( There is no way I can actually get him into a clothes shop, let alone try something on)
The last ( unsuccessful) purchase I made for him had to go back because the inside leg actually measured two inches less than stated on the label. If they were so-called ankle grazers, it didn’t say so on the description.
From the same store, I have trousers that are labelled short, medium and long, all the same length. Buying on line is pure guesswork, but going to the store is a real nuisance when they rarely have any sizes in stock apart from 8,10 and 20 /22.

 

You should get a bigger discount for bulk buying.

 

I see all the home workers heading back to office again, must be the air con!!!