lilamp | the gap: quality-----

the gap: quality-----

many years ago, i was overjoyed to discover that jeans from the gap actually fit me well. i currently have two pairs of size 10 gap jeans that i wore a LOT, until i started gaining weight a few years ago. at some point i bought one pair in size 12 and one in 14 (i was a size 14 at the time), and i ended up wearing them both out, but it took at least a year. so now here i was needing to buy new jeans again, because i am still far from being able to fit into the 10s again (which are still in great shape)... so i bought a new pair about 1.5 months ago. i noted that the denim was quite thin and not very soft/smooth. now, after not even wearing them all that much, they are ALREADY FALLING APART. there is a hole starting in the ass, and one of the cuffs is disattaching. boo.

i plan to take them back and complain, as these jeans are even lower quality than the old navy ones i bought when gap was out of stock in my size and i needed new pants pronto. isn't gap supposed to be kind of upscale? aren't they supposed to be higher quality than old navy? i mean, they're the same company, right, with banana republic at the top of the chain? is it not reasonable to expect a pair of $60 jeans to last more than two months, or is everything really that disposable these days? i actually overheard some young girl talking in the breakroom at work about clothing, and saying that she buys tops expecting to only wear them a few times before they fall apart. WTF?! is this the kind of disposable consumer society we live in now, when clothes fall apart faster than the fashions change?

where do you buy quality clothing? and who wants to help me get on 'what not to wear'?

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I would say that 60 bucks is low to pay for jeans with the premium denim market now a days. Premium denim runs 200+ now. I think you might try exchanging them for a different wash and a different fabric...They do change those up from time to time. You want something kind of cheap and kind of decent, I'd try Lucky...
Or Ross and or Marshalls...

I have yet to pay more than $30 for jeans, and they've all held up for years. Washing all my clothes with cold water, gentle cycle, and 1/2 the "recommended" detergent probably help with wear and tear.

Oddly enough, I've found that the few designer items I've bought (Gap, Ann Taylor) have fallen apart much faster than the Target/Old Navy level clothes. *shrug* Seems like you're paying for the label, not the quality.

i dryell half my wardrobe because i don't expect it to last in the wash.

and strangely, everything i've bought from h&m has help up remarkably well.

Brooks Brothers clothing tends to be pretty good quality in my experience.
My basic Levi's 501 jeans are past their first year without any visible wear (although I don't wear them all that often).
I think Gap used to be sort of upscale, but not so much any more. I had some Gap shirts bought in the early 90s that lasted almost a decade. In the past few years, though, I've stopped even looking at the Gap because the quality of the workmanship has visibly degraded so much (but the prices, of course, have not gone down).

That fake thin denim they make women's jeans out of nowadays is evil.

I have some (I think) Levis and Ralph Lauren jeans that I got for maybe $30 at a discount place in New York. Maybe Ross or equivalent would carry them for a decent price? One is fake stretch denim, one's real denim, they've held up all right for the past year or so. I used to think that non-Gap brands didn't fit, but I let the saleswomen size me up and I ended up with jeans that fit better than Gap.

As I sew more and more of my own stuff (though I still just do simple stuff), I've actually come to like shopping -- as an opportunity to see just how shoddy craftsmanship is in the sewing world. Of course it's much worse at discount places like Mervyn's, but even at high-end shops they use crappy fabrics and do shoddy work on many of the pieces. I've concluded that it is not lasting power or good craftsmanship that one is paying for (since most of these companies, even the upscale ones, use low-paid, more or less untrained women to mass-produce their clothing), but the design and brand cache'. It's annoying, but seems to be pretty pervasive. I don't have a good sense of how it's changed over time since this shopping-as-a-critique thing is new to me (before I just avoided shopping like the plague, and still rarely go ...).

Anyway, good luck ... it sure does suck to find something that works only to not have access to it when the first item wears out, as I've learned with bras.

Ross is great, if you don't mind wading through mounds of stuff and waiting in line forever. Also I always buy multiples of things that fit me well, to make them last longer.

That sucks about your new jeans. Maybe this will inspire you to lose weight to fit the size 10s.

i worked for GAP in college. just a tip: you can return anything, any time, after any amount of wear, no matter in what condition. GAP has one of the most liberal return policies in retail. my favorite example was the guy who walked into my store and exchanged the 2 year old khakis -- that he came in wearing -- for the updated style because they fit better.

get a manager who's trying to be a tough guy and say no to your ridiculous exchange? ask that manager to call the corporate office to ask them if it's okay. they will always fold (pun intended).

here are your guidelines: 1) if you have your original receipt, you will always get back full price/credit, 2) if you don't have your receipt, you can always exchange for the same item, 3) if the same item is unavailable, your only option is to return. if you try to return your item without a receipt you will get the current value (and everything eventually gets marked down to $3.99 or less). so this really only applies to basics that are always in stock like t-shirts, khakis, and your beloved jeans.

$60 may seem like a lot. but not when you consider you can return your shoddy ripped up pair again and again until you feel you've gotten your $60 worth.

cool, thanks for the tip! you'd think if they have such a liberal return policy, they'd be more concerned with quality, but i guess not many people actually bother to return stuff?

exactly. their return policy is one of the better kept secrets in retail. but those who know abuse the hell out of it. :-) a number of retail chains have more liberal return policies than most people would think. the rule of thumb is: the bigger the chain, the easier the return.

good luck! don't forget -- if they push back, ask 'em to call corporate. man i used to love the looks on managerial faces when someone would pull that.

part of me thinks, wow i could have free jeans for life! and then the rest of me gets extremely angry about the wastefulness of such poor quality products... grr.

I expect they'll just sell your return to the next sap and hopefully s/he won't know about the lifetime swap policy.

Fry's is pretty good about returns, too. Now if only their receipts weren't printed with disappearing ink. Thermal paper is not my friend.

This week.

I actually have a group of girls I trade jeans with when we change sizes.
Fit is an issue for me...I can't wear Gap, BR, AT etc...I buy all my jeans at sample sales so I never pay more than 60 for the 200-300 dollar ones...

It's Ann Taylor and Julie pant for me - they're curvy and the hemline isn't crazy long. Ann and Marisa styles are meant for people with barely any hips.
Their hemlines aren't as long as other brands and they have options in the curvaceous department so they're a beautiful fit for me. Yes, it is more expensive than the rather disposable Ross and Mervyn's clothes I used to buy in Calfornia.

I gave up wearing jeans for the most part. It's too stressful of a shopping experience but maybe I'll see what AT has at some point. I would *not* spend $200 for a pair of jeans; that's insane. And if I paid $60 for a pair of jeans, I would expect them to wear much longer than 2 months. Like years.

Can you wear vintage clothes? Remember the 70s pair of orange pants I have? I bought them a thrift store in Toronto probably 5 or 6 years ago and they're still lasting. I wore them at a lot of parties. Made far better than most modern jeans I've had. It will be a sad day when I wear that pair of jeans out.

I would complain and never buy from there again.

I looked at Gap clothes at one point and they looked shoddy so I didn't buy them. Old Navy I've worn and I can get through at least a couple years with those.

I didn't go to Brooks Brothers level - that's probably far more expensive than I need though there is an outlet store in Chicago. The style is also not really my taste either. I prefer more toned down earthy colors mixed with really vibrant colors or either/or depending upon my mood. But I'm not much into flowers or pastel. I don't care so much about the whole what no to wear business - that's asking a lot when finding something that fits and will last is already a huge acheivement.

mostly i think my fashion sense is okay, i just wish somebody would give me $5k to buy a new quality wardrobe and a makeover! :)

I've switched to exclusively shopping at Nordstrom Rack. Sure, you have to dig for things, but I've gotten some really decent jeans there for under $30 all the time and under $25 most of the time. Most of them last for about 2 years. I've also bought jeans that lasted about six months before they wore out in the seat, so YMMV.

The unfortunate thing is that a lot of designer wear nowadays go for the stretch fabric - so it's not all cotton, but includes lycra and nylon, which tend to wear out. I have a pair of BR jeans that just stopped stretching and are so wide now that I can fall out of them. And the ones that are sturdy are not always the ones that are the most flattering.

On the same token, I am really hard on my jeans. I cycle through about 3 pairs every week and they get washed about once every 10 days or so. I wear them to work, I wear them on transit, I wear them when hiking, etc.

I once almost got my friend on What Not to Wear. I responded to an ad in Craigslist that asked for women for makeovers. I sent in my friend's photo and they liked it. The producers came out from NYC to follow 4-6 women (and their friends) around for only 3 slots. Hilarity ensued as I tried to keep arranging mid-day dates with my friend who couldn't understand why I had so much time off work. I eventually had to tell her what was going on, which was completely against the rules. They ended up not picking her, and I am still not sure if it's because they found out she knew she was being secretly filmed all over the Mission. Later she said she was glad she wasn't picked, because of the harshness of the show.

tee hee. they definitely don't pull any punches when it comes to criticizing people's wardrobes. but, five thousand dollars! all new quality clothing and a makeover!

If mens' jeans fit you, try them. They're generally made of sturdier fabric and they have deeper, more useful pockets. And the sizing is much more consistent.

too much booty and hips for mens' jeans. :)

I really inspect clothing well for quality. Thick fabric, good sturdy seams, no pocket or facing show-through. Much of the time you can't actually depend on the retailer, I've seen stuff at banana republic that's poorer quality than old navy and stuff at bp that's gonna last a long time.

For jeans, I'm go with Bonnie on this one, I get premium denim on sale. But LA is the epicenter of premium denim and I think we have a lot more options. Plus if you're at a 14 it's kinda slim pickings (12 gets much easier). One non-premium brand that's done well for me in the past is Lucky, their jeans are made fairly sturdy. Hit the store to pick the styles that work for you and then haunt Nordstrom's Rack for your size in the cut you want.

And you've hit the nail on the head as to why I don't shop at Forever 21 and why I don't waste too much time with sample sales... shoddy quality stuff that falls apart isn't worth it no matter HOW cheap it is.

i will definitely check out nordstrom rack! i always forget about them.

I try paaces like nordstrom rack and marshalls and even thought the clothes seem sturdy enough, that's mainly because I never wear them. I'm so tired of buying clothes 'on sale' and having them not fit properly. I was randomly in the gap a few weeks ago and discovered the MIRACLE of jeans fitting me. Holy crap! Seriously, a revelation. I paid under $50 and while I windged about the cost, I realize the value in wearing clothes that fit. If you do shop at the discount places, don't let price or sturdiness blind you like it had me for years. Good luck hunting.

On a side note, I am sick of how expensive clothes have become and their disposable quality does not make it easier to spend $$.

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the gap: quality-----

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$60 jeans

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