Quality clothes online: experts’ checks before you buy
Fashion experts say fabric labels, close-up photos, pricing and return policies can help shoppers avoid flimsy online buys.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
4 min read
Quality clothes online can be hard to spot when a product page does all the flirting and none of the truth-telling. Fashion experts say shoppers should look past the polished model shots and check fabric content, construction clues, pricing and return rules before clicking buy.
Dr. Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne, senior lecturer of Fashion Marketing and Enterprise at Torrens University Australia, told Mashable that fibre content is one of the fastest ways to judge whether a garment is likely to hold up. Her advice is not to chase only silk, cashmere or other high-end materials, but to ask whether the fabric suits the job the clothing is meant to do.
How can you tell if clothes are good quality online?
Start with the material list. Cotton and linen can work well for office clothes because they are comfortable against the skin, while polyester is less breathable but can be durable, cheaper and easier to care for, making it common in activewear.
Lamarche-Beauchesne said activewear and swimwear often rely on nylon, polyester and spandex because those synthetics deliver the performance shoppers expect from those categories. For jackets and tailored pieces, she pays attention to which fabric is used where, including the lining.
She also warned that blends deserve a closer look. For jeans, she said a cotton pair with around 2 percent spandex may be acceptable, while a higher spandex share can increase the chance that the fabric stretches out or breaks down.
Photos can reveal what the product copy hides
Kinsen Siu, co-founder of Australian clothing brand IDA+S, told Mashable that a fibre label alone does not tell the full story. Polyester, for example, can vary widely depending on weave, finish and performance treatments.
Siu’s practical test is blunt: see whether the site lets you zoom in. Close product shots can show stitching density, buttonholes, linings, leather grain and hardware. A brand willing to show those details may be more confident in the way the piece is made.
Full-body images still matter. Lamarche-Beauchesne said shoppers should study how a garment sits on the model, how the fabric falls and whether the pose may be hiding the drape or fit. She also looks for design choices that make clothing easier to wear, such as back waist elastics on bottoms.
Price helps, but the label is not proof
Lamarche-Beauchesne said price can signal better materials, but a premium tag can also reflect branding more than durability. She described the relationship between price and fibre content as a key warning sign for online shoppers.
The point landed loudly on TikTok last September, when fashion creator Wisdom Kaye posted a video showing a Miu Miu vest losing a button as he undid it for the first time. According to Kaye’s posts, the vest was a replacement after an earlier vest also lost a button shortly after he took it home, and a jacket zip had broken as well.
His video drew more than 11 million views and fuelled online discussion about quality concerns in luxury fashion. The takeaway for shoppers: a famous name and a high price can help guide expectations, but they do not replace inspection.
Use return policies like a fitting room
Siu said the most reliable quality test is still seeing and touching the garment in person. For online orders, that means checking the return policy before buying.
Shoppers should look for whether change-of-mind returns are allowed, how long the return window lasts, who pays return postage and whether restocking fees apply. IDA+S offers a Try Before You Buy service that gives customers three days to try clothing while payment is on hold, according to the brand.
Siu also recommends researching unfamiliar labels. He said he checks a brand’s “about us” page, looks for the founder’s name and searches for that person on LinkedIn. A brand with no visible people behind it is, in his view, a red flag.
The final test is less glamorous and more useful: whether the garment fits your real life. Siu said a poly blend worn for years can be more useful than a 100 percent linen shirt that sits untouched because it needs ironing.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.