Yes

by Rose Calder

Created on: October 22, 2009

In times of want, we all feel compelled to scrimp and pinch to make ends meet. We start paying more attention to sales at the grocery store, we reassess which of our monthly expenses are necessities and which are luxuries (such as getting our hair colored versus just getting a trim,) and we stop buying name brands and start buying generic. And for the most part, we are able to get by while spending less. But what about clothes? When it comes to living on a shoestring, does going cheap work?

As the various fashion bibles out there will tell you, reaching for the cheaper items when it comes to clothes is not always the best idea. This is particularly true of the staples of everyday wear; shoes and jeans. Sure, getting something for less works in the short term, but in the long run, you would have been better off saving up for the pricier ones.

When it comes to jeans, if you lay a pair of inexpensive ones next to a more costly pair, you can begin to see my point. Inexpensive jeans tend to be made from thinner material, whereas the designer jeans will be made of thicker material, guaranteeing longer wear for your dollar. Also, you will notice that the more expensive of the two are better-stitched and more carefully cut, which means they will fit you better and be more comfortable to wear.

Another point in favor of the more expensive jeans is that more care is taken in the construction of the jeans; riveting, type of fabric, bias-cut, stitching and finish, which can include tacking, sanding, stone washing, sandblasting, whiskering, etc. The more carefully these processes are done, the more the jeans will cost. However, you must remember that the more intensive the process of assembling the jeans means that they are of a much higher quality than their less expensive counterparts, which means that they are liable to last longer with repeated wear.

For those who are concerned with ethical sourcing in retail, another thing to be concerned about is who is making your jeans. More costly clothiers tend to fall more in line with making certain that their workers are properly cared for and compensated for their efforts, which also factors in the cost of the jeans themselves. Cheaper clothing manufacturers cut costs wherever possible, and some go so far as to enlist slave labor and sweatshops in order to craft their goods. I think we all can agree that it is worth it to be certain that no one's rights were stepped on in order to clothe ourselves.

In the end, while I can understand why buying cheaper clothes can seem like the better purchase, I believe it's worth it to save up and shell out for something more expensive.

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