How can you tell if clothes are good quality in a shop?

Turn the garment inside out. Check four things: the seam allowance — how much fabric sits beyond the stitch line — whether the seams are finished or raw, whether any pattern or stripe lines up at the side seams, and how the buttons are attached. Those four take under a minute and separate most well-made garments from most cheap ones.

Does a higher price always mean better quality?

No. Price tracks brand positioning at least as closely as construction. A £400 coat from a designer label and a £180 coat from a workwear brand are often made to similar standards, with the difference going into marketing and retail margin. That is exactly why the twelve checks matter — they let you judge the garment rather than the label.

Fit, Fabric & Care/4 min read

How to Tell If a Garment Is Well Made: 12 Checks You Can Do in the Shop

Twelve things to look at before you buy any garment — seam allowance, stitch density, pattern matching, button attachment and the five places cheap clothing fails first.

Hana KobayashiSeptember 14, 2026Updated October 5, 2026

How to Tell If a Garment Is Well Made: 12 Checks You Can Do in the Shop

There is a version of this article that tells you to feel the fabric and trust your instincts. It does not work, because instinct has nothing to compare against, and the garment in your hands has been steamed, pinned and lit to be convincing.

What works is looking at the places a factory cannot afford to hide. Construction is a cost, and cost is what gets cut first. Every check below is looking for evidence of that.

The four that take under a minute

1. Seam allowance. Turn the garment inside out. The seam allowance is how much fabric sits beyond the stitch line. A generous allowance — a centimetre or more — means the seam can be let out, repaired, or re-sewn. A narrow one means the garment is disposable by design. This is the single most reliable signal on the list.

2. Finished or raw seams. An overlocked seam is finished. A raw, fraying edge inside a garment that will be washed repeatedly is not, and it will fail at the wash rather than at the seam.

3. Pattern matching at the side seams. If the garment has a stripe, a check or a print, look at where the side seam joins the front and back. Matching takes extra fabric and extra cutting time, and it is the first thing dropped on a cheap run. On a plain garment, look at the grain line instead — the fabric should run straight up the body, not twist.

4. Button attachment. Buttons should be sewn through a shank — a small neck of thread that lifts the button off the fabric. Flat-sewn buttons pull the cloth and fall off. Turn the button over; if there is a neat knot of thread holding it proud of the surface, someone cared.

Stitch density, and why it is the fastest test

Eight to twelve stitches per inch on a main seam is the working range. Below eight the seam is weak and will pull apart under stress. Above fourteen in a fine fabric, the needle has perforated the cloth and you get a line of holes along the seam.

Stitch density is the fastest quality signal because it is purely a cost of time. A machine running at twelve stitches per inch takes half again as long as one running at eight, and factories are not cutting fabric to save money — fabric is cheap at scale. They are cutting seconds.

Four more, if you have another minute

5. The placket. The strip of fabric down the button line of a shirt. A flimsy placket buckles, gapes, and shows the shape of the buttons underneath. It should be interfaced and firm.

6. Zips. A metal zip in a heavy fabric, a plastic one in a light fabric. Check that the zip tape — the fabric strip either side — is stitched flat and not puckered. A puckered zip means the seam was sewn under tension and will wave permanently.

7. Lining attachment. On a coat or jacket, the lining should be attached with a small amount of slack at the hem, usually with a pleat or a loose stitch. A lining sewn tight to the outer fabric will tear the first time you sit down.

8. Pocket bags. Reach into a pocket and feel the fabric. On a good garment it is a proper cotton pocketing. On a cheap one it is the same shell fabric, which is to say a hole waiting to happen.

Four that need the garment on

9. Shoulder seam position. It should sit exactly on the point of your shoulder — not below it, which is the most common fitting fault and makes everything above the seam look slumped.

10. Armhole depth. Deep enough to move your arms without lifting the whole garment. If the body rises when you raise your arms, the armhole is too shallow.

11. Underarm seam. This is where cheap clothing fails first. It takes repeated stress at an angle the fabric was not designed for, and it is usually finished with a short allowance and a loose stitch.

12. Care label completeness. Fibre content with percentages, plus a full set of care symbols. A garment whose fibre content is hidden — "mixed fibres", or a list with no percentages — is usually a garment with something to hide.

The five places cheap clothing fails first

In our alteration work the order is consistent: the underarm seam and the crotch seam, in that order, then zip failures, then pilling, then buttons. Both of the first two take repeated stress at an angle, and both are finished with the shortest allowance in the garment because they are the hardest to reach.

The short version

Turn it inside out. Seam allowance, seam finishing, pattern matching, button shanks. Under a minute.
Stitch density is the fastest signal because it is pure time, and time is what gets cut.
Check the placket, the zip tape, the lining slack and the pocket bags if you have another minute.
Underarm and crotch seams fail first. Look at them before anything else.
Price tracks branding at least as closely as construction. Judge the garment, not the label.

The Edit

3 picks

What we would buy to do the job described above. Chosen by specification and price band rather than by brand — the numbers are the recommendation.

A cotton poplin shirt
Visible weave, not a thin stretch blend. Sturdy placket, shoulder seam on the point of the shoulder.
£45–£90
The clearest garment on which to learn the twelve checks — every seam is visible.
A lambswool crew neck
Gauge you cannot read a label through. Doubled ribbed neckline. Side seams, not a tubular body.
£80–£180
Warmer per pound than cashmere and far more forgiving of hard wear.
Straight-leg wool trousers
Curtain waistband with a separate inner facing. Wool-heavy blend with a little elastane for recovery.
£90–£200
Waistband construction is the fastest way to tell a built trouser from a cheap one.

Questions

How can you tell if clothes are good quality in a shop?: Turn the garment inside out. Check four things: the seam allowance — how much fabric sits beyond the stitch line — whether the seams are finished or raw, whether any pattern or stripe lines up at the side seams, and how the buttons are attached. Those four take under a minute and separate most well-made garments from most cheap ones.
What is a good stitch density for clothing?: Eight to twelve stitches per inch on a main seam is the working range. Below eight, the seam is weak and will pull apart under stress. Above fourteen in a fine fabric, the needle has perforated the cloth and you get a line of holes along the seam. Stitch density is the fastest quality signal because it costs the factory time, and time is the thing they are cutting.
Does a higher price always mean better quality?: No. Price tracks brand positioning at least as closely as construction. A £400 coat from a designer label and a £180 coat from a workwear brand are often made to similar standards, with the difference going into marketing and retail margin. That is exactly why the twelve checks matter — they let you judge the garment rather than the label.

Written by

Hana Kobayashi

Fit & Care Editor · Alterations tailor, twelve years · Tokyo, Japan

Hana has altered twelve years of other people’s clothes, which is long enough to know that almost nothing fits anyone off the peg and that a good tailor is cheaper than a new wardrobe. She writes about sizing, fabric behaviour and how garments fail — and how to stop them.

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