Quality Clothing: How do you define?

[Princess Verwood]

 

One thing I appreciate about SL is the diversity of merchants and shops and the different styles of clothing they offer. In thinking about what people buy when it comes to clothing...whether that is looking at the "best selling" on the marketplace (though that can be faulty), reading the forums here, talking to other clothing designers, or looking at blogs it makes me wonder in general a few things. When it comes to quality, that can mean different things to everyone. Meaning one item may be of quality to one person and to another it may not be considered quality.

Referring to SL clothing only:

What defines quality clothing, or fashion to you?

In your experience, can price sway your idea of the quality of clothing ? I guess what I am trying to say is if something is cheap, do you feel the same way about how it looks?

[Chelsea Malibu]

Quality to me defines levels of detail and clean edges.  Jagged edges, well fitting seams that don't show and crisp clean textures are paramount when I buy.

 Anyone can make clothing and the system was originally designed so that anyone can create a look easily.  The key to success for any merchant is in doing this better than anyone else.  Shadows, highlights and clean cut edges are basics for success then comes creativity.

However, no matter how creative you are, bad craftsmanship will sink your ship before you leave the harbor.

[Ceera Murakami]

I look for high quality textures, and seams that match well.

I look for clothes that look decent even while I walk or move, and that don't look strange if I sit down.

I tend to look for clothes that match my personal fashion sense. While what I wear in SL may be a little more 'racy' than what I would wear in real life, the vast majority of what I choose to wear on my avatar are clothes I could see myself wearing in real life, if I was that avatar, and in similar circumstances to what the avatar is seen in. I don't personally go for grunge, or Goth, or sloppy looking clothes, or for wearing 'slutty' stuff anywhere other than in an intimate setting. My avatars dress well, and when choosing to wear sexy attire, it's still tasteful.

I look for clothes that don't require me to alter my shape to fit into the clothes. If the only way to wear the item is to look like I have someone else's body, I'm not interested.

"Resizer Script = No sale!" for me, period. "One size fits Ruth" clothes never fit my shape. I look for clothes that can be modified without laggy resizer scripts that usually only offer a limited amount of re-scaling, and often can't ever be made to fit a non-Ruth avatar, no matter how much you fiddle with the menu. I have yet to see a resizer script that will, for example, allow me to only re-size a boot's calf area on the X-axis, to eliminate a small poke-through. All the ones I have seen, even the newer ones that use a minimal number of scripts to operate, do little more than re-scale the whole linkset.

[Camron Solo]

Quality clothing to me is clothing that you can clearly see that the creator took time to make, esp if they made if themselves. It is clothing that fits well to the avatars body. Even if the seller did purchase clothing templates in that case it is choice and how well they chose to use it or mod it.

And for me in most cases the price of clothing compaired to the quality can be very mixed. There is some not so well cheaper clothing. But overall the price will not sway or defer me from purchasing something if I feel it is well made. Nor do I look at cheaper clothing as if it is just that, cheap.

[Stella Carver]

All of the above, plus everything done on all layers.

[Ariel Vuissent]

What everyone else has said, pretty much. Price...doesn't really sway my view much. I might say "Wow, that's good quality for the price," but I still don't consider it to be good quality, necessarily. Just better than many others in the same price range. I want to wear clothing that is detailed even if it's simple. There's a HUGE difference between a pair of black pants that's just painted on, solid black, and a pair of black pants that's nicely textured black, with possibly a little pocket or zipper detail.

That being said, I might find something to be of very high quality, but questionable taste. Some things are too gawdy for me, or the colors clash, or there's a giant bow or ruffle that just doesn't appeal to me. But I can still recognize the quality of a piece, even if I don't like it.

[Tiffy Vella]

I'm nodding at everyone's responses here...there's a technical proficiency with quality..ie....matching seams, believable shadowing, nice edges, well fitting prims, prim parts that move well with the avatar and don't go all gawky when you walk or sit, efficient scripting, control over alpha issues (I hate skirts that disappear against certain floors, or skirt prims that fight manicly against each other as the avatar turns). And to me, quality means that certain things should be included, like all layers, copy and mod perms, v1/v2 compatibility.

But the bestest thing about quality is creative flair, and it's what I love the most about a well designed thing. It's not just some t-shirt pulled out of a full-perms pack and turned a bit pink in photoshop. It's the thought process inside the designers head that makes them imagine something beautiful and unique, and then make it happen. It gives me joy. I think this is relevant to more than just fashion, too

[Amethyst Jetaime]

I agree that quality clothes

1. have been created with a high standard of craftsmanship i.e. well done textures, matched seams, no ragged lines, etc.
2. come in all possible layers
3. prim parts are attached to the right body part so they move correctly with your body
4. are modifiable so I can fit them correctly (I understand that designers like resize scripts for those that have no clue how to use tools to mod something, but please also make it mod so I can take the resize out and mod it myself as resize scripts never work for the fine fitting I want to do.
5. are original in design

Quality has nothing to do with price.  I've seen clothes that are high dollar but poor quality that I wouldn't be caught dead in, and have gotten some free or for less than 100L that are very high quality.  If I really love something and its high quality, I'll get it regardless of price unless the price is SO high that I feel like I'm being gouged. 

Because this is SL, taste really doesn't enter into to objective quality for me.  Different strokes for different folks and different occasions.  I've seen things that are high quality in high end top fashion stores that are so uber tacky that I think that the designer must be playing a joke on fashionistas. But that's my personal taste.  I wear a wide variety of clothing to fit the occasion, venue and people I'm with.

 

[Melita Magic]

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Princess Verwood wrote:

What defines quality clothing, or fashion to you?

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Well those are two different questions, I think.

The short answer is: If it looks like I could make it, I don't buy it.

It has to be pretty unique, different, or fill a niche I don't have in my wardrobe to get me to pay full price for it, though. Otherwise I wait for a sale, and lately, even then I'm not buying things very often.  My inventory just is full and I need to use what I have. Also, mesh is coming up so I'm not buying out of season any more anyway.

I did get a lot of 20L gatcha items at This is a Fawn recently but they are closing November 1. 

[Ashy Calcutt]

I tend to stick with Companies that make good clothes like Derp but they have to move along with my body and must fit my various furry avies they must have quality textures and  no Jaggy edges I dont mind Resizer scripts  i have them in my hair i have currently on my Panther av  and the price has to be right   there are someProducts that are way pricey and they looked rushed  but it all depends on what you like really