Moving away from disposable fashion - John Lewis / M&S

LadyWithAPlan

Hobbs do amazing leather boots that last for decades.
My Zara clothes also seem to really last 

DigSunPap

LadyWithAPlan said:

Hobbs do amazing leather boots that last for decades.
My Zara clothes also seem to really last 

Zara has really stepped up recently, get a lot of my clothes from there the quality has improved a lot. Bershka great too.

DullGreyGuy

ET22 said:
I would usually buy brands, such as Timberland or Jaeger, to make sure they do last for years. It makes much more sense but you do need a good few hundred quid up front to do it. 

If you are in the "good few hundred quid" range for footwear I'd suggest there are much better brands with much smaller marketing budgets to pay for than Timberland etc. 

Until last week I could say I haven't bought a pair of footwear for over a decade (exc the 1 pair of trainers that I rarely wear other than to nip to the shops or do gardening in etc which does get replaced every few years) but unfortunately last week I decided to treat myself to a new pair of boots. Most of my shoes/boots are 15-20 years old now and after a good polish I still get people commenting about how great my "new shoes" look. 

Unfortunately at the same time as deciding to invest in decent shoes I also took the time on how to look after shoes (never wear them 2 days in a row, longer if they get very wet, don't try them by a radiator/fire, use decent cleaning products, use shoe trees). As such it's a little difficult to separate the impact of good care from the having good quality. 

I'd like to think on the work shoes its been a saving, was going through circa 3 £80 pairs a year and now haven't bought a work shoe for 12 years and just pay for 1 pair to be resoled every couple of years. 

Murphybear

Emmia said:

I've got primark tshirts which are close to a decade old, they're perfect on their own or for layering under knitwear in the winter, and long enough - which is better than many places

M&S quality is better than it was a few years ago. If you want to be really ethical though, I'd take up haunting your local charity shops, or Vinted.

Got myself a lovely gingham summer dress in a local charity shop earlier - which was "new" with tags.

Since I lost 5 stone+ and went from a 22 to a 14 I gave most of my clothes to charity and have been slowly replacing my wardrobe.  As I no longer work (happily retired) I’ve bought nearly everything from charity shops and eBay.  I’ve bought some lovely M & S clothes that were either new or nearly new on eBay for less than £5.  I found a beautiful Boden sweater in a charity shop last week for £6.  We live in a small market town that is affluent and the charity shops have many high quality clothes.  Not always as cheap as charity shops used to be, there was a lovely coat for £39.99.  It was still there after 2 weeks. 

I’ve been a fan of M & S for years, in my 30s/40s I bought many items which were still going after 20 years.