What is considered BIFL if all fabrics pill over time?

Submitted by Viopit t3_xtm9ho in BuyItForLife

Hello everyone,

I love turtlenecks and have owned many during my university days. But I couldn't buy any high quality stuff because of money. Now I work and I want to add some high quality durable items to my wardrobe. The problem is that I always though low quality items tend to pill and shed fabric over time, but after informing myself on this topic, pilling is a natural process even for high quality garments.

I live in europe, specifcally southern Germany and only owned peices from brands such as Strellson, Farah, Esprit, Tom Tailor, Marc O'Polo. Which are considered low to medium quality brands despite not being cheap. I only buy 100% Merino wool and they tend to show pilling after one winter or two, despite not washing often and taking good care of them.

So I want to know what is considered BIFL Jumper/sweater/turtleneck if they all tend to show pilling and degrade relatively quickly. I want to know what should I buy and how should I dress to avoid damaging my items. Or should I just keep buying low quality stuff and replace them every one or two seasons?

I also owned few fleece jackets from The North Face, they help up pretty well but I can notice pilling. I tend to wear them for outdoor activities so I don't care how they look like. I am looking for something to wear in office at work.

I am also 170 cm tall so finding fitting items can sometimes be challenging!

Budget around 200€

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bubba66666 t1_iqrni4j wrote

Patagonia has some pretty decent merino wool options they release seasonally that hold up well for the price.

Beleive it or not, Uniqlo also dishes out some really solid merino and lambs wool sweaters for the price each year. Even though they are budget fashion, they have some real high quality staple pieces. I have a lambswool sweater (minimal pilling) and a down jacket that have lasted me for like 4 years and counting.

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manaf t1_iqsbezi wrote

My best and oldest t-shirt is from Esprit. It's like 17 year old now and still feels great. Not sure how they do it. If you're in Europe and want really good cashmere try "Falconeri". Can't give it BITFL seal because I just discovered it last year, but it looks and feels like quality. Try it.

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einrufwiedonnerhall t1_iqsfpxp wrote

I heard good things about Charles Tyrwhitt, while they have no stores here (afaik), they have an online presence here in Germany.

Another aspect may be that you are restricting yourself to merino, which consists of fine and short fibers, but you may want to look into heavier and rougher wools, which don't pill as easily, like Aran Turtlenecks

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Viopit OP t1_iqsuc0u wrote

Replying to LowBeautiful1531 (#16,024)

The pills are essentially a part of the fabric itself, so basically when you shave them off you remove fabric. Over time the fabric will degrade and holes will appear then the item is not longer wearable, or am I wrong here?

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LowBeautiful1531 t1_iqsve39 wrote

Replying to Viopit (#17,581)

The pills were part of the fabric, until the fibers got loose and stuck out far enough from the surface to tangle with each other. So they're kinda already not part of the fabric anymore. There are special trimmers you can get to remove them without doing more damage to the intact parts of the fabric. The main body of the fabric meanwhile is felting more against itself, so the pilling effect should reduce over time.

All fabric is losing bits constantly-- that's the lint you pull out of the lint trap in the dryer. At least the natural fibers are biodegradable.

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Muncie4 t1_iqvib8y wrote

Clothes shavers are a thing.

Sweater stones are a thing.

Both are a thing for a reason: Pills happen. Pills are not a work process indicator of quality, they are a byproduct of wear.

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MacintoshEddie t1_ir42qpz wrote

This can only be determined on a case by base basis. For example many brands have a high quality line and a low quality line, and the average consumer might not know how to differentiate them. Such as if one shirt costs 75 and another costs 55, cost alone isn't a complete indicator as sometimes brands will find a way to produce an item for less but sell for more to maximize profits. Or they may open a second manufacturing facility which is less supervised and doesn't adhere to the same quality standards.

Something doesn't need to be literally for life, a thing can be BIFL if it lasts 20 years and the competitor lasts 3-10

This isn't always a perfect indicator, but one option is to look at how much variety the brand has. If a brand makes 25 different types of jackets with differebt styles and materials and these change very frequently and are often steeply discounted at the end of season, it's a shot in the dark if any will be decent. If a brand only sells 3 styles and you only get 2 material choices that can be an indicator that they aren't purchasing materials solely based on cost.

With some brands it seems like their buyers find a good deal on some random fabric, they make a run of it, and then next year they're making a completely different jacket because they got a good price on that.

The best determination is to get into store and examine the product. Look at the stitching. Sometimes you can outright see terrible stitching. If you see stitches like those, it's junk. It might fall apart in a few days.

Price isn't always a good comparison, as some junk sells itself on reputation, and they charge 400 for something that's only worth 100

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Viopit OP t1_ir7k4wa wrote

Replying to MacintoshEddie (#34,204)

Thanks for the answer, I really find it very insightful.

It is also difficult to find a brand that has a low variety of items, styles and materials. Perhaps this space is the right place to find this kind of info. So I need to keep keep checking stuff here regularly and make notes.

I really don't expect a clothing item to last 20 years let alone forever. If I buy a wool sweater and can maintain it in good shape for 5-10 years I would be happy that I spent my money on something worth it.

I would really appreaciate it of you name a few brands that offer low variety of styles and materials. Even if I can't afford the price, this kind of knowledge doesn't hurt.

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deliverancew2 t1_ira9c8e wrote

It doesn't matter what the garment is (jumper, sweater, fleece, whatever) it matters what the fabric is and how high quality the fabric is.

One of the big factors that makes a fabric high quality is strand length and longer strands are more resistant to pilling.

This company markets merino jumpers it claims are "made for life": https://www.asket.com/gb/mens/knitwear/merino-sweater-light-grey

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Foreign-Cookie-2871 t1_isb25kj wrote

Replying to LowBeautiful1531 (#17,623)

I want to add that the slight felting actually counteracts pilling really well, it even surpasses it sometimes. In the end you lose some cm of garment instead of durability. It's also warmer at this point ;)

I always buy my wool a tiny bit bigger for this reason, so I can wear it for longer.

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Foreign-Cookie-2871 t1_isb2e5t wrote

Replying to bubba66666 (#16,037)

My (and my partner's) uniqlo wool sweaters are fantastic. We have merino, cachemire and lambswool and are all pretty robust. We had them for only a single year though, so I don't know how they last in the long run.

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