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Comment by meatysnapper | Hacker News Reader

"It's unconscionable that they should cost more than $25-$30 a pair."

Exactly. I want all my clothes to be made by small children in sweatshops. I don't want my money to go to businesses that rely on paying normal wages.

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Actually, I want my clothes to be made by robots so that I can get a custom fit that exactly fits ME.

I'm a 6'3" American, not a 5'8" Italian. Therefore, I fit into almost nothing at places like Nieman Marcus, H&M, Zegna, etc.

My choices are solid white or solid blue in broadcloth. My other half just quit trying since every time she finds a gorgeous shirt it simply won't fit.

I would learn tailoring except I can't get the really nice fabrics. I have tried taking pictures of nice shirts and then trying to find the fabric. Everybody looks at me like I'm completely insane (effectively--if I'm not buying 10000 yards, I'm not worth talking to).

So, if Bonobos really wanted to up-end the business, instead of making clothing that makes you look like every other Wall Street douchebag, they should figure out how to construct one-off clothing in any appropriate available fabric in the world cost effectively.

Women would knife each other to guarantee that their dress is genuinely unique.

You need to go to Holland where you are average-sized.

Sadly, I don't know of any hotbeds of high fashion from the Netherlands.

If you would be so kind as to point me to some, I would happily talk to them. I have gotten suits from Hong Kong before (they were reasonably well-tailored, but the fabrics were still pedestrian), so I'm not averse to international purchases.

I was going to suggest what the other poster said- take a vacation to northern Europe.

Dutch fashion brands you may know: G-Star Raw, Scotch and Soda

Or Denmark. Lots of Danish men's brands, including lots of tall sizes, many of them are actually made in Denmark. The current USD/EUR exchange rate makes the prices decent.

And if you can't find high quality mens wear there you not trying enough.

Example: http://www.norseprojects.com/store/mens-aw15/knitwear/aw15-v... . These guys even give you 20% off if you're shipping out the EU. And pro-tip current pick to pay in DKK instead of USD, your credit card will give you a better exchange rate (even with fees).

Thanks for the advice I never thought to check out of country.

To get the perfect fit, can't you just get something off the shelf, and then take them to someone to have them tailored to fit you?

There are some alterations that are expensive/impractical. Mostly the structural ones, like raising the drop of a pair of trousers, changing the overall silhouette, or having a sports coat's shoulders altered.

Try Epaulet or Taylor Stitch

Most of the higher end cotton mills don't sell to the general public but a few such as Acorn and Thomas Mason have been known to do so. Expect to pay $50-100 per yard for their fabrics. They're generally worth it, though. Also, if you're in a bigger city such as NYC, you may be able to find stores such as Tip Top Fabrics (no affiliation other than satisfied customer) that sell bolt-end remnants at discounted rates from some of the higher end mills. The selection will likely be hit-or-miss, though.

> I'm a 6'3" American, not a 5'8" Italian.

If you're not average height and fat it's hard to find off the rack clothing that fits.

Yeah 6'4" and muscular and I can't find anything that fits as far as my body is concerned. They think all people with broad shoulders are fat.

This was said a little obnoxiously, but he has a point. Making pants in China takes about three labor hours[1]. Given that about 50% of the cost of pants is the retail/wholesale markup, that leaves $15 to pay for materials, shipping, and labor. It's hard to squeeze a living wage out of that.

[1] https://books.google.com/books?id=unXGqA4st54C&pg=RA2-PT56&l...

I presume it takes that long because having Chinese work in sweatshop conditions to make pants still beats the price of automating it.

When that workforce eventually goes away and we have machines doing it, will we then have $40 pants? I very much doubt it.

Automating the confection of clothes is VERY challenging from an engineering point of view. We need far better robots to automate that.

I doubt any of the higher price of clothes goes towards them not being made in sweatshops.

Yes, "unconscionable" was quite the interesting word choice there.

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