[dr_orpheus]

When these discussions come up, there often tend to be suggestions durable brands for "big ticket" items like shoes, boots and outerwear (as other comments have suggested).

Does anyone have recommendations for longer lasting every day clothes? I feel like I often have dress shirts and pants/jeans that wear out more quickly than they should. Dress shirts tend to have holes wear in the elbow area and pants tend to wear in the pockets where I have phone/keys.

[KozmoNau7]

If it's just the inside pocket that wears, and not the pant leg itself, that's pretty easy to fix with scrap of fabric, plus needle and thread. I've done that myself with plenty of pants, even sewn a completely new replacement pocket for one pair.

For the shirts, you could sew patches on the elbows, but the would probably be at-home/casual shirts at that point.

The skill of mending clothes is one I think many people don't think about, out maybe they just don't think it's something they want to do. It's not rocket science at all, and there are tons of guides and videos or there to show the various stitches and techniques.

I mend all of my clothes when they start to wear, fix and replace buttons, even slight alterations to fit. When a piece of clothing finally becomes overall too threadbare, I harvest buttons and sometimes zippers, as well as scraps of remaining good quality fabric, all for future repairs.

My current pants are all from the Finnish store Varusteleka. Their ordinary jeans are good, their tactical jeans are amazing, and their worker pants are a breath of fresh old-fashioned air, with high waists, pleats and buttons for proper suspenders.

The materials chosen are solid, as is the workmanship, although you wouldn't call it superlative. Like the style, it's practical, not flashy.

I like their wool shirts too.

[ummonk]

r/BuyItForLife on reddit is a decent resource.