Do your clothes wear out?

Mine wear out when I grow. When you stop growing… maybe.

It seems like my favorites will wear out. I got a pair of shorts a few years back that fit just right and were super comfy. I wore them for a summer and a half, but I pulled them out of the dryer and held them up and the seat had frayed through. Bye bye shorts.

Same thing happened with a pair of jeans that just wore through.

My jeans are tight and eventually develop holes or fade. My underwear with lace only lasts a few months before it starts to rip. My shirts stretch out or get stains or even holes. Other than that, I buy new clothes because I get sick of the old stuff.

Mostly not. I wear much the same things for years but I did notice recently my favorite LL Bean shirts are finally wearing out.

M, after about 15 years, and a gazzilion washes they do. Depends on the type of clothes and the material they’re made out of too. My cotton T-shirts eventually wind up looking pretty sad, at which point they’re relegated to my camping clothes and as a cleaning rag after that.

I bought some really soft, casual black lounge pants at GoodWill. They just seemed elegant. But after about 20 washes they started fraying and stuff. My daughter was here, and I lamented the fact that they were fading and fraying. I said, “They’re SO comfy and pretty and I like to pretend they’re silk.”
She had me stand up and she read the tag….“100% silk.”
Well, shit! Should have taken a little more special care of them!

My day job can be rough on my outer layers, so they’re eventually done in by burns or glue or paint. I also spend a lot of time on the floor, so I’ve worn through lots of knees (until I found some tough double-kneed pants).

But I get tons of mileage out of the underlayers. About 25 years ago, I got a bunch of T-shirts and undies from Marks and Spencer (English retailer). I’ve only recently been forced to retire them. Man, that was some really high-quality fabric and construction.

I have a few pieces that have managed to last me well over 10 years. Oddly enough, they were all purchased at either a thrift shop or a discount store like K Mart or Wal Mart.

Jeans, though… they just disintegrate. Like they’re allergic to me or something.

I am a standard size. 15½×33 shirt and have dozens of them. I can’t possibly wear them all. I have dozens of undies that seem to last forever. Same with my 100% cotton t-shirts. @thorninmud That is what mine are like. People give me t-shirts as souvenirs but the old ones are still fine and my shelf gets even more packed.
I even have Kevlar work gloves and arm and leg protectors. They won’t wear out for 1000 years.
My jeans are not skin tight and fit me well. They don’t rub anywhere and seem to last for decades unless I spill battery acid on them or get them caught on some underbrush.

On the rare occasion I do wear something out, I put it in my wood burning stove and turn it into heat.

Mine get thread-worn. I do have clothes that I have had since high school (40 years ago), but I wouldn’t say they were in new condition.

Frayed knot…sorry, i’m afraid not.

It seems my clothes seldom wear out but I still need to replace them occasionally. The golf pants I wore for thirty years suddenly disappeared one day and after looking for them for a week, my wife finally admitted she threw them out. She said plaid pants were no longer in vogue. I’ve had a few items disappear this way over the years but generally my clothes last forever.

I buy new clothes when I’ve had a major weight change (my skinny clothes from way back when don’t fit now that I’m skinny again, simply because having children changed my body shape, so I’ve had to purchase new skinny clothes that fit my shape), and also when my tastes in clothing change. I used to wear a lot of Disney character sweatshirts and t-shirts, but I don’t anymore. I bought new hoodies and t-shirts to replace them.

You see “normal” people in the store buying clothes for the same reasons that I just mentioned, and other reasons I didn’t. Instead of being sarcastic about aggressive washing machines or bleach addiction, maybe you should ask if they’ve recently had a baby, or if they have thyroid disease, or if they just wanted a new outfit for a trip, or if they got a new job, or if they’ve gained “stress weight” from taking care of a terminal family member, or if they’re in from out of town and their sick child threw up on their last clean pair of jeans…..

Or maybe it’s just that you see normal people clothes shopping because never purchasing new clothes is a little abnormal.

@ucme I use a lit match to melt and smooth out my frayed knots.

@WillWorkForChocolate When your weight or size changes do you keep the old clothes in case you go back to the original size or do you donate them?
I know I “should” want to buy clothes but my closet is full of good stuff that still fits. It drives me crazy. About 6 months ago I cleaned out and threw out/ donated some things. I recently I stood in front of the close and tried to find something useless I would never wear again. I couldn’t.
That is why I asked the question.

I had to look to see what @WillWorkForChocolate was referring to!

I’ll buy “new” clothes (always at GoodWill) just to have something different to wear to work. I’ll then recycle my old ones back out to Good Will. Once in a while I’ll see something that I just LOVE and buy it just because I love it.

@LuckyGuy That was genuinely mildly interesting, for about 2 secs.

@LuckyGuy I kept all of my skinny clothes from BC (before children), but my breasts are much larger than they used to be so the shirts don’t fit right, my tummy is thin but flabby, so I refuse to wear my old belly shirts, my hips, thighs and butt have a different shape, so none of my old pants fit…. UGH!!! And I had some cute things, too. :(

Since I’ve lost so much weight now, I’ve gotten rid of most of my “fat clothes” because I refuse to go back to that size. I’ve either given them to friends or donated them to Helping Hands.

Please note that I only say “fat clothes” because I am very short and have tiny bones. For my size, 163 pounds was fat.

I’m guessing I have about 8 pair of jeans all the same size. I have 4 pair that are one inch larger so I can wear them with long underwear tops and bottoms. I also have 3 pair that are lined – all are blue. My shirts are Stafford and Croft and Barrow. All are similar style. Some with button down collar, some without. They never wear out. Same with my underwear.
My business suits are the same way. I wear them a few times and get them dry cleaned. Ties are 20, 30, 40 years old. They don’t go bad. Who is buying the ties I see in the stores?
I just can’t bring myself to throw out something that fits and is in great shape. I am bad for the (chinese) economy I guess.

EIGHT PAIRS OF JEANS?? Wow! I have two. I took the hem out of one pair, and sewed a patch on it that I got from the Kansas Cosmosphere. The patch is in commemoration of Christa McAuliffe. It says, “Teacher in space.”
Kind of an educational 70’s thing.

I guess it matters that my wife makes quilts out of my old jeans, so I have to fight to keep them.

@filmfann I’m getting some pretty hilarious images in my mind of life Chez Filmfann!

@Dutchess_III That is 8 pair of one style. In total I have more. Don’t be impressed. I got most of them at GoodWill. Whenever I saw my size in Levi 501 or 505 I would buy it. $3. Now I have enough to last me for the rest of my life – apparently. I’m doomed.
Don’t get me started on shoes. I have the requisite business style wingtips, loafers, and Johnston and Murphy that last forever. When the heels start to go down I have them repaired and replaced with high tech soft pads. When the soles start to get thin (every 10 years or so) I have them replaced. I’m afraid I will be wearing these shoes until I die, too.

Look at it this way @filmfann…at least she’s not making you jeans out of old quilts!

I can NEVER find jeans to fit at Good Will! And I won’t say a word about your shoes. (I have about a gazzilion pair for work. I feel like Imelda Marcos sometimes.) So, anyway, don’t tell me about your shoes.

OMG, I think I have about 30 pairs of shoes. I’m such a girl.

Here… I’ll say it in public. I’m a 32×32 or 32×34. Both are extremely common sizes available in jeans. I have some 33 waist for winter wear.
After my surgery (they inflated my abdomen, I borrowed 34 and 36 inch waist pants from a neighbor and returned them 2 weeks later when I returned to normal. If I don’t gain weight I have enough clothing to last me for the next 40 years. How many people can say they know what they’ll be wearing in 2030? I’m so boooring.

@WillWorkForChocolate @Dutchess_III Your shoes will never wear out either. Life is too short.

@LuckyGuy My walking shoes wear out within three months. That is the biggest part of my clothing budget.

Mine rarely wear out, and I have a ton of them. I always was taught to take care of my stuff because we were poor and couldn’t afford much growing up. Most people always want the new stuff, I tend to by more classic styles that last.

@janbb I wear steel shank Rockports or Reeboks. They last me many, many years. My outdoor boots are RedWings – 6 inch, steel toe, waterproof, insulated. The last pair lasted at least a decade. I bought a new pair and use the old when I am doing really rough or dirty work outside.

I was just thinking about this when I reached for my undies this morning. My boots and other shoe wear tend to wear out because of the miles I put on them, I have sweaters and underwear that are years old. The recent things I have had to disregard are my larger sizes. Bras and pants that are 36 or larger I have had to set to one side because I am an offical XS now. I still love going to the local version of ‘Good Will’ and hunting for bargains and recently found some good work clothes that the kids can splash paint on and that I can wear under wool sweaters when I need to, but most of my clothes are about 10 years old or older and I manage to get good use of them.

I’m more likely to shrink something and ruin it then for an article of clothing to wear out. My pajamas and shirts and shorts I wear to sleep tend to wear out. I have had jeans wear out, but it takes a long time. I wear quite a bit of dark colors, so those tend to fade. Bras eventually stretch, underwear start to lose some elasticity after a while. Still, most clothing I would say last at least 5 years. I have some items that are easily 20 years old.

I am relieved that I am not the only one wearing items that are 20+ years old. If you were to believe what is shown on TV, anything older than 3 months is considered a fossil.

Oh no. You’re not the only one!

@LuckyGuy My husband has a pair of shorts 25 years od that I want to throw away so badly. They finally are falling apart, but he won’t let me. He has sweaters from before me, which means over 22 years old, in good shape that he still wears at times. We both have many Jackets and an overcoat or two many years old also.

@LuckyGuy Believe it or not, I even recycle the clothes, shoes, purses, etc…that I don’t feel are worn out to others who need them.

My friend’s sister’s house burned down a few weeks ago and as soon as I heard, two boxes of clothes were there, they lost everything.

There’s also a place for women who have suffered domestic abuse that always need business clothes, the local children’s homes take all sizes, it makes me feel good since I am blessed with people who recycle to me. I even have women at work who give me new shoes and other new stuff they wear once and don’t like. I even get free brown eggs from another friend every month that I share.

For an only child, sharing to me is a learned process, so it’s pretty cool.

My clothes fall apart after years of washing. I have had to throw away some clothes that are so holey that I pray they won’t fall off while I’m wearing them.

The elastic on many of my slacks has lost it’s elasticity, and I have to wear a belt made from an elastic waist band that I removed from my husband’s worn out underwear. It’s easier to do that than sew in a new elastic. Since I wear my t-shirts loose, it doesn’t show.

Not really, and I’m not sure how. I hardly buy myself new clothes, I usually only have two pair of jeans, but I don’t ever remember them thinning or ripping or holes appearing. I have t-shirts that I’ve worn to sleep in since I was a teenager, and those are pretty ancient and starting to get holes/fall apart. Normal day to day wear stuff, no.

However, I know that my sister tends to be fuller in areas like the hips and thighs, and she has jeans that wear/tear in the legs all the time. Maybe that is part of it.

I remember as a young teen, when I started wearing the butts out of my jeans instead of the knees. :(

@Dutchess_III not to get too personal, but is that where you tend to carry more of your bodyweight? In the hips/buttocks?
I really do think that would make sense, at least as far as pants go. I’m mostly guessing.

No…it was because I wasn’t playing like I used to, crawling around being GI Jane or whatever and wrecking on my bike. I was sitting down more than I was playing, like in school. I don’t wear the butts out of my jeans anymore tho.
My body weight is pretty evenly distributed.

That makes even more sense.

Most of my clothes wear pretty well, but they do wear out. Since I’m more interested in comfort than fashion, I tend to get “softer” clothes in natural fabrics, and they don’t wear as well as the more durable synthetics. So my shirts wear out at the collars after a number of years, and then I don’t wear them to work any more. Or my pants will fray at the hem, since I also prefer them to be longish, and when I walk barefoot in the summer time, the hems of the legs will tend to wear on the ground and wear out.

Underwear elastics give over time, even though, like you, I don’t expand all that much. And I don’t tolerate droopy drawers. Socks, too, wear out and get threadbare.

However, in the past thirty years I have expanded gradually.

I’m not the most careful or neatest guy around, either. So clothes eventually pick up indelible stains (my clothes love mustard and spaghetti sauce nearly as much as I do, and soak it up as well, too), and though I’m no fashionista (or fashionisto) I don’t wear stained clothing out much… unless I’m going to a convenience store to bug the people who sit in judgment there. And in that case I make sure to wear my ratty old boat shoes that have ruptured and ripped open in a dozen places, and which I have hand-sewn (and crudely) just to keep within the letter of the law that “shoes must be worn inside” at those times.