Against “quality”

Coming across the the Styleforum Hierarchical Suit Quality List for the first time, some years ago, it seemed like a revelation. Here were the names I was just getting to know, organised by people who wore them, and not arranged by marketers or magazine editors. And, rather than discussing them in terms of how “stylish” or “classic” they were, this was an objective scale: quality.

Trying to judge a suit in a shop is hard enough. While scrutinising the labels might seem idiosyncratic, attempting the so-called “pinch test” for chest canvas can seem outright rude. On the internet, these things are not tactless but impossible. The quality list seemed to be the perfect solution. Learn the list, and the higher you can get, the better.

(Trunk Clothiers in London, which stocks Boglioli and Caruso suits)

When I saw the list again recently, I was surprised at my misgivings about the whole endeavour. On reflection, I think what led me astray was the singular metric of quality.

Perhaps other people never made these mistakes, but here are the problems with the idea as I understood it back then:

Quality overlooks age. A “quality” forty year old suit, if it’s dated in style and sensibility, is still a bad choice.

Quality conflates production cost with tailoring accomplishment. It measures things like construction techniques, handwork, and materials. These are all important, but they alone don’t equate to balanced suits. There are plenty of “prestigious” suits that are still shapeless or unflattering.

Quality ignores taste. Plenty of the big producers, even at the very top end, produce some truly ugly models every year, but they are still made to a high standard. Quality ignores context. It’s much better to pick a “lesser” suit that fits with the rest of your wardrobe, lifestyle and character than one with a more esteemed pedigree.

In short, I prioritised the singular idea of quality over a range of other factors—and as a result ended up with a series of dated, unflattering and overly formal jackets and suits which, while “high quality,” never felt right, and which I quickly sold on.

Trunk Clothiers, pictured above, sells Boglioli and Caruso suits. The former are nominally lower on the “quality” scale, but are extremely versatile casual jackets, and are not a worse choice than the Caruso models, just a different choice.



Jason, who posts on instagram as Broke and Bespoke, demonstrates how an eye for pattern and shape is more important than the pedigree of a maker, wearing “mid market” Southwick and Hickey Freeman jackets with as much aplomb as he does Italian tailoring.

The lesson I learned, in other words was to think not about quality but qualities. Comparisons can be useful, but there’s something about a single hierarchical list which misses a lot of significance. Beyond a certain minimum level of acceptable production, which is personal to you, there is no one criterion for judgement. A better place for me to start, I think, would have been the Parisian Gentleman RTW Suit Reviews list, which recognises the differences between makers, but also recognises that those differences exist in multiple dimensions at once.