Get Quartz in your inbox

Free daily briefing on global business news.

The best clothes you can buy were made years ago, and fashion isn't making more

Fashion brands stopped making the well-sewn silk and wool clothes they once sold. Thrifters now compete for a shrinking stock of old garments

Ben Hider / Getty Images

Macy Eleni has shopped vintage since middle school, and on her trips to thrift stores she keeps finding clothes the mall no longer seems to sell. On the hunt for Y2K pieces, the 33-year-old author of a thrifting guide has turned up Forever 21 blouses in 100% silk, carefully boned Victoria's Secret $VSCO corsets, and single-stitch ringer T-shirts in 100% cotton from Walmart $WMT's in-house brand. "I really do believe a lot of this just comes down to brands and designers needing to cut corners to meet fast fashion demands," she told InStyle. "It's just crazy. Belts that were even sold at the mall were 100% leather. I have a Charlotte Russe belt that's 100% leather."

Eleni has stopped buying some clothes new at all. "Leather and denim are two things I personally never buy new," she said. "The attention to detail when it comes to vintage denim is unmatched."

More shoppers like Eleni now judge a garment by what it's made of, and more of their clothing money goes to used clothes. U.S. secondhand clothing sales grew nearly four times as fast as new clothing sales last year, according to resale company ThredUp's 2026 resale report. Shoppers now spend about a third of their clothing budget on used pieces, and for the most devoted of them, the fabric is the draw. In a March survey of nearly 200 heavy secondhand shoppers by resale newsletter Pre-Loved, more than half named the quality and craftsmanship of vintage pieces as their top reason for buying them.

New clothes are getting more expensive without getting any better. U.S. clothing prices rose 3.6% in the year through August, a bit faster than prices overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Shoppers are paying........

© Quartz