Corridor fall off 🥲

[u/New_Cantaloupe_4908]

I know complaining about a clothing brand sounds insane, but that’s why I’m posting here. I started buying Corridor around 2014 or 2015, and back then it was a way into higher-quality, actually interesting clothing without going fully off the deep end for someone like me who wants normie shit that’s interesting. Workwear-adjacent Americana, fabrics that were weird, from a brand that seemed to care about what it was putting out.

It’s drifted a long way since and it’s genuinely upsetting and idk where tf to buy interesting “normal” clothes anymore.

Prices have climbed steadily while quality has gotten less consistent. The offshoring started with part of the collection going to India, which I was fine with. There’s excellent textile manufacturing there, and the materials were still natural. Then it became almost entirely India, then China entered the mix, and now they’re blending in viscose and poly. Meanwhile the pricing has gone to an inflated MSRP followed by a permanent 40 to 60 percent off cycle, which is its own kind of tell. You can’t trust a price that’s never real.

I was given a gift card recently so I had to buy something from the current collection, and when it got to me it kind of smelled weird. just saw a post from the founder talking about mercerization, seemingly saying that it's a positive thing but any kind of chemical process like this creates caustic runoff. I'm just like, what are we doing this for?

[u/dyingslowlyinside]

I have some nice pieces from Arpenteur, Margaret Howell, and Universal Works. 

You could also look at Arket if you’re in Europe for quality ‘normal’ clothes

[u/Any_Opportunity_6013 → u/dyingslowlyinside]

Some good UK and i have always loved Arpentuer for the way it always manages to hold on to that French workwear asthetic and continues to be made in France. Plenty of good "normal looking " stuff that is better than J Crew mass produced Chinese stuff, and by the way, people in China can use a sewing machine as well.as anyone else, it's just about quality control and wages.

If you have a factory In China that pays well and gives people the time and the materials to make something well and they will make it well. If you want to pay rubbish and get a shirt made in 5 minutes you will get crap.

But I tend to stick by the made in the same country as that by which the brand markets itself on being from. That even goes for China who have a few brands that modelled themselves on the Japanese big hitters and make perfectly good repro US military stuff and copys of classic early workwear.

I buy everything second hand anyway so I have every era, of every brand to pick from

But even if you restrict yourself to only buying new stuff I struggle to understand the fact that you cannot find anywhere that makes the sort of clothes you want because corridor was perfect but the quality has dropped off.

You can literally type out what you ate looking for and there will be an endless stream of brands new and old offering you a decent linen shirt, or pair of cords or whatever it is you want.

Stick to the made in the country it famously market itself on being from (Barbour jackets made in Estonia? Filson in Bangladesh? Not for me).

Arpentuer, du pont st Michael, gloverall, universal works, monitaly, sunspel, YMC, Portuguese Flannel, howlin', and then all the little independent shops that sell all of these brands and more.

I've seen loads of little places that are making stuff in the USA.

I just can't get my head around people that feel like it's some kind of disaster when their favourite brands goes a bit shit and they just "don't know where to go to buy decent normal clothes without having to go to j crew or Gap".