Sunday, January 09, 2005

Quality Control

I was in a fuschia sweater yesterday with a stylish M embossed on it. W asked me what it stood for. My one word reply... Mango and he nodded knowingly and said something along the lines of it being the favourite fruit of many women in Singapore. Well, yes. Singapore career women are split along the lines of Mango and Zara. Me, I'm a Mango girl. I don't particularly like Zara stuff and they don't fit well. But my Mango wardrobe comes in two big consignments of sorts. The Mid year sale and the year end sale. Through the year, I stay away because I'm unwilling to pay full price for any of the clothes there.

So, to satisfy that shopping queen in me, through the year, I pick up cheap stuff from a variety of local fashion stores. Their salesgirls don't speak good English and their sense of dressing is horrific- imagine kitten heels with ankle length lace socks if you will but their line of work clothes are half the price of full price Mango clothes and they do have a nice variety.

But I have come to the conclusion that while I have had Mango knit tops especially developing holes where the seams meet, it is often after many washes and well, lack of delicate care on my part, you are indeed paying for some sort of quality. I bought a pretty sun dress from one of these No Speak Engrish stores a few months back and the first time I put it on and took it off, I heard a loud split where the zip was. The side seam where the zip was attached to had split and split badly, as had the other side seam! So, huffing and puffing, I sent it back to the store and demanded that they fix it for me. Fix it they did. But when I threw it into the wash after I brought it home, the bit where the strap was attached to the dress was torn after the wash and this, had nothing to do with non delicate care.

Lesson learnt. You get what you pay for and I know austerity is good, but not at the cost of quality. This is especially when I fall in love with the dress of poor quality and feel extra cheated when it falls apart even before I get to acquaint myself fully with it. I'm going to try to mend it, but I don't know how much more it can withstand seeing that it's actually falling apart even when it hasn't really be worn.

It just goes to show, there's never a substitute. There's a poorer cousin, but it's settling and when you settle, it really is second best.

Ondine tossed this thought in at 15:11

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