How to spot quality when buying clothes online

Shopping for clothes is hard enough, but it's even tougher when shopping online. Outfits that look great on TikTok and Instagram don't always translate well to real life , and screens can easily hide thin fabrics and poor construction. As such, it can be difficult to spot quality pieces, and scary to spend your hard-earned cash on clothes you can't inspect in person.

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Fortunately, you don't have to dive into the world of online shopping completely unarmed. Here are some tips to help you separate flimsy fast fashion from quality clothes you can pass to your grandkids.

Compare a garment's purpose with its material

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable / Adobe Stock

When shopping for clothes online, one of the best and most immediate indicators of quality is its fabric composition. For Dr. Rachel Lamarche-Beauchesne MA PhD , senior lecturer of Fashion Marketing and Enterprise at Torrens University Australia , her number one tip is to look at a garment's fibre content.

"I take offence to 'premium' products being sold with poor fabrics such as a blazer lining made of 100 percent polyester within a blazer retailed for multiple hundreds [of] dollars," Lamarche-Beauchesne told Mashable. "I would never buy this."

This doesn't mean you should only be buying high-end fabrics such as silk and cashmere. Rather, consider whether the fabric a garment is made of is suitable for its intended purpose.

Office attire should be made of materials that are comfortable on the skin for all-day wear, such as cotton or linen. Synthetic fibres such as polyester are generally less breathable, making them uncomfortable in warm environments. However, polyester does have the advantage of being durable, easy to care for, and typically more affordable than natural fabrics. This makes them well suited to workout outfits instead of corporate clothes.

"For activewear or swimwear, bar from a few brands, it will be difficult to find alternatives to true synthetics, like nylon, polyester, and spandex, and those products will likely perform very differently than what people have come to expect from the category," said Lamarche-Beauchesne.

You can usually find the fabric composition of clothes listed online in the product description. If you're buying second-hand, see if there are any close-up photos of the garment label. Platforms such as Depop or eBay let you message sellers, so don't be shy about asking about the fabric if the information isn't in the listing.

You should also consider exactly what part of the garment each listed material is being used for, such as whether they're in a jacket's shell or lining. Lamarche-Beauchesne states that while polyester may not be suitable for a lining, semi-synthetic material rayon (also known as viscose, Tencel, Lyocell, and a variety of other names ) serves this purpose well.

"All [rayon materials] are derived from cellulose, and are very comfortable on the skin, including for linings or satin weaves closer to the body," said Lamarche-Beauchesne. "If odour is a concern, polyester lining traps odours much quicker than their cellulose counterpart."

Lamarche-Beauchesne also looks for fabrics that are completely made from one material where possible, such as 100 percent cotton knitwear. However, this isn't a hard and fast rule, as it heavily depends on what the materials are, what qualities they impart to the garment, and what percentage of it they make up.

"A pair of jeans with over two to three percent spandex to cotton ratio has a high likelihood of becoming distended, as the spandex fibre can stretch further, and are more prone to breakage," Lamarche-Beauchesne explained. "I would not buy a pair of jeans with polyester in it, but I would consider a two percent spandex to 98 percent cotton ratio."

Zoom in on the details and design

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable / Adobe Stock

Choosing appropriate fabrics will go a long way toward spotting quality pieces when shopping online. However, materials can also vary in quality — even synthetic ones. IDA+S co-founder Kinsen Siu told Mashable that not all polyester is equal, varying in quality just like natural materials. IDA+S is an Australian clothing brand that focuses on versatile, practical, and long-lasting pieces, and is named for Siu's mother: Lafayette 148 co-founder Ida Siu.

"[Polyester can have] tighter weaving that gives it a more luxury handfeel, finishing treatments that improve softness or add features such as moisture wicking, [or] anti-microbial in categories like performance wear and athleisure wear," Siu listed. "The problem is that high quality and bad quality polyester is indistinguishable as a content [listed in a garment's description]."

As such, you should also look at clothes' details and design. In addition to potentially offering more information on the fabric, such details help indicate the care and attention put into making the garment. Online stores may include close-up photos of high quality clothes, showing off buttonholes and lining, or allow you to significantly magnify product shots without loss of detail. Other times, you'll only have a handful of full-body photos that don't allow for such scrutiny, and may be hiding lacklustre finishes.

"A simple [tip] is: can you zoom in on the product photo?" said Siu, comparing the maximum zoom on a faux leather jacket to that of IDA+S' Isolde Leather Bomber Jacket . "One gives you the overall look of a garment. The other shows you the minute grain of the leather and the button detail. If you look at the pattern of the button [on the Isolde Leather Bomber Jacket], this is what's called a horn button, which is a pricier but more sustainable and stronger button option.

"In general, the more detail a brand has put into their product, the more effort and confidence they'll have in showcasing those details. Along the same lines, those details allow you to see the detail ...

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