Credit where credit is due, and L. L. Bean

One of the things, of course, that this blog is supposed to do is to track changes in things over time.  And one of the things I've touched on, from time to time, is clothing.  Indeed, I have a thread pending now on blue jeans.  It's months old actually.  One thing that isn't obvious to readers is that some of the thread are actually pretty old, or perhaps long in the making, by the time I post them.

Anyhow, in clothing themes, it's easy to lament a decline in quality, and I was going to do that on dress clothing recently, but instead I'm just got to diss Lands End a bit, and praise L. L. Bean.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I don't really like buying true dress clothing, but I do have to have some because of one of my occupations.  For courtroom work, or even just lawyerly office work, a person needs dress clothing. 

Some time ago, in getting ready for a trial, I determined that some of my older wool dress pants were in need of replacement. The old ones were worn out, and frankly I'd added an inch to my waste-line.  The trousers that needed replacement were some Lands End wool dress trousers. 

Frankly, I hadn't been super impressed with them in the first place, as they seemed rather thin, which I do not like, but I chalked that up to modern times, in which wool stuff is expensive. I replaced them with a new set of the same trousers.

Well, the new Lands End wool trousers wore out extremely rapidly.  It was disappointing and a bit aggravating as well.  I nearly posted at that time about the decline in such things, but I chose not to, or just didn't get around to it.  In the meantime, I was getting ready for another trial, and the fact that all of my thin, thin, nearly new, Lands End wool trousers had developed holes in the crotch meant that they had to be replaced.  I nearly ordered from Lands End again, but didn't.

Instead, I went back to L. L. Bean, where I had ordered such trousers many years ago.

And man, what a difference.  The L. L. Bean trousers are nice stout wool.  I noted when I ordered them that their weight was heavier, and man, are they much nicer.  Guess it shows I shouldn't have gone cheap in the first place. Yes, they're a bit more expensive, but in real terms, given the decline in the value of the dollar over time, I guess not unreasonably so.  Indeed, I suspect that with trousers, what I've been doing is basing the pricing off of what things costs 20 years ago, when I first started practicing law.  Obviously, a person can't do that.

I'll further note that, at the same time, I ordered some Oxford cloth button down shirts from L. L. Bean.  Again., much better than others I've recently seen.  Nice stuff.

Well, thumbs up L. L. Bean, and boo hiss Lands End.  .