Check the waistband – and beware sneaky jargon: the expert guide to buying clothes that last

Should you look for French seams or overlocking? Is dry-clean only a red flag? And how do you spot quality when shopping online? We asked the pros

• How to make your leather last a lifetime

Take a look at the outfit you’re wearing now: how many times have you worn each item? And how long have you had them? Just over 10 years ago, Eco-Age founder Livia Firth and journalist Lucy Siegle launched the 30 wears challenge to encourage people to buy clothes they would wear at least 30 times.

The 30 wears challenge is a great concept. As a journalist interested in sustainable fashion, I’ve enjoyed applying this rule for years and found the goal can often be surpassed, but with one proviso: clothing must be chosen carefully. The goal is only realistic if garments are of good enough quality to stand up to repeated wear. So, how do you know if your clothes really are well made? Does it mean you have to spend a fortune on them? Do you need to know the difference between a French seam and an overlock seam? And how can we judge clothing quality before buying if we are, like 37% of Britons, getting most of our clothes online? I spoke to experts to find out.

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Jess Cartner-Morley’s October style essentials: glam jeans, an irresistible coat and my shoes of the year

Ready to fall back in love with getting dressed? Our fashion expert’s favourites bring layers, colour and just the right amount of drama

• The best women’s autumn wardrobe updates

October is when getting dressed starts to get interesting again. It is not yet cold enough for the full swaddling, but there is bandwidth for layers, texture, colour, a little drama. This month’s edit has all of the above. There is an irresistible coat, a tomato-red jumper to wake up everything you already own, and the bag I think may be the answer if you want something roomy that still feels neat. Also, stirrup leggings!

Elsewhere, I’ve finally located the right sheer shirt for anyone ready to dip a toe into transparency, some extremely glamorous Marks & Spencer jeans and a lovely ring that looks much more special than its price. And because October is also the month when staying in starts to sound as appealing as going out, there are candles for the kitchen table. A sensible autumn shopping list, but with a little soul.

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‘People sell their best stuff on Vinted’ – how charity shops became a dumping ground for unsellable clothes

Swamped with ‘daily avalanches’ of soiled items and poor-quality fast fashion, secondhand stores are in crisis. What went wrong with people’s good intentions? And is it possible to donate more effectively?

The small stockroom of St Raphael’s Hospice charity shop in Cheam, south London, is rammed with donations. “On average, we get 30 to 50 bags a day,” says Caroline Worley, the commercial manager, “but it’s not unusual to receive over 100.” This might sound like a good problem to have, but the sheer volume of stuff is the shop’s biggest challenge. “Sometimes, there’s only [enough] floor space to tiptoe,” says 48-year-old store manager, Colin French.

Rummaging through the donations, it’s clear that much is unsaleable: a smelly, soiled bathrobe, tatty trainers, heavily bobbled jumpers, old socks, an empty Swarovski jewellery case. “Absolutely typical,” says Worley. They’re also overwhelmed with deluges of low-quality fashion – a shift in donation habits that accelerated during Covid, because, says Worley, all that time at home enabled people to sell their best stuff on Vinted.

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‘Our town is making jeans again’: meet the firm reviving jobs and skills in Wales

In the first article in a series on high end British manufacturing, we visit the Hiut Denim factory in Cardigan

Worn on the streets of London’s Soho, San Francisco or Sydney, every pair of high-end jeans made by Hiut Denim comes from the rather unlikely location of a small coastal town in west Wales.

Cardigan, with a population of just 4,200, has a proud history of denim production and was once home to Britain’s largest jeans factory, even if the town’s name recalls a different garment entirely.

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Anthony Vaccarello’s decade at Saint Laurent comes to an end – in pictures

After 10 years as creative director of the Paris-based luxury brand, the designer bows out. From a rock’n’roll aesthetic to see-through brogues, here are 10 stand-out moments

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