You get what you pay for
An oldie, but a goodie. A £100 shirt is going to be that expensive for a number of reasons. It could be a silly designer name; it could be absolutely fantastic cotton (think Ermenegildo Zegna) that's never going to wear out and will be more comfortable to wear; it could be because it was expensive to produce (higher quality fabric); because it's amazing (Thomas Pink shirts have some amazing fabric that can be stretched and still retain a pattern that must be costly to design and make); it could be because it's produced in really small numbers (fewer lots being made = more overheads needing to be paid off per item); it could be design and cut (like you said. I'm thinking of Emma Willis shirts - the collars are amazing and the fabric is like silk. Like no cotton shirt I've ever seen before. Then little unusual details like reverse stitching or something cost more than normal). One thing they probably all have in common is more expensive production techniques - Paul Smith shirts are made in Italy, and that's going to be more expensive than having them made in Bangladesh. Clothes are usually cheap because they're exploitative of cheap labour - when they're expensive, it's because they're made properly in first-world countries.

That's not to say it's a good reason for spending £100 on a shirt - but that's why they're expensive.

And as the wise man says, buy the best you can afford and you only cry once.
(Land of Green Ginger It's dreamy weather, Tue 14 Apr 2009, 16:57, Reply)