How to buy things well.

What designers cost in Toronto

One page per house, with the range, the median and the price by category, counted from the boutiques' own registers.

Vintage clothing and consignment stores in Toronto

Four store formats, what each is actually best for, and what to check before you pay.

How to measure jeans before buying online

Five flat measurements that make denim buyable from a photograph and a listing.

How to measure a blazer that fits

Five flat measurements that make a jacket buyable from a listing, and which of them a tailor can still move.

What a tailor can and cannot change

Hems are trivial, waists move an inch, shoulders are surgery. The alterations ceiling, garment by garment.

How to judge cashmere before you pay

Ply, gauge, the cuff test and the pilling truth: how to read a sweater before the price tag reads you.

Silk by the momme: the weights that matter

The weight measure that tells you whether a silk will drape, wash or wear out, and the hand tests that ruin nothing.

Leather grades, and what the label hides

Full grain, top grain, genuine and bonded, what each word is allowed to mean, and the checks that need no label at all.

Designer shoe sizes: the converter, and what runs small

US, UK, EU and centimetres on one lattice, the charts Nike, adidas and New Balance publish side by side, and why the same 10 is not the same foot.

Shoe construction: what resoles and what will not

Goodyear welt, blake stitch, cemented: how to tell them apart from the outside and which one you can still resole in ten years.

How a watch should fit: the numbers

Lug to lug beats case diameter. How to measure a wrist and read a spec sheet before the watch arrives.

Buying vintage designer: the first checks

Label, hardware, construction, condition, in that order, and where the checks stop and a real authenticator begins.