What's the oldest piece of clothing you own and still wear?
My kids were asking me about my clothes and why I don't get new clothes. They are growing and get new clothes are they outgrow their old clothes. I was telling them I'm done growing and that my clothes still work so I only get a new piece of clothing every now and then, or when something I use breaks.
It got me thinking how old some of my clothes are getting, which is a perfect question for my fellow Tilders.
For me, the oldest t-shirt I have I still wear regularly is 17 years old from my high school American football team
I have a dress shirt and jacket my grandpa gave me that is ~30-40 years old. When he gave it to me he said he got it when Reagen was in office.
I kind of wish I had more of his clothes as he always made sure to dress presentable. Slacks and a button up at minimum, but I tried not to ask him for things as a lot of my family members would ask him for money and/or things and I didn't want to be like them. I mainly wanted to spend time with him and got the shirt because I mentioned needing to get a new dress shirt on the way back to university after be asked what my plans were. He took the shirt he was wearing off and then grabbed the jacket off the hook by the door before insisting I take them both since they looked good together.
Sadly a number of my family members got into my grandpa's house after he passed away before my Dad could change the locks and a lot of things went missing, including most of his wardrobe.
I have a dress shirt that I bought in 1997 that I still wear occasionally, though my preference now is generally for French cuffs instead. If I'm wearing just regular cuffs, I sometimes choose to wear it.
I still have the shirt I wore on my first date with my wife, and it is in good condition. It's a nice short sleeved button up that is now wildly out of style. Heck it probably always has been. I bought it just as I stated university in 98.
I have a kilt from 1997 that I will wear again goddamnit I just have to lose a few more pounds...
My good leather coat is the same one I have been wearing since I bought it in 1998.
Everything else I wear is from this millennium.
L L Bean slippers, I've had them since I was 12 and I'm 33 now. They have had the inner replaced with possum fur liners and the rubber outsole was stitched back on the right foot.
Still going strong and warm as ever.
Does underwear count? Some of the boxers that I own have been with me easily for over 20 years now.
That was going to be my comment. Styles change over the years, bur standard undergarments don’t really need to change that much. Some of my socks for sure are at the end of their life.
Oh! I have a winter coat from River Woods that I've worn every winter since I was 15 - am 32 now :)
It was stupid expensive and I got it for my birthday but only after promising my mom I'd wear it for at least 3 years.
She's been saying for the past couple years that I am actually allowed to buy a new coat 😂
I've got one more really old item - a dress from a brand that doesn't exist anymore (not that that matters it's just funny). It's a summer dress with an open back that I got when I was 10 and it came down to my feet. 22 years later and it's somewhere above my knee, and I still wear it on really hot days! It's super comfy and airy.
Sad about your grandpa's belongings, though Pekt :(
I think I have a few shirts and things like that from when I was a kid at my parents house. My parents would have me get the biggest shirts when I would do certain things even when they were way oversized so I could grow in to them and use them for nighttime shirts when I was younger.
Thank you, it was sad to hear, but knowing my extended family I was not at all surprised. My Dad gave me my Grandfather's preaching Bible which was more than enough for me. I get to use it daily and remember him and have a family heirloom to pass on to my kids.
I’ve got some tuxedo shoes that are probably a couple decades old. I doubt I’ll ever need to replace them as I wear them maybe twice a year.
I have two t-shirts from elementary school that I still wear. One is orange and one is black, and they’re both fossil-themed, with many body fossil graphics on the front and one big one on the back.
Sadly, the orange shirt has a hole which I’m afraid might get bigger, so I don’t wear it as much.
I have a trench coat I have that is over 20 years old. However it is more or less costume; while it is technically functional I live in Southern California, where it hardly ever rains and barely ever is cold. I’ve also spent more time being unable to wear it than being able to for being fat, though I can now. I’m really upset it’s missing an epaulette.
Everything else is pretty new. Ballooning in size and then shrinking down again has caused me to need to replace my wardrobe continuously. A sense of despondency has caused me to throw away the narrower clothes so I haven’t saved much money. And sadly as we all know the newer clothes are all pretty crap quality made of crap material.
My mom and dad used to be big hikers and outdoorsy types before it really like hit commercial saturation. Dad worked at a local outdoor retail something like an REI but before REI and back in the 80's.
He and mom had a couple pairs of old made in USA Patagonia synchillas and a wind breaker. All still in decent shape. Wear them almost daily in the winter months. I love them.
I have a pair of Red Wing Iron Rangers that I bought 10ish years ago. Same deal, look and feel great and still wear them on the regular. Ditto for a pair of LL Bean blucher mocs (don't make them anymore) and some bean boots.
I still have some nicer 10+ year old pairs on Unbranded denim. They don't fit me anymore (society thankfully transitioned away from skinny fits) but are still in incredible shape. No fraying, rips or tears.
Lastly to really send the MFA enjoyers into overdrive. I have a nice old MiUSA Topo backpack that I bought off clearance and it has been repaired at no cost once and still kicking strong!
Awww it’s not a curent one but it deserves a mention. My mom got me a sweater near the end of Grade 12 so I have something new and nice to wear for graduation. It was a Holt Renfrew wool sweater, thick, with large diamond pattern on the front, think cozy winter sweater more so than elegant thin sweater. I felt bad when we went shopping because we’d never shop there before and I remember it cost something like $120 CAD. But she insisted to get me something special. I finally donated it last year. I wore it for 23 years.
All my own clothes, bought new:
Catch 22 t-shirt from 2000ish
Assorted ThinkGeek shirts from 2002.
These have all approached EOL, the ThinkGeek shirts having retired about a year ago and the Catch 22 shirt approaching cutoff.
An LLBean 2-layer ski jacket from 1998 I wear every winter. Still going strong. Will probably be able to be passed to my kids when I die in 35-60 years.
ThinkGeek! Damn that takes me back. I used to go clubbing in a “chicks dig Unix” t-shirt
I still have my "Reverse Engineer" shirt (it's written backwards) from thinkgeek that is about that old. It's seen better days for sure, but that isn't my oldest by a long shot.
It's not any kind of record, it seems, but I have a Cabela's button-down shirt made of a magical synthetic wool material called worsterlon. It is approximately 22 years old, and I not only wear it, but for most of the past 22 years, I have worn it almost daily for 2 1/2 seasons of every year (fall thru spring, except warm days). I am looking at it now.
Amazingly warm, durable, and quick-drying (it practically comes out of the clothes washer dry). About 5 years ago, I had a tailor do some basic reinforcement work on it, securing buttons better, refurbishing the collars, etc.
I'm always astonished when I hear that Cabela's is anything other than a brand of arcade game.
While I probably have a few assorted things that are a bit older but don't wear very often, the one that comes to mind is an OverClocked ReMix hoodie that's over 20 years old now.
That's pretty cool, I had no idea they sold swag at any point. I still listen to a lot of those tracks while working.
An Arizona denim jacket.
I got it at a Salvation Army when I was 13 and it was huge on me. I have it to this day and I will be 37 in a few weeks.
It still looks fantastic
I have a couple jackets that I wear occasionally that I bought in my teens. They're bright colored and really fun. I used to have a ton of them (bought one each year that we went to this street festival) but I left most of them behind when I moved back from LA to Chicago.
I also still regularly wear the Auditorium 2: Duet (failed) kickstarter tshirt, which is from like 2014 I think
I come from a family that normally wears things until they simply disintegrate, but I lost a bunch of weight about 10 years ago, then slowly gained it back after I'd thrown out my "fat" clothes, so my entire wardrobe was purchased <10 years ago.
For the longest time (about 17 years) I had a button-up shirt that was white with blue stripes that I'd picked up at Goodwill and wore for a good 15 years. I finally pitched it when it was getting threadbare, but I miss it. I got one that's visually similar but the material's not as soft or nice and it doesn't drape the same way.
From that same Goodwill visit I also grabbed a pair of brown round toe dress shoes that fit me perfectly. I ended up throwing them out with a bunch of shoes that had been rotting in the closet for years, and again I miss and regret having had to pitch those.
Now my oldest piece of clothing that I still wear regularly is
I have a single shirt I own that's like a dozen years old. It's falling to shreds now, unfortunately, so I'm going to have to throw it out soon. It's a shame, I always liked it.
It's the only graphic tee I own, with a big black box on the front that says "This image is not available in your country."
The rest of the clothes I own are actually pretty new. Stuff falls apart too damn fast.
Handmade bridle leather belt from a sadly out of business saddlery on the Shetland Islands. It’s about 22 years old. Insanely supple now!
I actually am wearing possible one of the oldest I still have: blue pj bottoms with the Pilsbury Doughboy on them. People at practice said they were pretty awesome and I realized I bought them my senior year in high school, or right after... so about 32 years.
I know I threw away older stuff from the early 90s when I moved up here about 5 years ago, but it was pretty cringe and needed to go haha.
Oldest thing I can definitively date that I still wear: a Pokémon shirt from 2010/2011. I got a Zekrom shirt at a promotional event at a local mall in the leadup to Pokémon Black and White. I don't wear it too often because it's a bit small, but it's there as a decent backup (and I actually wore it to meet up and buy a friend's copy of Pokémon White last summer!).
Got a couple other things from high school, though not sure when exactly I would've gotten them (but at least 15 years). One is a school-branded T-shirt that I primarily wear at home after showers. I also have a jean skirt from near the end of high school or start of college which I still wear regularly.
Also gotta mention my hats, because I wear hats a LOT. I like the paper boy style (kinda puffy), and have a gray one that I'm pretty sure I got before graduation and remains probably my most-used hats. Literally wore it today. It's so old and well-used that the inner band is yellowed and the tags are faded, but it basically goes with everything and it's comfy. IThere are also a couple of knitted hats my grandmother made me. I think at least one dates back to high school, or perhaps even earlier. That one has a habit of going MIA so...
Last notable one: I have a scarf for my alma mater's School of Science that they sent when I was accepted. Didn't use it that much as a student, but it's now the ONLY scarf I use in extreme cold because it has a tight weave. I use scarves to cover my mouth and nose in extreme cold, and every other scarf we have gets fibers in my mouth.
And a funny addition that isn't my own, but my mom: over the last couple of years she's started wearing clothes that are older than ME. I guess they got buried deeeeeep in her closet, and she found them during the move and started wearing them again. It's funny when her friends ask about her "new" outfits and she tells them the age.
I mean I definitely have some clothes I’ve thrifted that are from the ‘70s but as far as what I’ve had for the longest and still wear. I think it’s probably a Carhartt work jacket that I’ve had for about 14 years. It’s got some miles on it and it definitely shows but I still wear it when relevant.
I have some clothes from mid 2000s but I don't wear them often. For example, I have a couple of soccer jerseys which I purchased between 2004-2009 when I was playing soccer but I haven't worn them since probably 2018. I also have a couple of jackets that I bought at around the same time and I don't wear them often, maybe once a year.
I have lots of clothes from early to mid 2010s and I wear them frequently. For example, I have a few fall/winter button up shirts and I wear them once or twice a month between October-March. I have a pink shirt which I wear once or twice a year. I have a dark shirt and a dark tie which I wear to funerals maybe once every other year which I bought in 2012 when I went to my first ever funeral.
Shoes, on the other hand, nothing is older than 2018. I have a pair of Clarks Chukka boots which I bought in 2018 and I still wear them weekly. I have a pair of dress shoes which I wear to weddings, funerals, job interviews, I think I bought them in 2017.
I completely forgot about shoes! I have a pair of Danner boots from 2016 that I honestly never wear. I did an internship with them and got two pairs of nice hiking boots for incredibly cheap. Sold one before I moved because I only wore the one pair occasionally. With how expensive they are I figured the cost of shipping them and having them on hand would be worth it if I ever need them.
I have an Iron Maiden t-shirt from a concert I went to in October, 2006 that is still in good shape and I still regularly wear it. Makes it easy to know when you bought a shirt when it has the date on it.
Now that I'm a bit older, I do enjoy shirts with dates slightly more as it feels like a little peek in to that season of your life.
I have fraternity shirts with the years and they definitely bring back memories. Every now and then an alumnus will stop by the house and drop off old shirts which can be a highlight, or we'll go to our international conferences and trade shirts with guys from other chapters.
I have an under armor brand t shirt embroidered with my high school logo on it that was a "gym shirt", from 2004. At the time I was wearing size L, but I got an XL because I thought it was a tight fitting shirt. Turns out it was a regular shirt so it was huge on me in 2004. It fits me fine now, and as it's that synthetic fiber material, it hasn't fallen apart. It's actually still in fairly decent shape.
The shirt I have from my high school football team is also Under Armor and surprisingly doesn't have any holes or seemingly much wear besides the under armor logo being a bit peeled. I wore it regularly during multiple football seasons and have worn it fairly often over the years as a work-out shirt, I say as I type this message wearing it after a quick run and morning workout.
I have an Apple sweatshirt. I think they threw it in as a freebie when my dad bought me a (vanilla) Mac for university in 1984. I don't wear it too often anymore, but apart from my mom's hats from the 50s, that's probably the oldest article of clothing I own.
I have a pair of Nike sweatpants from 1992 (approx.) that I still wear on occasion.
The oldest piece of clothing that I own is something I don't wear anymore, so it doesn't fit your criteria, but it is a leather coat that my grandfather had, and it is from 1953. My mother gave it to him, so I know the date.
I've got a little collection of shirt.woot tshirts that are ~15 years old. They're still in great shape and are super soft! They're in my regular tshirt rotation (that is, I wear through everything once and then start at the top again).
I also have some dress shirts from the 70s that I picked up at thrift stores / from family, but I don't wear them with any regularity, so I'm not sure they could.
I have Quiksilver track jacket that I got when I was a senior in high school during a marching band trip to Los Angeles. That was Thanksgiving 2004 when I was 17, and now I'm 39. So 22yrs. I don't really wear it when I'm out -- haven't in a loooooong time -- but I definitely wear it around the house. It's still in decent condition, even though I wore it tons the remainder of senior year and probably over the next year or so into college.
...i replaced most of my wardrobe about eight years ago; i wear the same thing every day so my closet comprises seventeen identical boxers, t-shirts, and button-down shirts plus seven pairs of jeans, guiding principle being two weeks + three spares (one per week + one for laundry day) between washes...i replace my wardrobe about twice every fifteen years as it wears out, so it's due for an update when i can afford to do so, maybe next summer?..
...i don't wear leather so my shoes tend to have the shortest life-cycle; i'm lucky if i can get three years out of a pair before they're falling apart...
...i do have older clothes still in serviceable condition which i keep boxed away for emergencies but i don't wear them with any regularity; other than wear + tear, though, you probably wouldn't immediately notice the difference between clothing i bought thirty years ago and today other than available cuts + fabrics change subtly with market trends over the decades...
...i have a really hard time finding clothes i deem acceptable, so when i do, i fill my entire closet before i have to sit out the next half-dozen fashion cycles...
I have a peacoat from when I was a freshman in high school, making it 22 years old. It's from Forever 21, back before enshittification and ultra-fast fashion became the norm. It's 100% cotton and is so comfy. It's fit me through years of body and size changes, even though it's a size small, and I hope I get many more years out of it.
I have a puffer vest (black polyester on the outside, fleece on the inside, has down that it keeps leaking over time but not empty yet).
I've worn it for 30 years, a gift from my uncle and there is no tag whatsoever, and I seem to have finally lost it these last two days and I am unreasonably upset about it.
No idea where it went, probably left it in a bar in Belltown in Seattle last week, but I can't imagine how.
My oldest surviving apparel is probably my 14 hole steel toe Doc Martens that I bought when I was 17. They are 30 years old, have survived my house burning down among other things (A story in itself, I dug them out of the ashes the next morning, they smelled like smoke for a good decade afterwards).