The inside of the neck

The inside of the neck is where you can tell. The label, the tape, the stitch. Small quiet things that decide whether a garment lasts a year or ten.

Pull a t-shirt over your head. Look at the inside of the neckline. A cheap garment shows you a serged seam, a thin care label hanging on a polyester loop, a stitch that has already started to come undone. A serious garment shows you a cotton tape running shoulder-to-shoulder, a printed-on size mark, a clean coverstitch.

The neck is the first part of a garment to age. It is also the part nobody sees from the outside. Which is why it tells you the most about the maker.