Struggling with product quality while keeping dropshipping low risk

I’ve been experimenting with a small dropshipping store recently, mostly in the apparel space, and I ran into a problem I didn’t expect.

The low-risk model is great because you don’t need inventory and you can test designs quickly. But when I started ordering samples, a lot of the products felt very generic. The prints looked okay, but the actual garments felt like standard blanks without much personality or quality.

Then when I started researching better quality options (heavier fabrics, better stitching, custom labels, etc.), the whole model started to change. Suddenly there were higher costs, more complexity, and sometimes even minimum order requirements.

So now I’m kind of stuck between keeping things low risk with basic products or trying to improve quality but increasing the business risk.

For people here who have experience with dropshipping clothing:
How did you deal with this stage? Did you focus on testing first and upgrade quality later, or try to solve quality early on?