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Praying for cotton and wool to become stylish. And I hope we get creative with natural fibers like linen, beech fiber, spider silk, et.
by briefcomment 6y ago
Praying for cotton and wool to become stylish. And I hope we get creative with natural fibers like linen, beech fiber, spider silk, et.
- 1over137 6y agoand hemp, one of the best fabrics for many reasons.
- theplague42 6y agoCotton and wool are totally in style, not sure why they wouldn't be? I'm slowly eliminating polyesters from my wardrobe. If you like the feel, you can do rayon or other processed natural fibers.
- techntoke 6y agoRayon is still incredibly toxic to produce because of the process.
- kortex 6y agoHow so? Carbon disulfide is rather nasty, but it's straightforward to recover most of it. TLV is 10 ppm, while the effluent air from Teepak is 100 ppm [0], meaning you could spend hours a day with just over a 10:1 dilution of the factory exhaust. And there are lots of efforts to get those emissions way lower. If it means less microplastics, I'm all for it. [0] https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5518183 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/5518183
- joveian 6y agoTencel brand is a closed-loop version of the lyocell rayon process.
- eru 6y agoI thought cotton was pretty much the default fibre?
- techntoke 6y agoNope, especially not the cheap Walmart clothes. Most fabrics are at least 60% polyester
- eru 6y agoOh, ok. Walmart doesn't exist in any countries I lived in, so I can't say. I buy most of my very limited wardrobe at Muji at the moment. But even growing up poor in Germany, it was mostly cotton everywhere as far as I remember. (Another commentor pointed out apparently female clothing has more polyester.)
- 488643689 6y agoI assume you shop in the dude's section. In the dudette's market there is polyester everywhere.
- eru 6y agoI guess for female clothing I mainly only have exposure to the higher quality stuff, so don't see much polyester?
- chewz 6y agoOne cotton t-shirt equals 2,700 liters of water—what one person drinks in two-and-a-half years. Google about Aral Sea. Cotton farming is also responsible for 24 percent of insecticides and 11 percent of pesticides despite using about 3 percent of the world’s arable land. https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/07/apparel-industrys-environmental-impact-6-graphics https://www.wri.org/blog/2017/07/apparel-industrys-environme...
- jogjayr 6y agoWe also need to buy less clothing overall. But this doesn't invalidate GP's assertion that natural fibers are more desirable.
- tluyben2 6y agoYep, but that requires a big mindset change; the insane amount of 'throwaway' clothes people buy is embarrassing. Not sure how you someone can be proud to own 50 pairs of shoes and 100 different outfits. I pity people who are that shallow (then again, I walk around like a vagrant, that's probably a bit too extreme as well), but it seems to become more normal vs less so as in; less fortunate people can (and do) do this now too. I know women and men in Philippines who make a few $100/month working online and spend almost everything on after market or knock off brand clothes and shoes. My colleague from the Philippines who is a coder and makes a fortune compared to the average there, buys new complete outfits for the wife, daughter and himself weekly (in the weekend they go clothes shopping and then to a family sunday lunch with that); they must have 100s of boxes of unused clothes stacked in their storage room (luckily they have a storage room?).
- ollo 6y agoProducing cotton clothes also releases more CO2.
- dungdongdang 6y agofortunately producing the original cotton plants those tshirts are made from captures hundreds of times more CO2 from the air. you know, because they're plants.
- mc32 6y agoBuy good quality clothing with timeless styling (not fashionable, or worse fast fashion). Take good care of it. They can potentially last decades if taken care of properly (obviously not cycling the same three shirts every week, but a proper wardrobe that’s seasonal with enough option for any occasion). Goes a long way.
- inetknght 6y agoI think most people don't have enough money for a "proper" wardrobe.
- eru 6y agoIt's not a binary thing. Within any budget you can move towards more or less 'proper'. However, there are also trade-offs with convenience. Basic cotton t-shirts are so cheap, that it can be worth it for some people to not bother taking care of them and just replacing them more often.
- r00fus 6y agoI have nice looking shirts (that are hardly dated nor much frayed) from 20 years ago. I buy all cotton, and organic if I can. Proper and not too-frequent washing can help.
- clarry 6y agoWhat makes washing proper (or improper)? How frequent is too frequent?
- mc32 6y agoCold or warm wash, don’t overagitate air dried helps a lot.
- dredmorbius 6y agoMachine drying removes a tremendous amount of fibre from clothes, vs. line-drying. That's what dryer lint is. Both tumbling and temperature contribute to wear. Clothes washing itself as well, though I believe to a lesser extent. Sufficient vs. excessive laundering helps greatly. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/08/990831080157.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/08/990831080157.h...
- ginko 6y agoDon't forget hemp.
- elric 6y agoAre you saying cotton and wool aren't stylish? My wardrobe is exclusively cotton, linen and wool. I don't know (m?)any people who wear mostly synthetics. Maybe garment fabrics vary more by region than I'd assumed.
- dzhiurgis 6y agoIf anyone looking for a particular brand - I swear by Icebreaker - mostly for underwear, base layers, hoodies and sweatpants, but others like tshirts. Allbirds is another one but they are unreliable and too warm for summer.