As the sheer quantity of clothing available to the average American has grown over the past few decades, everything feels at least a little bit flimsier than it used to.
The most obvious indication of these changes is printed on a garment’s fiber-content tag. Knits used to be made entirely from natural fibers. These fibers usually came from shearing sheep, goats, alpacas, and other animals. Sometimes, plant-derived fibers such as cotton or linen were blended in. Now, according to Imran Islam, a textile-science professor and knit expert at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the overwhelming majority of yarn used in mass-market knitwear is blended with some type of plastic.
Knits made with synthetic fiber are cheaper to produce. They can be spun up in astronomical quantities to meet the sudden whims of clothing manufacturers—there’s no waiting for whole flocks of sheep to get fluffy enough to hand shear. They also usually can be tossed in your washing machine with everything else. But by virtually every measure, synthetic fabrics are far inferior. They pill quickly, sometimes look fake, shed microplastics, and don’t perform as well as wool when worn. Sweaters are functional garments, not just fashionable ones. Wool keeps its wearer warm without steaming them like a baked potato wrapped in foil. Its fibers are hygroscopic and hydrophobic, which means they draw moisture to their center and leave the surface dry. A wool sweater can absorb a lot of water from the air around it before it feels wet or cold to the touch
A significant amount of polyamide or acrylic is now common in sweaters with four-digit price tags. A $3,200 Gucci “wool cardigan,” for example, is actually half polyamide when you read the fine print. Cheaper materials have crept into the fashion industry’s output gradually, as more and more customers have become inured to them. In the beginning, these changes were motivated primarily by the price pressures of fast fashion, Islam said: As low-end brands have created global networks that pump out extremely cheap, disposable clothing, more premium brands have attempted to keep up with the frenetic pace while still maximizing profits, which means cutting costs and cutting corners. Islam estimates that a pound of sheep’s wool as a raw material might cost from $1.50 to $2. A pound of cashmere might cost anywhere from $10 to $15. A pound of acrylic, meanwhile, can be had for less than $1.
This race to the bottom had been going on for years, but it accelerated considerably in 2005, Sofi Thanhauser, the author of Worn: A People’s History of Clothing, told me. That year was the end of the Multifiber Arrangement, a trade agreement that had for three decades capped imports of textile products and yarn into the United States, Canada, and the European Union from developing countries. Once Western retailers no longer had meaningful restrictions on where they could source their garments from, many of them went shopping for the cheapest inventory possible.
I wish it was easier to find quality clothes. Nearly every piece of clothing I find has synthetics mixed in.
I would gladly pay a lot more for good, ethical, quality clothes.
It’s just crappy that good, ethical, quality clothes do cost a lot more. I absolutely understand why, but man does it suck for the average consumer nowadays.
I’ve been slowly upgrading and updating my wardrobe over the last couple of years, and I’ve bought a lot second hand and then been trying to put my money towards the most sustainable/ethical choices that I can when I buy new stuff. (And I realize that being able to do that is a luxury, too.)
It’s not crappy and it doesn’t suck. Products should reflect living wage labor costs.
If you can only afford one ethical item instead of ten fast fashion ones, it’s a good thing. Value your stuff, learn to repair it, maybe help turn back this trend of wearing a new thing every day.
Well, the problem not only lies in synthetics though. Cotton is certainly great and all, but it is hard to get fair trade and actually organic cotton. And wool is hardly ethical as you always have to keep animals and sheer them. Leather? Obviously not ethical. Maybe linen and other natural fibers, but they usually have very specific applications in clothes. But yes, I agree, I would definitely gladly pay for good, ethical, quality clothes, too!
Cotton is a terrible material for winter clothing because it becomes dangerously useless for retaining heat when wet. Tons of people die hiking etc. because they expected cotton to keep them warm.
Cotton is awesome for autumn and the odd cold-ish summer day (…if we happen to get one of those ever again).
I’ve become of 2 minds about leather footwear & gloves:
The primary alternative to leather is plastic, which, when it breaks-down, sabotages the food-web, right?
Leather doesn’t do that.
I honestly don’t know what The Right Answer™ is, on that one, anymore.
I’m usually vegan, btw, not for ideological/religious reasons, but simply because doing otherwise blocks my ability to reach the meditations I need.
I do find butchering animal lives for a mere few-meals unethical, but refugee Buddhist monk Kelsang Gyatso pointed-out in one of his books, IF a person has anemia, THEN the right antidote is eating red meat.
He’s ordained, a Geshe, and he is recommending that right in his dharma.
Years-enduring clothing is a much less desolating consumption than needless meat-eating.
Exactly as that brilliant psychological truth in the Christian bible shows, naive truth, aka symbolic “truth”, is syrupy-sweet in one’s face/mouth, whereas digested & real, experience-induced-understanding Truth, is bitter.
See for yourself:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation 10%3A8-10&version=CJB
Leather is basically cellulose from animal skins
There are many other sources of cellulose from [mushrooms](Are Mushrooms the Future of Alternative Leather? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/14/business/leather-fake-mycelium-mushrooms-fashion.html) to cacti to even pineapple
These are still fairly young materials and aren’t super common. You’re starting to see them more often but usually in smaller runs of more expensive brands. I personally haven’t bought any of these alternative leathers but next time I need to buy shoes I’m going to look into them again
Looking forward to more better options coming. In the meantime, personally I think I’d rather buy a durable leather thing than a disposable plastic thing. Idk just been my line of thinking lately. Am not vegan or anything tho.
Leather is more ethical than plastic alternatives because leather is generally a byproduct. Cows generally aren’t raised just for their skins. The skins just happen to be product of meat processing. And if we wish to fully respect the life of the animal that we’ve raised for meat, then it’s important to use every part possible.
And like you mentioned, leather is significantly more durable, hardy, and longer lasting than plastic alternatives. So instead of having to buy a new fake-leather coat every couple years, you can keep the same one for decades.
Eh. I get you but. I don’t remember the details but I think the leather is a byproduct line of thinking doesn’t necessarily end up being true in the industrialized system unfortunately. Sorry haha. But yeah in general I’m all for things lasting longer and using all the parts of the thing 😊
There is so much to unpack here holy moly. Ignoring the religious stuff, there are lots of alternatives to the things you’re listing, if you’re concerned. You say truth is bitter, but overlook some glaring ones provided by the modern era: vitamin supplements and alternative leather made from plants.
Those things might have been true when the monk spoke them, but time marches on and modern advancements leave some pieces of wisdom behind in the past.
Oh, exactly. I’ve hit a point where I could buy nice clothes on occasion if I had a reason too, but with expensive clothes being just as quality errant as low end brands, I find myself having very little reason to upgrade my wardrobe.
If I could find a reliably quality brand, I’d certainly be more inclined to start changing out my closet.
As it stands right now: I can basically throw out any polyester clothes because I never wear them, even if I like the pattern.
I’ve had good results with Duluth Trading Company. Some of their stuff is still 100% Cotton or Wool, and even the synthetic stuff is heavy and durable.
I’ve been quite happy with https://www.american-giant.com/collections/cotton.
Quality “first world” labor and cotton. No slave labor, no bull shit. That’s the brand.
Buy wool clothes they are still very high quality and usually only 10-20% synthetic for durability. There are still plenty of quality synthetic clothes for stuff that can’t be wool like pants/outerwear. They’re just more expensive and specialized (hiking/hunting/mountaineering, etc.)