To hate all the polyester crap out there

Cheap viscose can feel terrible and bobble easily. There are a lot of places using it more because it was superficially thought to be more sustainable than cotton, but in practice isn't. (There were quite a few reports last year on a study showing why it wasn't.)

I buy second hand when I can but still avoid viscose most of the time because of the feel. I find it especially noticeable in hot weather like this. There are some viscose things that feel very similar to cotton but they are generally expensive, e.g. a Hobbs jersey wrap dress I used to have.

Viscose is natural synthetic fibre. It’s made from processed cellulose. It can be lovely and cool. It also hangs well so can long ok great.

I too am fed up of polyester and acrylic. Both look and feel horrid. Acrylic jumpers don’t even keep you warm. Exception might be polyester fleece which (ssshhhhh) has its place IMO.

Interestingly, or not, much easier to find 100% cotton for men.

Increasingly I am making my own. Tops, t shirts, dresses especially. I’ve just made my self a simple viscose tank dress, and a less simple viscose Lycra one. Really comfy, and look nice, though the basic one is definitely for casual only. Total cost for the fabrics was probably about £15.

Worse is the websites that fail to list fabric content!

Yours do 100% cotton trousers. They're really comfortable and cool.

I'm trying to find decent work trousers that aren't plastic. Bought some 100% cotton ones from ASOS and they're not the most comfortable.

I've managed to track down some nice cotton dresses for work from Next, Debenhams and Monsoon this year. I'd recommend the Woolovers sale page for some nice linen/cotton tops too.

There is stuff out there but it's a real pita trying to find it a lot of the time and I end up in stores squinting to read labels without my glasses, trying to work out what things are made of.

Where is still bad for this? Odd that H&M is mentioned as good as that's the place I find worst for 'oh that's nice'... 'oh it's viscose'.

I always look at fabric first before ordering stuff, and in person you can usually tell from the feel.

Was annoyed recently by a nice Lindybop cotton dress (first thing I'd bought from them) that turned out to have a synthetic lining that looked like it would be static central with tights or stockings.

@gasp supposedly it wicks it away (daughter is a dancer and trains full time so all her kit is this crap) they still end up drenched in sweat but also (in my experience) stink as well so I'm constantly washing it and it's really hard to make it ever smell pleasant. Personally I'm beginning to think it's a con.

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g
He's right, but gym kits are designed accordingly.
I love my gym clothes and still hate the polyester tat on the high street.

Apparently one of the biggest waste products to build up in the ocean is polyester fibres that come out in the washing machine.

I found a lovely dress the other day, not cheap, £120- 100% polyester. The cheek of it. No way am I paying that for synthetic fabric.

I think it's got worse as so much disposable fashion aimed at young people floods the market these days.

Viscose is cellulose, isn't it?

Re polyester - I am no expert but my husband runs a lot and says a lot of running kit is made of 'technical' fabrics, all man-made, which are designed to wick the sweat away from the body. Cotton doesn't do that. I don't buy 100% polyester stuff for ordinary wear for all the reasons everybody else is mentioning but are modern clothes in fact not sweaty? Are we missing a trick?

For affordable t-shirts, Matalan do block colours for £3 each and patterns for £4. Not organic/etc (which I'm now moving towards), but 100% cotton.

Why has it gone like this in the UK?? I emigrated to Oz three years ago and it wasn't like that then....it is one of the things I most miss about the UK....the great clothing in good fabrics!

Here in Oz, it's all polyester ..IN OZ! Where it's HOT! And I often think about coming to the UK just to shop for clothes! :(

It's horrible.
I went shopping 3 times to get something for a wedding coming up. All were unsuccessful trips due to silly pyjama style trousers, endless polyester jumpsuits or silly cullotes and general tat.

Everything that catches my eye ends up being polyester. Arrggghhh! I hate it. It really makes me sweat horribly. Nasty stuff.

YANBU, I refuse to buy it. After some productive rummaging, I found a useful linen dress in TK Maxx (dye runs like ink, but cheap and cool) and a stack of cotton T shirts from M&S sale.

L.K. Bennett we are talking about you!
Nice bamboo stuff in sale and here more natural fibres both makes have good reductions.
I sort of understand lots of synthetics in less expensive brands but for top end High Street it is inexcusable.

Bamboo is the only "synthetic" I will wear, & it's made of processed cellulose - so plant material.

I know 'you pays you're money, you takes your choice', but of late shopping for clothes, I'm constantly reminded of turquoise textured crimplene trews my mum bought me from C&A's in 1969. God! my arse and thighs itched all through the school day. So much so, I was punished with a leather strap across my hands because my teacher thought I was disrespecting him in front of the class. Who found my constant twitching and scratching funny.

52 yrs on I still shudder at the humiliation of that time. I loathe crimplene with a passion.

You've got a good TKMaxx. The one in my city centre is like a rummage sale in cold war Bulgaria. I found some good, opaque pure cotton t-shirts in M&S, good coverage. Looking for cotton skirts and trousers, not thin or see through.

Nowhere with regular brands, but TK Maxx are good. I got 2 tops yesterday, 100% cotton.

Totally agree - I hate polyester with a passion. Won't buy anything for myself that has it in. Don't duy anything for DD that's got a significant % of it, either. Trims aren't too bad, but I generally don't wear anything that has any kind of trim anyway. I see the reasons for it & agree, but it's just so horrible. Feels all plasticky & nasty, & makes DD's hair static (my hair is vv short). Plus static shocks, ugh.

Hear hear! Polyester is hideous. I’m desperate for some cotton trousers in this heat!

You are so right - I hate that horrible sweaty fabric. Cotton is so much more comfortable. I've found H&M good for budget cotton.

Firmly in the all natural fabrics camp here. It's increasingly difficult, not to mention expensive, though. All that polyester crap is terrible for the environment.