To hate all the polyester crap out there

[Paddington23]

Can’t buy anything now days with out it being made of polyester. Especially the textured crepe like material really hate it. Feels all scratchy sweaty and looks cheap

Sorry, but viscose looks/feels nothing like silk. I can pick it from 20 paces on a rack.

I sometimes marvel how a fabric that’s essentially a ‘natural’ substance (albeit using very toxic chemicals in the process) can look and feel so profoundly synthetic. I think it really takes on prints and colours in a very different way to silk, so that stands out. In fact, it seems to me that any ‘silky’ fabric with a vivid print is almost certainly not silk. Only very high end designers seem to be able to print bright patterns on real silk?

Meant to add: I’m currently visiting my 97yo grannie. She has a wardrobe chock a block with clothes from every decade since the 1930’s. It’s really interesting to see the differences in quality in things called ‘linen’ or ‘cotton’. Her clothes were all made for her (she is pretty aristocratic!) but she insists the fabric was not particularly special in its day. Given a lot of it was wartime and aftermath, I believe her.

She still wears things bought in that era, and they look bought yesterday. They hang much better than our clothes do, they wear better and they are certainly somehow denser and far more lovely. Some of it might come down to not washing them in modern machines (with detergents). She does a lot more ‘sponging off spots’ than I do. They sponged and steamed and aired clothes more in her era.

Still, we really need new names for modern quality fabrics- they aren’t the same thing at all!

Interesting about your dg and quality of clothes

Even in the 80s the cotton was much nicer and had a sheen. The jumpers didn't bobble either

Now the cotton is very sheer

Clothes have become very cheap. And disposable. A vicious circle where they don’t last so we have buy more often, so we buy cheap. So they don’t last. In my grandparents’ day, you average middle class woman would have very few garments and would re-wear them and launder less often. Clothes lasted well as they were higher quality and looked after carefully. Hence the availability of vintage clothing. I wonder how many clothes sold new today will be sold in vintage shops in 30 years time....

Brought two cheap Miss guided tops new the quality would be terrible but the cut and material was awful