People who sneer at synthetic fabric- shopping must be very tiresome and expensive for you! I find synthetic has it's advantages- silk dresses aren't practical for everyday washing and wearing for work in a school with little kids, they are too expensive, wool is tooo itchy and needs careful washing and dry cleaning, cotton doesn't always hang right and creases badly, and hard to avoid- even high-end hughstreet shops like Hobbs, Whistles, Lk Bennett are mainly synthetic fabrics.
Even as a critic of the sea of synthetic fabrics in the shops I get what you are saying. The availability of cheaper fabrics has certainly democratised clothes shopping and makes it easier for people with less money to look smart and have new clothes rather than second hand. That’s easy to lose sight of when you aren’t poor.
However, I object to the ubiquity of synthetic, especially in expensive shops (and expensive labels: I am horrified when I look at the fabric composition of some of the stuff on Netaporter. £700 for a dress made from viscose that will crease like a bugger? No chance).
I’m 48 so I was a young shopper in the 80s and early 90s. I remember the fabrics that were used for the clothes sold on the very cheapest market stalls. You’d never have seen that sold in the equivalent of Hobbs then. You would now, and at big prices too. Shops must think that we are stupid. I dislike having to search out cotton, silk and wool even in high-end stores. I feel swizzed.