RANT-Where have all the natural fabric made clothes gone !!!

[bawabod]

Right on the basis of a few recent threads regarding quality of clothing and the amount of awful polyester viscose and other man made fabrics, lets discuss who is good at supplying clothes made with natural fabrics I am not adverse to cotton with a bit of elastane or is it lycra, god knows it can keep the blobby parts in check, but I am thoroughly fed-up with the amount of clothes lined in polyester and suchlike or made with it. It brings me out in a cold sweat, am old enough to remember crimplene trousers as a child but consider myself a trendy fortyish lady now. So I will start with who I think is good at such clothes Fat Face, Gap some East stuff and welcome ideas of other places to shop.

[Orangeanddemons]

Exactly Bunny! Wool responds to heat and steam, so can be moulded into shape making it ideal for tailoring. Anything else just doesn't cut the mustard really. That McQ jacket should be ashamed of itself

[Financeprincess]

The Alexander Wang frock is just plain grey. I'd post a link if I weren't inept/on an ipad.

The McQ jacket is military style, very structured, a bit 18th century looking. Crying out to be made of wool with a small amount of stretch fibre. Just as Bunny says!

The website is Jules B if you want to examine the evidence!

[Saurus72]

The problem is, that IME, decent shops (Hobbs, Jaeger, Whistles) randomly use both man made and natural fabrics.

I have some gorgeous silk tops from Hobbs and Whistles, and fabulous silk dresses from Jaeger and Hobbs. But that's because I've snuffled them out, truffle-hunter style, from amongst piles of other clothes in the same shops made from disgusting polyester. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when man-made fabrics are used, or the prices charged. Even though I still wouldn't buy them, if the clothes made from man-made fabrics were significantly cheaper then I could kind of see why they were being offered. However, this is entirely not the case - there was a beautiful navy top with lace shoulders in Whistles recently, but it was £79 for God's sake! It looked fabulous but felt disgusting - hot and sweaty and thick and static-ey.

Massimo Dutti is pretty good across the board for decent fabrics, and there are lots of natural fabrics in Cos, Other Stories and Jigsaw.

Viva la revolution - natural fabrics are a complete obsession of mine!

[bunnymother]

It's a betrayal of Lee's training (didn't McQueen train as a Savile Row tailor?)! [gets carried away after only one glass of wine]

[Saurus72]

Oh and also, the number of scarves that I've looked at in shops that look gorgeous but when I pick them up I find that they are made of polyester. Oooh, yes please, sign me up - let me drape a sweaty piece of horrible polyester around my neck, that won't be clammy and disgusting at all.

[Orangeanddemons]

Have looked at those items. Can find no reason at all that they are made from shitty fibres. None.

The only possible thing I can think of with the jacket, is that it is a jersey fabric, and polyester would hold its shape slightly better than wool for this ( think of the hell that is ponte) so I can see a little bit where that is coming from. But the Wang thing has no excuse at all

[BikeRunSki]

Lands End, good cotton, wool, cashmere basics

[bunnymother]

You are totally right, Saurus - you do need to hunt down the poly from the wool. I was looking at Whistles new season stock, and apart from the stretch silk dress, and about 1 silk shirt and 1 style of slim trousers, the rest were synthetic. No clue from the pricing, it just took lots of clicking on the website to work it out. Ditto Hobbs, some nice wool suiting, but time consuming to separate it from the poly.

How about LK Bennett? They still seem to do some beautiful quality things?

[bunnymother]

And for scarves, God, it's rare to find ones that are silk, cotton, wool or cashmere. So much modal and viscose, at the spendy end, and polyester at the cheaper end.

I wandered into a boutique the other day and saw some silk/wool and also cashmere scarves from this indy brand. I am loving the dark floral romantic cashmere scarf: www.frontrowsociety.com/boutique/

[Oneglassandpuzzled]

Agree entirely with the sentiments here! And would like to moan about wool-mix coats with polyester linings. Not very warm at all.

[Saurus72]

bunnymother I like The White Company for wool scarves, if you find a design you like. I have a lot, in various weights, each one £30-£50, often bought in outlet stores. The other fabulous thing that I discovered by accident is that these pure wool scarves can be dried in the tumble dryer; they turn out brilliantly, and also don't need ironing.

[Orangeanddemons]

Aaah, but you have to have a slippy lining in a coat to get it on and off easily. A silk lining would be ruinously expensive and very delicate. A lining is where polyester should be used, as it very slippery and smooth. Can't say much for a polyester/wool mix coat though. Polyester has no warmth at all

[AdventColander]

TKMaxx have nice woollen jumpers & cardigans & cotton tops.
Agree there is too much polyester etc. the only good thing about it is it doesn't need ironing.

[bunnymother]

Polyester lining or acetate?

[Orangeanddemons]

But acetate isn't brilliant for lining either. It's quite weak, and linings get a lot of hammer

[ElizabethBathory]

Only just come back to this - love the description of Toast upthread Viscose does crease but no worse than cotton IME - I have a couple of lovely viscose dresses which are really heavy and hang beautifully. Haven't noticed any bobbling or sweating! But agree wool and cotton by far the best.

[bunnymother]

Some of DH's suits have linings that have snagged and torn, pulled at the seams etc. I wonder if they were acetate? He does have a suit that is lined with some old Japanese printed cotton that seems coated, and that's been quite hardy.

[Panzee]

Presumably still a global cotton shortage.

[Saurus72]

Is there really a global cotton shortage? But what about silk/wool? Presumably there is a polyester mountain then?

[WildThong]

Lovely cashmere/silk mix pashminas and scarves on this site. Use code NEWPASH to get a pashmina for £30.
I like tkmaxx for silk and cotton tops.

[Orangeanddemons]

There may be a cotton shortage, but some places are managing to produce items in it, at a fairish cost.

I just think retailers think their average buyer is clueless about the whole thing and are just trying to see what they can get away with.

Polyester is as cheap as shit to produce, and the price can never be justified. The only that could make this special polyester that the retailers try to fob you off with is a higher thread count, or a special finish

[SwedishEdith]

Viscose is weird though; seems to shrink and only returns to its original size when it's ironed . The steam seems to loosen up and soften the fibres again.

[WildThong]

How do you pronounce viscose? I know someone, tends to be pretentious, says "vaicos" I thought it was visscoss?

[SwedishEdith]

I say viss cose. "Vaicos"?? How?

[WildThong]

My thought exactly