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.

Cotton is often no more expensive but often doesn't take print well or drapes poorly

LK Bennett is not fantastic fibres I don't think. I think they're all lined with viscose or something.

I have an Oasis dress which is linen lined with cotton.

Bunny your DH sounds very sophisticated! ;-)

Swedish I imagine 'vaicos' comes from it looking like viscount which is pronounced 'vaicount'.

Poetry has nice linen cotton etc but not height of fashion. Winser london some terrible manmade skirt fabric- scratchy and see through and £££. Other stuff looks ok silk shirrs etc but not seen Irl.

Can I be boring about why viscose gets bigger when ironed? .

Is structure is similar to cotton. The polymer chains are joined by little cross links. When you wash it, these get broken. Heat and steam repair them. Viscose is very weak due to ls of broken polymer chains. That's why it creases so easily.

Cotton takes colour extremely well, all the natural fibres do, so the fact that it doesn't take colour is not an excuse for using polyester. All the plastic based fibres are the most difficult to dye, but they still use loads of them..

Sorry for being boring...

Loving this thread. I deeply dislike most synthetics and viscose (although a small amount of polyester can be practical in some clothes). The shops will stop offering cheap nasty synthetics only when we stop buying them.

They invested heavily in large scale polyester production in China and we are reaping the results now. Polyester is plastic, so when you are wearing it, you are basically wearing a plastic bag.

You can still get excellent fibers (in love with my alpaca/wool sweater) but you have to be a smart shopper, be prepared to pay more, look out for niche stuff and shop by hand feel.

I agree re natural fibres but find thick viscose tops really good in the way they hang, very flattering if you have big norks.

the only plus for polyester is no ironing if you are lazzzzzzzy like me.

Ebay - I have just purchased four different sonia ryikel cashmere / wool jumpers from £10 - £40 and they are beautiful. Dry clean only tho (bah!)

I keep saying "vaicos" in my best pretentious voice. :o

Don't believe all the dry clean only labels on knitted cashmere or wool. They respond better to being gently washed in lukewarm water & a suitable liquid, like Woolite, than being bombarded with dry cleaning chemicals. Farmers don't dry clean sheep or goats! I've got cashmere & wool jumpers years old, many with dry clean only labels, that have been washed & washed & still look like new.

You despair of fabrics in most shops these days. It wasn't always like this. I still have lots of classic clothes that I'm reluctant to part with as they're wool, cotton or silk & were high street not expensive designer.

I ignore all dry clean only labels unless it's a wool coat or something big like a bridesmaids dress.

Never heard 'vaicos'!!

I'm very fussy about natural fibres and definitely resist buying synthetics. I bought some gorgeous all wool Italian sweaters in the sales recently and I look out for all cotton shirts etc.

I don't know what I'd do without lycra in my tights and underwear, though!

I am glad it is not only me that loathes viscose. It makes me sweat.

I have to check carefully on the labels. If I have forgotten to do so, I then get sweat at the back of my neck and my back. Torrents! Not good. I keep looking at Boden stuff but it is either too short or viscose heavy,

You all say synthetics are horrible and sweaty but cotton is a horrible fabric to run in, you sweat it stays wet and sticks to you but the synthetics I wear wick moisture away from the skin and are much more comfortable to wear - why is that?

But that's because those items are engineered to do this. Running items tend to be made from modern or smart materials. Fashion stuff on the high street doesn't have this engineering, it's just bog standard plastic

I totally agree Bawabod. I try to buy natural fabrics as much as I can and I agree Viscose makes you sweaty. I do have some tops in this fabric.

Also the quality of the cotton is so thin these days and then they go into holes etc half the time.

This drives me UP THE WALL! I don't mind if cheap shops use man-made fabrics, but places like Whistles, Reiss and Jigsaw asking £100 upwards for jumpers and dresses that are basically plastic is just taking the piss.

I just wait until the sales, and look at cheaper places very carefully to find the more decent fabrics.

I really struggle in man made fibres, peri-menopausal and my body temp fluctuates. Can I add to the list, Celtic & Co, Wrap London and East. Wrap is sister company to Poetry, more trendy. Lots of linen, cotton, hemp. I'm not trendy, I just don't want to sweat in plastic!

Love this thread.

Funnily enough as they are so cheap, ASOS do a lot of cotton jersey Ts and dresses. I've had good quality, reliable stuff from them at fine prices.

Does anyone know what the deal is with 'luxury jersey' eg fabric that contains modal? Why is it more expensive, and what makes it nicer?

Ha ha, modal is just another form of viscose, usually made from beech rather than pine. It has a good drape like viscose only slightly better. What gets me is M and S advertise their,stuff as pure modal, like it's some luxury fabric. Big wow!

&otherstories seems to use pure wool, I got some lovely things in the sale

What gets me is polyester sleepwear. Who would buy that! Sleeping in a plastic bag. Yeauch. Primark used to be ok for 100% cotton pjs but I notice more and more polyester creeping in. M&S and the other usual suspects are much the same.
Even the DC are fabric snobs when it comes to pjs/nighties. And did you know it is nigh on impossible to buy cotton nighties for kids, something to do with fire regulations. So they'e all made of polyester. Sleeping in a plastic bag.

I was just raging about this the other day, much harder to find natural fibres indeed. I've bought a lot more in charity shops in the last year as had more luck finding pure wool jumpers. Howies do some nice stuff, am wearing a coral coloured merino base layer as a nice thin jumper atm.

Same prob with girls' nighties here, got dd a secondhand cath kidston and a White Company one.

I just thought of another brand where you can find some natural fibres: Pure Collection.

Oh don't get me started on plastic pyjamas!

I was given some for Christmas, from Next. Pure polyester. I just couldn't sleep in that stuff. Thank heavens the giver included a gift receipt. I went to Next, expecting to be able to swap them easily for cotton pyjamas, or even a nightdress...

...and they had none. None. There was one pair of pyjamas in the directory, not in store, that was made of cotton. One! Everything else was made of nasty synthetic fibres.