Miracle Fabric or Environmental Horror

Miracle fabric to environmental horror. Polyester was once the staple of 1970s fashion and the beginning of fast fashion as we see it today. However, the plastic-based fibers have become a leading factor in textile pollution today.

Courtesy of Zara

First developed by the chemical company DuPont and patented as Dacron, polyester is a category of fibers used in car manufacturing, string instruments, and, of course, fashion. Most polyester is made of Polyethylene Terephthalate or PET, a polymer plastic. While some polyester is naturally occurring, it is predominantly derived from crude oil. It rose in popularity as an affordable alternative to natural fabrics in the 1970s by way of the emblematic double-knit suit, with its bright colors, casual-meets-business style, and resistance to wrinkling. The fabric is as telling of the decade as fringe and bell bottoms. Today, you’d be hard-pressed to not find poly-based garments in vintage shops. The rise of polyester coincided with the first big trendsetting era of the 1960s and '70s as consumers looked for ready-to-wear styles that adapted to changing trend cycles. “Soon, fashion brands had to find ways to keep up with this increasing demand for affordable clothing,” fashion historian Sara Idacavage wrote for Fashionista. Polyester’s low-cost production fit perfectly into this model. Otherwise, unnatural colors and patterns could be easily achieved with polyester. It is durable, water-resistant, and resilient against moths and other pests. It can be made to mimic silk, velvet, and fur while staying affordable to the everyday buyer. But even before the environmental damages were known, polyester’s popularity began to wane. It held onto odors and lacked breathability, making it uncomfortable to wear. “Designers have ignored polyester. Retailers shunned it. And consumers made jokes about it,” reported the New York Times in 1983. Affordability morphed into the negative connotations of being cheap, and it fell out of favor, but not out of fashion.

Photo by Martin Bernetti, 2021, Chile

Polyester holds an odd place today. In retail and thrift stores, consumers would rather skip over a poly-blend T-shirt in favor of a 100% cotton top, yet it’s still dominant in garment making. As of 2020, polyester makes up 52% of all fiber production, according to the Guardian, which doesn’t account for other synthetic and plastic-based garments, like acrylic sweaters and nylon tights. The Council of Fashion Designers of America said that polyester production emitted 282 billion kg of CO2 in 2015, roughly three times more than cotton production. After production, polyester clothes will shed microplastics when washed, with 10% of all microplastic pollution coming from textiles. Water treatment centers are still unable to filter out these plastics, meaning the average person consumes around five grams of plastic a week, or a credit card’s worth. Worst of all, polyester’s durability means it lasts forever. A single garment made today will take anywhere from 20 to 200 years to break down. The very minimum time is equivalent to an entire generational span. Now, multiply that by the hundreds of tons of garments made each year. Even with its most benign associations, there is little pressure for clothing manufacturers to shift away from polyester. But as sustainability becomes more popular and consumers continue to be conscious shoppers, we may slowly cut away at its hold in the fashion world.