Know your fabrics - 1 Synthetics

One of the questions we get asked most often is what is the difference between the many fabrics? In fact there are 3 categories of fabrics commonly used in fashion: Synthetic, Man-Made and Natural fabrics. Let’s look at the first of these.

SYNTHETICS

NYLON and POLYESTER were invented in the early years of the 20th century and are derived from petrochemicals.

They were widely used as a silk replacement particularly as parachutes during WW2.

The fibre is extremely strong, light, waterproof and inexpensive.

Unfortunately it is not biodegradable although some can be recycled. Our Danish brands are proactive in this, look for the Recycled badge on our website products for items that are or contain recycled materials. More about this in a later post.

Other Synthetics include ACRYLIC, POLYAMIDE, LYCRA, NEOPRENE, MICROFIBRE, SPANDEX, LUREX. Most synthetics are not breathable.

Synthetics can be useful in knitwear blends to improve washability.

The biggest plus of these fabrics? - moths do not eat synthetics!