As a slow fashion brand our fibre choices are extremely important to us, it's not just about using deadstock fabrics or responsibly sourcing, because fabric doesn't stop having an impact after we make your clothes with it.
It has an impact it's whole life. Washing, wearing and the end of its lifecycle.
Every time you wash your clothing it can have and impact on you and the environment.
Its becoming common knowledge now that polyester sheds micro plastics into our shared environment and onto our skin when we wash and wear it. But something people aren't talking about is the longevity problems.
Polyester may last forever in our environment and never break down, but it is not wearable or useful forever because it is actually harder to take care of.
Why? because of all the advertised 'benefits' brands that use polyester try to sell it to you with, are not really benefits.
The moisture wicking and thermo-abilities of polyester are because it is 'oleophilic' which means it attracts and absorbs oils, perfect for removing sweat off your body, not so perfect when it comes to spills, smells, bacterias and stains because oleophilic materials are commonly also 'hydrophobic' which means they repe water.
An item that can repel water but attract oil is obviously going to be much harder to clean over the long term, detergents and water struggle to penetrate fibres.
Try to imagine washing a plastic container stained by spaghetti sauce - hey, we've all been there - you may be able to scrub the surface but nothing will ever lift that stain that has formed from the oil penetrating the material.
You may have to take polyester to the dry cleaners to ever have it feel, or smell, like it is actually clean. Which is going to get expensive and harmful to you health pretty fast.
Your brand new polyester crop top is going to collect smells and stains and it will get harder and harder to remove as it collects more over time and use. Until eventually you have to throw the garment out. But that's what fast fashion counts on, they want you to throw it away so you buy more.
By contrast, Cotton is super easy to clean, it is machine washable, doesn't need special instructions beyond a cold temperature and is very resilient. Cotton responds to stain removal, almost never needs dry cleaning making it cheap and convenient to take care of properly.
And even if it does end up being passed on, it has the ability to decompose, especially if it hasn't been treated with harsh chemicals.
This is only one of the ways choosing cotton has a reduced long term impact, but is still important. This is why all of our tops are 100% cotton. They are super easy to take care of.
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