Plastic Clothes

Plastic clothes are great for sports. Sorry, Charlie.

Yeah...I have things with a bit of poly in it (it's really hard to avoid) but it's mostly a no for me, too.

It's uncomfortable. It doesn't wear well. It doesn't age well...gets baggy and out of shape very quickly.

Smells.

r2 then you buy shit plastic clothes. My hi performance synthetics dont smell. they stay the same. they dont shrink, in, out or up. I wash them after use. I get years out of ski, biking, hiking and tennis clothes.

R3 Sweetie, this is DL. And, I'm a very average DLer...gay, fat and over...well, my age is none of your business.

I don't ski, bike, hike, or play tennis. I have no need to buy athletic wear.

Calm down, and go enjoy your dreadful plastic clothes.

The opening gambit is a blanket statement, provocative, and clearly written by a trash person, which you now confirm. I agree that polyester blend Walmart clothes are crap. See, we can be frenemies!

R3 You ok?

Always felt bad thinking of number of Poly Esters sacrificed for ugly clothing.

All this dri-fit/slim-cut/quarter-zip/tech-bro style is everywhere right now in mall stores. It's like the worst of millennial anti-fashion: white collar, straight, golf course nonsense. It's like you have to look hard now to find classic cotton clothes and basic preppy styles. It's worth the effort, though. I get kind of sad when I see gay guys decked out in this awful shit.

I love synthetics and wear them all the time but the microplastics thing has got me worried

I'm changing my name to Qiana Fortrel just to annoy you, OP.

They can have my Skechers Air-Cooled Memory Foam sneakers when they take them off my dismembered feet that wash ashore on the Salish Sea coast!

I call you sensible and wise, OP.

[quote]my dismembered feet that wash ashore on the Salish Sea coast

Pics please.

I love cotton, linen, rayon (which is made from paper), silk. Very comfortable. Lycra and polyester is HOT. Sweat gets trapped in it.

I don't mind cotton-poly blends, but I hate 100% polyester anything.

What’s wrong with polyester?

I don’t like wearing it, but polyester pants hug swarthy security guards in ways that make me weak.

Just wear Tencel if you’re feeling risqué.

OP IS right. I’m looking for some clothes for the fall and it’s depressing what’s on offer. H&M/Temu level dreck. Polyester sport coats that are like the thickness of Saran Wrap. J. Press is gone. Brooks Brothers is down to the outlet stores and that’s been shit for years. Barney’s is gone, Louis is gone, Filene’s Basement is gone, menswear is gone because nobody needs a suit any more.

I retired a while ago and need to update my look, but there’s nothing much out there I want to buy. Everything is synthetic. Linings are fused. Pants waists can’t be altered. I’m too old to buy classics, investment pieces, unless it’s to be buried in and what’s out there for mid-market adult men’s clothing isn’t well-made. Somewhere there’s a well-tailored all wool blue blazer for under $300 but I haven’t seen it.

r10. you gave me a chuckle thanx

I'm neither a high performance multi-modal athlete nor a connoisseur of high quality plastic performance fabrics.

I don't have a single article of clothing that's not entirely cotton, wool, linen, silk or some natural fiber. (Maybe less the elasticated waist band of cotton underwear or a similar 1% intrusion into socks of otherwise natural fiber. And it doesn't take any special effort to not dress in plastics.

Go vintage. I found a 1930s alpaca jacket that felt like silk velvet.

EVERYTHING is made of the wretched stuff

I have grown to hate anything that has lycra or elastane in it. Jeans? No fucking thank you. I want 100% cotton denim. It's difficult to find clothing that doesn't have any synthetic fibers in it. An H & M store doesn't have a natural fiber in the whole place.

R24 an ignorant statement as H&M has plenty of cotton and linen clothes. yes 100%.

Agreed, R25. I don't know where R23 shops that he finds that "EVERYTHING is made of the wretched stuff", but I don't see any plastic and synthetic men's clothes, not in stores, and not in public (excepting some sports clothing.)

Where do you shop, R26? I was in Nordstrom, Off-Fifth, Marshall’s, Macy’s, TJ Maxx, and the Polo, Hugo Boss, and Brooks Brothers outlet stores this week. I need a blue blazer and a suit. I did not see a single item that was all wool. In fact, I saw suit after suit that contained no natural fibers at all. I haven’t had to buy dress clothing for over a decade and looking lately has shown me there’s not much being sold, period, because men don’t dress like they used to, and what is being sold is poorly made with subpar fabrics and crappy tailoring.

Plastic stuff (clothes) STINKS in the heat and humidity.

R27 I just bought a 100% linen blazer at Nordstrom in May and they had plenty of wool and natural blend options. You can't expect to find natural fibers at outlet stores. Outlets no longer sell real product at markdowns; they now sell cheaper versions of the product specially made for outlet stores. It's been this way for 20 years now.

We won't even get into how misguided you were expecting to find anything decent at TJ Maxx. That ship, too, has sailed. Macy's is essentially KMart now. Welcome to the enshittification of everything!

They’re sneaking them into your clothes more and more every day

“The study of microfiber pollution is relatively new. Just 10 years ago, a group of scientists published a breakthrough study of shorelines on six continents; it pointed to laundry as a significant source of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. Specifically, the study found plastic microfibers—tiny polyester and acrylic threads that matched those in textiles…

Today scientists estimate that textiles produce 35% of the microplastic pollution in the world’s oceans (in the form of synthetic microfibers), which would make textiles the largest known source of marine microplastic pollution. That’s about 2.2 million tons of microfibers entering the ocean every year...

No matter the pathway, plastic microfibers from clothes have shown up in food, as well as in bottled water, tap water, beer, and sea salt (PDF). An American Chemical Society study published in 2019 reported that “our estimates of American consumption of microplastics are likely drastic underestimates.”

Scientists are still studying the health impacts of ingesting plastic—including on the immune system and in childhood development. But we do know that we’re all being exposed to plastic constantly. (Because no standards for microplastics currently exist from the American National Standards Institute, ANSI, or NSF International—two bodies that oversee product claim requirements—none of our water filter picks are certified for microplastic filtration.)

[quote]Synthetic fabrics shed millions of tons of microplastics into oceans each year, largely through laundry wastewater. Here are ways to reduce the pollution.

Don't buy plastic clothes would seem a starting point.

Start by just bringing back the HONEST labels and banning the goblygook slight of hand

try SuitSupply OP. Wool, linen and silk suits. Italian. They have retail and online.

R27 Exaggerating is very immature.

[quote]What’s wrong with polyester?

Well, Carol -- isn't it Mike's favorite movie?

Yes, R25, I was exaggerating. But not much. I looked at labels on dozens of items at H & M and almost everything had some synthetic fiber in it. I did find a 100% cotton mesh shopping bag though. This is true of almost every single clothing item I come across at any moderately priced clothing store. Can one find clothes made of 100% natural fibers? Sure. But they're harder and harder to find, and usually more expensive. Approximately 60% of all clothing manufactured is made with or containing synthetic fibers. It's creating a huge problem for the planet.

it feels greasy and yuck

For working out or playing a sport, I'm with R1 and R3. But, R3, even the expensive "high performance" athletic wear starts to sink. To get the stink out, soak your shirts or shorts in a basin of warm water mixed with a capful of Oxi Clean beforehand. It works wonders. Learned that trick from Patric, The Laundry Guy.

Thanks, R39. It seems no matter how sophisticated sports fabrics get, cleaning always is an issue.