Is it better to choose natural or synthetic fabric?  Which is more sustainable?  Well that depends.

First, let’s talk about the sustainability of natural fabrics.  Most people assume that natural fabrics are the obvious choice here.

 Cotton is one of the most unsustainably grown crops in the agricultural world.  They require a tremendous amount of irrigation in most of the places where they are grown.  And they also require large amounts of fertilizer as well as pesticide applications.  Add to that the amount of labor required to pick the cotton – almost all of which is done by hand.  Picking cotton is a difficult task.  The cotton balls are contained within a hard dried seed shell that has prickly outer curled leaves that are hard on hands and arms of the pickers.  Then the cotton must be put through a “gin” to remove the seeds, a carder to comb it into long fibers, then it is spun into thread and then woven into fabric.  All of this requires a lot of energy.

Cotton is best known for its ability to soak away perspiration and is great for hot weather and for light-weight garments.  New chemical treatments have rendered it easy-care with little to no ironing needed.  It is available in very lightweight fabrics like gauze to very heavy-weight fabrics including canvas and duck used in awnings and upholstery.

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Wool comes from sheep, the sheep graze on pasture that for the most part can be rather not to the liking of most other grazing animals.  Sheep are chosen for that specific purpose.  They provide their coats kind of sustainably since they can be sheared yearly.  The wool is washed, carded, spun into thread and then woven into fabric.

Wool is fairly water resistant and very heat-conserving.  It is very useful in warm clothing for cold weather, for jackets, coats, blankets, socks, fine trousers, etc.  Wool does require dry cleaning for the most part, or hand-washing and no machine drying to prevent shrinkage.  It wears well and can last for years.

Linen comes from the fibers of the flax plant.  Certain varieties of the flax plant also provide food and nutritious oils from their seed heads, and the leaves are the source of the fibers.  These fibers are beaten, then carded to align the fibers, then spun into thread and woven into fabric.

Linen is useful in fabrics for decorating, for lightweight garments in hot climates.   For dressy clothing it has a sheen that is quite entrancing.  Linen is not very easy to care for – requires dry cleaning, and wrinkles very easily so it must be ironed frequently.  It also does not take dye well, so colors tend to be muted.  Clothing made with linen should be loosely constructed with a minimum of fitting seams.  It should also not be folded in storage to avoid breaking these fragile fibers.

Silk comes from the cocoons of a particular type of moth.  When the caterpillars go into the pupae stage and spin their cocoons prior to becoming moths, these cocoons are taken and soaked in hot water and unwound.  This super-fine strand is spun with others into thread.  What is commonly known as raw silk contains clumps of cocoon material and multiple strands of cocoon threads.  The finest silk is made only from the center threads of the cocoon and is spun from only 4-6 strands of the cocoon.  This gives it the fine texture and sheen that is so prized.

Raw silk garments can be safely hand-washed in cold water and dried but the finer silk garments should be dry-cleaned only to preserve the fine texture and colors.  These garments are fairly easy to care for other than that.  Designers particularly like the draping characteristics of silk. Wearability and durability give silk a high rating for longevity that made it very desirable in the past when garments were worn for decades due to cost.

Bamboo has recently come to the forefront of natural plant materials to be used in garments.  It is prepared similarly to linen.  The bamboo is pounded to get the fibers into a soft and separated state, then it is spun and woven into threads and yarns for fabrics.  Bamboo is a difficult plant to cultivate, and there are certainly some issues with it as far as it being the only food available for the endangered Giant Panda, as well as the overexploitation of this plant for the chopstick market.  Bamboo is also being used for the US flooring market and that is adding to concerns about its viability as a renewable resource.

Bamboo fabric is similar to linen but has a softer texture and does not wrinkle as much due to the longer length of the fiber and the finer fiber itself.  It also seems to take to dye better and has a richer range of color possibilities although very bright colors are still not  possible with this fabric.  Bamboo fabric should also be dry cleaned.

Image from AfricanTropicalHeritage.com with thanks.

I will be dealing with the aspects of synthetic fabrics in my next post.  The issues around the subject of choosing natural vs synthetic fabrics are not as simple as they seem.  Hopefully with this information, you will be able to make those choices in a more informed way.