Materials thread

[can-]

cotton
-i'm against buying/wearing cotton shirts or pants or mid/lightweight jackets that havent been washed and dried on the hottest setting. had too many garments ruined because they shrunk in the wash-- W+H sweats, dior jeans, apc jeans, n+f jeans. (interesting to note, all of these jeans were "sanforized"). there's comfort knowing that your oxfords or jeans can't be ruined in case ur mom or whoever decides to wash them.


linen
-why so crinkly? why not more cotton / linen blends out there?

poly
-why so much hate? i have arcteryx cotton/poly button ups that dry so quickly and wear beautifully in heat. couple of full poly OCBD's from my dad's closet that also kill it in the heat stroke.

-poly/cotton fleece is way softer to touch than cotton. no contest

-full poly hardshells are very common. some are better than others. how do we feel about this

[schiaparelli]

to add on—linen and silk blends are kind of my ideal for summer garments. straight-up linen is kind of a pain and anything that can stave away creasing is welcome.

bemberg cupro is lovely. i guess the only way i've found of describing it is a matte silklike thing with a fuzzily suede-like finish. i have a helmut lang dress in bemberg cupro and the next step is a bemberg cupro onesie and bedsheets and carpet and ok i'm kidding but it really is a nice material, and i think i'm a little fonder of every garment that uses it now because it feels cool against your skin.

re: polyester but really synthetics in general—a combination of naturalistic fallacy x generalizations from the shitty polyester/synthetics used in cheap clothing has led to this general attitude of snobbishness, i guess, about synthetics in fashion. what i'd really like is to learn a bit more about how textile companies/fashion brands develop new synthetics and how they use them, probably more on the materials science/engineering side than the fashion side (although it would be cool to learn about the affordances of different materials and how they react under tension/stretching, how the material affects how a garment can drape/hang). i've been checking out but it's heavily slanted towards natural fibers.

[bels]

I have a nice linen/cotton blend shirt from uniqlo that's too small for me now. It didn't crease up much more than an oxford might. Was great. I think that although people say stuff like "Let it be crinkly it's linen it's meant to look like that" 100% linen does look sort of weird especially if you aren't on a beach or poolside.

I hate on poly because it feels like a gamble, especially on the internet and especially at my price point. I do find that what I own smells worse faster but maybe that's just my body chemistry or something or the fact that most of the poly I own is running shirts. That said my aspesi windbreaker has some poly (or nylon) in the mix and I never have any problems with that and love the extra water resistance provided by the poly.

[schiaparelli]

i have to agree with you re: poly. i actually popped back in this thread to note that the reason i'm wary of poly is that it isn't v. breathable and i always feel uncomfortably sweatier than normal wearing poly than cotton. really have to stop buying 100% poly for stuff next to my skin.

[bels]

I'm not sure if it's less breathable. After all my running shirts are all poly. It's just that it smells bad faster for some reason

[Syeknom]

I wear 100% poly dress shirts on occasion and hate it - feels like i'm wearing sweaty cardboard

[germinal]

i think artificial materials can get a bad rap; like anything there are cheap polys and there are cool well-thought-out and -integrated polys

[Syeknom]

This is very true

Schneider blends synthetics in to his clothing that make for really unique fabrics

That said, my love for natural textiles is an intense affair

[germinal]

Sometimes the Internet Fashion Sphere just reads like natural fibres propaganda so my natural contrarianism compels me to stand up for poly. i like acrylic for socks, nylon is highly versatile and can add strength and water-resistance, poly can add warmth (albeit non-wicking) without itching or shedding, it's lightweight, and won't ever go mouldy like down - and this is barely scratching the surface. The possibilities with artificial fibres are just as diverse as with natural and i think you can do some truly extraordinary things with a clever use of both. It's only lazy/cheap design from the high st that gives poly such a bad name

[bels]

I sometimes wonder if it's partly to do with buying everything remotely. If I'm looking at two shirts online and one is poly cotton and one is cotton, I'll go for the cotton, because at least I know where I stand. 100% cotton means something that I understand wheras 60/40 poly cotton could be almost anything.

That said I still want a ventile harrington.

[starfox64]

is all linen (or linen-cotton blends) itchy or am i just looking too low on the shopping totem pole?

[can-]

linen gets softer with every wash but higher quality stuff like ds Dundee will be softer off the bat than, muji or uniqlo

[bels]

This summer has got me wanting some linen shirts but really... They're so impractical. Linen blend is where it's at but not always so easy to find. Oxford cloth feels horrible in the heat though and that seems to be my entire shirt collection almost.

I've got two cos linen wool blend jumpers that I'm looking forward to wearing when a/w comes around. One black, one puke green. Probably going to rebuy that linen jigsaw coat.

Does linen actually keep you cooler if it's a layer rather than next to your skin?

[thomaspaine]

I'm too lazy to transcribe all this info, but here are some pictures of handy charts from a textbook on textiles I own.






(flax = linen)

[hooplah]

[germinal]

what t-shirts do you wear if not jersey ones?

[UnwashedMolasses]

Four Pins on various fabrics:

http://four-pins.com/style/steeziest-fabrics-time/

I typically don't pay as much attention to fabrics as I should.

I really want these jeans due to the fabrics, though:

http://centerforcosmicwonder.com/goods_en_jpy_99.html

65% Rayon, 35% Cotton, 2% Polyurethane

I hate feeling restricted by clothes, especially pants due to big legs, so these seem ideal.

[hooplah]

[thomaspaine]

Jersey is a type of knit pattern, not a fabric. Almost every t-shirt uses a jersey knit.

Agree that jersey sheets are the worst though, I hate how they move with you and get hot. Really don't like jersey for much other than t-shirts actually, jersey dresses and blazers usually feel and look awful.

I think interlock (double sided jersey) makes a cool t-shirt because it gives it a bit more stiffness and weight.

[UnwashedMolasses]

Screw you guys jersey sheets are great, it's y'alls fault for moving around too much.

[Satan]

[Bobbin.Threadbare]

I don't even know how to begin answering this one, materials are often the first thing I look at. Obviously it depends on what piece of clothing we're talking about but --

Rayon: Bain of my fucking life. I cannot avoid it, because the nicest hawaiian shirts are made of it, but I have to dry clean them. It sucks, but on the other hand they hang so nicely. It's man made, which I generally don't like though.

Cotton: Love it. Can't live without it. I am a cotton nerd.

Hemp: Fuck, hemp has a really bad image, but it's an amazing material. Cotton/hemp mixes have a really soft hand (although I've noticed they retain water for longer

Linen: If you sleep in linen sheets, linen pyjamas you'll have a cathartic moment. If you hate creases, then it isn't for you. It'll never be a 'smart' looking product, but it has a rich history. I've looked into the history of linen and natural dying, and you wouldn't believe how far this stuff goes back. Nowadays while people are obsessed with selvage looms in japan weaving denim, everyone is missing out on looms in the UK and Ireland making stunning linens.

Polyester: Alright, I hated polyester, and I still do in some cases, but I've recently found a very good use for it in textile production - more on that later in the month.

Wool: My dad's side of my family still has Arab bedoiun roots, so I've gone to see traditional wool (camel, lambs hair) etc. and the stuff is amazing. I'd love buy/use it more if I can find a way. I have a wool coat and a couple of jumpers which kind of 'do a job'.

Jersey: A while ago when I first got into fashion, I was gobsmacked that 'jersey' was a seperate department on design floors )eg: denim, underwear, shirting). I've grown to like it, but only if it's interesting/scarce. It generally isn't very tough though.