By Patrick Manian, an energy efficiency engineer living in the Hudson Valley. His wife Diana runs Cremona Studios, a slow fashion label that makes organic, plant-dyed clothing. He spent years nodding politely when she talked about fabric. Then he made the mistake of actually doing the research.
My wife makes clothes from organic fibers and plant dyes. For years, she’d tell me why this mattered, why the fabric touching your skin all day, every day, is something worth thinking about. I’d nod. I’d say “that’s interesting.” I did not, in fact, think it was that interesting.
Then one afternoon I looked at the tag on my favourite shirt. Polyester. I looked at another. Polyester blend. Another. 100% polyester.
I didn’t know what polyester actually was. I looked it up and began a very uncomfortable education.
You Are Wearing Plastic
Polyester is made from a chemical reaction involving petroleum, air and water. That’s it. Your athleisure, your work shirts, your kids’ school uniforms; a plastic bag.
I’m not being dramatic. Polyethylene (plastic bags) is the number one plastic by market share. Polyester is number three. We are, quite literally, a plastic-wearing species. Check the tag on your back. Seriously.
As of 2023, synthetic fibres account for about 65% of global fibre production, and polyester alone makes up 57% of all fibre produced worldwide. That number was 54% just a year earlier. It is going in one direction, and it’s not the right one.
The Supernatural Powers of a Terrible Material
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: polyester is good at being a fabric. It’s hydrophobic, anti-pilling, wrinkle-resistant, shape-retaining, and it lasts. These are real advantages, and they’re the reason the textile industry can’t quit it.
But “good at being a fabric” and “good for you” are not the same question.
Polyester doesn’t breathe the way natural fibres do. It traps heat and moisture against your skin, your largest organ, and a highly permeable one. If you’ve ever peeled off a synthetic shirt after a long day and felt that clammy, slightly off sensation, that’s not your imagination. That’s plastic doing what plastic does.
The Part That Made Me Put Down My Tea
Every time you wash a polyester garment, it sheds microplastic fibres into the water. Hundreds of thousands of them. Per wash. Per garment.
About 35% of all primary microplastics in the ocean come from laundering synthetic textiles. Every year, washing clothes releases roughly 500,000 tonnes of microfibres into the ocean, the equivalent of 50 billion plastic bottles. An estimated 22 million metric tonnes of microfibres will enter the ocean between 2015 and 2050 if nothing changes.
Those aren’t just ocean numbers. They’re your numbers. Microplastics have been found in human blood, in lung tissue, in placentas, testicles and, according to a 2024 study, in human joint tissue. The average person inhales and absorbs thousands of synthetic particles a year through food, water, and directly through the skin.
Stop for a second. Feel the fabric on your arm right now.
“But What About Recycled Polyester?”
Brands like Nike, Adidas and H&M market recycled polyester as a sustainable solution: turning plastic bottles into shirts. Sounds heroic.
A December 2025 study by the Changing Markets Foundation found that recycled polyester actually sheds 55% more microplastic particles than virgin polyester during washing. The particles are also about 20% smaller, meaning they spread more easily and do more damage. Nike’s recycled polyester clothing shed over 30,000 fibres per gram of sample, nearly four times H&M’s average and seven times Zara’s.
Meanwhile, 98% of “recycled polyester” comes from plastic bottles, not from old clothes. Those bottles were already being recycled in a closed loop. Turning them into shirts removes them from that loop and puts them into one that ends in a landfill or the ocean. The textile-to-textile recycling rate? About 2%.
I don’t think most people buying a “recycled polyester” hoodie think this through. I certainly didn’t.
What the Fashion Industry Doesn’t Want You to Think About
The fashion industry produces roughly 944 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year, about 2% of total global emissions. In 2023, sector emissions actually grew by 7.5%, driven largely by increased polyester production and fast fashion. Only 4 of the 250 largest fashion brands have emission reduction targets that meet UN standards.
But emissions are just one piece. The industry uses 215 trillion litres of water annually. About 85% of all textiles end up in landfills each year. Less than 1% of clothing material gets recycled into new clothing.
85% waste per year… do I really want cheap crap? Why don’t I have an ounce of pride in my own clothing? Why have I never thought about this?
So Now What?
I’m not going to tell you to throw out everything you own. That would create more waste, which kind of defeats the point.
But when you buy something new, and you will, because at the end of the day, we’re all customers anyway. Consider what it’s made of. Read the tag. If it says polyester, nylon, acrylic, or spandex, or any of the other words that sound like that. You’re buying plastic.
The gap between conventional synthetic and organic natural fibre is enormous. This applies to secondhand clothing too.
And that brings me back to my wife, who has been saying all of this for years with considerably more patience than I would have. She makes clothes from organic cotton, plant-dyed by hand. I used to think it was a style thing. I now understand it’s a direct response to everything in this article.
I hope that once you see this, you can’t fully un-see it. I couldn’t.
Stop. Breathe. Check the tag.
Diana’s full collection of organic, plant-dyed clothing is at cremonastudios.com. Every piece is made from natural fibres: no polyester, no synthetics, no plastic on your skin.