Introduction
Polyester is a synthetic fabric that has evolved so much since its inception that it is now one of the most widely used fabrics for clothing. Initially decried as a rag-trade commodity, polyester fell into fast fashion and mass-market casual wear. But over the past few years, polyester has changed as a fabric, entering the fashion, sustainable design and performance textile space. Today, designers are taking a new look at the possibilities of polyester by using it in new ways that increase its texture, sustainability and utility.
In this article, we’ll look at the ways designers are utilizing polyester in sustainable fashion, smart fabrics, and how it’s revolutionizing high-end collections. This blog will explore the history of polyester, its history, and its future in fashion.
1. Polyester in Fashion: A Brief History
Historical Perspective
Polyester first hit the market in the 1940s and grew in popularity in the 1970s due to its affordability, strength, and maintenance. During those early days, polyester was often paired with cheap, mass-produced garments – hence its reputation as a cheap, low-quality fabric. Polyester was the fabric of choice for everyday wear and fast fashion – it wrinkled easily, and could be produced in large quantities at affordable prices.
The material’s early connection with cheap, mass-produced fashion led to the conclusion that polyester was inferior to other natural materials such as cotton, silk or wool. Wearing it in clothing tended to be an economical trade-off – a staple for bargain shoppers but not luxury goods. Polyester fabrics were condemned for being stiff, uncomfortably soft, and lacking the smooth texture of natural fibres.
But polyester’s reputation began to erode as designers began to try out different uses for the material. Its technical and manufacturing improvements allowed for better, higher-performance polyester fabrics, which eventually allowed it to be applied to a wide range of uses, such as luxury apparel. The rise in demand for sustainable fabrics, including recycled polyester, has also helped push polyester from a status symbol of fashion culture to an eco-fashion material.
Technological Advances
Technological advances in polyester manufacturing have turned it from a basic, cheap material into a haute-couture fabric. Polyester fabrics are soft, breathable, and more versatile than ever. Advanced fibre technology made the fabrics more comfortable to wear and more durable.
For instance, microfiber polyester has gained favour due to its supple feel and ability to simulate natural fabrics such as silk and suede. Microfibers are thinner than regular polyester fibers, which makes the fabric feel smooth and soft. Designers therefore now employ this polyester in a wide range of luxury garments, such as eveningwear, outerwear and accessories.
Polyester blends were another development that opened up the fabric’s potential. Using polyester in combination with other natural fibres such as cotton, wool or silk, designers can make textiles that bring the best from each fiber together. For instance, polyester-cotton blends are generally used to produce durable, soft, wrinkle resistant and machine-washable garments. Polyester’s breadth of blends means designers can experiment with textures, finishes and performance attributes to push its envelope even further in fashion.
Recycled polyester (rPET) addition is another technological leap in recent years. Recycled polyester — made from post-consumer waste, like plastic bottles — has become popular because of its sustainability advantages. The invention not only recycles waste, but also eliminates virgin polyester manufacturing, a very environmentally damaging activity.
These technologies have transformed polyester from a commodity fabric into an elegant, sustainable material for use in many fashion contexts, from sport wear to haute couture.
2. Sustainability Innovations in Polyester
Despite growing worries over the environmental impact of fashion, fashion companies have moved decisively towards more sustainable practices. Polyester – long thought to be an environmentally unpalatable fabric due to its inedibility and dependence on fossil fuels for manufacture – has recently experienced huge advancements in sustainability that have transformed it into an environmentally friendly material.
Recycled Polyester (rPET)
Most notably, one of polyester’s key innovations is recycled polyester, or rPET. rPET is produced by reusing post-consumer plastic waste, such as empty plastic bottles, and turning it into polyester fibers. It cuts out the demand for virgin polyester, made from petroleum products, and offsets the negative environmental impact of polyester manufacturing.
Designers and brands now embrace rPET as an environmentally friendly alternative, and most major fashion houses use it in their designs. For a designer who is so concerned about being green, Stella McCartney has used recycled polyester for many years to produce high-fashion clothes using environmentally friendly materials. Another pioneer of sustainability fashion, Patagonia, uses rPET extensively in their activewear and outdoorwear collections. Such brands have proven that recycled polyester can be used in clothing from casual clothing to high-performance athletic wear, without compromise in quality or fashion.
Ultimately, the key advantage of rPET is to help minimize plastic emissions while lowering the environmental impact of polyester clothing. However, polyester is difficult to recycle, especially because of the quality and toughness of fibers made from recycled plastic. Some rPET fabrics may be poorer quality than virgin polyester, and therefore the longevity of garments woven from them can be reduced. What’s more, plastic bottle recycling into polyester can still contribute to an environmental footprint – although it is much less than virgin polyester.
Nonetheless, recycled polyester’s popularity continues to grow, and designers are incorporating it into their designs as part of their approach to sustainable fashion.
Biodegradable Polyester
A third innovation for sustainable polyester is the introduction of biodegradable polyester. While conventional polyester can take hundreds of years to decompose in landfills, biodegradable polyester is designed to decompose faster. This technology addresses one of the primary environmental issues associated with polyester: its lingering effects on the environment once removed from use.
There are companies and designers currently experimenting with biodegradable polyester alternatives, which use renewable materials and can decompose in an eco-friendly way. Bio-PET, for instance, is a biodegradable form of polyester that extracts the fibres from plant materials such as sugarcane or corn. Such materials can disintegrate more quickly than conventional polyester when left in the open air.
Biodegradable polyester remains in its infancy and will only gain mainstream adoption in the fashion world as production techniques and properties are developed. But it is an exciting first step in reducing the environmental footprint of polyester.
Closed-Loop Recycling Systems
One of the greatest advances in polyester recycling is the advent of closed-loop recycling systems, which recycle polyester clothing into fresh polyester fibers without losing any of its quality. These mechanisms are designed to develop a polyester circular economy in which clothes are picked up, taken apart and reused in new products, thus reducing waste and virgin polyester production.
Fashion companies such as H&M and Levi’s have started to use closed-loop recycling systems, which enable customers to take their unwanted clothes back to be recycled into new ones. The North Face has teamed up with Ellen MacArthur Foundation to advance a circular fashion economy, recycling polyester clothing through closed-loop processes.
Such systems are critical to making polyester an environmentally sustainable fabric. Closed-loop recycling is still an intractable problem, but reusing polyester clothing indefinitely could spell big things for fashion.
3. Smart and Performance-Based Polyester Fabrics
Beyond sustainability, another major area of polyester innovation is the ability to incorporate performance and smart technologies. Designers use polyester more and more to create moisture-wicking, UV-resistant and temperature-regulating fabrics, making polyester an ideal material for sportswear, athleisure and daily wear.
Polyester with Smart Features
Because polyester is so flexible, it can be designed with all kinds of smart accessories to maximize its functionality. Soil-wicking polyester is a fabric that keeps the wearer dry by pulling moisture away from the skin and evaporates quickly. This is especially helpful in activewear, where moisture management is a key component to comfort and performance. For instance, Nike and Adidas employ moisture-wicking polyester in their athletics collections to keep sportspeople dry and comfortable.
Another performance aspect of polyester is UV protection, a growing necessity in outdoor and sport clothing. Polyester fabrics can be coated with UV-resistant coatings that protect the skin from harmful ultraviolet rays. This is particularly important for companies such as Columbia Sportswear and Prana, which make clothing designed specifically for outdoor pursuits such as hiking, surfing and skiing.
Lastly, temperature-regulating polyester has become increasingly popular, especially in sportswear and activewear. This fabric of polyester responds to body temperature fluctuations to keep the wearer comfortable in a variety of conditions. With temperature-regulating polyester integrated into their designs, fashion designers can create clothes suitable for intense sports and day-to-day use.
Wearable Technology in Polyester
Polyester is also the venue for wearables. Incorporating sensors, health devices and responsive fabrics into polyester garments is creating new opportunities for both fashion and sportwear. Ralph Lauren, for instance, has created a line of smart shirts in polyester that are equipped with sensors that measure the wearer’s heartrate, breathing rate and level of activity.
They can give valuable data back to the user about his health and performance. As wearable technologies become more advanced, polyester could well be a driving force in the creation of wearable clothes capable of tracking health, enhancing performance, and even sensing the outside environment.
4. Polyester in Fashion: Dispelling the Myth Polyester in High Fashion: Overcoming the Myth Polyester in Fashion.
Luxury Designers Embracing Polyester
Polyester was once shunned by haute couture, where natural fibres such as silk, wool and cotton were valued for their perceived luxury, texture and sophistication. Polyester, meanwhile, was the rudimentary alternative, often used in mass-produced, ready-to-wear collections. Yet as the market is in search of environmentally responsible and performative textiles, polyester has found its way into the couture world and is now being worn by designers for their couture lines.
Polyester’s flexibility to adapt to a variety of finishes and textures has made it the perfect fabric for designers looking to explore new shapes, without compromising strength, colour fastness or washability. Contemporary advances in polyester have widened its use for luxury fashion designers, spawning novel fabrics that emulate the silkiness and sophistication of natural fibres. Polyester satin, for example, is a popular fabric for nightwear and bridal dresses because of its shiny finish and cheaper price than silk.
Designers such as Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney and Chanel have begun using polyester in more experimental, functional ways. Lagerfeld’s collections, for instance, regularly use polyester in complex, grid-like forms, showing that the material can be worked into designer-ready silhouettes. For example, the sustainable fashion designer Stella McCartney has used recycled polyester (rPET) in her collections, which fuses sustainable designs with high-end aesthetics. In making high-fashion applications of polyester, these designers are re-emphasising the fabric’s traditional taboo while opening up the fabric to a wider audience.
It is largely due to the fabric’s versatility that polyester has also emerged as a key component in luxury clothing. It can be woven into several properties, like moisture wicking, breathability, and temperature regulation, making it perfect for fabrics that are both practical and stylish. Fashion designers can now incorporate such performance techniques into haute couture designs, resulting in garments that are as functional as they are elegant.
In addition, polyester enables high-end brands to bring couture collections closer to mass market. Natural fibres such as silk, cashmere and wool tend to put a considerable margin of the market at risk because they are so expensive. Combining polyester with these premium fibers or designing individual garments from cutting-edge polyesters can allow fashion designers to produce affordable designer garments while retaining luxury and elegance.
Blending Polyester with Other Fabrics
Perhaps the most significant innovation in polyester’s journey into fashion is polyester’s blend with cotton, silk, wool and linen. By using polyester in combination with these fabrics, designers can design clothes that combine the strengths of both fibers to enhance the overall performance, feel, and appearance of the fabric. The resultant pieces are functional, luxe and soft, giving buyers an upscale look without the upkeep that natural fibers can require.
Polyester and silk blends, for example, are increasingly used in formal wear. Polyester adds durability to silk without losing the lustrous softness of silk. This combination also preserves the garment’s shape and resists wrinkles, rendering it more versatile for day-to-day use without compromising its high end look. Polyester-cotton blends, however, can be used to create breathable, wrinkle-resistant shirts, blouses and dresses, both for the everyday and professional wear.
Designers even mix polyester with wool, and combine wool with wool to make something softer and more warm, but stretchy. This mixture is used in outerwear, tailoring and suits, allowing the fabric to stay firm while still offering a looser, more comfortable fit. These advances have propelled polyester from the low-cost category to the level where it can compete with luxuries.
Examples of collections where polyester blending has been on display include Balenciaga’s Fall 2020, in which the designer Demna Gvasalia used high-tech fabrics such as polyester with silks and velvets to make dresses that were modern and expensive. Likewise, H&M Conscious, an eco-conscious fashion brand, incorporates polyester with cotton, wool and other sustainable fabrics to create high-quality clothes that are less polluting.
Blending polyester and natural fibres gives designers the opportunity not only to enhance the performance and feel of clothing, but also to place polyester on the high fashion scene. This has enabled the fabric to bridge the divide between fast fashion and haute couture fashion, opening up the fabric to a much wider variety of consumers while still maintaining a sophisticated feel.
5. Design and Artistic Uses of Polyester.
Textural Innovations
Some of polyester’s most exciting uses are in textiles with textures that challenge what we know about it. Designers had started playing with the properties of polyester, bringing velvet, chiffon, satin and mesh to dominate today’s fashion.
Polyester velvet has also risen in popularity for its dense texture and capacity to emulate the silk velvet feel but be more durable and more comfortable to wash. Polyester velvet is widely worn as nightwear, jackets, and accessories and provides a touch of luxurious luxury at a lower price than real velvet. Designers such as Versace and Dolce & Gabbana have resorted to this fabric because of the depth and weight of its texture.
Another fabric that is increasingly popular is polyester chiffon. Perspex-based chiffon is a lightweight and translucent fabric used in fine blouses, dresses and skirts. Fashion designers often employ polyester chiffon to develop a flirty silhouette for spring/summer collections. Its structural flexibility, coupled with its light and transparent nature, makes it a versatile fabric for dreamy feminine garments.
Polyester satin also enabled designers to experiment with the indulgence of smooth, shiny fabrics. In contrast to silk, satin is often now spun out of polyester, a cheaper alternative that provides the same shiny, expensive appearance. From formal wear to contemporary loungewear, polyester satin is applied in many different fashions. In clothing collections, designers such as Ralph Lauren and Alexander McQueen have worked with polyester satin to create refined, high-tech looks that are a blend of comfort and sophistication.
An even more famous example is polyester mesh, commonly found in athleisure and sport clothing. The mesh’s open-weave fabric provides ventilation and stretch, and it is ideal for an active lifestyle. But mesh has also entered high-fashion wardrobes, where it is worn in dresses, tops and accessories for an avant-garde vibe.
Color and Print Innovations
Dyeing polyester has been an aspect of the fabric favoured by designers for many years, and digital printing technology has further enhanced this property. Polyester holds vibrant prints and colours with amazing vigour, making it the perfect fabric for experimenting with bold, creative designs. Digital printing has made it possible for fabric designers to design bespoke polyester fabrics with specific patterns and graphics they would not be able to produce with other fibres.
Emilio Pucci and Missoni have, for instance, printed polyester fabrics using digital printing techniques to produce original, unique designs evoking modern fashion. This allows complex patterns, abstracts and photographic images to be printed on polyester fabrics with high resolution and clarity. This makes polyester a great fabric for high-fashion designers who desire to create clothing that is original and vibrant.
Furthermore, because polyester remains colourable when washed and exposed to sunlight, it’s a popular fabric for conducting colour experiments. Unlike fibers, such as those found in nature, polyester does not lose color or vibrancy with time, so clothes will look attractive and last long. This makes polyester the perfect material for savvy designers who want to go all-in with color.
The advent of sustainable dyes and sustainable printing has also made polyester appealing to designers seeking to reduce the ecological footprint of their collections. With these advances, designers are able to produce the same beautiful color palette without harmful chemicals and water-intensive workflows.
6. Fashion Revolution: The Future of Polyester.
Continued Sustainability Initiatives
Polyester’s fashion future will be rooted in sustainability, of course. With increasing environmental issues, designers are experimenting with ways to reduce the carbon emissions of polyester and keep the planet as polluted as possible. Continuing progress in sustainable polyester is making the fabric tomorrow, and there are new developments that address recyclability, biodegradability and environmentally friendly manufacturing.
Recycling polyester (rPET) is already being embraced by fashion houses as a sustainable alternative to virgin polyester. Composed of recycled plastic bottles and waste, rPET is being used by brands such as Patagonia, Adidas and Reformation to create sustainable fashion. rPET saves virgin polyester, diverts plastic waste from landfills and conserves resources.
Perhaps biodegradable polyester will catch on in the future as it breaks down faster in the environment than polyester. Designers are finding ways to develop polyester that degrades over time, minimising long-term waste and pollution.
There are also closed-loop recycling programmes, in which polyester garments are recycled into new polyester fabrics. These systems are being experimented with by Nike and Levi’s as part of their attempts to develop circular models of fashion that improve garment longevity and eliminate textile waste.
Smart Fabrics and Fashion Tech
Smart fabrics and wearables woven into polyester is another exciting avenue. It is now possible, through technology, for designers to incorporate sensors, heaters and fitness monitors in polyester garments, designing clothes that can react to the environment or offer data to the wearer. Smart fabrics that will wick away moisture, block UV rays and keep you warm are already a staple of athleisure and performance fabrics.
In the future, we might be seeing self-healing polyesters, materials that are able to fill tiny gaps and cracks without replacing them. Fabrics that transform colour according to temperature or environmental stimuli might find a home in fashion tech, too.
Yashvi Jain, a writer by day and reader by night, is an accomplished content writer and published author of ‘Mind Under Construction. Yashvi possesses extensive knowledge of fabrics, sustainability, and literature. On occasions, you would catch her scripting for her YouTube channel, engrossed in fiction, or ardently dedicating her time to research and storytelling.