Farmer picking cotton on Sunflower Plantation, Merigold, Mississippi, Nov. 1939. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott for the Farm Security Administration. Source: The Library of Congress.
If it feels like it's getting harder to find clothes made from 100% cotton, you're not imagining it.
Go shopping for a simple shirt, tee, or jeans and you'll often find polyester blended into the fabric, sometimes at surprisingly high percentages. Online, people are increasingly saying in simpler terms: Why is everything made of plastic now?
There are good reasons polyester has become so common post-COVID. It's inexpensive to produce, strong, wrinkle-resistant, quick-drying, and well suited to modern mass production. When everyone switched to WFH, big companies jumped on the pajamas and exercise clothing for work trend. Blending it with cotton can also make garments cheaper and easier to care for.
But there's another reason people keep looking for 100% cotton clothing: cotton simply feels better.
It breathes differently. It develops character with wear. It softens over time. And for most everyday garments, it doesn't need much help from synthetic fibers.
That's why almost everything we make at The Rite Stuff is 100% cotton. And if it's not cotton it's linen, leather, or other natural fibers and materials.
Why Is Polyester So Common in Clothing Nowadays?
A soldier models the polyester batting jacket liner and field trousers worn with other elements of the extended cold weather clothing system (ECWCS).
Polyester is a synthetic fiber made from polymers. In practical terms, it is a type of plastic that can be spun into very fine fibers and woven or knitted into fabric.
That might sound strange when you think about a polyester shirt, but its properties make it extremely useful for clothing manufacturers.
Polyester is:
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Durable
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Relatively inexpensive
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Resistant to wrinkles
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Quick-drying
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Dimensionally stable
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Easy to manufacture at scale
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Easy to blend with other fibers
For a manufacturer making thousands and thousands of garments, those characteristics matter. A polyester-cotton blend, for example, can produce a shirt that is inexpensive, durable and relatively easy to care for. Polyester can also be used to give garments stretch, moisture-wicking properties or other performance characteristics.
So polyester isn't inherently a useless material. There are situations where synthetic fibers make some sense, like in exercise clothes, maternity clothes, etc.
The question is whether every garment needs them.
Is Polyester Actually Plastic?
Yes, in a technical sense. Polyester is a synthetic polymer, and the most common polyester used in clothing is polyethylene terephthalate, or PET. The same basic polymer family is used to make products such as plastic bottles.
Of course, turning that polymer into a soft textile fiber creates a material that behaves very differently from a plastic bottle. But calling polyester a type of plastic isn't completely wrong. When people complain about wearing "plastic," they're usually expressing something more specific: they don't like the feel, breathability or overall character of synthetic clothing.
Why Do People Prefer 100% Cotton?
Loading cotton, Natchez, Mississippi, Nov. 1935. Photo by Ben Shahn for the Farm Security Administration. Source: Library of Congress.
Cotton has been used for clothing for thousands of years because it works remarkably well as a textile. A 100% cotton garment can feel comfortable against the skin, absorb moisture, and become softer and more distinctive with repeated wear.
A new cotton shirt isn't necessarily the same shirt after a year of wear. The fabric can soften. Colors can fade. Creases and wear patterns can develop. The garment begins to reflect the person wearing it. For some people, that's exactly what they want from clothing. They're not looking for something that remains exactly the same forever. They're looking for something that gets better with use.
Is 100% Cotton Better Than Polyester?
Yes and no. If you need stretch, then cotton isn't going to provide that. Polyester is practical for athletic clothing, technical garments and situations where quick drying, stretch, or extreme durability are important.
But for everyday clothing there is a strong argument for simply using cotton. You don't need a synthetic tee, or jeans with tons of elastane in them that will clog up a landfill for generations to come.
Why Is It So Hard to Find 100% Cotton Clothing?
A shirt might look like a traditional cotton shirt on the hanger while being made from a cotton-polyester blend. That's why checking the fiber composition has become increasingly important if you specifically want natural-fiber clothing.
Look at the label. If you want a 100% cotton shirt, make sure it actually says 100% cotton.
Why We Use 100% Cotton
At The Rite Stuff, we make clothing inspired by classic American workwear and everyday garments from the early and mid-20th century. During that period, cotton wasn't a premium positioning statement, it was simply one of the fundamental materials used to make everyday clothing.
That's still our approach.
We use carefully selected cotton fabrics because we like how cotton looks, feels and ages. We like the way a good shirt changes with wear rather than remaining perfectly uniform. And we don't think every garment needs to be engineered with the latest synthetic fiber simply because modern manufacturing makes it possible. Sometimes the old answer is still a very good one.
Looking for 100% Cotton Clothing?
If you've been wondering where to find clothes made from 100% cotton, that's essentially what we've been doing sincee 2017.
The Rite Stuff makes shirts, trousers and other everyday garments using traditional fabrics and construction techniques, with 100% cotton as the foundation of nearly everything we make.
No complicated fiber blends, no needlessly technical materials. Just good cotton clothing, made to be worn and worn again.