I despise polyester. I have been involved in historic costuming for the better part of 20 years. I work primarily in the Elizabethan period but have dabbled in other periods. In the fabric world polyester is the great imitator. I have seen polyester fabrics that mimiced everything from linen to heavy weight wool. In each case the drape, breathability and sheen (particularly in direct sunlight) make polyester a poor choice.
Other posters have pointed out that it is stain resistant. This is a byproduct of the fiber's chemical nature and the fact that the fibers are non porous and and must be dyed when the fiber is first created.
When it comes to garments of quality natural fibers, wool, silk, flax, hemp, and cotton are vastly preferable. They have superior qualities that polyester and other artificial fibers can only imitate but never duplicate.
The balder I get the more I appreciate a good hat.
I have a 1950's Dacron seersucker suit. What can I say? I really like it but even though it's extremely lightweight it somehow wears like iron (which is exactly what the seller told me). It's not that I'm getting overly hot in the summer wearing it. The fabric is just...well, it's neither wool nor linen. It's polyester. The feel is very different. I wouldn't want to sell it, though...
Last edited by Mario; 04-03-2012 at 04:59 PM.
Pretend that you owe me nothing and all the world is green.
Polyester blends when done correctly and tastefully can look great, good example Mario!Originally Posted by Mario
I have a 1950's Dacron seersucker suit. What can I say? I really like it but even though it's extremely lightweight it somehow wears like iron (which is exactly what the seller told me). It's not that I'm getting overly hot in the summer wearing it. The fabric is just...well, it's neither wool nor linen. It's polyester. The feel is very different. I wouldn't want to sell it, though...
Thanks. As I said before: I really like that suit. It's actually pretty light and cool even when the weather is getting hot - but I still prefer Palm Beach or linen.
Pretend that you owe me nothing and all the world is green.
Hmm...I have to wear a 100% wool uniform everyday and for years have wished they would make it in a wool/poly blend. The pure wool uniforms are prone to wearing through in places and a small amount of polyester makes them tougher. That said, in a suit I'm sticking to 100% wool. I think its just more of a "correct" material for a suit.
(Bill Mitchell, head of General Motors styling, eying an underling in a loud polyester bell bottom outfit, circa 1975)
My wife has better linoleum on her kitchen floor than you have in that suit.
Last edited by Stanley Doble; 05-10-2012 at 04:37 PM.
A small amount of polyester blended into wool can help a suit keep its shape longer.
The problem, though, is that the polyester fibres are so much stronger and harder than the wool they will actually wear out the wool fibres through friction of motion and cause the suit to look shabby and worn out far sooner than a pure wool suit would.
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/9912/gtsig.jpg
“Nowhere in the world will such a brotherly feeling of confidence be experienced as amongst those who sit together smoking their pipes.”
In case anyone's interested, here are some trade names for polyester:
Avlin, Dacron, Encron, Esterweld, Fortrel, GoldenTouch, Kodel, Quintess, Spectran, Strialine, Textura, Trevira, Vycron
"We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will." ~ C. Palahniuk
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