Which do you prefer, synthetic or natural? The answer is obvious to everyone, but on closer examination, the question becomes cloudy. Take fibers, for instance. There has been a boom in cotton and even hemp clothing because it is "natural," but then one has to consider the artificial fertilizers used and all the insecticides poured on the land to make the plants to make the textile. "Polyester" is something of a bad word to many people, as it is a synthetic, but it comes from petroleum derivatives, remnants of plants that are millions of years old rather than grown last season. Ever since artificial fibers were invented, there has been a see-saw of taste for them and against, for sensible reasons and for irrational ones. The history of this see-saw forms much of the story in _Nylon: The Story of a Fashion Revolution_ by Susannah Handley.
In the US, the story of artificial fibers has been the story of Du Pont. Dupont made gunpowder in the nineteenth century, and boomed during WWI, but it had an image problem after the war. "Better Living Through Chemistry" became the slogan, and the better living was going to start, of all things, with better stockings. There was a wildly fluctuating silk market based on imports from Japan; American women were buying 1.55 million pairs of silk stockings a day. The Japanese cornering of the market was resented by the American government and citizens, but that didn't curb the appetite for silk.
Stockings were a huge market, but Du Pont dragged the textile industry into re-inventing their stagnating wares. Nylon for dresses, nylon for wedding gowns, nylon for everything possible was advertised by Du Pont, and synthetics were linked to fashion forever. Polyester and Dacron, launched in the fifties, were light and resistant to stains and wrinkles. Sales of irons went down, sales of washers and dryers went up. There was a positive image of scientists taking part in fashion and popular culture.
Synthetics drastically affected even the couture of the Paris salons. The post-war cultural shifts meant that the salons could not continue to exist on a small number of wealthy clients, but had to start licensing such things as perfumes and ready-to-wear clothes. The sixties had a vogue for all sorts of technological materials, and especially for synthetic fashions. Du Pont worked hard to integrate its fibers into fabric manufacture and fashion design. It commissioned top fashion photographers to photograph synthetic fashions and sent the results out as press releases, a free publicity outlet to French couturiers. In America, 20 of the 21 layers in the Apollo moon suits were Du Pont fabrics originally developed "for earthbound use," and Du Pont encouraged "spacey" looking designs in clothes. Synthetics were pitched to the youth market, which had no prejudice that they were inferior to the "real" thing.
There was a bust. Polyester and nylon were in everything. Polyester especially peaked in John Travolta's disco leisure suit, and has had a bad reputation ever since. Overproduction of synthetics caused a classic boom and bust; with so many wonder fibers, people were free to notice that they caused static, retained moisture, and yellowed in perspiration. Natural fibers became more fashionable, both because of the ecology movement and because with more money, people could afford the extra cost of washing and ironing them. Raw materials for synthetics became more costly with the gas crisis. Attempts to shore up synthetics in the fashion industry were unsuccessful, and they took their places mostly in blends.
All things come full circle. Engineered fibers were reintroduced to European fashion in the eighties by none other than the Japanese. They married amazing new microfibres and the ancient craft of textile making, to produce brand new forms of cloth. Sculptural textures are formed by blending fibers of different shrink ratios and popping them into a hot dryer. Metallic films are imbedded into the threads. Even stainless steel could coat the fabrics. The Japanese recognized that silk has a desirable audible quality when it rubs on itself (called "scrooping"); new fibers passed sound-wave tests to verify that they scrooped satisfactorily. Next up: clothes that change colors or other properties based on heat, moisture, or anxiety levels, or wearable computers that control the appearance of the cloth. Will these be the next objects of desire, and if so, will they become just another burned out fad? Predict fashions accurately, and get rich.
_Nylon_ is a lively history of modern technology and fashion. Handley covers engineering, advertising, and fashion house philosophy with insight. The excitement, disillusionment, and excitement again of synthetic fabrics is a surprisingly alluring topic. Her book is beautifully illustrated with many historic advertisements, fashion model shots (both beautiful and absurd), and pictures of such novelties as the two ton leg in a huge nylon stocking to advertise a Los Angeles hosiery shop.
