Giving up Polyester and Committing to Comfort: A Self-Love Story

I can’t help but question myself and the itchy, unbreathable, plastic-like garments I have bought in the past. What was I thinking? Growing up, if it was cheap, cute, and fitted, I would buy it. Now my perception is different. I focus now more on comfort, ethics, and how I feel wearing it.

It’s easy to feel like a gorgeous sustainable princess gliding around in a soft tencel dress, sourced from a responsible factory. It’s not as easy for me to have those same ‘goddess vibes’ wearing the $8 polyester blouse sourced from god-knows-where.

Fashion meets Anxiety

Sometimes I’ve noticed that certain clothing items in my closet give me an uncomfortable, almost anxiety-like feeling. It has to do with guilt of buying a garment that I didn’t end up liking, and an annoying pressure to wear it, even though it’s uncomfortable, makes me sweat, or needs to be adjusted every ten minutes.

My realizations sprung into this new obsession I have with putting a hault to all polyester. I’ll admit haven’t gone cold turkey—I still appreciate a soft blend, and I have wicked cool recycled R-PET yoga pants that I cherish. But when it comes down to new dresses and tops, I’m focusing on everything but poly.

The most personal reason for this is that I feel so utterly uncomfortable in a 100% polyester shirt. It makes my upper body heat up, feels unbreathable, and scratchy. However, I thought this was price women pay to wear clothing. I figured clothing is just always a little uncomfortable, and nothing would compare to being naked or dressing in a dream-like cloud material.

Fabrics that Suck

That changed when I met my friend Taryn. Taryn is a ‘litmus test for fabrics that suck,’ (her words), because she has incredibly sensitive skin and reacts to anything from fur jackets to chemical detergents. She, like me, keeps poly out of the closet both for environmental and personal reasons.

Throughout our friendship she would excitedly approach me with new garments asking me to touch them as if she had discovered gold. The clothing she was pulling into her closet and urging me to feel were the softest, most comfortable clothes I had felt. One of her most common praises of comfort was to Groceries Apparel, a Los-Angeles based sustainable clothing factory. I had the pleasure of touring the Groceries Apparel factory with Beyond the Label, a charitable organization that Taryn founded.

Master of Comfort

In a mouthful, Groceries manufactures in a ‘vertically-integrated, local, and traceable production maximizes quality, efficiency, and employee pay, and minimizes redundancy, waste and carbon footprint.‘ The coolest thing about their site is that you can filter garments by fabric! Whether that’s organic cotton, eucalyptus, hemp, vegetable dye… pick yo preference! 

Matt, the founder of Groceries and a fellow UCSB-alum introduced us to his sewers and designers. It was an awesome moment to appreciate where my clothing came from. These tops I’m wearing are from Groceries Apparel, and I’ve been really excited to share them with you all! My good friend Audrey (who also has an eco blog) interned with Groceries and helped initiate this collab by handing me some beautiful garments that Groceries was so gracious to gift to me.

Enjoy this lookbook of my favorite pieces!

Top: Groceries Apparel / Skirt: Crossroads Trading

Top: Groceries / Skirt: Vintage / Shoes: ThredUP / Necklace: Borrowed from Audrey!

Are there pieces of clothing that give you anxiety or emotional discomfort? What do you feel pinpoints these unique emotions towards your wardrobe? I’d love to hear from you!

XO,

Sustainable Daisy