Vent: That influencer "recycled fabric" hack wrecked my whole project

I spent 3 months designing a summer dress line using this hot new recycled polyester blend that some Instagram designer swore by. Ordered 50 yards at $12 a yard. After the first wash, the fabric pilled so bad it looked like my grandma's old sweater. I brought a swatch to a local fabric shop in Portland and the owner tested it with a lighter. Melted into plastic goo instantly. It's basically repurposed water bottles with no quality check. Has anyone else gotten burned by these greenwashed textiles that fall apart after one wear?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair59722d ago

Used to think recycled fabrics were always a solid choice but this changed my mind hard. That plastic goo test is gross, sorry about your dress line.

sandraflores22d ago

Have you considered that some of these recycled fabric brands are literally just melting down plastic bottles without ANY fiber stabilizers added? I watched a textile engineer on YouTube break down how proper recycled polyester needs specific chemical additives to keep the fibers from breaking apart during washing. Most of these Instagram hacks skip that step entirely because it costs more. The pilling isn't a defect, it's the fabric literally disintegrating because the polymers never got treated right. That fabric shop test proves it's basically garbage pretending to be sustainable.

rubys8014d ago

@sandraflores you're spot on with this. i've seen the same kind of thing up close and it's frustrating when people think they're doing good but really just getting ripped off.