This is part three in an ongoing series about fabric. Find other parts of this series in the Slow Fashion Resource Center.

As a person who wears a dress almost every single day (which requires tights during cooler weather), learning the truth about nylon was particularly painful. Definitely one of those moments where ignorance was not particularly blissful (because who gets super excited by tights), but at least it was far less depressing and stressful?

But like a lot of the depressing/infuriating/terrifying things I have learned and discussed on my own Clotheshorse journey, where there is knowledge, empowerment follows.

Now that I know that the production of tights is pretty terrible for the environment, I don’t take their presence in my life for granted. And knowing that the tights I wore last week will live on this planet much longer than I will…well, that motivates me to care for them and get the maximum wear out of them. And if I’m going to get into any super snaggy situations, like doing housework or mowing the lawn or climbing a fence (yes, I’ve done all of these activities in tights in the past), I take them off! If you drive through my neighborhood on a cool day and see a person in a big hat mowing their lawn in a dress over pajama pants, it’s probably me!

For a long time, tights and pantyhose (ew, I feel gross typing that word) felt like disposable items to me. And when I learned that NOTHING IS DISPOSABLE, it was a game changer in how I treated the ones I owned, as well us which brands I chose to buy and how often I replaced them. The same can be said for all of the things we buy and wear (or don’t wear).

Nylon isn’t just limited to tights (as you’ll learn in these slides), it’s also a component in a lot of things we can buy and wear, including UNDERWEAR! Retailers tend to label underwear made of nylon as “polyamide,” which is just a confusing, mysterious sounding term that means NYLON. Who’s using polyamide/polyamide blends to make underwear? The list is long, but it includes Skims, Cuup, Knix, and (I’m pretty sure) Parade <—that one’s a guess because they don’t ever truly say what fibers they are using unless it’s a greenwashing opportunity. 🤔

If you’re looking for natural fibers/ethical underwear, I recommend searching “underwear” on Good on You!

Like a lot of synthetic fabrics, nylon was originally developed for military use.

During WWII, scientists were searching for an alternative to silk and hemp for parachutes. Nylon was a great solution. In addition to being used for parachutes, ropes, etc, it was also an affordable/plentiful substitute for silk.

At the beginning of the war, 80% of textiles in the U.S. were cotton, with wool making up the rest. But by 1945, synthetic fibers comprised 25% of U.S. textiles.

After the war ended, manufacturers worked hard to make synthetic fabrics even more prevalent and lucrative. Fabrics like silk were in short supply and people were making clothes out of nylon parachutes. The idea of making women’s clothing out of nylon picked up steam.

Nylon was significantly less expensive than natural fibers, so it was marketed a as a low cost, “wonder fabric.”

But nylon had some flaws:

• DuPont originally planned to market nylon as “no-run.” But unfortunately anyone who has ever worn a pair of pantyhose will tell you…NYLON RUNS!

• Customers weren’t loving nylon because it was prone to easy damage and it was very unbreathable.

• In fact, nylon would have faded away into the sunset if scientists hadn’t discovered that it blended well with polyester, spandex, and cotton…and it became a lot more durable!