The Clotheshorse Guide to Synthetic Fibers & Fabrics

One place you’re probably not expecting to find plastic is in the clothing you wear.
Sure, you know that the buttons and zippers in your clothes are made of plastic, but what about the fabric?

65% of clothing manufactured in recent years is made of synthetic fabrics…and those fabrics are made with plastic fibers.

In this 100 page, full color, large print “MEGA-zine,” we are going to unpack the wide variety of human-made fabrics and fibers that currently fill stores, landfills…and our closets!

We will get started with the fibers made from fossil fuels. Then we will explore the “man-made cellulosic” fabrics that are made from plants and trees via complex, energy intensive processes. And lastly, we will ask ourselves “is there a perfect fabric?”

This MEGA-zine was written and designed by Amanda Lee McCarty (aka Clotheshorse).  It features vintage paper dolls and stickers, along with a variety of paper scraps and labels, all designed to give it a “real” 90s zine look.  Laminated cover, printed on recycled paper in Pennsylvania. 8.5″ x 5×5″ (digest size/half sheet of paper)

Looking for a PDF download version? Not currently planning on that for various reasons, but you can access all of the information in the zine FOR FREE in the Slow Fashion Resource Center.

For international shipping, please email [email protected] with a list of what you would like to order, along with your country, state/province, and postal code. A few notes about international shipping:

• I use Pirate Ship to calculate shipping costs.  It offers the lowest shipping rates available to small businesses and individuals in the US.  International shipping has been (on average) $20.  
• No, I will not commit customs fraud for you by shipping an order marked as a “gift.” This puts me at risk and selling a few stickers is not worth it.  For Canadian customers, the threshold for duty free is $40. If you live in a different country, please research the duty free threshold before reaching out to me.
• I am aware that international shipping is expensive and slow. However, I will not just sell you a download of the art that you can print on your own.  Unfortunately this has been abused by others who sold items using my art.

Pricing transparency:

Cost to print and ship to Clotheshorse HQ: $9

Platform fees:  $0.82 (plus additional 1% for international payments)

Clotheshorse business taxes: $1.80

Also included in this price: the labor of creating the zine, ecommerce platform subscription, the cost of packing orders, shipping platform subscription,  shipping packaging, creating instructions/video, driving to the post office, providing customer service, and creating this product page (which took a lot longer than you might think).