Materials Matter More Than Marketing

Jenny Daphne Pitsillides – Editor | Re:Fabricate — Real Solutions for a Better Fashion Industry

In a showroom, the garments look immaculate. Labels are careful with their language. The story arrives pre polished, ready to be repeated. But the real narrative is rarely on the swing tag. It sits deeper, in fibre choice, in chemistry, in the decisions that happen long before a campaign image is commissioned.

Materials are where sustainability becomes technical rather than symbolic. They are also where complexity resists simplification. For Re Fabricate, taking materials seriously is less about making claims than about demonstrating literacy. Knowing what something is made of, what it can become next, and where compromise is unavoidable.

This is the ground on which serious conversations with innovators such as Pangaia, MaterialDriven and Worn Again tend to begin. Not with perfection, but with precision.

Where the story actually begins

Before colour, before silhouette, before marketing language, there is fibre. Cotton, polyester, wool, nylon, viscose. Each carries a different history of extraction, processing and end of life. None are neutral.

The temptation is to rank materials as good or bad. Natural versus synthetic. Regenerative versus fossil based. But fashion rarely operates in such clean categories. The more useful question is not what a material is, but what it does across time.

Durability, wash behaviour, recyclability, impact at scale. These factors often contradict one another. A fibre that performs beautifully in wear may fail entirely at end of life. Another may recycle well but shed during use. Material choice is always a negotiation.

Natural and synthetic, not a moral binary

Natural fibres arrive with a halo effect. Cotton, wool, linen. They feel familiar, reassuring. Their origins appear legible. And yet, intensive agriculture, water use and chemical processing complicate the picture.

Synthetics, by contrast, are often dismissed outright. Polyester becomes shorthand for disposability. But recycled synthetics can offer durability and circular potential when designed carefully. They also perform in ways natural fibres often cannot, particularly in technical garments.

The point is not to equalise them, but to recognise trade offs. A natural fibre that degrades but cannot be recycled. A synthetic that lasts but persists. The question becomes situational. What is the garment for. How long is it intended to last. What happens after.

Pangaia’s public facing material experiments make this tension visible. Bio based synthetics sit alongside natural fibres. Performance and impact are treated as variables rather than absolutes.

The recyclability question

Recyclability is frequently invoked and rarely explained. In practice, very few garments are recycled fibre to fibre at scale. Collection infrastructure is fragmented. Sorting remains labour intensive. Chemical recycling is promising but energy intensive and still developing.

Companies like Worn Again are working on solutions for polyester and cotton blends, developing technologies that can separate fibres and return them to use. This is slow, capital heavy work. It does not lend itself easily to marketing timelines.

What matters is design alignment. A recyclable material only fulfils its promise if the garment is designed to enter that system. If it is not, recyclability remains theoretical.

This is where material decisions intersect with design intent. Buttons, trims, coatings. Every addition complicates recovery. Simplicity becomes strategic rather than aesthetic.

The blended fibre problem

Blended fibres are fashion’s quiet liability. Cotton polyester, wool nylon, elastane everywhere. They improve fit and performance. They also render garments nearly impossible to recycle with current infrastructure.

Blends are rarely malicious. They are the result of comfort, stretch, price and habit. But they sit at the heart of circularity’s biggest challenge.

MaterialDriven has spent years articulating this problem to brands and retailers, often advocating for mono materials where possible or at least transparent reasoning when blends are unavoidable. The message is not abstinence, but intention.

A stretch fibre used sparingly and visibly, rather than hidden everywhere. A blend justified by longevity rather than convenience. These distinctions matter.

Scale, purity and the uncomfortable middle

Purity is seductive. A garment made from a single fibre. Undyed. Unfinished. Fully recyclable. It photographs beautifully. It also rarely scales.

Most fashion exists in the uncomfortable middle. Between ideal material scenarios and commercial reality. Between what is technically possible and what is economically viable.

Scalability introduces compromise. Bio materials struggle with supply consistency. Recycling technologies require volume. Small runs limit impact. Large runs amplify mistakes.

This is where marketing often outruns material reality. Claims become broader as nuance is lost. Serious work, by contrast, stays specific. It names limitations. It acknowledges that progress is partial.

Re Fabricate’s role here is not to simplify the story, but to hold it open. To make space for technical discussion without collapsing into jargon or virtue.

Why materials outlast messaging

Marketing shifts quickly. Materials do not. Once a fibre is chosen, its consequences persist across wear, care and disposal. No campaign can undo a poor material decision.

This is why materials matter more than marketing. They shape outcomes long after language has faded. They determine whether a garment can be repaired, recycled or responsibly retired.

For brands and innovators, material literacy is a form of credibility. It signals seriousness without spectacle. It invites collaboration rather than applause.

There is no single right fibre. There is only a more informed choice. And that choice, made early and examined honestly, is where meaningful change begins.

References

Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2020) Fashion and the Circular Economy.

Textile Exchange (2023) Preferred Fiber and Materials Market Report.

Fletcher, K. and Grose, L. (2012) Fashion and Sustainability. Laurence King.

Worn Again Technologies (2022) Polyester and Cotton Recycling Processes.

MaterialDriven (2023) Materials Strategy and Circular Design.