The Man-Made Fashion Revolution
The story of synthetics in fashion is one of chemical innovation, national pride, couture brilliance and street style. It reflects the social trends and desires of every generation in the twentieth century.
Synthetics have been reinvented with each decade, from the simulated luxury of rayon and heavenly nylons of the forties to the space-age escapism and the boutique brilliance of the sixties. With the textures of Crimplene, the shimmer of Bri-Nylon, the stay-pressed polyester slacks of the seventies and the Lycra club and street-wear of the eighties, man made fabrics have literally shaped modern style. The nineties has seen the consolidation of synthetics in design and in the multi-million pound textile businesses that have been built on the foundations of the newest technological fibres and desirable weaves.
Freed from the confines of the chemist's lab, the role and standing of synthetic fabrics in the evolution of twentieth-century fashion is both mainstream and avant-garde, a privileged position for nylon and its successors.
