A few months ago, Lane Koch decided to purge her family's closets of all plastic-based fabrics and replace them with natural fibers like cotton and linen. Koch, a longtime Republican political strategist who was a senior staffer on Robert F Kennedy Jr's presidential campaign, had long avoided processed foods and rid her kitchen of plastic cookware about a decade ago. But she had paid little attention to what she put on her body until she watched The Plastic Detox, a Netflix documentary about six couples experiencing infertility who reduce plastic in their lives. Three of the pairs have a baby by the film's end.
Koch isn't trying to conceive, but the idea resonated. She thought if plastic exposure affects fertility, it must affect health in other areas. When her three-year-old woke up sick while wearing polyester, she had a lightbulb moment to get her out of those pyjamas. Scientists told me any dangers from plastic-based clothing would accumulate over many years, not overnight, but Koch was convinced. She cleared 90% of her closet and spent hundreds of dollars replacing bedding, socks, underwear and PJs with natural fibers.
How fabric content became an obsession
Over the past few years, a heightened awareness of fabric content has spread among shoppers. Searches related to natural fibers spiked on Google in 2024 and have risen since. Elena Karpova, a professor at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, said a recent unpublished study found fabric content was a major factor influencing gen Z shoppers. Brands like Gap and J Crew now let online shoppers filter by material.
For many, this concern is aesthetic. As fast fashion has proliferated, clothing quality has deteriorated. Opting for natural fibers is one solution, though not a cure-all. Hanna Lee, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University, said part of the appeal of natural fibers only is that it's simple to check and easy for brands to advertise.
The hunger for natural fiber clothing has found supporters in people like Koch, whose aims are health-focused and political. Wellness-obsessed men are switching from polyester to cotton underwear. The conservative women's magazine Evie recommended natural fiber staples over synthetic fabrics, which it claimed mess with your hormones. Maha reports on children's health have mentioned the dangers of microplastics in clothing.
These fears have taken off on social media, where half of adults under 50 get their health information. Countless TikTokers assert that clothes are making us sick, a microcosm of modern wellness culture where complicated scientific issues are flattened into exaggerated claims.
The real health impacts of plastic-based clothing
Worries about plastic-based clothing have some basis. Phil Landrigan, a biology and public health professor at Boston College, said plastic production is deleterious to environment and health, but the harm primarily comes from workplace accidents and emissions, not wearing the clothes. The potential dangers of wearing synthetics are less immediate and harder to quantify. Scientists are more concerned about chemicals used to treat fabrics, such as phthalates, bisphenols, Pfas and brominated flame retardants, which are toxic and linked to cancer, heart attacks, infertility and immune suppression.
For these chemicals to hurt us, our skin would have to absorb them. That's possible, but generally less risky than other exposures. Sheela Sathyanarayana, a professor at Seattle children's hospital, said she was more worried about plastic in food, cookware, and personal care products. Audrey Gaskins, a professor at Emory University, said dermal absorption is probably not the average person's primary exposure. Mohamed Abdallah, an environmental chemistry professor at the University of Birmingham, said people are at greater risk when sweating, but quantifying the overall danger is impossible due to many factors.
None of the scientists I spoke to avoided synthetics entirely, but many limited them. Landrigan wore mostly natural fibers but also a fleece vest. Abdallah embraced cotton in the gym. Sathyanarayana switched up her workout gear and underwear. All agreed it didn't hurt to wear natural fibers, but no one seemed too concerned about the synthetics remaining in their closets. Sathyanarayana said there is no evidence that clothes are making us sick or at the root of modern infertility.
Our growing distrust of the unnatural
Colleen Derkatch, a professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said in her work studying wellness culture, people are really worried that everyday life is steeped in hazardous chemicals. The advice to buy natural is compelling because it acknowledges that fear and offers an answer. Alan Levinovitz, a professor at James Madison University, said it draws on a long history of worshipping the natural.
Believing your clothes are making you sick might reflect a larger belief that systems in place to protect us have failed, Levinovitz explained. That fear opens us up to vulnerabilities, a possible gateway to public figures saying they tricked you about the clothes.
Alli Walker, a singer and songwriter based in Nashville, struggled with conditions like irritable bowel syndrome and mast cell activation syndrome. After a functional medicine doctor recommended looking into toxins, she spent day and night researching and purged her closet of synthetics, minus costumes. She said once you get into the non-toxic life, there is no turning back. For Koch, the project of optimizing health is ongoing. She values wellness because she had her youngest child in her late 30s and doesn't want age to hold her back.
Koch knows there's a lot she can't control, but she can control what she puts on her body. She admitted it might not have a life or death impact, but if it offers a slim chance at greater health, it's worth it.
