Hacker News Reader

Comment by kwhitefoot | Hacker News Reader

Why is it impractical? It would be unpopular and put prices up but it could be done. We would have to reduce the amount of clothing that is produced but that is hardly a problem as we produce vastly more than we need. We could eliminate fast fashion for a start.

View on HN

You don't hear people saying, man, that asbestos and lead did a bang up job on X. But you 100% see 100% of women wearing stretchy pants. For the longest time I exclusively wore cotton jeans and then they became impossible to find and I finally realized what plastic was good for: fat people. Now I see men wearing them all the time. The struggle of the 80s on people killing themselves to fit into jeans is not longer a thing.

Not sure how socks used to be without plastic but pretty sure they'd fall apart fast.

You don't need plastics for that. Warp knitting has been used for the last few centuries with cotton/linen/silk/wool to get stretchy textiles, and there are plenty of stretchy pants that are made of natural materials available today for those who struggle fitting into jeans.

> You don't hear people saying, man, that asbestos and lead did a bang up job on X.

Well, asbestos is a great insulator and lead makes beautiful bright paints, it's just that the downsides outweighed those great properties.

Cotton socks exist as well as wool worsted, so not a huge problem as far as I can see. Tights and stockings will be a much bigger challenge.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com