How to Start Your Healthy Wardrobe Journey

If you're in the process of trying to make your life healthier (eating better, exercising, detoxing your skincare routine) and you're turning your attention to your wardrobe, start here.

Here's the tea: natural fabrics are actually not that good looking. Or most of them aren't. Turns out there's a reason synthetics dominated the market for decades. They're cheaper, they drape better, they stretch, they hold their shape. Natural fibers? They wrinkle, they shrink, they don't always flatter. The fashion industry chose synthetics because they're easier to make look good, not because they're better for you.

So if you still care about how you look as much as your health (because let's be honest, who wants to give that up), here are our hacks.

1. Sleepwear and T-Shirts

Also known as actual loungewear. The stuff you wear around the house, not the "loungewear" you wear to brunch.

T-shirts are still pretty easy to find in 100% cotton. But be warned: legally, a brand can label something "cotton" if it's 50% cotton or above. That doesn't mean it's 100%. Polyester is often blended in for a "soft" feel, but it pills badly in the wash, and the shedding of those microplastics isn't exactly great for you or the environment. So check the tag. The actual tag, not the marketing on the front of the package.

Also, hate to break it to you, but any form-fitted t-shirt is almost definitely going to be pretty high in synthetic blend. That stretchy, body-hugging fit? That's elastane and polyester doing the work. A 100% cotton tee is going to fit a little more relaxed. Not a bad thing, just different from what you might be used to.

For sleepwear, the same rules apply. You spend seven to nine hours a night in whatever you're sleeping in. Cotton and linen breathe. Polyester traps heat and moisture against your skin all night. If you've ever woken up feeling clammy or overheated, your pajamas might be the culprit, not your thermostat.

2. Underwear

This is probably the swap that will do the most for your health.

100% cotton underwear has been studied against synthetic and synthetic blend options for over 50 years. There are over 50 published and cited papers showing that anything besides 100% cotton increases the risk of more frequent yeast infections, UTIs, and bacterial vaginosis. The science is not ambiguous. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends cotton. The Cleveland Clinic recommends cotton. The Mayo Clinic recommends cotton. This is not a wellness trend. This is clinical consensus.

So if you've struggled with any of that in the past, turns out it's not you. It's probably just your underwear the whole time.

But be warned: 100% cotton doesn't have any stretch. It's going to feel very different from most underwear you're used to wearing. And most of what's out there in 100% cotton is either baggy or, worse, bulky. It feels like someone cut up a t-shirt and sewed it into underwear. Functional? Sure. Something you actually want to put on? Not really.

We actually couldn't find any option we were happy with. So we made our own: The Newsort Thong. It mitigates these problems while being the best looking option on the market, because that was important to us. And we're guessing it's important to you too.

3. Dress Shirts and Blouses

Dress shirts are easy to find in 100% cotton. Blouses, less so. But you really feel the difference on humid or hot days. Cotton breathes in a way that polyester simply doesn't, and after a full workday in a synthetic blouse, you'll notice the difference in how your skin feels underneath.

This is also something worth paying attention to if you suffer from body acne. Synthetic fabrics trap sweat and bacteria against your chest and back for hours. Switching to cotton or linen tops won't cure anything on its own, but it removes one of the factors that makes breakouts worse.

Now, there are many more clothing articles we could cover, so we'll follow this up with a Part 2. Stay tuned.