[chaircher]

A few points:

Synthetic clothes (ie manmade fibres like polyester) are mostly made of plastic which is really really bad for your skin and your hair, especially if you have eczema.

Non-synthetic clothes pack more bang for their buck when it comes to protecting you from the weather - a thin wool jumper does so much more than a bulky polyester one, a cotton top will let your sweat out which is so much better for both summer and winter, and so on.

Synthetic materials are often used because they are cheap so it serves as a good (but heavy handed) litmus test about the quality of garment, because if they've cheaped out on the material they have probably cheaped out elsewhere in the process.

Fire resistance - I wore a synthetic dress near a fire recently and as embers fell on me it literally just melted holes into it.

If you're interested do what I did - find all the cotton, linen and silk in your wardrobe and priortise wearing those clothes for a month. Then you will start noticing the synthetic clothes feel uncomfortable. Wool is also non-synthetic but a lot of people find it difficult to tolerate. Don't forget it's not just clothes, it's bedsheets too

[Dracophoenix]

What about blends? Pure wool is pretty itchy, pure cotton shrinks, pure silk is time-consuming to launder, and pure linen is very prone to wrinkles.

[chaircher]

For me I mostly avoid blends for the same reasons outlined above but they are a good compromise, and sometimes you do just have to compromise. It's great when you can find items with non-synthetic blends like a silk/linen knit jumper I have which is the best of both worlds.

Good quality silk can go in the washing machine at 40 degrees in wash bags (although where I live it is not normal to use tumble driers, we just hang clothes outside or on radiators. So I do not lose any time by hang drying silk because I do it with all my clothes anyway). Never had the shrinking issue with cotton interestingly, but do find cotton/elastic blends are not as durable as more synthetic options. Cotton is something that can have wildly varying qualities and be constructed in completely different ways. I hate wool to be honest. And most linen I have come across has been weirdly see-through? Although linen is good upholstery material in my opinion.

[Dracophoenix]

Are there any blends you find bearable or necessary? Any that you avoid entirely?

If you dislike wool and linen then what natural materials do you, respectively wear in winter and summer?

With regards to cotton, while it can have wildly varying qualities depending on structure and weave, there are plenty of properties that remain the same. Raw denim, a cotton twill fabric, shrinks drastically.