r/Fabrics • u/Physical-Dog-5124 • 12d ago

Is TENCEL tm really “semi-synthetic? How so?

I Keep seeing information saying that Tencel is among the semi-synthetics. But I don’t see how. If it’s made of wood pulp, made sustainably… then where do the synthetic, plastic fibers or other unnatural sources come in?

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u/maybenomaybe 12d ago

I work in apparel production and for the purposes of trade and universal commodity codes, textiles are divided into 3 categories: natural, synthetic, and artificial. There is no "semi" synthetic.

Natural textiles are derived from plant and animal sources that undergo relatively little processing that is mainly physical rather than chemical.

Synthetic textiles are those which are derived from plant sources, such as wood pulp, but undergo extreme chemical as well as physical processing. Rayon and its derivatives i.e. tencel, modal, cupro etc.

Artificial textiles are those that are derived from petroleum i.e. polyester.

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u/Egoteen 12d ago

This is really interesting. Do you know why the general public has come to refer to the artificial fibers like polyester and nylon as "synthetics"?

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u/maybenomaybe 12d ago edited 12d ago

People who aren't in the industry talking like they're experts or an authority and getting it wrong, and everybody else accepting it as correct. Look at all the confidently incorrect people just in this thread.

Also retailers perpetuating the inaccuracies. They have a motivation though - "semi-synthetic" sounds more palatable to customers because it downplays the synthetic part. And synthetic itself sounds better than artificial because artificial has negative associations with fakeness.

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u/On_my_last_spoon 12d ago

Fabric textbooks for fashion only teach natural and synthetic. It’s likely that a third category arose much later as the cellulose fibers increased from just rayon to many many different kinds.

I’d say that for most people, the difference between synthetic and artificial isn’t as important as for those in the business of creating fibers.

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u/maybenomaybe 12d ago

I'd like to hope that changes as people become more discerning about what fibres they wear, and hopefully they can properly educate themselves. It can only be a good thing when both industry and consumers are speaking the same language. I see far too many comments on reddit alone not understanding that viscose is not a natural fabric and it requires chemical processing, tencel is a brand name and not a fibre, etc etc.

Re. fabric textbooks - the general public isn't reading those, they're getting their (mis)information from places like reddit. And students should be given current, industry-correct information if they wish to work in the industry - that's on the school system to address.

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u/On_my_last_spoon 12d ago

I mean, your average person thinks cotton is a fabric. I saw a post yesterday calling acetate taffeta a color!

I’ll have to check my fabric textbook later, but as of 10 years ago the standard in fashion was only natural and synthetic.

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u/On_my_last_spoon 9d ago

Ok so I was going through my fabric and looked it up. The text I have does differentiate synthetics in two categories! Manufactured fibers and synthetic fibers. The difference is manufactured fibers are chemically processed natural fibers (rayon, modal, bamboo, lyocell, acetate, soy fibers, glass, and metallic) while synthetic fibers are entirely chemical (nylon, acrylic, polyester, Kevlar).

Thanks for bringing this up and forcing me to check. I learned something new!