The Six Most Toxic Types of Fashion and What To Wear Instead

Pictured: activewear from Walmart. We don’t recommend buying black and neon synthetic workout gear, or anything in general from Walmart, which doesn’t have a chemical management policy that is up to our standards.

Once you realize how toxic clothing can be, it’s hard to unsee it. There are at least 40,000 chemicals used commercially globally, the vast majority of which have never been tested for safety. Many of them are unlabeled and unknown to researchers.

“I see every day, just in our raw data that the instruments produce, that there are often thousands of chemicals in a sample [of fabric] that can’t be matched to a known chemical,” Dr. Kirsten Overdahl told me while I was researching my book, To Dye For: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick — and How We Can Fight Back. She earned her Ph.D. in Integrated Toxicology and Environmental Health at Duke University by studying dyes used on polyester and their effects on our health.

“That’s absolutely terrifying,” she continued. “This doesn’t mean that every chemical is bad. Maybe it’s harmless. But if we can’t match a name to a chemical structure, it means that the data is not out there. So you can’t say it’s not safe, but you also can’t say it is safe.”

Think someone has your back here? Unfortunately, no. The United States federal government only bans three chemicals for use in clothing, and only in children’s clothing: lead, some phthalates, and cadmium. The European Union is somewhat better, banning over 30 chemicals specifically for use in textiles. But there are still huge loopholes you could drive a container ship through.

A recent two-year study of clothing imported to Europe found that 16% of the 160 products tested failed to meet Europe’s standards. The tests found chromium VI, nickel, phthalates, NPEO, chlorinated paraffins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, metals, quinoline, and amines. In that list are hormone-disrupting chemicals, mutagens, heavy metals, and carcinogens. And that study was done in a place where some fashion is tested and blocked from coming in. The U.S. has no such regime at our borders, except if it’s a counterfeit product.

What’s worse, clothing and accessories don’t come with a complete ingredient list the way cleaning and beauty products do. Anything under 5% of the product’s weight doesn’t count — even though some of these ingredients do their damage at levels of parts per million.

Yeah, it’s pretty scary. The government should be doing more to protect us from these hazardous chemicals. Until then, however, there are things you can do to reduce your exposure.

Here — adapted from my book with the addition of some new research from the past six months — are the six most toxic types of fashion, and what to buy instead.

1. Ultra-Fast Fashion Brands

There are thousands of fashion “brands” out there with gibberish names that spring up to provide cheap knockoffs and dupes to shoppers. (Fun fact: Shein started out as a drop-shipping company with the gibberish name SheInside.)

This twenty-first-century strategy—manufacturing a product quickly at the factory after it is ordered and shipping it across the world—is called drop-shipping. You can tell a product is drop-shipped because it usually takes more than two weeks for it to finally arrive, with a return label in Chinese. (And it usually doesn’t look much like the picture.)

I’m not talking about the small online marketplaces showcasing emerging designers, that let the designers do the shipping. I’m talking about borderline fraudulent brands that don’t care about quality or their reputation because they don’t need or have a reputation to protect. All they need to do is steal a few cute images from another brand or influencer and put them up somewhere you will see them, whether in banner ads or on Amazon, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Poshmark, or other shoppable technology platforms.

These “brands” only care about making a product as cheaply as possible. They don’t care about using certified safe chemicals from reputable suppliers. They often source from factories that wouldn’t be allowed to manufacture for big brands like H&M and Zara, because they are so sloppy with their chemistry and would fail tests for hazardous substances.

In September of 2022, for example, a brand called Kolan—which had been registered just two years earlier—had to recall two styles of children’s footwear it had sold via Amazon because they contained dangerous levels of lead in the inner layer.

Because these manufacturers ship directly to the customer, there is no responsible entity such as a retailer or government body overseeing them. And because the size and cost of these packages are so small, they avoid the scrutiny that shipping containers get. In fact, any shipment worth under $800 isn’t even tariffed or checked at the border.

These brands often won’t respond to requests for a refund, nor can you take them to court if they sell you a dangerous product—because they are headquartered abroad and can easily disappear. And I’ve heard stories of people opening packages from these Asian brands and smelling gasoline.

It’s best for your health and your wallet if you avoid these brands altogether. If you want affordable and safe fashion, we have a guide to affordable brands with safe chemistry policies that you can find at the mall. 

2. High-Performance and Easy-Care Clothing With Fancy Marketing Promises

Performance attributes such as water repellency, stain repellency, wrinkle resistance, and easy-​care fabrics are almost always achieved through toxic chemicals such as PFAS, and coatings that can break down and come off the clothing into your house dust or onto your skin.

In 2022, a report came out from the modern nonprofit Silent Spring Institute showing that nearly 60%  of the children’s products it tested, including those labeled as stain-resistant, water-resistant, and even “nontoxic” and “eco-friendly,” had PFAS, a class of highly persistent and toxic “forever chemicals” that have been linked to several types of cancer, reproductive and developmental harm, and immune system suppression. The brands included Lands’ End, Gap, Old Navy, Children’s Place, and Columbia. The same year, a study found that children’s products—mainly school uniforms—marketed in the US and Canada as stain-resistant had similar levels of PFAS to outdoor gear. The study estimated that on average, children wearing these stain-resistant school uniforms would be exposed to 1.03 parts per billion of PFAS per kilogram of their body weight per day through their skin.

Some outdoor brands such as Páramo, Didriksons, Vaude, Jack Wolfskin, Icebreaker, Keen, and Lundhags avoid using PFAS-based performance coatings through a combination of physical engineering of textiles and water- and bio-based coatings. It is possible!

I’ve gotten to know natural and traditional strategies for getting stains out of clothing and furniture and they can be surprisingly effective — the wide world of the internet is a really helpful place. I also embrace the badge of honor from stains that come with heavy use of outdoor products like backpacks and jackets. If you really want to keep them clean and dry, you can use a PFAS-​free stainproofing spray like Nikwax on your items.

Wrinkle-free fabrics, meanwhile, are achieved through coatings that release formaldehyde, a carcinogen.

For keeping my linens wrinkle-free, well, I don’t do that for all my items. I love an artfully wrinkled farmhouse bedding look — so cozy. For clothing, I prefer to have this steamer and an iron handy at home and take this particular task as an opportunity for catching up on podcasts or even just having some quiet, phone-free reflective time. (I even have a travel-​size steamer/iron combo that I bring on trips.)

These performance fabrics with fancy, trademarked names, are often a marketing scam anyway, a way for brands to charge you more for what they call a “proprietary” (secret!) mix of chemicals and plastics that may or may not actually do what they promise.

Just take anti-​odor products, which are usually impregnated with nanosilver, an unregulated substance that has been making researchers very nervous when it comes to human and environmental toxicity. The EPA classifies silver as an environmental hazard, due to its toxicity to aquatic plants and animals, and a 2005 study found that nanosilver is forty-​five times more toxic than normal silver. The research is still emerging, but there have been studies indicating that nanosilver can be absorbed through the skin, then distributed throughout the body to various organs, where it is toxic. A study on oral exposure (nanosilver in food packaging) showed that it takes between two weeks and four months to clear out of most of the body, but it can accumulate in organs like the brain and testes, increasing the risk of damage over the long term.

No, we’re not eating our clothing… unless you count ingesting and breathing in the house dust that contains whatever falls off our clothing. Again, all this research is new—just like nanotechnology—and we need more. But taken together, it doesn’t make me want to sweat in anti-odor gym gear. That’s fine, because a textile-and-odor researcher told me those anti-odor technologies don’t work as well as buying natural fibers like merino wool.

Finally, avoid permethrin-​impregnated fashion products that promise to deter insects or permethrin spray. It’s a pesticide that you’re wearing right next to your body—a risky proposition! Unless you’re headed into an area with tropical diseases and you know you’re a mosquito magnet, it’s better to create a physical barrier against mosquitoes and ticks by wearing long sleeves, pants, and socks with tightly woven fabric like linen and cotton.

3. Cheap Clear Plastic or “Vegan” Pleather

If a product is plastic and very cheap, it is likely made of polyvinyl chloride, a.k.a. PVC. It’s the main material in children’s jelly shoes, clear raincoats,  ultracheap pleather skirts and leggings, and cheap accessories marketed as “vegan.”

PVC plastic off-​gasses—breathes out into the surrounding air—vinyl chloride over its entire lifetime. But the fumes are worse when it’s new. In fact, part of that seductive “new car smell” is vinyl chloride fumes.

We’ve known since the 1970s that vinyl chloride is carcinogenic. A 1979 scientific review by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) found that “there is no evidence that there is an exposure level below which no increased risk of cancer would occur in humans.” In other words, there is no safe level of vinyl chloride.

It’s not just vinyl chloride that is a problem for PVC, however. Phthalates, which are endocrine disruptors and reproductively toxic, are added to PVC to make it soft and pliable enough for those pleather miniskirts and jelly shoes.

Research has connected phthalates with reduced fertility in men, and studies have also linked these chemicals to asthma, cancer, and behavioral problems in children of all genders. Phthalates are so toxic to pregnant women and their future babies, that there is something called “phthalate syndrome,” which tends to manifest in baby boys born with genital abnormalities.

And yet, advocates are still finding phthalates in children’s products. It’s also worrying when it’s in tight pleather products that are next to your skin, like mini skirts and leggings. Those clothes make you sweat, and recent research shows that sweat draws toxins out of clothing and onto your skin.

Endocrine disruptors affect any system in your body regulated by hormones: your skin appearance, your reproductive system, your energy levels, your brain function, and more. In the past decade, researchers have come to the conclusion that there is no safe level of exposure to endocrine disruptors like phthalates.

To avoid PVC, you can opt for real new or secondhand leather, or shop at brands that have banned PVC from their products, including Nike, the luxury brands under the Kering umbrella (Gucci, Saint Laurent, Stella McCartney), brands under the PVH umbrella (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein), and H&M. 

4. Synthetic Fabrics with Saturated or Dark Colors

If you imagine what it would be like to try to dye a plastic water bottle or plastic bag, you might understand why special dyes are needed for polyester and other synthetic fabrics. These dyes are called disperse dyes, and the blue and black kind are well-known to dermatologists to be skin sensitizers, meaning they can cause skin rashes and other problems. But according to research published just a couple of months ago, it’s probably all shades of disperse dyes that are skin and immuno-sensitizers.

These dyes also come off our clothing into our homes’ house dust, meaning we can breathe them in, and that means they could also cause breathing problems.

I hate to tell you to dress boring! If you love bright colors and you don’t have any skin issues, by all means, get yourself a fire-engine-​red silk dress or a hot pink cotton skirt. But if you have sensitive skin, it could help to avoid neons, blues, and black, and instead look for white and cream, and muted, soft, earth-tone colors. Bonus if a brand uses natural and plant-​based

dyes! There are even some independent brands that source naturally colored heritage cotton for socks and T‑shirts from a farming outfit with a product called Foxfibre. It comes in pale brown, pink, and green.

If you absolutely require a synthetic product—maybe you’re a big backpacker and need some lightweight hiking gear— look for white products that don’t have any stain-resistant or water-repellent finishes. Evidence shows that the most toxic parts of synthetic materials are likely the dyes and finishes we put on them, not the material itself, and in its undyed state, polyester is shades of white.

5. Stretchy synthetic workout gear. 

The Center for Environmental Health in California keeps testing different types of polyester-spandex workout gear — bras, shirts, legging — and finding high levels of BPA, another endocrine disruptor that has been linked to ​​ breast cancer, infertility, brain and behavior disorders in infants and children, endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), and acne.

Combine this with the research on immuno-sensitizing dyes used on synthetic clothing, and you have a pretty toxic combo. In fact, I’ve noticed now that ever since I’ve switched to natural-fiber yoga clothes, I break out if I wear black synthetic leggings or tights.

Look for workout clothing with 95% or more cotton, modal, lyocell/Tencel, bamboo rayon, or summerweight merino wool. We have a list of plastic-free activewear. 

6. Synthetic Sneakers

It used to be that leather shoes were sewn together. Now, synthetic shoes have dozens of components that are glued together using toxic solvents. These are volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that off-gas hazardous fumes into the air. This is understood to mainly be a problem for workers in shoe factories. But ask chemically intolerant people, and they’ll tell you they have to put sneakers outside for years before they can try putting them on.

Even the best brands with the most robust chemical management programs are struggling to get solvents out of their shoes.

So if you’re choosing between a leather or canvas shoe and a synthetic shoe, try for the one made of natural materials. For synthetic sneakers, try to store them outside on your porch or in your garage if possible, instead of in your living or sleeping quarters.