Spandex: The Democratic Fiber

Spandex: The Democratic Fiber
12/12/2011 admin

We all know that use of my favorite fiber is expanding, literally and at the waistline!  The amount of spandex available globally has more than doubled since the year 2000.  In the same amount of time it has also significantly decreased in price from about $12/lb to $4/lb.  The current availability of spandex as well as recent lifestyle changes have largely increased the use of this stretchy fiber in the apparel industry.

Today, women buy 78% of all apparel sold in the US and more than 65% of those women are overweight.  Ed Gribbin of clothing consulting firm Alvanon says spandex is a “democratic” fiber because “the product will morph to the body as opposed to limit the body. But many wonder whether spandex is encouraging people to be bigger.”

Spandex is even responsible for the new “one-size-fits-all” category.  PajamaJeans are a good example of the new sizing trend, claiming that they fit any shape from petite to plus size.  To my surprise, more than 600,000 pairs of PajamaJeans have been sold and currently stretching themselves to the limitless proportions of American body mass.

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/11/143003539/spandex-has-stretched-with-u-s-waistlines?sc=17&f=1128

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