The Polyester Age: How Fast Fashion Gentrified Cotton In India

When did cotton become a luxury? If you browse through the women's section of almost any high-street fashion brand today, you’ll see that dresses, tops, skirts and shirts in the ₹500 – ₹2,000 range are overwhelmingly made from polyester or polyester blends. Cotton and linen are still around, but they're increasingly found in more expensive collections or sold as premium fabrics, especially if you’re going for a modern/streetwear silhouette. It's a shift shoppers around the world have been questioning online. Polyester now accounts for 59% of all fibre produced globally, while cotton's share has fallen to 19%. For a country where cotton was once the fabric worn across class lines, that raises a bigger question: how did a fibre made from petroleum become the cheapest thing you can wear?

For thousands of years, cotton was part of everyday life across the Indian subcontinent. Archaeological evidence from the Indus Valley civilisation shows that cotton was being cultivated around 5,000 years ago, and Indian cotton textiles eventually travelled across trade routes connecting the region to markets in Europe, Africa and West Asia. Cotton production shaped entire communities of farmers, spinners, dyers and weavers, with different regions developing their own traditions around the fibre. From Bengal’s fine muslins to the handwoven textiles of Gujarat and the Deccan, cotton was deeply tied to the common man. Its popularity came from practical reasons too — it grew across large parts of the country and suited India's climate, making it a natural choice for everyday clothing.

By the freedom movement, cotton had already established a social and economic significance that made it a powerful political symbol. Gandhi’s promotion of khadi, for example, connected spinning and wearing cotton to an existing relationship between people and the material. It represented local production at a time when British colonial policies had weakened India’s textile industries and increased dependence on imported mill-made cloth. Even after Independence, cotton remained central to Indian wardrobes, be it sarees, shirts, kurtas, uniforms, or household fabrics. Generations grew up recognising different cottons by their texture and region.

Then came the age of petroleum, when polyester was developed in the 1940s and introduced to consumers in the 1950s as a modern fibre built for a new industrial world. Advertised as durable, easy to wash and resistant to wrinkles, it quickly found a place in everyday clothing. The advantage for manufacturers was even bigger. Cotton depended on farms, harvests and weather conditions, while polyester could be produced inside factories with predictable costs and large-scale output. At the time, cotton farming in India was facing its own pressures, with rising input costs, fluctuating market prices and growing uncertainty around agricultural livelihoods making the fibre harder to sustain across the supply chain. As petrochemical industries expanded, synthetic fibres became easier and cheaper to manufacture, creating the foundation for a clothing industry built for high volume

By the 1990s, as fashion moved towards faster production cycles, polyester became central to the system. Brands needed fabrics that could support thousands of new designs, low prices and global supply chains. And it was polyester that offered that combination of affordability, availability and consistency. India experienced this transition too. The country’s textile economy, which revolved around cotton, now saw synthetic fibres expand rapidly from the 1970s onwards, with companies like Reliance investing heavily in polyester production and promoting it as a fabric suited for a changing India. The rise of polyester was connected to a larger transformation in clothing itself: garments became cheaper, and trend cycles got shorter.

The rise of polyester also changed the way we relate to clothing. For many generations, fabric itself had a history. People recognised the difference between a fine cotton, a coarse weave, a handloom textile or a fabric suited for summer — a day out shopping with your parents will really impress you. Clothes also lasted much longer as heirlooms across generations, especially fine fabrics like silks and wools. A skirt now can be marketed through its silhouette alone, because it fits an internet micro-trend like ‘Coquette’ or ‘Corpcore,’ with material composition becoming an afterthought for most.

Unless, of course, it’s part of the brand identity and is sold under ‘premium’ clothing, ‘sustainability’ and ‘conscious’ consumption, which is a micro-trend of its own, by the way. For a long time, luxury in fashion meant big logos and bold designs — think of branded Louis Vuitton prints where the whole point was showing off who you’re wearing. As counterfeits and designer dupes flooded the market, and anyone could buy or copy a logo, recognizable monograms lost their exclusivity, and overt branding stopped being a symbol of true high status. To stay exclusive, high-end fashion turned to ‘stealth wealth,’ or ‘quiet luxury’ — relying on unbranded, simple silhouettes made from high-quality natural fibres like cotton, linen, cashmere or silk. This shift was pushed further by economic downturns, where flashy displays of wealth came across as distasteful, leaving basic, high-grade natural materials co-opted as the new markers of luxury. They gentrified cotton, ya’ll. 

In India, however, natural fabrics have always belonged to local artisans, indigenous groups and small-town weaver communities, and they continue to be produced by them. Cotton kurtis and more traditional silhouettes are still easy to find. But contemporary forms in natural fabrics come few and far between, and they usually are on the higher end. This has also pushed more people towards thrifting, upcycling and making their own clothes, especially on social media where we’ve all gained a new personal-style consciousness. So although fast fashion has significantly downgraded the craftsmanship of clothing, paying attention to fabric labels, building smaller wardrobes and choosing clothes that last has now become the ideal way to shop. And that might just be the way to slowly bring sustainable, natural fabrics back into the market.

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