Textiles come from three broad sources: plants and animals, petroleum and petrochemicals, and chemically processed wood pulp. Polyester, derived from petroleum, is the single most produced fiber in the world, accounting for 57% of global fiber production. Cotton comes in second, with about 24.4 million tonnes produced in 2023. Everything you wear or sit on traces back to one of these three categories.
Plant Fibers
Cotton is the most widely used natural textile fiber. It grows as fluffy bolls around the seeds of the cotton plant, which are harvested, cleaned of seeds, and spun into yarn. Cotton’s popularity comes from its breathability, softness, and ability to absorb moisture, which is why it dominates T-shirts, bedsheets, and denim.
Linen comes from the flax plant, and hemp comes from the cannabis plant (a non-psychoactive variety). Both are “bast fibers,” meaning the usable material sits inside the woody stalk and has to be separated out. The traditional method is called retting: you lay the harvested stalks in a field and let dew and microorganisms break down the binding material around the fibers over several weeks. Farmers can also submerge the stalks in water to speed things up, or use chemical treatments to dissolve the plant glue holding everything together. The resulting fibers are strong and durable. Hemp, in particular, requires less water and fewer pesticides than cotton, making it one of the more sustainable plant-based options.
Animal Fibers
Wool comes from sheep. Farmers shear the fleece once or twice a year, and the process is surprisingly detailed. After shearing, workers separate different parts of the fleece: belly wool goes in one bin, stained or soiled wool in another. Each fleece is thrown onto a skirting table where short fibers and debris fall through the slats. The remaining wool is sorted by quality, then cleaned, combed, and spun into yarn. Beyond sheep, other animals contribute fibers too. Cashmere comes from goats, alpaca fiber from alpacas, and angora from rabbits.
Silk takes a completely different path. Silkworms (actually caterpillars of the silk moth) spin cocoons out of a single continuous protein filament during metamorphosis. Producers harvest these cocoons, soften them in hot water to loosen the filament, and unwind each one. A single cocoon can yield hundreds of meters of silk thread. It’s labor-intensive, which is why silk has always been one of the most expensive natural fibers.
Petroleum-Based Synthetic Fibers
Most of the clothing sold today is made from plastic. Polyester, nylon, acrylic, and spandex all start as petroleum or petrochemicals. The raw material is chemically transformed into long polymer chains, then turned into fiber through a process called melt-spinning: the polymer is heated until it melts, forced through tiny holes (like a showerhead), and pulled into thin strands as it cools. Those strands are then stretched to align the molecules, which gives the fiber its strength and flexibility.
Polyester alone makes up 57% of all fiber produced globally. Nylon is the second most used synthetic. Acrylic, often used as a wool substitute in sweaters and blankets, is refined from mineral oil. Spandex (also called elastane) is a polyurethane-based fiber that gives stretchy clothing its snap.
One significant downside of synthetic textiles is microplastic shedding. Every time you wash a fleece jacket, it can release roughly 110,000 tiny plastic fibers into the wash water. Even non-fleece synthetics shed around 900 fibers per garment per wash. Research has estimated that a single 6-kilogram load of laundry can release up to 700,000 fibers. These microplastics flow through wastewater systems and into rivers and oceans.
Regenerated Fibers From Wood Pulp
Sitting between natural and synthetic is a third category: regenerated fibers. These start with a natural material, usually wood pulp from trees like eucalyptus, beech, or spruce, but require heavy chemical processing to become fabric. The result is something that feels like a natural fiber but is manufactured in a factory. This group represented about 6% of global fiber production in 2023, totaling 7.9 million tonnes.
The most common type is viscose (a form of rayon). To make it, wood pulp is dissolved using a combination of strong alkalis and carbon disulfide, a hazardous chemical, then forced through tiny holes into an acid bath that solidifies the cellulose back into fiber. Modal and cupro follow a similar approach with slight chemical variations.
Lyocell (often sold under the brand name Tencel) is a more environmentally friendly alternative. It uses a non-toxic solvent that can be recovered and recycled in a closed loop, meaning very little chemical waste leaves the factory. Bamboo fiber also falls into this category. While bamboo grows quickly and sustainably, most bamboo fabric is processed the same way as viscose, using the same harsh chemicals. Only when bamboo is mechanically processed, more like linen, does it retain its environmental advantage.
From Fiber to Fabric
Regardless of where the raw fiber comes from, it goes through additional steps before becoming the textile you recognize. Fibers are spun into yarn, then woven or knitted into fabric. After that comes finishing: dyeing, softening, waterproofing, or adding wrinkle resistance. Textile dyeing uses dozens of chemical families, including reactive dyes that form strong chemical bonds with cotton fibers, and disperse dyes designed to penetrate synthetic materials. The process also introduces auxiliary chemicals like salts, surfactants, and sometimes heavy metals such as chromium, copper, and zinc, which can end up in wastewater if not properly managed.
Where Textiles Are Made
The countries that grow or produce raw fiber are not always the same ones that turn it into finished clothing. China and India dominate both cotton farming and garment manufacturing. Bangladesh and Vietnam are major garment exporters, with Vietnam’s textile and clothing exports reaching over $28 billion in 2023. The largest importers of finished textiles are the United States ($129.7 billion in 2023), Germany ($50.7 billion), the United Kingdom ($33.8 billion), and Japan ($32 billion). This global supply chain means the cotton in your shirt may have been grown in India, spun into yarn in China, woven into fabric in Vietnam, and sold in the United States.
Experimental and Alternative Sources
A newer wave of textile development is looking beyond conventional sources entirely. Researchers are creating wearable materials from agricultural waste, including pineapple leaf fiber and bioplastics made from orange peel. Pineapple leaves, normally discarded after harvest, contain strong cellulose fibers that can reinforce a biodegradable polymer matrix. Orange peel is rich in pectin and cellulose, giving it natural adhesive and elastic properties useful for film-forming materials. These biocomposites are still in early development, currently better suited for accessories and interior products than mainstream clothing, but they point toward a future where textiles come from what farms throw away rather than what they deliberately grow.