The Golden Age of Farm-to-Table Technical Fashion
Three-layer polyester twill, ballistic technical nylon, synthetic organza with a polytetrafluoroethylene membrane — call it what you want, it's all effectively just plastic. Typically found on cutting-edge high-tech gear, these sorts of materials are as indecipherable as the stuff that makes up Twinkies.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. That trusty weather-defeating plastic sure is nice for protecting against cold and wet climes. But whose day-to-day demands mountaineering-level performance? All that energy-guzzling production and microplastic waterproofing isn’t necessary when you’re just throwing up a hood or tightening hem cords for a drizzly errand run. It’s probably even overkill for all but the most extreme of hiking trips.
The functionality needed for the layperson can come from natural fibers. And the additional benefit is that it also happens to be quite beautiful. Cotton, hemp, wool, and even silk can be made into tough, weather-fighting outdoor wear, a point proven by a new generation of outdoor brands crafting beautifully tough eco-conscious clothing.
We’re in a boom time of stylishly crunchy — sometimes literally — outdoor gear, as organic as the healthiest granola and no less tasty.
Fledgling activewear label Purple Mountain Observatory’s Cygnus Wax jackets, for instance, are fully weatherproofed, fitted with fancy-sounding utilitarian details — Seamlessly integrated ventilation! Ultrasonic welded taped seams! — and solely made of specialty ultra-dense waxed cotton from Scottish manufacturer Halley Stevensons, a traditional style of fabric produced for over a century and a half.
It’s a considered textile choice, both environmentally and because, as the brand notes, the waxed cotton will age with grace. The patina of worn-to-death waxed cotton is all but impossible to replicate otherwise, one of the reasons why Barbour jackets only get better with time (quality finishing also helps).
In late February, only two days after Purple Mountain Observatory released its waxed cotton windbreakers, OAMC and Goldwin issued an outerwear capsule made of a custom-developed three-layer cotton that’s water-repellent, breathable, and engineered as sturdily as anything bearing the Goldwin name, an exploration of “how natural fibers can work in a technological context,” according to OAMC.
Outdoorsy label RANRA came next. A mere four days later, RANRA’s Spring/Summer 2025 collection premiered technical outerwear made of sheer ripstop silk that’s as glossily tactile as nylon but significantly more breathable and rarer.
For a category synonymous with lightweight polyesters and watertight GORE-TEX membranes, that’s a lot of mostly natural, plainly fashionable performance clothing released within a single week. And these aren’t even the only options.
In a post-gorpcore environment where outdoorsy functionality is normalized as daily utility, a new faction of fashion brands is achieving an adventurous look with natural fabrics.
Look at the carrot-cut trousers from Earth\Studies cut from khadi, the ultimate slow-fashion textile, and fitted with a built-in rollercoaster belt and anatomically seamed for ease; 18east’s fuzzy organic cotton fleeces with hand-embroidered cotton duck paneling and block-printed with historic ancient Indian patterns; the biodegradable puffer jackets made entirely cotton of, inside and out, from Story mfg.’s Slow-Tek line; Café Mountain's fleece vests formed from wool and cotton ripstop; and the “Softwear” of WAWWA, both rugged and manufactured by ethically paid workers, issued in limited-run drops that soften the burden of production.
This category of organic outerwear even includes footwear.
Last summer, Drei Berge Mountain Shoes sprung up with its Tech Mönch 1 model, looking something like a cross between a Nike Air Max 95 and an old-school leather hiking boot. “It's the contemporary walking shoe with the least amount of plastic since the ‘60s,” Ramdane Touhami, the brand’s founder, previously told Highsnobiety. “I've always been obsessed with wearing clothes without poly-something — to be dressed in oil disturbs me.” (Not-so-fun fact: The United Nations estimates that in 2022, 70 million barrels of oil were used to produce polyester.)
And shortly after Touhami’s feet-first polyester protest came Samsara, a project from footwear designer Adrià García Muñiz, a maker of rugged outdoor footwear targeted directly at fashionable folk. Its first product, debuted at a Paris Fashion Week showroom in early 2025, is a Vibram-soled and hemp-made hiking shoe.
The appeal of these brands is obvious.
No one likes forever chemicals and everyone likes the rustic beauty alien innate to organic fibers.
You can comprehend that feeling by glimpsing the thick strands of hemp woven across Samsara’s shoes or the dense herringbone cotton revealed only on closer inspection of Goldwin and OAMC’s weatherproof layering pieces. It grants a patient artisanal touch to garments otherwise drowning in modern usefulness.
