system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[The Thing (1982)] What happens to the clothes when The Thing devours you?

Many characters get devoured and imitated in The Thing (1982). I have always wondered about the clothes.

Bennings has his coat, pants and sweatshirt on, they are not bloody, not ripped, they look perfectly normal. The imitation is not ready yet, but clothing is not an issue in that case.

The characters at one point are assuming that it rips off your underpants - but why only the underpants? What is happening with the rest of the clothes? Suffice to say that the characters don't know anything for sure, they are just speculating.

Anyone has a working in-universe explanation?
gpt
I've always assumed that the thing absorbs any natural fibers, discarding anything it can't assimilate, and then remakes the clothing out of itself. The same way it made fur when it was the dog or hair when it's human.