system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 What's the Difference Between Polyester Clothing from the 1970s and Modern-Day Polyester Clothing?

Polyester fabric has been around for a relatively long time.

It seems like the best quality workout/ sports/active/underwear clothing today is made out of polyester material.

My understanding is, the higher quality professional attire (suits, jackets, pants) are still made of natural materials like cotton. However, that trend seems to be going more towards a hybrid polyester/cotton blend.

When did polyester material surpass the natural materials like cotton to be the go-to material for practically all clothing and why?
gpt
High quality suits are not made from cotton unfortunately. They are made from wool.

Polyester is a generic name. It's a broad family of synthetic materials. Different types have different properties. The types used in sporting wear are moisture wicking and quick drying. The early types were shiny and didn't breath well. The shininess is one of the reasons it fell from favor in the 80s until now as business preferred the more muted look of wool or wool blends. There are attempts to make middle of the road suits from cotton for vegans but tradition dies hard.

The term polyester refers to a very large family of fabrics. Almost as bad as the term plastic. Plastic could mean the cheap, weak plastic a lot of plastic forks are made from. But Kevlar is also a type of plastic. The stuff used for body armor and originally created to replace the steel belts used in tires.