Substack diary no.133: Friday 24th. April 2026

Winter is well and truly over so it’s jumper-washing time! I have finally got around to washing my woollens this morning – two cardigans and two jumpers. Sadly, that is all I have, and one of those cardigans is over 25 years old and a cherished item of clothing. It is a dark grey snug-fitting warm zip-through cardigan in the M&S Italian range, a range which has long since gone out of existence. I wear it when I am out in town and when I want to feel good. I can remember when clothing for ordinary people was made to last – and it was much easier to avoid plastic fabrics. Not so easy now.

I occasionally look for something similar to that cherished cardigan, and have done so for many years, but have singularly failed. It would appear that something of that quality and style is simply no longer available, at least in my part of the world. That, it seems to me, is a rather sad reflection on the clothing industry. Note I do not refer to the ‘fashion’ industry, which seems to think it is okay to wear something for a year then throw it away or give it to a charity shop. Please don’t wear what we made last year because people in town will laugh at you. And besides, we want to make lots of money and guilt-trip you into buying this year’s jumper. It’s a bloody jumper! I have one word for the fashion industry: bollocks. And, when so many items of clothing contain plastics – nylon, polyester, polyamide and so on – they are effectively non-recyclable.

I do not like ‘man-made’ materials – never have done. Apart from anything else (plastic draws out sweat!) I get too much static when I take plastic clothes off, which can be unpleasant. Pure cotton; pure wool. What’s wrong with that?