Kismai Aesthetics is my online alter ego. Pronounced Kizz-my, he's currently writing about laundry and musing on the state of the Fast-Moving Consumer Packaged Goods market in North America from an outpost in Western Washington. His background is also in management consulting, but his vertical has never been FMCPG either - we're both here for the textiles.
In early 2025, the Reddit algorithm fed me a post that had the worst advice possible for textile care. It was a real-life XKCD moment - I could not go to sleep until I was sure the original poster had good advice. My shock at finding there's a subreddit for laundry was eclipsed only by my shock for the massive demand for solid science-driven textile care advice on the internet.
Textile care matters a lot to me. Textiles are resource-intensive - growing the cotton for a t-shirt can take over 1200 gallons of potentially-drinkable water, a pound of synthetic fertilizers and an ounce of pesticides. Quadruple those values for pair of jeans. A polyester fleece blanket takes about double its weight in natural gas, 50kWh of electricity and creates greenhouse gas emissions of about ten times its weight. Fast fashion is only part of the problem - all fashion at all tiers from Chinese DTC brands like SHEIN to bespoke products from luxury brands is extremely resource intensive and often scandalously wasteful.
More shocking still is what happens when textiles are discarded: Fewer than 5% of used textiles get recycled into new textiles or high-value products. What doesn't end up in US landfills often ends up in used clothing markets in developing countries as part of a truly abysmal supply chain.
What surprises me most about the lifecycle of textiles is how short their typical usage life is, and that dirt and stains represent a more likely reason for consumers to dispose of textiles than changes in fashion, size or season. Only wear and tear exceeds soils and stains as a reason consumers discard items.
My goal is to help people take better care of their textiles to keep them in circulation longer. I espouse a considered view of textile care - balancing the needs of the items against resource consumption, cost and feasibility. I don't take industry money - 100% of my revenue is from voluntary contributions by readers and Redditors. See my financial policies at Support The Work / Financial Disclosure ,