Most clothing contains harmful chemicals like PFAS, phthalates, and formaldehyde that can absorb into your skin. These toxins are linked to hormonal disruption, allergies, and cancer.
The good news? You can stay safe by learning what to look for and which brands actually test for safety.
Clothing is one of the closest things to your body, yet it’s often the least questioned. Especially with intimates and activewear, what touches your skin daily can directly impact your long-term health.
This article breaks down how toxins hide in everyday fabrics, and how Certified Clean brands like Vibrant Body Company are setting new safety standards.
If you’re ready to make safer, smarter wardrobe choices, keep reading, we’re covering it all.
Key Points
- Your clothing may be exposing you to harmful levels of chemicals daily. Substances like PFAS, phthalates, and formaldehyde are commonly found in everyday garments, especially in activewear and intimates, and can be absorbed through your skin, disrupting hormones and increasing long-term health risks.
- Certifications matter, but they’re just the beginning. Labels like OEKO-TEX® and GOTS help, but safety depends on full transparency and what the garment is truly made of. Synthetic fabrics can still leach toxins, even when certified, especially with heat, sweat, and friction.
- Vibrant Body Company was built to solve this exact problem. With Certified Clean designs tested beyond surface claims, Vibrant offers safe, wire-free bras, leggings, and underwear that protect your body, not pollute it. Because your First Layer should support your health, not compromise it.
Why Clothing Safety Matters, Especially For What Touches You Most
If you wouldn’t eat it, why wear it?
We check ingredients in our food and skincare, but rarely question what’s in our clothing, especially the layers that hug our most vulnerable areas every day. And we should.
I learned the hard way after losing loved ones to cancer, only to discover the U.S. bans just 11 textile chemicals. Europe? Over 1,000.
Your bra, leggings, or tank top may look harmless, but without proper regulation, they often act as silent chemical delivery systems.
That’s why I founded Vibrant Body Company, not to follow trends, but to rebuild the First Layer from the ground up.
The fashion industry has long prioritized push-up and pretty over health, with bras originally engineered by ex-aircraft designers, not wellness experts.
What Toxic Chemicals Lurk In Clothing, And How They Harm You
When I began building Vibrant, I started where most companies stop: with what’s actually in the material.
Not just the label. Not just the marketing spin. The real stuff, the chemicals, coatings, finishes, and binders that never show up in your order confirmation but always show up in your bloodstream.
What I found shocked me. And if you care about your body, it should shock you too.
Toxic Threads: The Chemicals No One Told You About
PFAS (“Forever Chemicals”)
- Found in: Water-resistant leggings, moisture-wicking bras, and stain-proof fabrics
- Why they’re dangerous: They don’t break down in your body or the environment, and are linked to hormone disruption, cancer, and fertility issues.
Phthalates
- Found in: Synthetic fibers and elastic waistbands
- Why they’re dangerous: Used to soften plastics, phthalates are endocrine disruptors that are actively absorbed through your skin and can interfere with hormonal function.
Formaldehyde
- Found in: Wrinkle-free, anti-shrink, and antibacterial fabric finishes
- Why they’re dangerous: Can cause skin irritation and has been linked to cancer.
BPA (Bisphenol A)
- Found in: Polyester blends, especially in activewear
- Why they’re dangerous: This plasticizer leaches out with heat and friction (like during exercise), disrupting hormonal balance over time.
Azo Dyes & Aromatic Amines (AAs)
- Found in: Synthetic dyes for brightly colored garments
- Why they’re dangerous: These compounds can break down into carcinogenic substances, especially when they come into prolonged contact with skin.
Benzothiazoles
- Found in: Dyes, finishes, and elastic components
- Why they’re dangerous: Known skin irritants with high rates of transdermal absorption, particularly in high-friction garments like bras and underwear.
Heavy Metals (Cadmium, Arsenic, Nickel, etc.)
- Found in: Textile dyes and metallic finishes
- Why they’re dangerous: These accumulate in the body over time and have been linked to serious health issues including organ damage, cancer, and reproductive harm.
How These Chemicals Enter Your Body
The skin isn’t just a barrier, it’s a sponge. The more you move and sweat, the more it absorbs.
That’s why activewear and intimates, your First Layer, are the riskiest when it comes to chemical exposure. Through transdermal absorption, toxins like PFAS, phthalates, and formaldehyde don’t just touch your skin, they enter your bloodstream. And no, a few washes won’t remove them.
These chemicals are designed to last, and every laundry cycle only sends more of them into our waterways.
Clothing Confusion? Let’s Clear Up What Actually Matters
People want to do better, but the fashion industry doesn’t make it easy.
You shouldn’t need a chemistry degree to shop for a bra. Yet here we are, trying to decode fiber labels, greenwashing claims, and certifications just to figure out what’s safe to wear.
So let’s clear up some of the usual questions I hear all the time.
Does Fast Fashion = High Toxicity?
Usually, yes. Fast fashion prioritizes speed over safety, often using cheap materials and toxic finishes with little oversight.
Even thrifted fast fashion can carry lingering PFAS or phthalates, especially in synthetic fabrics. If you’re shopping secondhand, choose certified or previously transparent brands to reduce your risk.
Can I Test Clothing At Home?
Not effectively. You can’t detect phthalates, PFAS, or hormone disruptors with smell or sight, and there’s no reliable DIY test kit.
Clean Clothes, Clear Conscience: A Smarter Way To Dress
Choosing safer clothing shouldn’t feel like a treasure hunt, and yet, that’s what it becomes when brands aren’t transparent.
You do have control. Not over everything, but over what you wear on your skin every day. You just need to know what to look for, and what to walk away from.
What To Look For
✅ Start with OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100: The gold standard for textile safety. Tests for 100+ harmful substances. is safe enough for babies, which means it’s safe enough for you.
✅ Choose natural fibers, but with a caveat: Cotton, hemp, and wool are great, but only if untreated. Avoid coatings like “wrinkle-free” or “stain-resistant,” and look for OEKO-TEX® certifications.
✅ Seek Certified Clean or published safety test results: Trust brands that share what they test for. At Vibrant, we go beyond the surface, testing every thread, finish, and label for true clean.
What to Avoid
🚫 Ultra-Cheap Fashion: These items often skip safety testing and mislabel fiber content. If it feels off or lacks a tag, trust your gut, and skip it.
🚫 Polyester Without Certification: Synthetic doesn’t always mean toxic, but uncertified polyester is risky, especially in high-sweat areas like leggings or bras. Always ask for third-party testing.
🚫 Clothing Without Clear Labels: No fiber content, country of origin, or care instructions? That’s a red flag. If no one’s claiming it, no one’s accountable.
🚫 Buzzword-Heavy Fabrics: “Wrinkle-free,” “antibacterial,” or “odor-resistant” often means chemical coatings. These may bring convenience, but at a cost to your health.
You don’t need a full closet overhaul overnight. But each time you choose clean over convenient, you're investing in your health, your skin, and your peace of mind. Start with your First Layer. Start with what touches you most. That’s where it matters the most, and where real change begins.
Meet Vibrant Body Company, The Certified Clean Alternative
Too many women were wearing products designed by people who never considered the biology beneath the fabric. Designers focused on push-up and plunge, while ignoring pressure points, lymphatic flow, and chemical absorption.
The more I learned, the clearer it became: the industry didn’t need improvement, it needed reinvention.
So I teamed up with Europe’s leading lingerie engineers, not to follow trends, but to challenge them. We threw out the underwire, eliminated every questionable textile, and built a product line around one radical idea: your health comes first.
Vibrant’s 5 Must-Haves
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EveryWear Bra
Our hero product. This wire-free, Certified Clean bra offers patented lift, incredible breathability, and all-day comfort without a single toxic ingredient.
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Ignite Sports Bra
Engineered for movement, not hormone disruption. This sports bra avoids PFAS and phthalates while protecting the lymphatic-rich areas around your chest and underarms.
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Endure Leggings
Finally, activewear you can sweat in without absorbing synthetic chemicals. It’s buttery, breathable compression you’ll want to live in.
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The Tank Top
Lightweight, breathable, and clean to the core. This staple piece pairs well with anything, made from OEKO-TEX® certified fabric that’s soft without synthetics.
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Hikini
The most important layer is the one closest to you. Our Clean First Layer underwear offers three body-honoring fits, safe from flame retardants, azo dyes, and endocrine disruptors.
Choosing Safe Clothing Is Urgent
Let me say this plainly: the conversation around wellness is incomplete without talking about what touches your skin every single day. You can eat clean, filter your water, and invest in non-toxic beauty, but if you're still wearing garments soaked in endocrine disruptors, you're fighting an uphill battle.
Your clothes aren’t just fabric. They’re inputs. And like anything you put in or on your body, they affect your biology, your hormones, your energy, and your long-term health.
Here’s What Vibrant Has In Store For You
💡 Less exposure to hormone disruptors: Protect yourself from phthalates, BPA, PFAS, and more, especially in high-contact zones.
💡 Better skin health and fewer rashes: No more wondering why your bra line itches or your thighs break out.
💡 Confidence in your First Layer: Every time you get dressed, you’ll know you’re honoring your body, not compromising it.
You don’t need to compromise between comfort and clean.
You can have both. And you deserve both. Explore Certified Clean Essentials.
About The Author: Michael Drescher, Founder of Vibrant Body Company.
An unlikely messenger in women’s health, he’s speaking truths the industry has long buried beneath sleek silhouettes at the expense of women’s health. After losing loved ones to cancer, he uncovered the toxic reality of intimate apparel and set out to create a truly health-first alternative. Michael’s work challenges assumptions about who gets to lead wellness conversations, blending radical transparency with science-backed design. He started Vibrant Body Company to rewrite the standard, because comfort shouldn’t come with a chemical cost, and health should never be an afterthought.
