What Is Vinyl (PVC)?

How is vinyl (PVC) made?

Vinyl is made by polymerising vinyl chloride monomer into polyvinyl chloride, a thermoplastic, and then adding plasticisers to make it soft and flexible. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston’s CAMEO materials database lists heavily plasticised PVC for thin sheeting, raincoats and fabric coatings, and notes that stabilisers are needed to stop light and heat discolouring it.

The polymer is older than its fashion use. Friedrich Klatte patented PVC in Germany in 1912, and it was first commercialised in 1926, when Waldo Semon, a chemist at the American company B. F. Goodrich, found a way to use it as a coating and an adhesive.

Film or coated fabric

Vinyl for clothing and accessories can be a plastic sheet on its own or a coated fabric: a textile base with plastic layers on top. A 2021 study in the journal Coatings notes that artificial leathers often use polyester textiles coated with PVC or polyurethane films. The same study describes synthetic leather alternatives as usually a textile support covered by two or more synthetic polymer layers, which is how PVC-coated faux leather is built.

Why the backing and the seams matter

The Victoria and Albert Museum’s record of a Mary Quant raincoat shows the problems clearly. Quant showed PVC rainwear in Paris in 1963 as her “Wet Collection”. When she tried to mass-produce it, the plastic stuck to the sewing-machine foot or was perforated by the needle and tore easily. She concluded that the PVC had to be backed with cotton, and the rainwear maker Alligator advised welded seams rather than stitched ones, to avoid perforating the fabric. The surviving V&A coat, sold at her Bazaar shop around 1964, is beige PVC with a check cotton lining.

What are the properties of vinyl (PVC)?

Vinyl resists moisture and is a dense, heat-sensitive plastic whose flexibility depends on its plasticisers. CAMEO gives these figures and behaviours for PVC:

Plasticisers are the weak point. Phthalate plasticisers were common in mid-20th-century PVC, and CAMEO notes that these oily plasticisers tended to creep and separate with time, leaving an oily surface and a brittle material underneath. Some more recent formulations use copolymerisation instead of plasticisers.

Strength in a coated fabric comes mostly from the base. The 2021 Coatings study found that the tensile strength of coated textiles depends mainly on the supporting fabric, not the plastic layer.

How does vinyl (PVC) appear on a clothing label?

Under US law, coated fabrics are excluded from fibre-content labelling unless fibre content is claimed, while PVC spun into fibre has its own generic name in both the US and the EU, and leather-look accessories must not pass as leather.

• Coated fabrics (US). The FTC’s Textile Rules (16 CFR 303.45(b)(3)) exclude “coated fabrics and those portions of textile fiber products made of coated fabrics” from the Act’s requirements. The exclusion falls away if fibre content is stated without a full disclosure, or if the fibre content is misrepresented (303.45(c)).
• PVC as a fibre (US). When PVC is spun into fibre, its generic name is vinyon: a fibre with at least 85% by weight of vinyl chloride units (16 CFR 303.7(n)). Do not confuse it with vinal, a different fibre based on vinyl alcohol units (303.7(l)).
• PVC as a fibre (EU). Regulation (EU) No 1007/2011 calls it chlorofibre: a fibre with more than 50% by mass of chlorinated vinyl or chlorinated vinylidene units (Annex I). The Regulation treats as textile products those containing at least 80% textile fibres by weight (Article 2(2)(a)).
• Leather look-alikes (US). The FTC’s Guides for Select Leather and Imitation Leather Products (16 CFR Part 24) cover items such as luggage, handbags, billfolds and footwear, and belts not sold as part of a garment. Where a material looks like leather but is not, the Guides say this should be disclosed, with examples including “Vinyl”, “Vinyl coated fabric” and “Imitation leather”. The unqualified word “leather” is reserved for products made of leather in all substantial parts.

How do you tell good vinyl from poor vinyl?

Good vinyl has a sound textile backing, joins that do not rely on needle holes through the film, and a surface that is neither tacky nor cracked. Check these points in the shop or on arrival:

1. Look at the reverse or a cut edge. A knitted or woven base under the plastic means a coated fabric, and the base carries most of the tensile strength. Quant found unbacked PVC tore at the needle holes and concluded it had to be cotton-backed.
2. Look at the seams. Every stitch perforates the film, and perforated PVC tears easily; a welded seam avoids the holes. On stitched vinyl, look for tears starting at the stitch line.
3. Rub the surface with a clean finger. An oily film or a white bloom is plasticiser or stabiliser migrating to the surface, which CAMEO links to brittleness and cracking.
4. Flex a fold or a strap. Cracks along the bend, or discoloured patches, are signs of light and heat degradation.
5. Read the label. “Vinyl”, “PVC” or “vinyl coated fabric” tells you what the outer is. On a bag, belt or pair of shoes sold in the US, an unqualified “leather” claim should mean leather in all substantial parts.

Red flag: a burn test. It is a laboratory method, not a shop test. CAMEO notes that PVC burns with a green, smoky flame and gives off hydrochloric acid gas.

Vinyl vs patent leather

The two can look alike, because both are glossy. The difference is underneath the shine.

How do you care for vinyl (PVC)?

Care for vinyl means keeping it away from heat, strong light and solvents, and storing it where its plasticisers cannot transfer to other things. Follow the care label first. Then:

• Wipe it with a damp cloth rather than using solvent-based stain removers, since PVC dissolves in chlorinated hydrocarbons and aromatic solvents.
• Never iron the vinyl side. PVC melts at 148 °C and decomposes as it does.
• Store it out of direct sun and away from heat sources, which discolour it and make it brittle.
• Store it so it does not press against other garments or metal hardware. CAMEO notes that degraded PVC can transfer plasticisers and that separated additives can corrode metal.

Is vinyl (PVC) sustainable?

Vinyl has documented environmental and health drawbacks: it is made from fossil-based raw materials, and making or burning it can release dioxin. The 2021 Coatings study notes that polyester textiles coated with PVC or polyurethane make artificial leathers that are entirely fossil-based. CAMEO notes that production and incineration of PVC can release toxic chlorinated organic chemicals, such as dioxin, into the environment, and that vinyl chloride, the monomer it is made from, is a suspected carcinogen.

Avoiding animal hide is a separate question from environmental impact. Vinyl contains no animal hide, so it can meet a vegan leather brief, but that label says nothing about the plastic or its additives. For how materials are weighed more broadly, see sustainable fashion. PVC is also not the only plastic used to coat cloth: the Coatings study names polyurethane films alongside it, so a waterproof coating or a leather-look finish is not automatically vinyl.