What is Spandex? And Why do Celebrities Females wear it?

The History Why its worn. 

Spandex is a synthetic fiber known for its exceptional elasticity and stretchability. It is stronger and more durable than rubber. Spandex revolutionized many areas of the clothing industry. It is one of the most used and best materials in lingerie. The most famous brand name associated with spandex is Lycra, a trademark of Invista (formerly part of DuPont). Such is Lycra’s prominence it has become a genericised trademark in many parts of the world, used to describe any kind of spandex.

 Spandex is produced as monofilament or fused multifilament yarns in a variety of deniers. Monofilaments are round in cross section and partly fused together at intervals and are found in fibers with deniers of 40 and above. The deniers of a spandex fiber range from 20 to 4300 and are determined by what the product use will be. 20 denier spandex, for example, is used in ligthweight support hoisery, in which a large amount of stretch is necessary for the products use and durability. Coarser yarns, with a denier of 1500 to 2240 denier, have less stretch capacity and can be used for support hosiery tops, swimwear, and foundation garments. Spandex fibers are produced in four different ways including melt extrusion, reaction spinning, solution dry spinning, and solution wet spinning. All of these methods include the initial step of reacting monomers to produce a prepolymer. Once the prepolymer is formed it is reacted further in various ways and drawn out to produce a long fiber. The solution dry spinning method is used to produce over 90% of the world’s spandex fibers.

Spandex is classified as an elastomeric fiber. An elastomer is a natural or synthetic polymer that, at room temperature, can be stretched and expanded to twice its original length. After removal of the tensile load it will immediately return to its original length. Along with spandex, rubber and anidex are considered elastomeric fibers. Spun from a block copolymer, these fibers exploit the high crystallinity and hardness of polyurethane segments, yet remain “rubbery” due to alternating segments of polyethylene glycol. This yields the following combination of materials properties: can be stretched over 500% without breaking, able to be stretched repetitively and still recover original length, lightweight, abrasion resistant, poor strength, but stronger and more durable than rubber, soft, smooth, and supple, resistant to body oils, perspiration, lotions, and detergents, no static or pilling problem, very comfortable, easily dyed.

 Apparel and clothing articles where stretch is desired, generally for comfort and fit, such as: athletic, aerobic, and exercise apparel, wetsuits, swimsuits/bathing suits, competitive swimwear, netball bodysuits, brassiere straps and bra side panels, ski pants, slacks, hosiery, leggings, socks, skinny jeans, belts, underwear; compression garments such as: surgical hose, support hose, cycling shorts, wrestling singlet, one piece rowing suits, foundation garments, motion capture suits; shaped garments such as bra cups; home furnishings, such as microbead pillows.