Applications
What are aromatics used and how do they improve our quality of life?

Easy to wear, easy to wash: today's clothes

Today we want our clothes to be warm, but not thick and itchy. Or we want them to keep us cool, especially when we're exercising.

Clothes

We want them colourful, but we don't want the colour to fade after a few washes. We don't want them to crease after a few hours' wear, but we do want them supple and soft on the skin. We want them resistant, too.

All this has been made possible by the new fibres created thanks to the input of the aromatics industry. Have a look at the labels on your clothes : acrylic fibres. polyester. nylon. Athough they used to sound –or even look– cheap. they are very often added to luxurious fibres – linen, silk, cashmere wool – to give them more resistance.

Modern clothes: today they make our lives easier, tomorrow they might save our lives...

These new textiles are also used in furniture, in carpets, in bed sheets and blankets, in curtains, mattresses and pillows. But the research is continuing, with advanced, aromatics-derived polymers being developed for revolutionary, "intelligent clothes" – such as pyjamas that will monitor a patient's vital signs, or clothes that can detect a soldier's wounds, and then goes on to administer an antibiotic.