Highly processes bamboo fibers (lots of chemicals involved) are quite soft and people like to use it for bedsheets. I don't think it is durable enough for clothing; I could be wrong though.
Better for the world than polyester, but not as good as organic linen and cotton. It's a gateway fibre that is the first step away from synthetics as its easy to wash.
i had a bamboo fiber t-shirt. it was nice and soft. my understanding is that there are a couple different ways to make it, one largely mechanical and more traditional and yields a material similar to linen (and not done very much) and one that’s chemical and close to how rayon is made (the bamboo is chemically pulled apart and the fibers are ‘built’ out of cellulose).
Some are more chemical intense, other methods use more electrical energy to do the mushing before extruding it into the chemical baths.
I haven't seen a method of extracting the phylum whole like they do with linen. My understanding is that bamboo doesn't have a strong phylum as it gets its structure from the wood part, not the circulatory system. Although, there is historically a process like this, i understand the result isn't what we would now consider clothing fibre.
I have yet to see a mention of bamboo fibre that is soft and bendable enough for cotton pre 1980.
Actually you can find bast bamboo but it is rare. The most common form of bamboo is actually rayon made from bamboo. The manmade fibers that masquerade as natural can be interesting. For instance Peppermint fiber is a manmade fiber from cotton and a small amount of peppermint plant. It is much like extremely long stapled cotton to spin. Bamboo Rayon and rose fiber are both more slippery and feel like plastic to spin, the same with the corn fiber they used to make umm Ingeo I think it was called.
I found a lovely local yarn shop and explained that I only work with natural fibres. The owner was very helpful but insisted that bamboo / wool blend was 100% natural. I guess my definition is different to hers as I wouldn’t consider making rayon as natural. Sure it’s potentially better than polyester, but I’ll stick to the traditional stuff.
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