I live in the tropics at the moment and I can tell you all about the importance of natural fibres.

Natural fibres can breathe, I like to wear linen pants as they are cool in the heat and they seem to let the sweat out and the air in. When you wear linen you notice that it stretches over time becoming like a favourite tee shirt. I classify the linen that I buy in Australia (all manufactured in china) as shiny and itchy or soft and comfy. When you buy it sometimes it can be hard to tell which way its going to go.. after a few watches soft and comfy linen is like a dream. Where as shiny and itchy linen never seems to lose the itchy scratchy sensation you feel when you try it on at the shop.

Cotton underwear ie knickers or "panties" a MUST in the tropics lets just say that when you sweat in Asia you really sweat... cotton knickers really do allow your bits to breathe! In Malaysia it is very difficult to buy cotton knickers like "bonds" you can get grandma knickers or nylon dreadfuls but no nice bikini type knickers.

I will leave you with an amusing story. Since we moved to Malaysia a laundry does our washing and ironing. I  get dressed in the dark in the morning before I go to school. One day as I was going to the toilet at recess I glanced down and looked at my knickers, I took a second look as I didn't immediately recognise the colour. A feeling of dread gripped my stomach as I had the thought "I'm not wearing my own knickers". I quickly read the label and they were bonds, my brand.... but instead of a nude tan colour they were apricot coloured. I then realised that the apricot color was patchy and that the ladies at the laundry must have thought that my tan knickers were a grubby/dirty colour and so they had tried to bring them back to white... stopping at apricot, whilst there was still some fabric left!