My Hunt for Natural-Fiber Base Layers
I’m a perpetually cold person, and once the temperature dips below 50, I don’t venture outside the house without a base layer underneath my clothing until spring. For the past few years, I’ve been rocking $13 kids’ thermals from Amazon, but last winter I outgrew them. They were too small, for one, and I also started to dislike the fabric — a 60 percent cotton, 40 percent polyester blend. My body is bad at temperature regulation under normal circumstances, and polyester traps a lot of heat and moisture. After a day of running from the cold outdoors to chilly subway platforms to hot apartments, I’d end up either overheated or coated in cold sweat.
I wondered if I’d fare better if I avoided polyester entirely. So I called in testers from six brands, all made of either cotton or merino wool. Cotton tends to be cheaper, heavier, and squishy-soft, and merino wool has a silkier feel, offers more warmth for weight and better temperature regulation, but is more expensive and fussier to care for. (Merino also isn’t itchy, unlike some wool.) You should air-dry wool whenever possible, but in the name of science, I ran the merino sets through one delicate, low-temp dryer cycle — because in the dead of winter, I am not always diligent about picking my delicates out of the wash to hang-dry.
My top picks
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The contenders
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These are listed as “men’s cotton long underwear” at the Vermont Country Store, but they arrived with branding from Indera Mills, an American company that has been making cold-weather underwear since 1914. I tried another set of thermals from the brand that I love (see more below), but these were a miss — the Vermont Country Store’s sizing goes down to only a medium, so these fit loosely, and the cotton felt stiffer and crunchier than some organic sets I tried.
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I could see REI’s merino base layers working well for winter sports, but they didn’t wow me enough to justify the price for an everyday set. The fabric is lightweight and warm but felt rougher against my skin than a less-expensive merino wool set from the Vermont Country Store. The top also fit loosely, which reduces its efficacy at retaining heat.
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The online retailer Quince has landed in many “Strategist Hunts” for its less-expensive dupes of luxury products. I liked its merino base layers — the top features a thumb hole at the cuff, which is a nice feature to have on extra-cold days — but when I disobeyed the care instructions and ran them through a low cycle on the dryer, they pilled the worst out of all the merino I tried.
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I really enjoyed these heavyweight organic-cotton thermals from Spiritex, an organic-cotton-basics company based in Asheville, North Carolina. The fabric is dense and squishy as a mochi, exactly what you want to wear on extra-cold days. I found these a hair too thick to serve as a general-purpose base layer — they added visible bulk under a collared shirt — and Spiritex carries only a women’s version of its thermal leggings. Not my daily driver, but great for the dead of winter or if you’re looking for a thermal top to wear on its own.
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This is what angels wear when they go skiing. This was the softest merino wool I tested: double knit, silky, and substantial. Unlike the Quince base layers, when I ran my dryer test, pilling was minimal. (I’d still advise line-drying them to keep the fabric in good shape.)
The only thing keeping this set out of the top spot is how strangely the butt area fits. They rise above my navel straight and narrow as a chimney, too tight around the hips, too loose around the waist, and saggy at the crotch. I tried them on another tester to see if it was just me, and they also found the fit unsupportive. I love the top, and the leggings might be perfect for a long-torso’d person with narrow hips, but they didn’t work for me.
My favorites
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I cannot take these off. Living Crafts is a German basics brand with several environmental and ethical certifications, and you can really feel the care that went into the production process in the garment. The softest soufflélike cotton I’ve ever felt, precisely sewn seams, perfect fit. My one small caveat is that they’re made of a dense rib knit that doesn’t have the heat- and moisture-regulating qualities of a waffle knit; I got slightly overheated when I wore the top under a sweatshirt on a 60-degree fall day. But it’s so soft I didn’t care. I’d swim in a pool of these if I could.
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After living in $13 thermals for years, I don’t think you need anything fancier than this set from Indera Mills (which happens to be the cheapest I tried). Compared to Spiritex’s organic cotton, the fabric is not as juicy and dense, but the lighter weight and tighter fit makes for a better base layer, and these are inexpensive enough to buy in multiples and not treat too preciously. Nothing beats waffle knit for heat regulation; if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
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