The Frankenstein's monster of fabrics, polyester has enjoyed more lives than the evil baron's monstrous creation. The wonder fiber of the post-war West became the fashion rage of the superfueled 1970s. Then, dismissed and disavowed by the cognoscenti, it seemed on the verge of extinction until modern science resurrected its utility in the form of polar fleece in the 1990s. What a long, strange trip it's been.

Other than LSD, perhaps no man-made compound influenced the style of an era quite like polyester. And like LSD, it had its origins in a European laboratory. Polyester, the invention of two chemists working at the Calico Printers Association in England, was not the first man-made fiber. Rayon and Nylon had been in use for years as sportswear and stockings, respectively. But when J.T. Dickson and J.R. Whinfield hit upon a way to spin petrochemical molecules into threads, they...