Obviously, Spaw, you have never put on a pair of military uniform cotton pants starched by the post laundry in a cold barracks in December in Kansas.

I mean, these could LITERALLY stand up by themselves if you opened the bottoms slightly. And the cold was such that several men became unwilling sopranos when the starched pants crotch hit the starched cotton crotch of their boxer shorts.

This is why I simply sprayed my body Army green and went to work that way.

(By the way, the military used and continues to use natural fabrics like cotton to minimize burns in combat. Plastic, such as polyester, can melt and cause a much, much nastier wound.)