This is interesting...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16126-nanotech-clothing-fabric-never-gets-wet.html

More information here:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=self-cleaning-materials
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=everything-proof-materials

In summary, by manipulating the surface texture and composition of a fabric, you can prevent liquids from wetting it, therefore they can't stick to it.

This strikes me as having more than a few preparedness applications.

Synthetics are for the most part hydrophobic, meaning they repel water. If you set the fibers so that they won't tend to break the surface tension of droplets or bigger, and keep the weave nice and tight, the repulsion should prevent water from penetrating the weave. Kinda like the reverse of capillary action I imagine.