How to Keep Everyday Cotton Looking New

Care Guide

Casual clothing lives in the wash. Something worn once a season can survive years of neglect, but the top you reach for every other week goes through the machine forty or fifty times a year, and that is where it either holds up or gives out.

Wash Cold, and Wash Less Often

Hot water is what shrinks cotton, dulls dye, and tires the elastic in a waistband. Cold water handles ordinary wear perfectly well, and modern detergents are formulated to work at low temperatures.

The other half of it is washing less. A top worn for a few hours indoors does not need a full cycle. Airing it overnight on a hanger is enough, and every cycle you skip is abrasion the fabric never has to absorb.

Turn Things Inside Out

Visible wear happens on the outside face of a garment, where the fabric rubs against the drum and against everything else in the load. Turning tops and dresses inside out moves that abrasion to the side nobody sees. It costs two seconds and it is the easiest habit on this list to keep.

Sort by Weight, Not Only by Color

A heavy pair of jeans in a load of light knits behaves like a rock in a tumble dryer. Zippers and metal buttons catch on finer fabric and pull threads out of it. Wash light with light and heavy with heavy, and fasten every zipper before it goes in.

Skip the Dryer Where You Can

Heat causes most shrinkage and most of that thin, tired feel older cotton develops. Line drying or laying a piece flat costs a few hours and adds a great deal of life. Where you do use a dryer, run it low and take things out slightly damp, which also saves you the ironing.

Deal with Pilling Early

Pills are short broken fibers tangling on the surface. They are not a sign the fabric has failed, and they come off cleanly with a fabric shaver or a fine comb worked in one direction. Doing it once when they first appear keeps the surface smooth, while leaving them to build means removing far more fiber later.

Store It Loosely

Knits stretch out of shape on a hanger because the weight of the fabric pulls down through the shoulders. Fold knitwear and hang wovens. Either way, leave enough room that air moves between pieces, because compressed fabric holds creases and damp far longer than it should.

How a fabric comes out of the wash is one of the three questions behind everything we stock, which we explain on our About Us page.

If anything on this page is unclear, write to us before you order and we will answer in full.