Garment Care Guide

You can only fit so many words — about 10, actually — on the teeny-tiny care labels sewn into our garments. In reality, I have a lot more than 10 words to say about how to care your clothes, so I made a whole webpage about it.

 

Hand Washing

Hand washing is the best option for *almost* all garments to keep them in the best shape possible. If you're new to hand-washing or just want to see if you've been doing it right, here's a quick walkthrough:

1. Fill up a sink or basin with cool/cold water.
2. As your sink is filling up, add a tablespoon or so of fabric detergent (or however much your detergent recommends; you don't need a lot).
3. Once the sink is filled up, add your garment and thoroughly swish it around. Depending on how dirty it is, you can leave it in the sink for up to 30 minutes, swishing it around every so often.
4. Drain the sink, and refill it with cool/cold water. If the item you're washing is particularly delicate (like wool or silk), make sure you aren't shooting water directly on the garment as you're filling up.
5. Swish the garment around, and drain the sink again. At this point, you can do another rinse if your item is extra dirty or if you added too much soap, but it shouldn't be necessary.
6. Gently squeeze your garment. You want to remove as much water as you can at this point without wringing or twisting. The item should still be dripping wet, but not waterlogged.
7. Remove as much water from your garment as you can. (The more you remove, the quicker it will dry.) You have two options here:
1. Invest in a spin dryer: they get more water out of a garment than you could ever possibly do by hand.
2. For delicate items like silks and sweaters, or if you don't have the space for yet another contraption, you can do it by hand. Here's how: Lay your garment flat on a towel. Roll the towel and the garment up into a roll, gently squeezing as you go. Unroll the towel and proceed to drying your garment.

 

Air/Line Drying

Air drying is the lowest-impact (both on your clothes and the environment) way to dry your clothes, but that doesn't mean you have to string all your clothes in your backyard to do it right. Clotheslines work great for drying if you have space to set one up, but I just use a foldable clothes-drying rack. Once you're done removing the extra water after handwashing, just hang up your clothes and wait for nature to do its thing. Quick tip: clothes will dry a lot faster if they're in a sunny or otherwise well-lit spot.

For more delicate items, or for any item where you're worried around maintaining its shape, such as a sweater, you can do a flat-dry by placing the garment flat on top of a towel, blocking it in the shape of your choice. Once the top is dry, turn the garment over to give the bottom side some air.

 

Ironing, Pressing, and Steaming

If you've invested in a wardrobe full of timeliness pieces and natural fibers, you should invest in a good iron. Make sure your iron has adjustable heat for different types of fibers as well as a good steam function.

I won't go into how to use your iron here (there are lots of online resources for that!), but I do have two pieces of advice:

1. Don't be afraid to use steam! Steam is what's really behind the magic of the iron, and you really can't use too much of it.
2. For super pesky creases that won't come out no matter how much you press them, try spritzing the spot with some water from a spray bottle, thoroughly wetting the crease, and then press. Voila!

Finally, if the idea of ironing all the time is horrifying to you, you should still definitely have an iron, but I recommend you think about buying a steamer. A good steamer can get most wrinkles out of clothing while your clothing is still on the hanger and without having to set up a board. A big, industrial steamer like a Jiffy is the best, but many of the small handheld ones work pretty well, too.

 

How Often Do I Need to Wash?

How often you should be washing your clothes depends on the type of clothing as well as how vigorous your day-to-day lifestyle is (in addition to your personal preferences, of course!). My recommendation: wash your clothes when they feel, smell, or look gross. This may be after one wear if you're running around all day outside, or it may be after five wears if you are mostly sitting around at home or layering things underneath your garments.

Here's a tip: if you want to save the water (and time) of starting a load of laundry and the garment in question really only needs a touch-up before you wear it again, you can make your own germ-killing fabric freshener spray using a few household ingredients:

• 2 ounces distilled water
• 2 ounces vodka (don't splurge for the fancy stuff; any kind will do)
• 10 drops of the essential oils of your choice (optional)

Shake the mixture up in a 4-ounce spray bottle and spray away!

 

Machine Washing & Drying

Machine washing on delicate is generally OK, but I don't recommend drying any of my pieces in a machine due to the tremendous wear and tear. (Seriously, clothes wear out so much more quickly when they're put through numerous high-heat drying cycles than they would otherwise.) That said, I'm human, you're human, and sometimes hand-washing is just not going to happen. I've put lots of my own garments through the wash (due to a combination of curiosity and occasional laziness), and I've picked up a few tips:

1. Use cold water! This is not only better for the environment, but it's better for your clothes.
2. Use the delicates function, and put your garment in a mesh delicates bag before dropping it in the machine.
3. Don't over- or under-stuff your machine, make sure all zippers are zipped, and use appropriate soap.
4. You can usually safely dry cotton and linen garments on the lowest heat setting available in your dryer. The higher the heat you use, the worse of a beating you're giving your clothing. (Kind of like with hair.) Low/no heat is ideal.
5. DO NOT PUT SILK OR WOOL IN THE DRYER, EVER. (Unless you are intentionally trying to shrink or distort a garment.)

 

Dry Cleaning

All our garments are technically dry-cleanable, and some of them are labeled "Dry Clean Recommended," but generally speaking, I don't recommend dry cleaning.

Why is that? Well, for one, traditional dry cleaning is a very (toxic) chemical-intensive process. The majority of dry cleaners use a controlled chemical known as perchloroethylene (aka perc) that is an air pollutant as well as a likely carcinogen. Secondly, many items you send out to a dry cleaner actually get washed in a traditional washing machine anyway (with arguably less gentleness, and lower-quality soap, than you might have done at home).

What about all the garments in your closet that say Dry Clean Only, you ask? Two answers:

1. Nearly all Dry Clean Only items (such as silks and sweaters) are actually hand-washable, as long as you're gentle.
2. Most of the Dry Clean Only garments that aren't hand-washable are things that probably don't need a total wash anyway, such as coats and suiting. Try spot-cleaning them with the DIY garment freshener spray mentioned above.

If you do want to bring your clothes to the cleaners and live close to a metro area, look for a wet or liquid CO2 eco cleaner rather than a traditional dry cleaner. It costs more, but the methods they use are just as effective and won't leave your clothing covered in chemicals.