Hello loves! It has been a very hectic year and a lot has been going on but I am finally and happily back on the blog. Lately, I have been thinking more about what I consume and how it has an impact on the world we live in. In the last year, I have been gravitating towards the slow fashion world. As the environment is asking us for help and we need to produce less waste, I would love to improve my habits also in 2023. Unfortunately, our love for fashion is damaging the planet: fashion production is responsible for 10% of carbon emissions, spilling microplastics into the oceans, and polluting rivers and streams.
As a first step toward a more sustainable closet, I have been trying to purchase fewer garments and to take good care of them to make them last longer, no matter if they are expensive pieces or not. Garment care is important for building a closet with timeless pieces. So, I would like to share with you some garment care tips for a long-lasting closet.
Read the label of your clothes
Labels are the IDs of your clothes. Before even buying a garment you know what material it is made of, and how to clean and dry it. On the label, you will always find five icons that stand for: wash, bleach, dry, iron, and dry clean. An X on the icon stands for “do not”. If you have any doubts, you can refer to the image below which contains all the icons you might find on the label.
Use a lint shaver or a sweater comb
Soft and fluffy sweaters are a winter must to be warm and cozy but the short fibers that they are made of form fuzz and pills which make them look old and cheap. How many of you have had a nice sweater lying in the closet for ages because you can’t wear it because of this? Well, I recently bought an electric fabric shaver which helped make my jumpers look like new again! Can’t suggest it more.
Do not wash your garments too often
We tend to wash our clothes much more than they should. Clothes that we wear in contact with our skin, like lingerie, need to be washed after a single use. Other types of garments can be washed after multiple uses. There is actually no need to wash denim after two wears, and if sweaters or hoodies are worn with an undershirt they can also be worn several times. For small stains, spot cleaning is a fast and easy solution.
Pay attention to how to wash your clothes
In general, the colder the better. Unless necessary, try to avoid hot cleaning cycles, harsh centrifuging, and tumble-dry. Especially natural fibers like cotton and wool don’t like heat. In fact, heat causes stiffness and shrinkage of your garments, which might not fit you anymore after washing them. A pretreatment of stains with soap or a mixture of water and vinegar can help to remove spots also with gentle washing machine programs. Make sure to use hand wash-like programs on delicate fibers like silk or cashmere. Another tip is to wash clothes with hardware inside out to protect all the other clothes from pulling out threads.
Flat drying and natural drying
Most of the clothes can be hung to dry or line-dried. Wool and elastic fibers should flat dry to avoid stretching out the fibers and losing the shape of the garment. I always prefer natural drying to tumble drying: it is better for your clothes and for the environment.
Storage of clothes
Always wash thoroughly all the clothes before storage. A great tip when you switch wardrobe between the seasons is to store the garments in textile bags instead of plastic bags/boxes. Plastic is a non-perspiring material and keeps humidity locked in. This environment allows bacteria to grow and stain your clothes during the months of storage. Keep your clothes in a cool and dry place until the next season and your clothes will look good as always.
I hope these tricks are useful for you. I’d love to hear if you have any additional hacks and how you are trying to be a more sustainable consumer.
With love,
P.S.: for those of you who would like to read some literature, I found this interesting paper. Brewer, M.K. Slow Fashion in a Fast Fashion World: Promoting Sustainability and Responsibility. Laws 2019, 8, 24. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws8040024
Attributions:
Photo by Edward Howell on Unsplash
Laundry icons: <a href=”https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/laundry-symbols”>Laundry Symbols Vectors by Vecteezy</a>
