We all shop for clothes, it’s a fact. And according to research we buy new clothes for ourselves every two months on average. After trying on a piece of clothing that we like, we buy it, take it home, and normally put it straight into our wardrobe. Its at this point that the question is raised; should we wash our new clothes before wearing them? Or are they clean enough already? There are two main opinions on this. Some people think that even though they are new clothes they still need to be cleaned first before wearing them. The rest of the people think that new clothes are clean enough and can be worn straight away.

Here is D&J Clothing Factory’s boss’s opinion.

“I have been working in the foreign trade garment industry for many years and have come across this question fairly often. When talking with another clothing factory owner she gave me this answer: manufacturing clothes does involve the use of some chemicals (formaldehyde included), and the clothes are all piled up together so it is not necessarily a sterile environment. These chemicals are not ones we would wish to come in contact with on our bare skin. In addition to that, clothes are assembled on a line, one piece of the garment at a time. Many workers handle the clothing, resulting in many different hands touching the garments. So, although the clothes may look clean they may not be as sanitary as they seem.  It would be our recommendation that customers always wash new clothes before wearing them! Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong.

So now that that question has been cleared up, how should you clean your new clothes?

Formaldehyde is a water soluble substance so to remove any traces from new clothes you simply have to wash well and hang out to dry. Letting them air out for a day or two extra also wouldn’t hurt. A rather more extreme alternative would be to get all your new pieces dry cleaned, however this is really not necessary and perhaps will only be used by the most fastidious shoppers.

Tags: Women’s Clothing Factory