Some notes on lingerie care.

There are many guides available on the internet for how to best care for your lingerie. I don’t pretend to be an authority on the topic. After all, much of it involves some pretty advanced chemistry! I will talk about the things that I was taught as a fitter and what I do personally for my own lingerie collection and I hope people feel free to comment if they know any of my information to be incorrect. The store I worked at sold Forever New.

In my last few months working there we also sold Soak which is a very popular and environmentally friendly (and award winning) option to try.

There are many other specialty washes on the market which I’m leaving mostly out of this discussion just because I don’t have person familiarity with them.

The first thing that I was taught is that you don’t want to use Woolite. To my knowledge, Woolite was developed as a hand washing detergent specifically formulated for wool which of course is a natural fiber. If you’ve ever washed wool incorrectly you know it can have sort of a crispy feel to it when dry. Woolite has an oil base that softens as you’re hand washing. It keeps those natural fabrics moisturized. For the same reason it also works well for natural silk. Woolite has in recent years added other options to the iconic blue and white branded bottle that I grew up seeing on store shelves. It’s possible they have updated or added something in the product line specifically for synthetic but I wasn’t able to find a product like that in their lineup. Many laundry detergents also contain oil which helps to clean and soften those cotton jeans and t-shirts that are staples of the American wardrobe. I think this is why I would sometimes have mysterious dark spots occasionally appear on dark colored t-shirts. Possibly it was from a heavy dose of the undiluted detergent soaking into the fabric. It’s also why I began separating my cottons from my synthetics in my wash and using different detergents for each.

I learned that oils are not good for the synthetic fabrics and laces that most lingerie is made from. The oils coat and prematurely break down the delicate synthetic fibers in your bras and panties. Ingredient lists are of course top secret for most brands of wash but Forever New is formulated with a baking soda base as opposed to an oil base. This allows it to absorb and trap the oils that get into your lingerie. Because of this you can soak a bra or two in the proper wash and not have to agitate because the wash is doing the work for you. As long as you have a clean dedicated place to soak your bras it takes much less time to hand wash than you might think.

After filling your wash tub, you can be off doing something else while your lingerie has a refreshing cool bath! After a half hour or so you can rinse and gently squeeze out the water and hang your bras to dry. The Soak wash is specially formulated to absorb the oils and dirt and leave it trapped in the water so that you don’t even have to rinse after soaking. I haven’t yet tried this method myself but I imagine it works similarly to the specially formulated laminate floor washes that evaporate with no rinsing and no sticky residue that will just attract more dirt. It’s a very popular and award winning brand. I will tell you that we also often recommended Dreft as a more somewhat more economical alternative and it’s actually what I use for my own synthetics and lingerie. It has a pleasant fragrance that I love and I don’t have sensitivity to fragrances.

So, confession time...I’m an avid lingerie collector. I have collected lot of colors and styles from my desire to wear what I sell when possible. I liked to buy and personally try as many different styles and brands as possible over my years as a fitter and buyer. I might have more bras just in the color grey than most women have in total. Because of this it’s not so feasible to hand wash them in a tub any longer as I did when I first began collecting. Luckily, we have a front loading washer with both a hand wash and a delicate cycle. The hand wash cycle very closely simulates actual hand washing and is a perfectly acceptable alternative if you have a lot of bra washing to do but it’s really just as quick and easy to hand wash if you are only washing 1-3 at a time. The hand wash cycle shouldn’t be confused with the delicate cycle. I confused the two settings one time and ended up with a mass of twisted and entwined straps and hooks and I’ve never made that mistake again! Once washed, I then place them all on an accordion drying rack hanging them over the bars by the center wires (gore). A towel bar works as well or you can use a hanger. You may also want to put a towel under where they’re hanging to catch drips as they dry. If you feel like your panties need a little more cleaning time, I’ve found that they’re able to withstand a slightly longer soak and the heavier agitation of the delicates cycle.

An important thing to keep in mind is that neither bras or panties should ever see the inside of a dryer. Period. Full stop. The high heat on even a low heat setting will melt and break the delicate fabrics and lace either immediately or over time. Many lighter weight fabric bras you can wash in the evening and they’ll be dry by the morning although heavier and more padded styles will take longer.

Experts recommend washing your bras every 2-3 wearings. This is something of a personal preference. What I would explain to people though is that bras are like your floorboards. How often you clean them will help determine how easy they are to clean. Over time dirt and oils build up and then harden becoming more difficult to remove. If the dirt and oils harden in say the straps of your bra or the band, then over time they will stay permanently stretched and your bra will be less supportive. The elastic needs a chance to “snap back” after a wear or two and does this if you treat it to a wash in a cool bath every couple of wears.

The last important thing to remind people of is that if you are blessed (or some would say cursed) with heavy full breasts, there is no getting around the fact that you may have to replace your bras more often than that small breasted coworker or friend of yours. The more support work they need to do, the more strain there will be on the fabrics and the wires. Quality bras will last longer and the better you take care of them, the longer they will take care of you!

Thank you for reading! As always, if you have questions or comments on any topics, please connect with me! I’m happy to answer questions and give advice on any topic of interest to my readers and subscribers. Also, welcome to my new subscribers this week! I’m happy to have you here!🧑🏻‍💼