Silk Shirt on hanger blowing in the wind

It’s no secret we love our stretch silk. But why so much?

One reason on our long list of loveable traits (that you can find here), is that being ‘easy to care for’ is one of our key product criterion to maximise wears.

This is so 'Your TAHLO' doesn’t spend it's life in the dry-cleaning or ironing pile, instead of in your wardrobe, and because easy-to-care-for clothes are worn more often and on repeat, which is good for our customers, but also ‘more wears’ = more sustainable fashion.

 

Tips From The Frontline

Between us, we've worn and washed our stretch silk garments countless times.  These are our tips for easy care and a long life for your garments in real life, everyday households. (In fact, there are stretch silk garments we own ourselves that we estimate have been worn more than 50 times – and counting - that still look as good as new.)

 

1. Choose the ‘Hand Wash’ setting on your washing machine.

If you don’t have a Hand Wash Setting, choose the most delicate / gentle option. Others prefer to actually hand wash their garments which is great if you're that kind if girl - but for us, in the juggle of our lives, we all machine wash our stretch silk.

TIP: Some of our customers have a Silk Setting on their washing machine. If you use this, check it isn't automatically set to a cold temperature for our stretch silk garments. Why? See the next tip.

 

2. Wash at a lukewarm temperate (30 or 40 degrees celsius).

Because the silk is digitally printed, the ink (therefore the colour) will look best over a prolonged lifetime if it is not exposed to extreme temperatures – either hot or cold. A cold wash in Melbourne in winter can be FREEZING!

We wash in lukewarm water and our colours remain vibrant.

 

3. Consider your washing detergent.

By coincidence, we all use Earth Choice ‘Wool and Delicates’ washing liquid for our stretch silks, which is readily available at supermarkets here in Australia. We’ve found this to work well in keeping the stretch silk in good condition over many, many washes. 

TIP: For our stretch silk, avoid detergents that claim to maintain the colour black from dyes – we have had one customer who used this and although she didn’t notice until we told her, we felt the colours of her garments became dull over time. Our silk is digitally printed and not batch dyed so the benefits these products claim to ‘maintain black dye’ won’t apply to our printed stretch silk.

 

4. Wash with other delicates / lightweight garments only.

Avoid washing your silks with bulky or scratchy things. Depending on the garment, it could be like washing your delicates with sandpaper – just think:  ‘stonewashed’ is a thing! While we don’t have examples where this this caused damage, we would expect over time this could impact colour and strength.

 

5. Air dry your garments.

The stretch silk dries so quickly, not only don’t you need to throw it in a drier, but you shouldn't! See point 2.

We recommend shaking the wrinkles out after you get it out of the washing machine, and hanging it on a good, not-too-pointy clothes hanger somewhere airy. It will dry quickly, even inside in winter.

TIP: If you have a dress with a long attached tie (like the Clea Tie Waist Dress) we recommend placing the long sashes over the shoulders of the coat hanger when drying because the sashes can be a little heavy when they’re wet and create wrinkles and weight on the drying garment. Plus, they’d touch the ground anyway!

 

In a Nutshell...

So, all this might look like a lot of writing but what it boils down to is this: throw your stretch silk in the washing machine in a small load with other similar weight fabrics. Select the gentlest cycle, a lukewarm temperate and use gentle detergent.

Then pop it on a hanger to dry.

Then put it in your wardrobe. Easy!

 

 xx The TAHLO Team