Garment Washing: The Wash Types and What Each One Does

A wash is not a finishing afterthought - it is a design decision that changes shade, hand, shrinkage and cost, and it is where a lot of denim and casualwear gets its whole character. A designer who knows the wash vocabulary can spec the look they want instead of hoping the laundry guesses it. Here is what each wash actually does.

Why wash a finished garment at all

Washing a made-up garment (rather than only the fabric) does three things at once:

• Softens the hand and relaxes the fabric so the garment reaches its true, post-wash size before the customer ever launders it.
• Sets the final shade and surface - fading, contrast, and texture that can't be achieved at the fabric stage.
• Pre-shrinks, so the labelled measurements are the washed measurements.

Because a wash moves the shade and the size, the spec must state the wash type and the after-wash points of measure - not the greige ones.