How to Care for Your Cotton Essentials
Cotton is one of, if not THE, most universal fabric in all closets. It's soft, breathable, sturdy, and all-around comforting to wear from season to season with ease. It comes in many weaves, knits, finishes, washes, and is so incredibly versatile when it comes to designing closet essentials.
We are not shy about using cotton as a mainstay staple in our collections each year. When it comes to caring for your cotton pieces, we created a guide to help you anticipate what happens in the washing process and how to properly care for your piece to ensure it lasts season after season.
Washing + Drying Tips for Cotton Pieces
Cotton seems to be a crowd favorite. It feels great, looks great, and is relatively easy to care for since it’s a much more commonplace fiber Highly absorbent, breathable, and durable, cotton is one of our favorites too.
To care for your cotton or cotton blend items, best practices are to always, always follow the care instructions on the label. We work closely with our manufacturers to ensure you have all the instructions you need to properly care for your piece whether it’s sturdy canvas, woven knit, or soft yarn.
For most cotton styles, you can machine wash with cold water and tumble on warm or air dry to avoid breaking the fibers down and potential shrinking. As with almost all fabrics, washing and drying often will break them down over time - wash only when necessary to ensure the fabric and colors last.
Keep in mind that some cotton styles are also susceptible to pilling when under a lot of friction - sweaters and loose knits especially. Whereas cotton canvas is much sturdier and won’t pill or fray easily.
We do our best to choose fabrics that won’t change but be cautious with lots of repeated friction directly onto the clothes. Keep this in mind when throwing your cotton pieces in with other styles like jeans or garments with buttons or zippers - this can cause snags, especially in our knits like sweaters and cardigans. Washing cotton items inside out - things like cotton tops, pants, or dresses - is another great way to wash your pieces. Or, you can use a mesh garment bag to wash those cotton tops or chambray styles to be sure no damage happens in the wash.
To dry, again always follow the instruction on the care label to start, but most (not all!) of our pieces will hold up in the dryer on the cool or tumble setting. Avoid using heat whenever possible. We encourage customers to hang dry or lie the garment flat to dry as well. Especially for heavy sweaters. This helps keep their shape, avoid sagging, and avoid those ugly bumps on the top of the shoulders from hangers!
Storing Your Cotton Pieces
When it comes to storing or hanging well-made clothes, our advice is simple. For sweaters, if you are storing them for any length of time (when they are in-season or out), it's best to keep them folded and stacked. They should not acquire any wrinkles that last longer than a few seconds after unfolding them. By folding them and keeping them this way, it avoids sagging or drooping from being on a hanger too long. For wovens, like turtlenecks, chambray styles, or dresses, you can hang these or fold them for storage. They may come out a bit wrinkled when back in season, but a quick tumble dry without heat should help get them style-ready in no time.
We recommend using smooth, wooden or velvet clothes hangers instead of plastic that may catch or snag the fabric.. There's nothing worse than a snag right in the shoulder of your favorite piece that everyone can see!
Finally, whenever you're packing or storing items in boxes or totes, always ensure they are sealed as tightly as possible to avoid any moisture that can cause mold or odors. Remember, each piece is an investment and to ensure its longevity, caring for it the right way will make all the difference.