Bras are really delicate items, made with many more component parts than most of the clothes we wear, all of which are stitched together. The soft fabrics are lovely to wear, but they need extra care to keep them in good condition. Here is our guide to helping you do so!
Frequency
We are often asked “How often should I wash my bras?” And the answer is that you don’t have to wash your bras each time you wear them. Ideally, they should be washed every two to three wears. If you have a particularly hot day in your bra, you can rinse it with lukewarm water if you are between washes.
Hand Washing
Hand-washing your bras is, without a doubt, the best way to care for your lingerie, whatever the care label says. Your bras will retain their elasticity, making them last longer and keep their shape longer. We suggest you take the following steps:
- Sort your bras by colour. Try to wash similar colours together. Avoiding mixing darks and lights. Class nude as a colour rather than a white.
- Fill a bowel or basin with lukewarm water and add some gentle detergent. Make sure the detergent is alcohol-free and intended for hand-washing. Our favourite is Soak.
- Use your hand to mix the detergent into the water.
- Add your bras to the water and make sure they are fully submerged.
- Let your bras soak for about fifteen minutes. This gives the detergent enough time to dissolve any dirt. If your bra is very dirty, you can soak for longer.
- Pour out the dirty water and rinse your bras in clean water.
- Ideally lay your rinsed bras on a towel and cover with a second towel to remove excess water. Never wring – and if you squeeze take care not to twist the underwires or stretch the fabric.
- Push the cups into place and lay your bras flat on a clean, dry towel. Never hang your bras from one of the straps as this stretches them out – on a drying rack, hang from the centre gore.
Machine-washing
If the care label on your bra permits machine washing, we recommend that you take the following steps to keep your bras in good shape:
- Do up the hooks onthe backs of your bras to prevent them from damaging other garments or getting hooked up and pulled out of shape.
- Wash your bras in a protective laundry bag. This prevents them from getting tangled up with other items. A laundry bag also protects your bras from being rubbed by rougher garments.
- Wash your bras with similar colours: Whites with whites, lights with lights, darks with darks. Treat nude as a colour, not a white.
- Wash your bras with fabrics of similar weight. Jeans and towels weigh more than lingerie and the constant movement of the machine will cause them to beat down on your delicate lingerie and damage it. Wash your bras with T-shirts, briefs, socks, and pyjamas to prevent damage.
- Always use a gentle detergent and wash bras at 30 °C or cooler and on a short programme. Hot water weakens the lingerie fibres.
- Never use fabric softener. Again it can affect the elasticity of the fabric.
- Please do remain aware that, even if you do follow the above advice, it is still possible for your bra to become stuck in the door seal of your washing machine during a spin cycle. If this happens, the results will not be pretty – and this is another reason for our recommendation that hand washing is the best way to go!
- The tumble dryer is an absolute no-go. Lingerie should always be air-dried. Preferably, push the cups into place and lay your bras flat on a clean, dry towel. If you use a drying rack, hang your bra from the centre gore so it dries evenly. If you need your bra to dry quickly, it may seem mad, but the best way to do it is to use your hair dryer on the cold setting! Hot air will ruin the elasticity of your bra.
- Lingerie should never be ironed.
We hope that the above guide gives you some handy tips on caring for your lingerie and that it helps you to keep your bras in tip top condition!
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