Does anyone here wash their linen?

[GQgeek]

I did a search and found that you can wash linen in the machine or by hand, however it's due to the dyes and treatments applied to the linen that manufacturers put dry clean only on the tag.

So does anyone wash (either by machine or by hand) their linen pants or shirts? Have you had any problems?

 

[jcusey]

So does anyone wash (either by machine or by hand) their linen pants or shirts? Have you had any problems?

I machine wash all of my linen shirts, even those that claim they're dry clean only, on the regular cycle. I hang them up to dry. Aside from the open-weave Banana Republic shirts that get some easily-removed fuzz on them, I've had no problems at all.

 

[AskAndyAboutClothes]

GQgeek:

I think more and more garment manufacturers are putting in the "dry clean only" label for protection against customers who don't know how to wash clothes and as a "give some business to our friends the dry cleaners" project.

Linen should be able to be machine or hand washed. Warm or cold water, no chlorine bleach.

Jcusey has a great point about not letting the garment dry. I take most of my clothes out of the dryer after only a few spins and hang them up damp (or iron them damp).

Andy

 

[acole]

Got a couple pairs of RL linen pants off eBay just recently for summer wear...one cream/black glen plaid, one off-white. I laughed off the dry clean only label, threw them in the wash at 40C, and line dried. After ironing, they look just fine.

 

[sleeper]

I have had bad experiences with linen trousers being machine washed, although this may be because of the ineptness of our maid. I ended up with wrinkles being fixed into the cloth, as grey lines, an effect similar to being stone-washed. Not something you want with bespoke trousers. I think they shrank as well.

I now have my linen coats hand washed, and then dried on a rack. I don't have any more linen trousers on which to experiment, as I shifted over to light cotton, not, I should add, because of this experience.

 

[hermes]

i wash in the gentle cycle all my linen shirts and any linen pants that aren't lined - if the pants are lined, they get dry cleaned

i have not had any difficulty in washing linen in the machine, it of course needs ironing thereafter but comes out fine

and the reason that manufacturers put dry clean only in labels is that they are mandated by law to put at least one method of cleaning the garment on a label, but not necessarily all the methods or the best method of cleaning an item - as such, dry clean only is simple, pretty well anything can be dry cleaned