Keep Cords Clean, Stylish and Long Lasting
When autumn and winter roll around, ocean lovers of all stripes know it’s time to dust off their organic corduroy trousers, skirts, shirts and jackets, whose warmth they’ve come to rely on year after year.
Keeping cords in tip-top shape is not as simple as stuffing them in the washing machine and hoping for the best. Your ocean-friendly TWOTHIRDS corduroy deserves better! Here’s how to treat your precious organic corduroy with the love, care and attention it merits.
Step 1. Use Natural Stain Removers
Organic corduroy trousers and jackets like ours – designed to help people get outdoors and explore nature – are always bound to attract stains, such as a coffee spill from a TWOTHIRDS thermo bottle or mud splatter after a bracing clifftop walk.
While some stains may be washed clear of the garment during a standard machine or hand wash, more stubborn stains demand the use of a natural stain remover like baking soda.
This biodegradable salt gets the best results when it is combined with water and whipped into a paste, which can then be applied to a stain. Allow the paste to dry, preferably overnight, and then brush it clear of the organic corduroy before washing.
Step 2. Cold Hand Wash or Machine Wash
One of the keys to maintaining the quality of your slow fashion, organic corduroy garments is to never expose them to hot washes. The best way to wash them is by hand, using tepid or cold water combined with a small amount of biodegradable, eco-friendly detergent.
If you don’t have an adequate sink available for hand washing, or you simply can’t find the time to give your organic corduroy a soothing massage, then a machine wash on a low temperature setting (30°C or below) is also fine.
Be sure to not overload your machine and always turn your organic corduroy garments inside-out to prepare them for washing. Corduroy jackets and eco-friendly shirts should also be fastened, zipped and buttoned up prior to washing.
Be careful to only add similar colours to the wash, because sometimes the natural dyes we use can leach when washed. Just as is the case with handwashing, only biodegradable detergents should be used.
All these precautions stop the corduroy’s delicate pile from becoming excessively wrinkled or distorted, as well as maintaining the lush original colour of a garment.
Step 3. Avoid Lint at All Costs!
Lint is the enemy of all sustainable clothing made from organic corduroy. It is the name given to the stray fibres which are shed by certain other types of clothing. Corduroy is a veritable magnet for these annoying little critters!
To save your beautiful cord ribs from being invaded by unwanted lint, you should avoid washing them alongside the biggest lint offenders: fleece and felt. If lint does find its way onto your organic corduroy, a sticky clothes roller will help you free your clothes from their lint nightmare.
Step 4. Air Dry
If you observe that your garment’s pile has been flattened a bit during washing, you can choose to revive it with the use of a clothes brush, prior to hanging it out to dry.
It stands to reason that organically sourced corduroy should be dried in as natural a way as possible. Organic corduroy should always be air dried. Just be careful how you peg your garments to the line, because pegs can damage delicate cord ribs. No one wants that!
Step 5. Ironing is Banned!
Never iron organic corduroy, or any corduroy for that matter. Ironing can crush or flatten the natural pile of the garment, which would be a crying shame after all that effort you put into washing your cords.
Last but not least, once spring comes into bloom – and it’s time to pack away your sustainable trousers, shirts, skirts and jackets – ensure they are stored correctly.
Breathable canvas storage bags are always the way to go, to stop creepy crawlies or mould ruining clothes which, if looked after the right way, can last a lifetime.