Care

Heat

The main enemy. Elastane loses recovery at sustained temperature, silk loses lustre, moulded foam softens and cotton shrinks. A wash at 30 degrees rather than 60 costs almost nothing in cleaning power with a modern detergent and buys years of elastic life. See elastane and stretch.

Agitation

Mechanical action removes soil and also abrades fibres, snags lace, bends wires and lets hooks find delicate fabric. A drum full of towels is far more violent than a basin of water and a pair of hands.

Chemistry

Detergent lifts soil by making it water soluble. Enzymes speed that up by digesting protein, starch and fat, which is why a biological detergent should never meet silk or wool. Bleach destroys elastane and polyamide. Softener coats everything and reduces both absorbency and elasticity.

Use the least heat, the least agitation and the mildest chemistry that will actually clean the garment. Everything else in this section is a footnote.

Bras every two to three wears in ordinary conditions, and after every wear in hot weather or after exercise. The instinct to wash less to preserve a garment is understandable and wrong: body oils, skin cells and antiperspirant residue accumulate in the elastic and accelerate its breakdown, so a bra washed regularly and gently lasts longer than one washed rarely and harshly.

Briefs, bodysuits and anything with a gusset after every wear, without exception. Sleepwear once or twice a week, more in warm weather. Slips and camisoles after two or three wears, depending on what they were worn under.

1. Fasten every hook and every popper. An open hook in a machine is the most common cause of damage to everything else in the load.
2. Sort by colour, and wash new dark or red pieces separately for the first two or three washes.
3. Hand wash anything silk, anything heavily laced, anything moulded, and anything that matters. See hand washing.
4. Machine wash the rest at 30 degrees in a zipped mesh bag on a delicate cycle at low spin. See machine washing.
5. Never tumble dry. Press water out in a towel and dry flat, away from direct heat and sunlight. See drying and storing.

• A mild liquid detergent. Liquid dissolves fully in cool water where powder can leave residue in a lace ground.
• A wool or silk detergent, meaning pH neutral and enzyme free, for silk and for anything with a protein fibre in it.
• No chlorine bleach, ever. It destroys elastane and attacks polyamide.
• No oxygen bleach or optical brighteners on coloured or ivory lace, which yellows over time under them.
• No fabric softener anywhere in this category.
• Half the dose recommended on the bottle. Intimates are small, lightly soiled and rinsed in a limited volume of water, and excess detergent is the main cause of stiff, dull lace.

Care buys time, and time runs out. Elastic loses recovery whether a garment is worn or not, and a bra whose band no longer grips is not repairable in any meaningful sense. When to retire a bra sets out the tests, which take about a minute and settle the question. A worn out bra kept in rotation is the most common reason a drawer full of garments contains nothing that works.

The care symbol decoder covers what the printed symbols on a label mean, since those are the manufacturer's own statement about what the garment will survive.