Considered as one of the most luxurious clothing in the fashion industry, Cashmere items require high maintenance and care when compared to your everyday clothes.
Why is it Different?
Cashmere is made from goats coat and is extremely soft unlike most winter clothing made from layers of itchy wool. It is very light in weight and is more than enough to keep you warm during cold weather. In order to preserve the silkiness and smooth tough of cashmere items, one must take extra steps while cleaning them.
Follow the steps below to clean your treasured cashmere items from your winter wardrobe:
- Separate Your Cashmere According To Their Colours
This step isn’t necessary if you are going to wash a single piece of cashmere clothing. However, if you are planning to wash a bunch of them, it is a must for you to separate the lighter shades from the darker ones.
- Choose A Soft Liquid Or Powder Detergent
If you are washing them in a basin, fill it up with luke-warm water and add about a teaspoon of your preferred detergent in it. Make sure that you do not forget to use a low-alkaline detergent to do the washing.
Once you have poured the detergent into the bucket or basin full of warm water, the next step is to mix up the solution to form a lather by twirling your hands in it.
- Start With Washing Light Coloured Cashmeres
Take one item at a time and swirl it in the bucket or washbasin using your hands for about 5 to 6 minutes. Make sure that you do not keep your valuable items soaked inside the basin or bucket for long, as this can cause them to fade easily.
- One Step At A Time
Avoid stretching or rubbing the fabric against itself because this will give rise to pilling. After you have finished soaking up your items in the basin, rinse them in a fresh bucket/basin of water. This works best if you have two sinks for washing. However, if you don’t, you can just drain off the water and fill in a fresh batch of water.
Note that you’ll have to spend quite some time changing the water in order to get rid of all the soap from your cashmere items. Also, do not wash items below running water because this will cause your garment to stretch and lose its original elasticity or shape.
- Do Not Wring!
This step is the most important of them all because you MUST NOT wring your cashmere garments under any circumstances. Instead, what you can do is form a loose ball out of the item and press it slightly to get rid of the excess water.
- Soak Excess Water With Towel
You will need quite a number of dry towels in order to soak up much of the water from the clothing. Place a large towel on a flat surface and spread out your cashmere on top of it, slowly running your hands through the wrinkles. Roll both the towel and the cashmere from the top and apply a little pressure to soak up the remaining water.
Repeat the process with more dry towels until much of the water has been soaked up.
- Go Traditional
For the final step, leave it out in the sun to air dry on a mesh drying rack.
Follow through the steps and watch out for the slightest details that you may miss out to avoid ruining you valued cashmere items.
