How often should you really wash your jeans? For most items of clothing, it is clear that they should be washed after a few wears. But jeans can be more controversial, with some even saying to never wash them.
And for this, Levi Strauss CEO Charles Bergh may be partly to blame. Even if he didn’t want that to be the main takeaway from an event he spoke at in 2014.
“I never said don’t wash your jeans,” he recently clarified on a show on CNBC.
Bergh still doesn’t use a washing machine to clean his jeans, which are made from a durable cotton material called denim.
“People who really love their denim will tell you to never put your denim in the washing machine. So that’s what I do.”
Denim lovers often say that washing jeans will impact their shape and color, while keeping them unwashed will improve their appearance through wrinkling and exposure to the elements. Not washing them is also said to make them last longer as it will prevent the denim fibers from fraying – which could lead to holes or tears.
But Bergh doesn’t just let his jeans get dirty and covered in dirt.
“If I spill some curry on my jeans, I’ll clean them. But I will clean them up in places. And if they get really gross, you know, if I’ve been out sweating or something and they get really gross, I’ll wash them off in the shower,” he said.
This means keeping your jeans on in the shower and covering them with soap as you would your body, Bergh explained.
Washing jeans is actually a big part of clothing’s carbon footprint, Bergh said. The jeans industry uses a lot of water on the production side, he said, but the number of times consumers wash their products also plays a role.
In the United States, people can wash their jeans after every wear, he pointed out, while in other regions of the world the clothes would go in the washing machine after a few wears.
The debate over how often we should really wash our clothes has expanded in recent years from jeans. The controversy over how often people wash their pajamas and bedding, for example, has erupted several times on social media lately, sparking discussions about what is and isn’t hygienic.
However, hygiene is not the only argument – as Bergh points out, washing machines use a lot of water. Therefore, washing clothes less often could be good for the environment, some sustainability experts suggest, especially since our often synthetic clothes also release microplastics when they are washed, which contribute to plastic pollution.
So while not everyone might be happy about keeping their jeans out of the washing machine – putting them and other clothes in the washing machine less often might be something to at least consider.
2023-10-10 15:36:32
#wash #jeans #Levi #Strauss #common #solution
