Garment Care

We have sourced the most suitable yarns and fabrics possible to enable you
to have a garment that will last a long time and give great value for money.
We have spent a lot of time and effort ensuring that the garment reaches
you in the best condition. From the point of purchase, responsibility for
maintaining quality is passed on to you. This advice guide is provided
to help you get the best wear from your garment.

Refer to the label in each garment for specific Instructions on how to care for your garment. You can find an explanation on the symbols found on a label further down this page.

To help you care for your garment we have listed the issues most
commonly cited by customers together with an explanation as to how
these issues arise. More often than not these issues are caused by
incorrect care of the garment rather than any kind of manufacturing fault.

Pilling - it’s not a manufacturing fault! Any knitted fabric is likely
to pill we offer guidance to reduce the chance of pilling but it may
help to understand some of the causes of pilling:

• External friction: movement against another fabric, or object (eg. a school back pack, rough chair or wall)
• Washing the garment at an incorrect temperature or with other garments
• Tumble drying the garment at too high a temperature

Some garments appear to have a “nap” on the surface - best described
as "fluffed up". This is caused by loose fibres from the yarn coming to the
surface of the garment. The yarn in these cases is slightly hairier than
usual. After a period of wear and washing the hairs disappear. The process
is similar to the surface of a new carpet when it has first been laid, the
loose fibres come to the surface and are vacuumed away.

Special care when washing and drying at this early stage in the garment life
is important. Once these fibres have washed out the garment is unlikely to
pill again as long as you follow the care guidelines. Carefully brushing,
cutting or picking off the loose fibres can remove these bobbles.
Once this has been done the bobbles shouldn’t reappear.

The two biggest factors contributing to shrinkage are too much heat and
too much agitation. The solution to this problem is simple, do not wash
at too high a temperature and take care when selecting the washing cycle
on your machine. Always follow the care instructions provided with the
garment (see the washing tips for more explanation on wash symbols)
and check the washing cycle information.

The best advice is to wash like colours together and never leave damp
garments together for any length of time.

This can be caused in two ways. Firstly, sunlight can be very destructive to
fabrics and dyes, the damage that the sun does is irreversible. Reduce the
exposure to direct sunlight whenever possible, particularly during storage.
Bring clothes in from the washing line as soon as possible on very sunny days.

Secondly, if the washing instructions that appear on the garment or associated labels are not followed, for example washing at the incorrect temperature; tumble drying an item that should not be tumble dried; machine washing when an item should be dry cleaned; using the wrong type of washing powder.

This is caused by over pressing. The man made fibres in the fabric cannot
stand the heat of a hot iron and will degrade if heat is applied. We would
not recommend ironing garments with a high man made fibre content but
if you feel that the garment requires ironing use a very cool iron and iron
the garment inside out.