Meet the Pressed: Fuss-Free Cotton
What’s the latest wrinkle in fashion? Try all-cotton clothing that claims to be wrinkle-resistant.
These casual separates for men and women, including pants, shorts, skirts, blazers and shirts, are supposed to come out of the clothes dryer ready to wear, no ironing needed.
“It’s what today’s busy consumer wants: great-looking clothes without the fuss,” says Tom Julian, a trend analyst with Fallon McElligott, a Minneapolis ad agency.
It’s a trend that many manufacturers and stores are rushing to catch up to and big-name designers are coolly ignoring.
How new is it, though?
In the 1960s and ‘70s, stores were flooded with permanent-press fashions knitted or woven with synthetic fibers such as polyester or nylon, or blends of natural fibers and synthetics.
Remember the leisure suit?
By the mid-’70s, the crisp, clean-cut synthetics were history. It was hip to be clad in pure cottons, silks and linens, looking as rumpled as an unmade bed.
This time, however, consumer demand triggered development of clothes made of natural fiber fabrics that claim to shed wrinkles and are thus easier to care for at home.
“Because of the growing numbers of dual-income couples, easy care will play an increasingly important role in apparel purchasing decisions,” Mike Restaino says. Restaino is a buyer for JCPenney Co. Inc., the national retail chain based in Dallas. “This product is a major opportunity to respond to the lifestyle trends of the ‘90s.”
Sarah Bevel, a menswear buyer at Sears, Roebuck and Co., Chicago, says: “Helping to fuel sales of our wrinkle-resistant slacks is the growing influence of ‘Friday dressing.’ Men can wear casual slacks to the office and look good.”
Last year, the Haggar Apparel Co. coined the phrase “wrinkle-free” for the line of all-cotton men’s slacks it launched with great fanfare and a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign. They were a hit, and Haggar now claims a major share of the wrinkle-free business in stores around the country.
Wrinkle-resistant men’s slacks were also introduced by major brand names such as the Lee Co., Levi’s Travelers and Farah’s Savane. Wrinkle-resistant casual and dress shirts are being ballyhooed by well-known shirt manufacturers including Arrow, Oxxford and Van Heusen.
More recently, women’s wear manufacturers Eddie Haggar Limited, Chic by HIS, Jantzen and Cherokee have produced wrinkle-resistant collections, and kids will soon find their own no-iron fashions in stores, too.
How are wrinkle-resistant all-cotton fabrics created?
There’s a lot of mumbo jumbo about “secret recipes” and “patent pending processes,” but, simply, the effect is achieved by using high-tech yarn-spinning processes and special weaving or knitting techniques to produce fabrics less likely to wrinkle. Next, wrinkle-resistant chemical resins are applied to the fabrics, which are then baked or cured in giant ovens.
The technology is not new. According to Frank Bracken of the Dallas-based Haggar Apparel Co., “Permanent pressed cottons have been around 27 years but never caught on until now.”
Not everyone is singing praises of the wrinkle-resistant revolution. While national retailers such as Macy’s, Sears and Penney are successful with the wrinkle-resistant styles, specialty stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue won’t carry them. They say they’ll wait until one of the big-name designers introduces a wrinkle-shedding collection.
“Wrinkle-resistant clothes are geared toward the mass market, and we’re not in that at all,” says Mark Scarborough, vice president of men’s design for Joseph Abboud. “There’s also a trade-off for easy care in the hand--the feel--of the fabric.”
