Ryan Szabo and his team were carefully examining images of jeans that had been worn for long periods of time without being washed. Some of these jeans were faded, torn or re-stitched.
Those who are good among them are praised in the community. Some of the rips in these jeans are amazing. On some jeans, such torn areas are so subtle that they are not visible at all. On the contrary, they become a beautiful combination with blue jeans. Thus, these very thin ripped jeans parts make the outfit more attractive.
In the ‘Indigo Invitational’ competition, it is judged in the same way that contestants from all over the world wear their jeans for a whole year under specific rules.
There is one basic strategy for getting the world’s best jeans in this strange competition: ‘low wash denim’.
Since denim softens with soap and water, one secret to achieving a high-contrast pattern is to not wash the pants.
Everyone from members of the anti-laundry People’s Club to the CEO of Levi’s adopts this strategy.
Yes, wearing unwashed jeans may not be acceptable, but Chip Bergh, the head of the famous company Levi’s, also does something similar.
In May 2014, people were shocked when Chip Bergh revealed that he never washes the jeans he wears.
Five years later, in March 2019, he told the American channel CNN that he still hasn’t washed his jeans. Ten years have passed without washing his jeans.
Low wash culture
Ryan Szabo got into the habit of ‘washing less’ in 2010 when he bought his first pair of jeans.
He wore these jeans without washing them for six months on a trip from his native Canada to Europe.
“These smelly jeans were weird for me,” he told BBC Culture. They smelled terrible.
He met his future wife in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and in this relationship jeans played an important role, unlike the role of aunt or uncle in traditional relationships.
He narrates the details of the incident saying that these jeans were thrown on the floor near his bed.
According to him, ‘When you walk in the room, you can smell them, but luckily my wife used to pour her life on me.
Ryan Sabo estimates that more than nine out of ten Indigo Invitational contestants over the past five years have washed their pants 150 to 200 times after wearing them.
Instead of resorting to washing machines, people who wear these clothes without washing them learn other ways to care for their clothes, such as exposing them to ultraviolet rays. According to Raine, this is a method of solar cleaning of clothes. Otherwise, hanging these clothes in the fresh air at night also serves the purpose to some extent.
Rian Szabo himself admits to occasionally using a washing machine. According to him, ‘as soon as my wife smells my jeans, she tells me and then we both immediately go to wash clothes.’
Jeans wearers aren’t the only ones who wash their clothes infrequently.
In 2019, designer Stella McCartney told The Guardian in an interview that she washes her clothes too late. What happened then, this news spread like wildfire in the media everywhere.
He further said that he learned this trick while working with famous London tailors.
According to him, ‘Basically, we should make a rule in life. If something does not need cleaning, it should not be cleaned.
According to her, ‘I don’t change my ‘bra’ every day, nor do I throw things in the washing machine just because I’m wearing them. I am committed to the principles of hygiene, but I am not in favor of dry cleaning of clothes.
Wear clothes for a hundred days without washing them
Some people are changing their laundry habits because of the environment or rising electricity bills.
MacBishop, founder of the clothing company ‘Wool & Prince’, explains when promoting his brand for women that he has made ‘comfort and minimal effort’ his principles, which appeal to male consumers and Especially good with people who hate doing laundry.
They believe that women may be less inclined to wash less laundry due to the effects of gender stereotypes in the clothing industry over the centuries.
The research also found that the environment was a more effective motivator for these women.
Wool & Brand today sells merino wool clothing with a ‘challenge’ to wear the same wool pair every day for 100 days.
According to Rebecca Abbey of Wool & Company, the direct compensation for this challenge is the reduction in laundry, which has become a feature of merino wearers on a daily basis.
Chelsey Harry of America, a client of the brand, told BBC Culture that she grew up in a household where everything was washed after use, even towels and pyjamas.
One summer when Harry was living with his grandmother, Harry taught him to put his pajamas under his pillow in the morning and put them back on again at night. Later she meets her husband, who “almost never does laundry.” And then during the pandemic, they started hiking. By the time things really changed.
“Obviously, if you are sleeping in a hammock or a tent, you cannot take a bath after walking all day,” he says.
Some in the hiking community have encouraged the use of a specific brand of wool underwear, which can be worn for several days or washed and dried quickly.
Wearing these and other woolen garments, Harry realized that she could hike for days and still feel comfortable.
According to him, after that, ‘then I started thinking: Why don’t I do this in my daily life? Then I did the same.
The challenge of odor control
“I don’t care about the smell, I trust my nose completely,” she says.
She can smell herself in new clothes made of different wool blends. The case of their other clothes is different. According to them, even when traveling to hot places like the Middle East, they never smell any of these other clothes.
As with Rhine Sabo, use tricks to avoid washing completely, such as leaving the garment out in the open air overnight or spraying under your arms to keep the smell at bay.
They admit that they like to hang their woolen clothes and socks in the open air in the evening. According to them, I hang these clothes by the window, take a bath and also take off my underwear and hang them and then I wear everything again in the morning.
“If there’s one worst thing you can do to clothes, it’s no worse than washing them,” says Mark Sumner, professor of sustainable fashion at the University of Leeds.
Washing machines and durability
They say clothes can tear, shrink and discolor after just one wash. With his colleague Mark Taylor, Mark Sumner is studying how microfibers from household clothes end up in the ocean.
Although he believes that washing clothes less often is also good for the environment, he does not advocate a complete elimination of washing machines.
“We don’t want people to think they can’t wash things because they’re destroying the planet.” This is all part of the effort to redress the balance.
It is important for people with eczema to wash their clothes for hygienic and medical reasons when the natural bacteria on our skin can overproliferate inside our clothes and cause itchiness and irritation.
It is also important for people’s self-esteem not to be “ashamed of their clothes because they are dirty or smelly.”
Regarding washing habits, they do not indicate any specific practice. Ordinary citizens use different temperatures, wash cycles, and color and fabric combinations, and scientists themselves are no different.
According to him, “I’ve been working with textiles for 30 years and I should know how to separate cotton from synthetics and white from other colors, but frankly I don’t have the time.”
According to Professor Mark Sumner ‘the best approach, it seems, is to be flexible. If your clothes don’t smell, don’t bother washing them.’
And when you go to wash it, be clear about what needs to be done to get the garment clean, but in the most efficient way.’
They recommend washing clothes at a low temperature or for a very short time without detergent.
Also, doing laundry is a huge waste of life and not everyone has the time.
“I’m very interested in sustainability, the environment and natural resource management, but I’m also concerned about my time,” says Chelsea Harry.
Raine Sabo is also concerned about sustainability, but says she has other reasons to kick the habit beyond the need to clean.
I have other things to do. I have a dog to take for a walk.’