Washing of garments, done in-house, from acid-wash to raw denim fade

There is an increased possibility of error when garment washing is outsourced, since the washed garments could have the wrong color tone, the wrong placement of distressing, or simply be delayed since the laundry had prioritized washing other people's orders ahead of ours. Garment washing in-house was a purposeful decision since the group of people who would be washing the garment is the one that sewed it, thereby reducing chances of miscommunication regarding the garment's color and texture.

Another reason why we continued to handle the washing in-house is that it reduces the feedback loop since we will be able to redo the washing if the wash-down sample has either too little or too much weight without going through the hassle of delivering a garment to another person's laundry and waiting for them to do the washing according to their schedule.

The wording in the tech pack of a wash – “medium acid wash” or “light distressing” – will be interpreted differently by every single factory reading it. Hence, whenever the buyer has an exact picture in his head, we request him to have the physical reference garment rather than sending photos or swatches of colors. Photos strip away the material's texture, whereas a garment provides more information.

After this, it only takes a small step to achieve what we need. Our wash team conducts a trial wash against the reference, and we return wash-down samples next to a photo of the reference for easy comparison. Once the sample is approved, it will become the benchmark for the bulk wash run – not the original wording of the tech pack. This is the one thing that will determine the success of your wash process in just one try.

Every batch of washed products is verified to conform to the accepted reference in terms of shade and hand feel, and, in the case of distressed products, the placement of the wear marks is done correctly before going through the standard AQL 2.5/4.0 pre-shipment inspection. A washed product that has passed the stitching inspection on AQL level but failed on the shade is retained, not dispatched, with a note.

The wash wastewater is being treated on site before being released in accordance with ZDHC Wastewater Guidelines — This is an industry-wide standard for the quality of wastewater in the textile, apparel, and footwear industry wet processing. This is not a mandatory requirement in every country we deliver our products to, but this is what the majority of our European and American customers would expect from us anyway.