Materials, how they wear over time, and the washing advice that actually applies to them.
We list the fibre content and the fabric weight rather than describing a hand-feel with adjectives. Whether a knit has width stretch, vertical stretch or both is on the page, since the direction changes how a garment ages.
Knitted fabrics follow the body and recover; woven fabrics hold a shape and crease. A garment with elastane will keep its fit longer if it is never tumble dried, and a fine-gauge rib should be washed cool and dried flat to stop the collar and the cuffs losing their tension.
Wash cool, turn garments inside out, and skip fabric softener — it coats the fibres and flattens brushed surfaces. Heat is what distorts fine ribs and dulls prints, so line drying in shade keeps both.
Composition is listed as percentages, because a blend is a different garment from either fibre on its own: cotton with a little elastane recovers its shape, the same cotton without it does not. Weight, where we can state it, is given in grams per square metre — the number that tells you whether something is a summer shirt or a winter one.
Elastane content above a couple of percent changes how a garment behaves over a season, and we name it where it matters. Where drape is the point — a fluid knit, a heavier woven — the listing says which and what it does.
Treat a knit as you would a wool jumper even when it is cotton: cool water, low spin, dry flat and away from a radiator. A cool wash, a shorter spin and drying flat keeps a rib from stretching under its own weight; a tumble dryer will take the shape out of a cuff in one cycle and it does not come back.
Woven pieces tolerate a normal cool cycle and a warm iron, but a printed surface should be pressed from the reverse or through a cloth — a hot iron on the face of a print will glaze it. Turn anything with a zip or metal trim inside out before washing so the hardware cannot abrade the fabric it sits next to.
Put things away washed and bone dry. A breathable cotton bag is better than a vacuum pack, which crushes a pile or a rib flat.
Roll rather than fold anything prone to creasing, and lay knitwear flat on top of the bag. A creased woven usually hangs out overnight; a flattened rib or a glazed print generally will not, which is worth remembering when space is tight.
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