THE JAPAN NEWS



 

 
More clothing items able to be washed in cold water at home are appearing in stores. They include black formal wear and hats made of natural materials.

Clothing makers have developed items made of highly functional materials to meet the needs of consumers who want to save money on laundry services but also want to clean their clothes each time they get sweaty.

Sixteen of the 43 varieties of one-piece summer dresses displayed in an area selling black formal wear for women in the Takashimaya department store in Osaka are washable in cold water at home.

“The products are excellent in terms of both design and functionality. More products for not only middle-aged and elderly women but also women in their 20s have become washable,” a sales clerk said.

Tokyo Soir, a Tokyo clothier specializing in black formal wear for women, began to sell formal wear able to be washed in cold water at home in 2010. Its sales of such products have increased every year since. Currently, the washable products account for about 50 percent of the company’s sales of women’s clothing in the summer season.

Tomoko Mochizuki, who works in the president’s office of the company, said, “Though we’ve been hearing our customers say they want clothes they can wash at home for a while now, meeting their needs was difficult because formal wear easily loses its color and shape.”

The biggest challenge in meeting customer’s needs has been the difficulty of ironing washable materials such as polyester at home. If owners press the clothing without using a press cloth, or if the iron is too hot, they will leave burn marks that are impossible to remove.

The company cooperated with a material maker to develop a highly functional material that resists wrinkling and therefore requires little to no ironing.

After the washable summer wear began to enjoy a good reputation among customers, the company released a similar line of clothes for all four seasons. The company also queried university music majors on the type of clothing they prefer, and plans to release long dresses of the type worn by concert performers.

Washable hats made of natural materials have also begun to appear. In 2009, Aurora Co., a Tokyo-based hat maker, began selling woven hats made of traditional Japanese washi paper that can be washed at home.
The company had received many inquiries from customers wanting to know how to clean the hats when the paper fibers became tainted with sweat or cosmetics.

Shinobu Ishikawa, an employee of the company’s products division, said:
“Conventional products shrank or lost their shape if they were washed in water. But if our customers went to cleaners, the fees were higher than the price of the hat.”

The company found a solution in washi. The fibers of washi are long, strong and resistant to water, allowing hats made from them to be washed using neutral detergents. If placed inside washing nets, some of the company’s products can even be cleaned using the hand-washing function of washing machines.

Washable hats cost about the same as conventional ones. Currently, they comprise a little more than 20 percent of the company’s sales of hats made of natural materials. “In the future, washable hats will be the standard,” Ishikawa said.

Meanwhile, the Couleur Varie brand of Bath Corporation Co., a Kobe-based shoes maker, has made fashionable shoes that can be washed in the washing machine.

Though the brand has been on the market since 1991, it has attracted attention in recent years. Since 2012, sales of Couleur Varie shoes have increased by about 10,000 pairs a year. In 2015, more than 170,000 pairs of the brand’s shoes were sold.

Takeaki Gondo, a sales manager at the company, said, “More customers want to wash shoes like they do underwear.”

When washing the shoes, you should use bleach-free detergents. Gondo recommended using dishwashing detergent.