# Washing brand new clothes before wearing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 29, 2012, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478 "2012-05-29T20:29:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/81 "2012-06-01T01:37:40Z")
Not only have I worked in clothing retail, I worked at JC-fucking-Penney. :eek: And I kind of like the new stuff smell, shower curtains included. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/82 "2012-06-01T01:47:04Z")
> [@Lynn\_Bodoni](#): > > And they’ll claim that the deodorant and food stains were already on that outfit. Maybe it’s just me, but if I see stains or anything on new clothes on the rack, I just don’t buy them. ---
**Author:** ![kjbrasda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/74df32/32.png) [@kjbrasda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjbrasda)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/83 "2012-06-01T07:43:02Z")
> [@Pixel\_Dent](#): > > Always wash. While reports of foreign clothing being shipped to the US with bedbugs are considered myths, there are confirmed cases of clothing being infested after they reach retail stores. You know, I had actually not heard of these cases or myths, but that’s pretty much what my mother-in-law’s rash looked like. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/84 "2012-06-01T18:27:44Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > Maybe it’s just me, but if I see stains or anything on new clothes on the rack, I just don’t buy them. You’d be amazed at what people will buy. The real winners will insist on a discount, which is reasonable…but then, they’ll bring the item back, and want the full price refunded. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/85 "2012-06-01T18:43:10Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Not only have I worked in clothing retail, I worked at JC-fucking-Penney. :eek: The last time I was in a JC-fucking-Penney, the saleslady kept harping on how much I’d save by applying for a JC-fucking-Penney charge card. I wanted to pay with cash. I told her over and over that I just wanted to pay with cash, but she kept harping. Finally, I paid (cash) and left the store. When I got home (a sixty minute drive) I found out she had left one of the theft thingies attached to one of the pairs of pants that I bought. I had to drive back and have it removed. It was the last time I’ll ever set foot in a JC-fucking-Penney. Fuckers.:mad: ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/86 "2012-06-01T19:05:51Z")
JC-fucking-Penny is filled with shrieking harpies, my once-manager being one of them. After five days of her petty tyranny, I threw in the towel at that place. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/87 "2012-06-01T19:11:28Z")
Nope, never, except the time I bought a Hawaian shirt at Goodwill. Interestingly as of my vote the response is perfectly split, 114-114 (with 3 ‘other’ votes). ---
**Author:** ![Tabithina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@Tabithina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabithina)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/88 "2012-06-01T19:29:01Z")
I’m a woman, and I always wash new things. Years ago, I used to work in a garment factory when I lived in a small town were there weren’t many employment opportunities. We had some seriously gross employees there, including the lady who was sent home repeatedly for lice infestation before she was fired for not doing anything about it. :eek: The company ultimately ended up pulling up stakes and outsourcing production overseas, but the time I spent there taught me that garments can be exposed to a lot of yuck before they even leave the factory. I also have a good nose for chemical smells. I am a fiber artist and I can even recognize some of the smells. Most of them are from dyes. A washing will take out the smell from dyes and dye fixatives. Smelling dye on my clothes would bug me all day, unless, of course I am working with dyes–but I don’t wear my new clothes for that. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2012, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/89 "2012-06-01T19:56:31Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > To return crispness to shirts, one need only starch and iron them.. What and what them? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478/90 "2012-06-02T01:09:15Z")
> [@Tabithina](#): > > I’m a woman, and I always wash new things. Years ago, I used to work in a garment factory when I lived in a small town were there weren’t many employment opportunities. We had some seriously gross employees there, including the lady who was sent home repeatedly for lice infestation before she was fired for not doing anything about it. :eek: > > The company ultimately ended up pulling up stakes and outsourcing production overseas, but the time I spent there taught me that garments can be exposed to a lot of yuck before they even leave the factory. Yeah, this. Not “department store lint.” Clothes aren’t born at JC-Fucking-Penny, they come from a _sweat shop_ in a place with questionable or non-existant sanitation. They are touched all over by other people while they’re being made - even if they were made by my well-manicured cousin Maude in her suburban home, they’d still be touched all over by other people. Then if they are washed before they are shipped, who know what they’re washed in. Then people touch them to get them to the sales floor, then people touch them to look at them and/or try them on. It’s pretty much the same as wanting to wash your produce before you eat it. You just don’t know where it’s been. But there’s a pretty good chance you won’t like where it’s been. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washing-brand-new-clothes-before-wearing/623478.md?page=4)