Experts share why you may want to reconsider wearing those new clothes immediately.
Buying new clothing is exciting.
The short answer: The risk is yours to take.
Credit:Jacob Fox
But if you want to follow expert advice, you should probably wash your new clothes before wearing them.
Formaldehyde resin,a known carcinogen, can also sometimes be found in clothing.
Does it matter if you buy the item online or in-store?
Credit:Jacob Fox
In short, maybe.
You may have noticed that clothing can smell different depending on where you purchased it from, says Morrison.
This is evidence that its recent history influences what attaches to the article of clothing.
So there are probably differences, but we dont know if they are meaningful.
If you are concerned about chemical allergens, Yu recommends seeing a dermatologist who can do patch testing.
In that case, washing or not washing your new clothing won’t make a difference.
Vinegar is sometimes used to set acid dye, but won’t work on cotton dye.
Dry clean-only clothing items go through the same manufacturing and shipping processes as washable clothing.
So, in a word, yes.
If dry cleaning is merely recommended, consider handwashing the garment before wearing it.
If dry cleaning is required, your best bet is to take it in.
The process will remove some of the solvents and other chemicals left behind on the garment.
Akarslan, F., Demiralay, H. 2015.
Effects of textile materials harmful to human health.International Conference on Computational and Experimental Science and Engineering, Vol.
