How to clean premium garments – including maximum washing machine temp

A fashion lover has shared how she washes her clothes to make sure she doesn’t ruin them.

It’s a common laundry annoyance to put a piece of clothing in the washing machine only for it to come out discoloured or for it to even shrink. Depending on the type of material, clothes have to be washed at different temperatures and cycles.

Sanna Kata is a content creator who shares her outfits, styling tips and fashion advice. She gives her TikTok followers outfit inspiration for different seasons and recently shared a video on the platform detailing her guide on how to wash your clothes.

The fashion guru said: “Genuinely shocks me how many people don’t know how to wash their clothes properly so if you buy nice things listen up, this is going to be your one stop shop guide for how to wash your clothes. Use these tips at your own discretion and make your own decisions.

“This is how I wash my clothes and I never ruin anything.” Sanna began with zips and buttons as she advised to undo buttons on clothes before washing them.

She explained that every time a button spins around in a washing machine it will become strained and eventually looser. Sanna added: “Zips, on the other hand, you should always do all the way up when you wash because if this is undone this is basically a bunch of little teeth that are going to bite whatever is in the washing machine with that item.”

The style expert then moved onto clothes made of silk. She acknowledged that “a lot of people think you can’t wash silk” but she assured that you can wash silk in your washing machine if you use a cold setting (under 30 degrees, “preferably 20”), a hand or gentle wash setting and a low spin cycle.

Sanna urged to use a silk specialised detergent and “only use a tiny little bit”. She elaborated: “You do not need a lot. If you put too much detergent in it’s going to go matte dull.

“A little goes a long way and that’ll save your blouse or top or whatever it is you’re washing.” The fashion fan warned that when you’ve washed the silk clothing item it will feel “kind of stiff and lifeless” but she said that all you need to do is “apply some kind of heat to it” to make it return to its “lustrous texture.”

She suggests ironing the item in a “silk friendly setting” and a low temperature. Alternatively, she said that you can steam it and “watch your item come back to life.”

Sanna added: “If you don’t wanna iron it and you’re scared to do that just wearing it and the heat from your body will eventually get it to loosen up again.” After this, she spoke about knitwear, in particular wool and cashmere.

She claims that you don’t need to wash your knitwear very often and how often you wash it depends on the kind of item that it is. For big, baggy and loose knitted garments, she advises to “treat it like a jacket” as people don’t wash or dry clean their jackets all the time so she says you “don’t need to wash your knitwear all the time either.”

Personally, Sanna would only clean areas of the garment that have gotten dirty and if she feels like they’re smelling, she would put it in the freezer. She washes her knitwear “every couple of months when it’s absolutely necessary”.

For knitwear that is tight fitting and sits directly under the armpits, for example, she would wash “a bit more regularly”. The rules she has given for washing these types of clothes is to put the machine on a ‘cold’ setting (under 30 degrees), a hand wash setting and a low spin cycle.

Sanna continued: “Wool specialised detergent and only a tiny bit because again, wool has oils in it and every time you wash it you strip some of the oils off so if you use a lot of detergent you will be stripping off all those oils and it will become brittle and dull and not what you want it to be.” She further warned that it is “essential” not to put knitwear in a dryer as this is an “amazing way to warp it, to make it pill, to make it shrink.”

The fashion expert advises to lay it flat to dry and press it between two towels and apply some pressure to soak up some of the extra water. Sanna moved on: “Now, let’s talk about denim.

“This is a myth going around that you shouldn’t wash your jeans. I don’t think that that’s really true, I think it applies to raw denim. The rule that I absolutely would not break is when you have a pair of jeans, especially a pair of jeans that are black, brown, any other colour than blue, wash them inside out or you will get stripes all along the front and again, the pants will usually tell you what they want and generally speaking, denim should be on a cool setting as well, around 30 degrees.”

Sanna shared that she doesn’t wash any of her clothes on a temperature higher than 30 degrees because she believes that it’s “not necessary, especially if it’s day to day wear”. The only exception she makes to this is when washing underwear and activewear which she will wash at around 40 degrees but not 60 degrees.

The style expert explained that if you wash your clothes at such a high temperature, you are “stressing the fibres so much more than necessary and they’re not going to last as long.” She also recommends checking the washing guidance on the label inside of your clothes.