Fabric and care

Nearly everything here is a knit rather than a woven. A knit is made of loops, and loops give: that is where the stretch comes from, and it is also why a knit will not hold a pressed crease the way suiting wool does. Four-way stretch means the fabric gives both across the body and along it, so the knee bends without the leg riding up the calf.

Spandex is the part that pulls the fabric back. The percentage matters more than the name: at four percent a pair holds its shape and barely gives, at twenty percent it moves like a legging and relaxes through the day. Both are in this range, and the number is in the specification table on each page where the maker publishes it.

Washing is where a stretch knit is won or lost, and the enemy is heat. Hot water and a hot dryer relax the spandex permanently: the pair comes out fitting and comes back from the third wash with a waistband that no longer pulls in. Cold water and a low tumble, or no tumble at all, and a pair lasts seasons instead of weeks.

Fabric softener does the same damage by a different route. It coats the fibre, and a coated elastane stops recovering. Skip it on anything in this range.

Pilling is the honest failure of a knit. It happens where something rubs the same spot every day: a bag strap at the hip, a seat belt, the inside of the thighs on a close-cut pair. It is not a fault in the fabric and no care routine prevents it entirely. A fabric shaver takes it off in a minute and the pair looks new again.

What none of this fixes is a pair that was the wrong cut. Fabric care buys time on a pair you already like, and that is all it does.