The Advantages of Retexturing

By John Phillips

Over the last few years I have heard the comments about sizing giving a good handle to garments after cleaning and this is what the customers want. I have also been asked what is retexturing and how does it work.

The two treatments are quite different. Both, it is fair to say, give additional handle to the garments treated, but what does the public really want, and what is the true cost to you for using either treatments? Also, what is better for the fabric and the wearer?

Sizing is quite an old-fashioned way of giving body to garments after drycleaning and, in most cases, is made from a diluted form of water proofing/resin type product. Yes, it is true that a garment treated in this way will have extra body and that after finishing it will have the appearance that is sharper to the eye.

The disadvantages, however, are considerable and should carefully be considered before deciding which method (sizing or retexturing) is better for you, your equipment, your customers and the environment.

The drycleaning industry has changed considerably over the last ten years and is still doing so. We all know that most of the changes have been environmentally led and that was right. We, as an industry, either by insufficient knowledge and in some cases neglect needed to tidy up.

I also think that compared to a lot of other industries, by and large, we accepted these changes responsibly. However, it is sometimes easy not to see the full picture and leave some pieces of the jigsaw puzzle out. Sizing is part of those pieces.

The other changes that have directly affected us, as the textile care industry, is the fashion industry, with all the different types of fabric being mixed, and of course the new types of fabric that are used in garment manufacturing.

As an industry we used sizing for many years, but its application is no longer cost effective or environmentally favorable to do.

Let’s look at the application side first. In most cases the drycleaner adds the sizing to an additional bath in the machine, which considerably adds to the process times for these loads. Also, it does not matter how good, as a drycleaner, your maintenance to the machine is; a residue of this sizing will remain in the machine.

Garments are purchased by their owners for several reasons: fashion, personal taste, color, style and feel. When one uses a sizing type product you change the handle and wearing properties of the garment.

Once the garment is drycleaned, everything except the handle of the fabric should remain the same, apart from normal wear and tear.

Sizing, without a doubt, will change the fabric handle and the wearing properties of the garment. Sometimes these changes are very apparent, just to the touch. Other times, not until the owner of the garment wears it after cleaning.

For example, if we were to take a lambs wool, silk or cashmere garment and during the cleaning process add sizing, we all know what would happen. First, you would get a serious complaint from your customer that their garments just don’t feel right. They’re hard, coarse and no longer have that soft, full feel to them, nor do they feel like they did prior to cleaning.

So, straight away we can see that just by the touch it is evident the fabric did not react well to sizing.

What if the customer did not bring to your attention that they were unhappy with the handle to these garments, and decided for one reason or another, well, it does not feel right, but I will wear it again and next time I have it cleaned I will ask about improving the garment feel..

The owner, without a doubt, would also notice a complete difference when they put on the garment. Sizing leaves the garment with a slight resistance to moisture.

This is very easy to test; just put a small amount of water into a clean and empty spotting bottle and let small droplets of water onto the garment.

You will notice the water droplets remain for sometime on the surface of the fabric and do not penetrate into the fabric. This, from a wearer side, is a negative point. If it holds moisture out, it will trap moisture in. In other words, the moisture that we all produce from our body will be trapped between the wearer and the garment, making that person perspire even more. In short, the garment’s ability to breath has been significantly reduced, thus making it less comfortable to wear.

One could argue that I only picked natural fibers to prove my point and, yes, that is true.

If your argument is that all these fabrics are supposed to feel soft (which they are), why would we add sizing to any wool garment, whether it is a cashmere sweater or a pure wool blazer? Didn’t they both come from the same animal?

What about man-made fabrics? Are they any different?

No. If they were, why would textile manufacturers spend very large amounts of money and time to get them to feel as close as possible to natural fibers?

With retexturing, the customer will notice that their garment feels almost the same as it was when new (except for normal wear and tear). That is what it is designed to do.

The word “retexturing” comes from the words “re” and “texture.” In other words, you are putting the natural handle and fullness back into the garment, and not replacing it with an artificial one.

We spoke about the garments being able to accept moisture much easier when they are retextured, as apposed to being treated with sizing.

One benefit to this is also evident in the finishing department. Garments treated with a retexturising agent are much easier and considerably quicker to press than garments that have been treated with a sizing agent.

We missed cotton and linen and, yes, these are much coarser fabrics than most of the other natural fabrics. So, why add sizing?

The arguments I have heard for this is to make them look sharper after pressing, but they will crease much easier than with retexturing.

All modern retexturing additives will help garments lose the normal wearing creases when hung, so that they look sharper than with sizing, which has the reverse effect The wearing creases stay longer and, in fact, are in many cases still evident after subsequent cleaning.

Another side note to that is that we are all in the textile care business. We want repeat business. In fact, we want our customers to keep bringing back the same garments time after time. Those people purchased those garments because they really liked them. The longer we, as the drycleaners, preserve those garments and keep them looking and feeling good, the more money we make, and the happier our customers are. Retexturing helps us do just that.

Sizing by its nature is not suitable for filtration. In fact, it would and does greatly reduce cartridge life.

This is an expensive add-on cost and also adds to solvent loss each time you have to change your filters. It also requires you to do much more maintenance on spin disc filters.

All good, modern detergents have, or at least should have as a standard, a built-in retexturing part to its formulation. It’s not an add-on product, therefore, it is completely compatible not only to the process and cleaning cycles, it is also better for the equipment and your bottom line.

Why would you want or need to spend extra money on a additional product when you can purchase it all in one? If you are in doubt as to whether your current detergent has a built-in retexturing agent in it or not, you should contact your supplier and ask for a current information sheet. This way, you will be sure to have the right information.

I have also had some customers comment that when they stopped using sizing, they found it much easier to control the pH value of their machine. This could be due to the fact that it is possible for sizing to coat the bottom of the still with a fine film, thereby altering the effects of distillation and increasing the amount of time for effective distillation.

As I said earlier, sizing is an extra product that you add to your drycleaning machine and, as with most additional products that you add, they are going to increase your hazardous waste.

I have had several drycleaners state to me that since they have started using a drycleaning detergent with a built in retexturing agent, their hazardous waste has been considerably reduced by four to six drums per year. This is a direct saving of $400 to $600 per year per machine.

Obviously, this will vary according to how many loads were treated with sizing. But, no matter how small or great these savings are, they are savings that add to your bottom line.

This shows to us, and others that we, as an industry, are making developments to save on the amount of hazardous waste we produce. I am sure that not one serious and conscientious person in our industry would have any problems with that.

We also stated that using sizing can considerably reduce the life of cartridge filters.

Again, these items have to be disposed of as hazardous waste, and if we can reduce the amount of filter changes through the course of a year it helps, again, your bottom line and the environment.

It really is a win-win situation. Your customers will thank you for their garments feeling better, your finishing department will thank you for making life easier and your bottom line will look better.

In fact, probably the only people that would not agree with me are the companies that remove your hazardous waste.