Covid and clothing
Can fabric hold the virus? Either way, easily washable clothes are the future
Forget dry-clean only, long sleeves and metals; our germcentric way of life now calls for a new approach.
Like so much of our new reality, little things we took for granted as being entirely normal now seem like antiquities from another era. And how we now tackle supermarket shopping, socialising and commuting (I don’t think I can bear to touch a Tube handrail ever again) is going to bleed into the way we dress.
There’s speculation on the exact length of time that coronavirus can stay on surfaces, but received advice says that it can live on metals like jewellery, door handles and silverware for five days, and plastics for three days. Which begs the question of how long it can live on fabrics.
An aerosol expert, speaking to The New York Times, pointed out that the virus needs moisture to survive – it thrives on porous cardboard particularly, so the same could be true of clothing fabrics.
Government advice published last week recommended that those returning to work should wear easily washable clothes. This mounting evidence that what we wear and how we wash our clothing could well assist in preventing another spike is set to have a profound shift in how we dress.
First up, the easily washable edict – something suits very much are not. Men tend to dry clean their work suit only when needs absolutely must(y), and many dry cleaners are currently closed or working reduced hours. Could this usher in a new era of informality? It would certainly chime with our dress down sensibilities in lockdown – even with the best will in the world, many of us have ended up in tracksuit bottoms during the workat-home day.
But for a while now, brands have experimented with machine washable suits. From Italian fabric wizards Ermenegildo Zegna, whose technicians have crafted suits in technical materials that can be thrown in the washing machine, to low cost variants at John Lewis designed for a spin cycle.
We can expect men’s formal accessories to be dialled back too; most cufflinks are made of metals, on which the virus can sit easily, and cuffs are a touch point with surfaces. Likewise ties – doctors don’t wear them because they come in fabrics like silk and jacquard that, again, don’t wash well, and are veritable harbingers of germs, dangling freely and coming into contact with anything and everything.
Long sleeves look set to be relegated in favour of shorter varieties, all the easier for washing forearms.
Barbershop chain Ruffians has planned a new uniform for its barbers upon their return to work in July, doing away with their normally smart shirts in favour of T-shirts to allow easy washing. Curious suits that can be flung into the quick wash, breezy shortsleeved shirts and a lack of ceremonial accessories that have long denoted “gentlemanly” dress might rankle with the old guard of men’s style, but these are unprecedented times.