Material
Elastane. Comfortable with every movement
Elastane is a synthetic fiber made from the plastics polyurethane and polyethylene glycol. In 1959, textile chemist Joseph Shivers developed the fiber for the first time together with the American chemical company DuPont. Today it is produced worldwide and used mainly in combination with other fibers to increase the elasticity and dimensional stability of textiles made from it. The material is also known as "Elastane fiber," "Spandex" and "Lycra," among others.
The properties of elastane
Textiles containing spandex are comfortable to wear thanks to its elastic properties. This allows the fabric to conform perfectly to the body while providing maximum freedom of movement. This stretchy fiber is therefore extremely popular in athletic wear. But it also provides exceptional comfort in everyday clothing such as jeans, sweaters, dresses, underwear, hosiery, and leggings. The material also offers other impressive benefits:
- Thanks to its durable tear resistance and shape retention, elastane is extremely robust and durable.
- Just like the fiber itself, the fabric is very smooth, making it gentle on the skin and less prone to pilling.
- In addition, the material is incredibly thin, very fine, and feels incredibly soft. These properties are particularly beneficial in lightweight garments such as our sheer tights.
- Spandex also absorbs very little moisture, which is why it dries quickly.
Care Instructions
High temperatures can cause the fibers to break and become visible as white threads. Gentle wash cycles without a spin cycle, at temperatures not exceeding 40 °C, are perfectly sufficient. Since garments containing elastane are not prone to wrinkling anyway, ironing is rarely necessary. Also, avoid fabric softener. It damages the fibers and negatively affects the garment’s shape retention. And do not use the dryer to prevent your garments from shrinking.
Many synthetic fibers are based on petroleum and are therefore not biodegradable. In addition, every wash cycle releases microparticles that cannot be completely filtered out by sewage treatment plants and thus enter the natural water cycle. Specially developed laundry bags help to filter out the microparticles so that they can then be disposed of in the residual waste. Since there is currently no sustainable alternative to elastane, we are extremely careful to keep the proportion of the fiber as low as possible in our products and to give preference to natural and recycled materials.
Selected products with elastane
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