Wanna bet? People notice clothes a lot less than you think. Try and
recall what your friends were wearing last time you met them.
I dare say you're right and I'm being overly paranoid -- I don't
remember the jeans-and-a-T-shirt brigade! I do remember the women who
were wearing a bright orange patterned skirt and a pair of black
contour-hugging cycling shorts respectively, but have no mental image of
what they were wearing on their top halves at the time...
But I think people do look to see what I'm wearing every time I turn up,
because they quite often remark on it. I used to get 'are you going on
to a party?' on a regular basis, but I think it has dawned on everyone
that I really do wear structured clothing, or at least clothing with
buttons on, all the time, however old and shabby; I don't own a pair
of jeans or trainers, and while I do own and very occasionally wear a
polo-necked T-shirt, that is only because it came as a freebie with some
very expensive waterproofs that I was purchasing about twenty years ago!
Plain T-shirts or sweatshirts I never, ever wear; I like collars, thank
you.
Having said that, a couple of days off does no harm at all. Air drying
can often remove smells on its own.
Oh yes -- I once managed successfully to get the reek of sweat out of a
velvet jacket that I'd had to wear at a thoroughly overheated concert,
and which still smelt after being dry-cleaned, simply by means of
hanging it up inside-out outdoors on the washing line for days on end.
After all, if you think about it, rags blowing around in the hedgerow
don't smell of body odour, any more than whitened bones on the hillside;
the fabric may eventually become threadbare and rot away, but any loose
organic material has long since been consumed by ambient bacteria or
whatever. The jacket that had been seemingly ruined went on to give
another ten years or so of service before the lining became too rotten
to be patched up any further and the collar and cuffs wore bare... and
that was of course a second-hand garment in the first place, so I have
no idea how old it was when it finally succumbed!
I'm currently busy trying to get a musty smell out of some second-hand
cycling shorts that began to emit a distinct odour the first time I wore
them in earnest (probably why they were originally given away, as they
are otherwise in very good condition compared to my current worn-out
ones). Unfortunately I've never actually owned cycling shorts with a
chamois lining, as opposed to an foam pad, so I don't know what to
expect them to smell like when clean -- but mildew is definitely not
right :-(
I put them through a 30-degree wash and hung them out to dry for a day,
but though they dried out they still didn't smell right. I left them
out for a full 24 hours, which didn't do the job, and have just rubbed
and rinsed some ordinary bar soap through them thoroughly by hand (as
opposed to merely swishing them around in warm water and a bit of
washing-machine powder for 45 minutes), and they currently smell less
musty; we'll see how it goes once they have dried out again.
Of course hanging things out in strong sunshine for hours on end may
have a hygenic effect -- they specifically suggest 'ultraviolet light
exposure' for Americans who put their cycling shorts in the tumble dryer
-- but inherently shortens the lifespan of the fabric as well. My
clothes all fade and eventually rip apart across the shoulders/armholes,
which I think is partly the strain of wear, partly the corrosive effect
of human sweat, and partly accumulated sun damage. Certainly the faded
colour is due to gradual sun damage.
no subject
I dare say you're right and I'm being overly paranoid -- I don't remember the jeans-and-a-T-shirt brigade! I do remember the women who were wearing a bright orange patterned skirt and a pair of black contour-hugging cycling shorts respectively, but have no mental image of what they were wearing on their top halves at the time...
But I think people do look to see what I'm wearing every time I turn up, because they quite often remark on it. I used to get 'are you going on to a party?' on a regular basis, but I think it has dawned on everyone that I really do wear structured clothing, or at least clothing with buttons on, all the time, however old and shabby; I don't own a pair of jeans or trainers, and while I do own and very occasionally wear a polo-necked T-shirt, that is only because it came as a freebie with some very expensive waterproofs that I was purchasing about twenty years ago! Plain T-shirts or sweatshirts I never, ever wear; I like collars, thank you.
Oh yes -- I once managed successfully to get the reek of sweat out of a velvet jacket that I'd had to wear at a thoroughly overheated concert, and which still smelt after being dry-cleaned, simply by means of hanging it up inside-out outdoors on the washing line for days on end. After all, if you think about it, rags blowing around in the hedgerow don't smell of body odour, any more than whitened bones on the hillside; the fabric may eventually become threadbare and rot away, but any loose organic material has long since been consumed by ambient bacteria or whatever. The jacket that had been seemingly ruined went on to give another ten years or so of service before the lining became too rotten to be patched up any further and the collar and cuffs wore bare... and that was of course a second-hand garment in the first place, so I have no idea how old it was when it finally succumbed!
I'm currently busy trying to get a musty smell out of some second-hand cycling shorts that began to emit a distinct odour the first time I wore them in earnest (probably why they were originally given away, as they are otherwise in very good condition compared to my current worn-out ones). Unfortunately I've never actually owned cycling shorts with a chamois lining, as opposed to an foam pad, so I don't know what to expect them to smell like when clean -- but mildew is definitely not right :-(
I put them through a 30-degree wash and hung them out to dry for a day, but though they dried out they still didn't smell right. I left them out for a full 24 hours, which didn't do the job, and have just rubbed and rinsed some ordinary bar soap through them thoroughly by hand (as opposed to merely swishing them around in warm water and a bit of washing-machine powder for 45 minutes), and they currently smell less musty; we'll see how it goes once they have dried out again.
Of course hanging things out in strong sunshine for hours on end may have a hygenic effect -- they specifically suggest 'ultraviolet light exposure' for Americans who put their cycling shorts in the tumble dryer -- but inherently shortens the lifespan of the fabric as well. My clothes all fade and eventually rip apart across the shoulders/armholes, which I think is partly the strain of wear, partly the corrosive effect of human sweat, and partly accumulated sun damage. Certainly the faded colour is due to gradual sun damage.