Can casual trousers actually handle daily wear and tear?
Core wardrobe items need to be able to withstand the wear and tear of daily pressures. In the last blog post we discussed the nature and performance of formal trousers. This time we are tackling a more everyday item, casual trousers.
What is defined as a casual trouser you may ask. This includes items like chinos and cargo trousers. Any trouser that is not made out of denim and would not be classed as usual formal office wear. Although a pair of chinos can be worn as a smarter style, we used these terms to clearly distinguish between formal suit trousers and those that could be worn in various scenarios.
The methodology used to measure the durability of the casual trousers followed the same rules as the formal trousers I’ve already discussed. The trousers were subjected to a range of tests including strength and wash tests.
What gives up first on a casual trouser style?
Core garments need to be able to withstand daily wear and regular washing. For trousers, the knees and between the thighs typically show signs of stress first. This was even something that was discussed and validated in one of my PhD focus groups. As these signs of wear have been noted as the main culprit of end of life, abrasion was once again the most important test result taken into account. You will recall that formal trousers focused heavily on visual changes, whereas for casual trousers the strength of the garment was the main focus when measuring the durability of the category.
Along with knees and the inner leg, seams can also be a major weak point. Although, test results indicated that seam strength is not a major concern with only one garment, out of 23, marginally failing the pass mark. This indicates that brands recognise seam failure as a common issue and have invested the time to ensure the appropriate amount of reinforcement has been used to preserve the seam integrity, which is a positive step in producing durable garments.
In contrast to the formal trousers, visual aspects were low on the list of importance for casual trousers. Severe degradation of any garment will likely lead to its disposal but there is more acceptance of visual changes on a casual garment. This was validated through the consumer survey I conducted where only five respondents, out of 37, who had recently disposed of a pair of trousers, attributed disposal to a visual reason such as colour fading. Furthermore, the five responses were paired with factors such as ‘worn out’ or ‘holes’, indicating that colour fading alone may not have prompted someone to dispose of a pair of trousers and the function is far more important.
Washing Durability
How often do you wash your casual trousers? After every wear or after every couple of wears?
Interestingly, despite visual assessment being low on the list of prioritises, the casual trousers performance in this area was quite poor. The majority of the garments tested displayed severe colour fading and change after 50 washes.
To some people 50 washes is seen as the full lifetime of the product, whereas to others, it’s a couple of years of wear with the assumptions that it should last far longer. Between wash 30 and wash 50 the number of failures for colour fading went from approximately 47% to 88%, showing that washing less means your trousers will last longer.
Considering this in isolation, if a person moved from washing after every wear to every third wear, they have the potential to triple the lifetime of their trousers.
Wash testing is being pushed from a legislative perspective with the latest proposal of the EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) including only wash related tests to measure robustness. I personally think it is a mistake to not include further testing such as seam and strength tests, and have spoken openly about that in past blogs.
Of the 23 trousers tested only four managed to pass the tensile and tear strength tests. These tests measure the strength of the fabric. Tensile is the force taken to break the fabric without any pre existing damage. While tear is the force it takes to break an already damaged piece of fabric further. The image below shows a tensile test in progress. The piece of fabric is being clamped and then will be gradually pulled until it breaks and the force taken to break it is measured.
Both tensile and tear saw a dramatic drop in results after washing too, showing that a combination of washing tests and mechanical tests would provide a better insight into expected performance. What this also tells us is that once a hole starts to form, the fabric offers very little resistance to further tearing. This flags that repairing as soon as signs of wear appear could prevent damage growing fast leaving the garment unrepairable. Furthermore, this strongly indicates that these tests should be included in the EU robustness protocol.
So what does all this mean?
If only wash tests are mandated, a trouser could pass every regulatory requirement on paper while still failing both of these in the real world. Legislation that doesn't account for structural integrity risks leaving the most common failure modes completely unaddressed.
What the data ultimately shows is that not only do we demand more from everyday items such as casual trousers, it also shows that functionality is king. I hope with the impending legislation mandating wash testing that other testing does not get deprioritised.
WEFT works with brands and retailers across the world to understand clothing durability, how to adhere to legislation and go beyond, and works alongside brands to prepare for EPR and ESPR. Get in touch if you want to chat.
Dr. Kate Baker is the author of The Pick. She is a globally leading expert in garment durability and the EPR Technical Manager at WEFT.
Acknowledgements & Partners
I’d like to acknowledge that the work discussed here and in future posts could not have been completed without input from the Leeds Institute of Textiles and Colour (LITAC), The Clothworker’s Company and the Waste Resource Action Programme (WRAP) UK Textile Pack Members.
