I don’t see why they wouldn’t just wash the material before they cut the form.
In: Chemistry
FIRST: It’s helpful to realize there are a few different types of shrinking.
Some textiles are woven very tightly, put under tension by the machinery that’s constructing it. This is how you can make something smooth and even, rather than made of wiggly, organically-shaped threads. The washing process can release some of this tension in the fibers, allowing them to relax back into their natural shape, or reducing the amount of “space” between threads. This type of shrinkage can be one-and-done; it’s not like it shrinks an equal amount with each subsequent wash.
Wool shrinks because it has a complex natural fiber structure and by beating it up in a washing machine it’s kind of getting…tangled, for lack of a better word. Imagine you neatly laid 50 electrical cables in parallel on the floor, then you jumbled them into a pile and now they’re a chaotic, dense ball (that has “shrunk” to take up less sapce on the floor).
There are other phenomena, like the impact of temperature on the moisture content of the fiber itself, which almost makes a fiber “shrivel.”
SECOND: Garments need to be constructed with controllable, predictable fibers. “Pre-shrinking” via simply washing these textiles would sort of be like doing some of the damage I described above, but on purpose. There’s not really an upside to making garments out of fibers in this condition.
THIRD: Some garments *are* pre-shrunk. One method involves chemical treatment, but then you’re potentially hurting some of the good traits of the fiber, plus few people want *more* chemicals added to their garments. Other methods just involve more sophisticated systems of pre-washing.
tl;dr – The way to handle shrinkage is to 1) plan for it, e.g. don’t buy the cotton shirt that is just barely big enough for you, and 2) be familiar with the best practices of care **for any given fabric**. There’s not that much to keep track of, and a lot of headache can be avoided simply by not using a dryer or washing in very hot water. Wool should be washed as rarely as possible, on cold, and laid flat to dry, or skip all this and get it dry cleaned. With proper care of not-cheapo clothes, you can hang onto garments for years and years without much shrinkage at all.
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