Yes. But not all items. Clothes made from cotton or synthetic fibers can bounce back pretty well after a wash. It's the more premium fabrics like cashmere and silk that you need to watch out for. Once the fibers are stretched or pulled, they don’t come back, even with a wash or dry clean.
It's really important to ensure you have the proper sized and shaped hangers to help your clothes hang properly without getting stretched. The most vulnerable part of your clothes are the shoulders. This is where you have pressure from the weight of the garment and also where the hanger stops. It's also, unfortunately, where hangers tend to have pointy ends!
According to Healthline.com, the average size of a woman’s shoulders (the boney bits) is 14.4in wide. Put a little muscle and skin on that and you end up somewhere between 15 and 16 inches wide. Given that the standard hanger you buy in a store is 17 inches wide, you are clearly going to run into trouble as a woman when it comes to hanging delicate items. So, for women, finding a smaller sized hanger is absolutely critical to ensure that the ends of the hanger don’t stick into the shoulders and leave bumps. Where there are bumps, there is risk of damage.
Key things to look for in a hanger when you want to protect your clothes are:
- The right size for your clothes. Especially if you’re a woman a smaller hanger is critical to have to protect your wardrobe.
- Rounded ends. The more rounded the end of the hanger the better. We don’t have pointy shoulders, so why are our hangers so pointy? These points are what cause the damage, so stay away from them.
- A more gentle slope. Many hangers have a very steep slope, but this isn’t what our shoulders actually look like. So look for a hanger that is less steep so that your clothes hang straight on them and don’t get weird wrinkles around the neck.
- A good finish. Plastic hangers often have flash - bits of extra plastic that leaked through where the two halves of the tool came together. That is a surefire way to get a pull in your silks and satins. I prefer wood because most wood has a very well sanded and polished finish which is perfect for your delicate fabrics.
- Robust construction. Anyone else ever had to deal with broken hangers?? I once found my nice leather jacket lying on the floor because the hanger broke. Yikes.
Happy Hanging.
Love,
Chelsea
