Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. is a professional underwear sourcing & supply-chain management company based in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in the Xiamen–Quanzhou–Jinjiang knitwear cluster of south-east China. Founded by Will Lin, who has worked in the apparel trade since 2004, the company has been exporting since 2009 and was incorporated in Xiamen in 2013. It runs its own liaison office in Jinjiang and works with a network of BSCI & OEKO-TEX Standard 100 certified partner factories to serve retailers and brands across Europe, the US and Australia.
Underwear is close to the skin, known as women’s “second skin”. High-quality underwear fabrics bring gentle care to the skin, while inferior fabrics are a heavy burden and damage, so the choice of fabrics is particularly important. The following Unitex underwear experts will popularize the knowledge of underwear fabrics for everyone.
Underwear fabrics are basically divided into two categories: natural fabrics and synthetic fabrics. Natural fabrics are further divided into plant fiber (cotton, hemp and other natural fibers) fabrics and animal fiber fabrics. Animal fiber fabrics are further divided into hair fabrics (wool, rabbit hair, etc.) and secretion fabrics (mulberry silk, tussah silk, etc.). Natural fibers are basically used in intimate parts of underwear. Due to the limitations of natural fibers, synthetic fabrics (polyester, nylon, spandex) are now used in underwear.
Here are five common underwear fabrics.
Cotton
Cotton is sweat-absorbent, breathable, warm, and easy to dye and print. In recent years, underwear manufacturers have favored blending cotton with various fibers. Adding chemical fibers to cotton is suitable for adjustable underwear, which is not only breathable but also has a supportive effect. However, cotton is easy to lose color and is susceptible to mildew and silverfish damage. When exposed to water, the size of cotton shrinks or becomes larger, its stretch elasticity is poor and it wrinkles easily. Sweat acid also reduces the strength of cotton and causes it to turn yellow. Cotton is prone to fatigue and deformation, and it is not easy to volatilize after absorbing sweat. Due to these objective disadvantages, cotton cannot be used in the ultrasonic process of underwear, only nylon and spandex can.
Silk
It has excellent touch feel and material, does not generate static electricity, and is also sweat-absorbent and breathable. The only disadvantage is that it is difficult to clean. When washing, you must scrub it very gently with your hands or dry clean it. Velvet is elegant and luxurious, with a natural smooth feel. If decorated with French lace or Swiss embroidery and velvet, a very gorgeous effect can be achieved.
Lycra
Lycra is a high-quality spandex, a registered trademark of a high-quality elastic fiber developed by the former DuPont Company in the United States. Lycra can stretch up to 4-7 times, and can completely return to its original shape, with very little binding force on people. Lycra can be used with any fabric, but it cannot be woven into fabric alone. Since the characteristics of Lycra itself are elasticity, comfort and support, it gives the fabric extraordinary resilience. When used in underwear, it not only makes the underwear elastic and closer to the body, but also makes the upper body more comfortable and beautiful, and is not easy to lose shape or appear wrinkles, etc., and also has a fine, thin and smooth texture.
Modal
Modal is a fiber spun from natural wood or other materials. Because the fiber itself and the materials used in the production process can be recycled and reused, it is a new era environmentally friendly product, also called regenerated cellulose fiber. It is breathable and hygroscopic, and its soft, refreshing and delicate characteristics make the fabric smooth and silky, extremely comfortable to wear, and not easy to fade after repeated washing. However, it is prone to pilling, has poor shape retention and wear resistance, and is highly flammable.
Nylon
The scientific name of nylon is polyamide, which is also the nylon fiber often referred to in life. Nylon is made by drawing nylon material into very fine fibers and then weaving it into cloth. According to the different materials of nylon, the common ones are nylon 6 and nylon 66. Nylon fabric has excellent elasticity and elastic recovery. Its wear resistance ranks first among all kinds of fabrics, many times higher than other fiber fabrics of similar products, so it has excellent durability. Moreover, the hygroscopicity of nylon fabric is a better variety among synthetic fiber fabrics, so underwear made of nylon fabric are very comfortable to wear.
Fabric selection
Fabric is the main body of underwear. As far as cotton yarn is concerned, the higher the yarn count, the better (or the smaller the yarn number, the better). The higher the yarn count, the finer the yarn and the stronger the silky texture of the fabric, the more comfortable it is to wear. Secondly, the texture of the fabric is skewed. The straight and horizontal texture of any fabric cannot be very vertical. This is caused by the knitting process, but the texture skew cannot be too large. If the texture is too skewed, the product will be distorted and deformed after being washed with water, which will affect the effectiveness of the underwear.
How to distinguish good and bad underwear fabrics?
Mainly look at these three aspects.
- The quality of the yarn: mainly depends on whether there are too many deep fluffs on the cloth surface, whether there are small cotton balls, and whether there are colored fibers. The less these impurities, the clearer the cloth surface is, which means it is a good quality yarn.
- Weaving: Whether the original texture of the cloth surface is clear, and the clear fabric has a higher grade. There are no needles (vertical) and flying spandex (horizontal) and other defects.
- Dyeing and finishing and post-processing: color uniformity, whether there is no color difference, whether the fabric feels soft, whether the width and weight of the whole cloth are stable.
· Xiamen Unitex Trade Co., Ltd. — OEM & ODM underwear sourcing partner