Laundry — it’s arguably the least sexy part of the shopping-styling-getting dressed cycle we all repeat week in, week out. Whether you find it to be a joy or a chore, it’s pretty much necessary, yet it rarely comes up in conversations about fashion. How we clean our clothes is a weirdly elusive topic that probably merits more attention that it’s being given. After all, what the hell really needs to be dry cleaned? How do you navigate the mishmash of settings and temperatures that go into each wash and dry load, and what’s the best goo/powder/pod cocktail? Perpetually fretting over whether this cycle is the fateful time your absolute favorite cashmere pullover will be irreversibly shrunk to doll-like dimensions: The fear is real.

Blogger Susie Bubble (a.k.a. Susannah Lau) was in Barcelona last week at Procter & Gamble’s annual Future Fabrics conference for some frank talk about her beloved clothes being ruined mid-laundering, “wash anxiety,” and taking a hiatus from the dry cleaner. “I hadn’t given clothing care a lot of thought; I certainly had no knowledge in the area,” Lau told Refinery29 of her limited laundering intel before she got schooled at P&G’s Fabric Care HQ in Brussels earlier this fall. “It’s the final step in the life cycle of a piece of clothing. If you’re a fashion-lover, or even just a fashion enthusiast, why wouldn’t you want to learn how to care for your clothes properly? Unfortunately, it’s not really something that’s talked about. There seems to be this assumption that [laundry] will magically get done.”

When a load does get done, stress can ensue — especially when there are designer items that don’t quite seem to merit a dry cleaning drop-off, but are any more complicated than a simple cotton T-shirt. “Wash anxiety is for every wash for me, not just the first wash. I especially have that anxiety about my lightweight, bouncy-looking Christopher Kane jerseys, which are made from viscose and elastane fiber. I had a disaster with one of those jerseys because I washed it at too high a temperature; it was terrible,” Lau said.

In addition to the fear of screwing up those favorite pieces, whether they’re everyday workhorses or special-occasion-only members of your wardrobe, that graveyard of formerly adored clothes completely wrecked in the wash can make you feel kind of guilty or, as Lau says, like a bit of a failure. “It’s not just my clothes; it’s my boyfriend’s clothes as well. We share the laundry responsibilities, though he’s better at it than I am,” Lau says. “I always feel like a bit of a domestic failure when things get ruined. You feel dumb; you have all the modern apparatus to equip you to wash well, but when things get messed up, it’s like, how did this happen?”

This year’s Future Fabrics conference was themed around athleisure, that trend that’s giving denim a run for its money, became Merriam-Webster dictionary official recently, and basically just won’t quit. The focus honed in on the complicated, high-tech, super-stretchy fabric blends that the gym-and-far-beyond garb is comprised of. To wit: 60% of laundry loads now involve fabrics that aren’t just cotton.