Garments that are worn for formal occasions may be rented as rental attire. Garments of this type are subjected to high material stresses on account of numerous care treatments. In particular, repeated final processing by dry cleaning results in high material stresses. As a result, after a short time these garments can no longer be worn at formal occasions because they have a used, worn-out appearance.
The referenced garments may be men's suits, which include pants, vests, sport coats, or blazers. Such garments may also be dress suits for women or girls.
For this reason, for several years there has been a need by ready-to-wear manufacturers and service providers in the rental attire industry for garments that withstand the stresses of commercial laundries under the conditions of DIN/ISO Standard “Commercial Laundering and Finishing Processes for Testing Work Clothes” (DIN ISO 15797:2004).
In order to withstand the treatment in commercial laundries with as little damage as possible, the garments must have very good washing resistance at temperatures of up to 95° C. The garments must also be able to withstand extreme drying conditions of up to 150° C. in a tunnel finisher under high numbers of operating cycles. Up to 50 cycles may be performed.
The garments known from the prior art are seldom, if ever, washable. At best, the known garments may be laundered at 30° C. in a gentle wash cycle in a home appliance, although loss of shape must be accepted. For this reason rental attire is usually dry cleaned, i.e., chemically cleaned, which is expensive, harmful to the environment, and effective only to a limited extent. In addition, complex drying and pressing operations are necessary to restore the shape of the garment. Furthermore, the known garments have only a limited lifetime, and their care is also very costly.