People want to feel comfortable in their clothes. Especially for leisure activities and sport, but also just for relaxing on the sofa at home, there is a big demand for “feel-good” textiles. They should be as comfortable as possible, soft and supple, skin-friendly and breathable.
They should also be high-quality garments which do not lose either their colour or their shape, even after being washed many times. Now, thanks to the new Wellness Label from the Hohenstein Institute, consumers can look specifically for “Tested wellness textiles” which are particularly comfortable to wear and are also easy to look after . The concept of wellness textiles is not confined to traditional leisure and wellness clothing but could also apply to articles such as dressing-gowns or towels. The new label from the Hohenstein Institute makes it possible for textile products to be objectively measured for their suitability for wellness purposes and means that shoppers can also regard certified products as being of higher quality, because of the extensive testing they have undergone. For sellers, the label is a perfect selling point when they are advising their customers.
Before a textile product can become a “Tested wellness textile”, it must go through a specially developed programme of tests at the independent Hohenstein Institute. For this, appropriate measuring instruments are used to test textile products against defined criteria and assess them. If they are suitable to be classed as tested wellness textiles according to the current guidelines, this is confirmed.
The new “Tested wellness textiles” label from the Hohenstein Institute stands for comfortable clothes that are easy to care for the awarding of the first Wellness
Tested wellness textiles – comfortable and easy to look after
How comfortable a textile product is to wear is largely determined by its skin sensory properties. This is the term used to describe the immediate “touch sensation” that the product makes on the skin. Five different measurements are taken in order to quantify objectively how a textile product feels to people when it is in direct contact with their skin. The surface finish index states whether the product scratches the skin or feels nice and soft. The sticking index shows how much a textile product sticks to damp skin and consequently feels uncomfortable. The wetting index provides information about how quickly moisture is absorbed by the textile product when you sweat and so is carried away from the skin. The number of contact points between the textile and the skin is used to measure how quickly the textile starts to feel clammy and damp. The stiffness measurement is important for how well the textile product fits your body and can be an indication of how comfortable in general the garment seems to the wearer. The breathability of the textile is also measured. Taking all the measurements together, the level of skin sensory comfort is calculated and the skin sensory properties of the textile product that is being tested are judged against defined limit values.
As well as the skin sensory properties, the ease of care of textile products is also tested, with regard to their colourfastness under ISO 105-B02, their dimensional stability after 20 washes and their general resistance to washing. If the textile product that is being tested meets all the target specifications, it is endorsed with the Wellness Label.
