Does Hemp Shrink? What Our Orders Since 2021 Actually Tell Us

Short answer: since we started in 2021, we have never had a single customer report a THOH garment shrinking.

That is not a marketing line. It is what our records show, and it surprises people, because “natural fibre” and “shrinks in the wash” tend to travel together in most people's heads.

Here is why hemp behaves differently, and what actually does damage a hemp garment — because something does, and it isn't shrinkage.

Why hemp doesn't shrink the way cotton does

Hemp fibre is longer and stronger than cotton fibre. Cotton shrinks because its shorter fibres are stretched under tension during spinning and weaving, and that tension releases the first time the fabric meets hot water. Hemp holds its structure instead.

There is also a practical reason specific to how we work. Our hemp-Tencel and hemp-cotton arrive from the mill already treated and washed. We do not pre-shrink fabric before cutting, because since 2021 we have never needed to. If our fabric were going to move, we would have found out by now — across hundreds of garments, in every size from XXS to 4XL.

What actually damages hemp clothing

Not heat. Not the wash cycle. Detergent.

This is the most common mistake we see, and almost nobody makes it deliberately. People reach for whatever is next to the machine — sometimes mild, sometimes not — and use it out of habit. The damage doesn't show on the first wash, or the second. It shows gradually, and by the time it is visible the fabric has already lost something.

Strong detergents strip natural fibres. Hemp doesn't need them anyway. Because the fibre is porous, it doesn't hold odour the way synthetics do, which means it doesn't need the chemical load most people apply to it.

What we tell customers to do

Our care label says dry clean. That is deliberate, and we would rather explain the reasoning than have you assume we are being precious about it.

Two reasons:

●       Hand embroidery. Every piece with resham work has hours of hand-stitching in it. A machine cycle can catch and pull that thread in a way that cannot be repaired. Anything hand-embroidered should be dry cleaned or hand washed — never machine washed.

●       We can't see how you wash. Some people instinctively separate colours and use cold water. Others don't. Dry cleaning removes the variable entirely, particularly on the first wash and particularly on pieces with colour contrast.

So: dry clean the first wash, always. After that, if a piece has no hand embroidery and no colour contrast, a gentle hand wash or a mild machine cycle with a very mild detergent is fine. Shade dry — never direct sun, which fades colour on any natural fibre.

What we do personally

Rashmi washes her own THOH pieces in the machine with a very mild detergent and shade dries them. That works for her because she knows which of her pieces are embroidered and which aren't.

What I recommend, and what I do: salt water. No detergent at all. Hemp's porous structure means it releases odour on its own, and a salt-water rinse cleans it without stripping anything. Shade dry after.

That is a personal recommendation, not our official instruction. Our instruction is the label: dry clean.

The problem we did have

We have never had a shrinkage complaint. We have had colour-bleeding complaints, and they were fair — customers had photographs, and they were right.

We changed the fabric. We now work with Mildite, and the bleeding stopped. We are telling you this because a brand that claims it has never had a problem is not being straight with you. We had one, it was real, and we fixed it at the fabric level rather than adding a warning to the label.

So, does hemp shrink?

Not in our experience, and not in the experience of any customer who has written to us. What hemp does do is soften with every wash while holding its shape — which is the opposite problem, and a much better one to have.

Wash it gently, keep the harsh detergent away from it, dry it in the shade, and dry clean anything with hand embroidery. Do that and the garment outlasts most of what sits next to it in your wardrobe.

Every piece is made to order in our Kolkata atelier by 15 artisans, with hand resham embroidery finished in-house. Sizes run XXS–4XL, with made-to-measure across the range. Explore our Dresses, our co-ord sets, or browse the full collection.