Making Swimwear Last: The Rinse Is Most of It review: make it last

The fibres that make swimwear stretch are exactly the fibres that chlorine and heat destroy. Elastane gives a suit its snap, and elastane degrades with chlorine exposure, salt crystals, hot water, tumble drying and sunscreen residue — which between them describe an ordinary day at the pool or beach. The suit that bags, thins and loses its recovery did not wear out from swimming; it wore out from what happened in the hours after swimming.

The routine that prevents it is almost insultingly simple. Rinse the suit in cool fresh water as soon as practical after every wear — this alone removes most of the chlorine, salt and sunscreen doing the damage. Wash it gently by hand with a little mild detergent rather than throwing it in the machine, and never wring it: squeeze water out by pressing, roll it in a towel, and dry it flat in the shade, because a hot dryer and direct sun both cook the stretch out of it. Every step is the gentle version of a thing you were doing anyway.

For the wider picture, our The Summer Kit: Swim With Personality, Shades That Earn It, Care That Keeps Both covers how this category shakes out.

Two multipliers finish the job. Elastane recovers between wears, so alternating a couple of suits outlasts wearing one relentlessly — the rest days are structural. And rough surfaces are the other quiet killer: pool edges, lava rocks and pilled concrete snag and abrade the fabric where you sit, which is worth exactly one moment of awareness before you park on the tiles. Do the rinse, skip the dryer, rotate the pair — and the print you like stays both intact and elastic for seasons instead of weeks.