Magazine Rhinestones, Flock and Puff Print: How Embellished Shirts Stay Beautiful
Hand-applied stones, velvety flock areas and raised puff prints need a little more care than a basic tee. The most important rules, the most common mistakes – and what to do if a stone is missing.
An Ay Güey shirt is not a mass product: the motifs are printed in Mexico, and rhinestones, studs, flock and puff elements are applied by hand. To keep these details shining like on day one, the shirt needs a little more attention in the wash than a basic tee. Here are the rules we follow ourselves – and the reasons behind them.
Rhinestones and studs sit on a layer of hot-fix adhesive that bonds them firmly to the fabric. Every stone and stud is set by hand – that is what gives the shirt its sparkle and depth. Flock is the velvety surface that feels like velour – fine fibres set electrostatically onto an adhesive layer. Puff print is the raised, slightly foamy print – a soft 3D effect you can see and feel. HD gel print and sublimation, finally, are the flat, photorealistic motifs; sublimation sits inside the fibre itself, gel print as a thin layer on top.
1. Turn it inside out. The most important rule of all. The inside takes the friction of the drum, not the embellishment.
2. Maximum 30 °C, gentle cycle or hand wash. Cold water and a low spin protect the adhesive under the stones. A laundry bag helps too.
3. No chlorine, no bleach, and ideally no fabric softener. Softener leaves a film over prints and can make flock look dull.
4. No tumble dryer, no dry cleaning. Dryer heat loosens hot-fix adhesive; dry-cleaning solvents attack prints. Instead: shake out, pull into shape, dry flat or on a hanger – not in direct sun.
5. Never iron directly on the embellishment. If at all, inside out, on low heat, with a cloth in between – and leave the embellished area out.
Flock and puff print are sensitive when damp. Wringing out a wet shirt, rubbing the embellished area or leaving it in a crumpled heap risks cracks and lifted edges. So: never fold, stretch or rub it wet – lay it flat and let it dry.
In the first wash, prints and sublimations can lose around 5 to 10 percent of their colour intensity; that happens with every textile print and is barely visible to the eye. With hand-set rhinestones and studs it is normal for individual stones to come off over time – with the number of stones per motif, a small share is not noticeable.
Craft shops sell rhinestones in every size. Hot-fix stones already have the glue on the back: place the stone, cover with a cloth, press with the iron on medium heat for 15 to 20 seconds and let it cool. Alternatively, a drop of textile glue will hold. Important: wait 24 hours before washing again.
Embellished shirts prefer lying to hanging – on a hanger, the weight of the embellishment pulls the fabric out of shape. Fold them with the embellishment inside and not under a stack of heavy sweaters. That way, many summers on, it is still the shirt everyone notices first.
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