There are questions that customers ask more often. One of those questions: "Does this fabric crease?" I will try to answer it in detail and with examples. I think, this information will help you with online shopping, when you can not touch the product and understand it completely.

People on Livemaster love natural fabrics, many see it as almost the most important criterion when choosing clothes. But they also want crease-resistant fabric. Is that possible? To keep it short, the answer is "no". But everything is relative, let's look at the peculiarities.

General rule for natural fabrics — they crease. If you compare them to synthetic fabrics, they crease very much. If you want your skirt to look freshly ironed after a day of sitting in the office, your choice is synthetics.

But if you omit synthetic materials, there is the following.

Note that I do not retell a textbook on materials science, a chapter on fabric properties. These are the conclusions that I made from my own experience, 5 years of my work saw different fabrics. I think that in 90% of cases these rules work, but, of course, there are always exceptions.

• The first thing you should pay attention to is fabric composition. In my experience, linen creases the most. So much that designers prefer to use it as an advantage for loose clothes and boho style. Then go viscose, cotton and wool.
  From top to bottom: linen, cotton, viscose and wool. I wrote that viscose creases more than cotton, and for example, I took the one which creases less. So, I am not sure about the order. Probably, they crease the same, I worked with really creasing viscose, while cotton was more crease-resistant. But this is probably because of the properties that I will list below.

• Fabric colour and pattern. It's not about physical properties, but about optical illusions. How much you see creases depends on colour and pattern. You've probably noticed that a bright dress creases less than a plain one. The more detailed and bright fabric pattern is, the less wrinkled it seems. You can see everything on plain fabrics as on the palm of your hand. As for colours, dark fabric usually looks neater than light. But bright colours show creases more.
  
  Plain red linen, melange blue and mottled blue-gray. If you do not want to look creased, it is necessary to focus on a more colourful fabric made of interlacing threads of different colors. Printed drawings also hide creases well, but thread pattern, in my opinion, is much better.

• Texture. If fabric is made by weaving threads of different thickness or colour, it creases less than smooth non-textured fabric. This is somewhat similar to the next property about loose fabrics, but it is not always the same.
  Textured threads of the left material will please the eye, while smooth texture-free wool on the right will make ironed-clothes fans nervous. It will be smooth only on a hanger or on a model from the catwalk.

• Thickness and density are important fabric properties. Fabric can be thin or thick, dense or loose: it depends on threads and weaving. If threads are twisted freely, fabric is loose. Thin and thick fabrics crease more than thick and loose. For example, thick and loose muslin cotton is not as whimsical as thin and hard poplin cotton. It works with woollen fabrics, too. Thin dense woollen fabrics crease a lot. Thick loose fabrics crease less. However, there is a thin and loose fabric. Looseness of fabric compensates for its thinness, and the material may not crease much.

  
  From bottom to top: thin dress grey wool is the most wrinkled, denser costume blue fabric and quite thick grey overcoat material. For woollen fabrics, impregnation is also important. Sometimes, fabric does not wrinkle in the store, but after washing, it creases much. Therefore, it is often recommended to have coats dry-cleaned, not washed at home. Not because something terrible will happen to it, but it can lose its good properties thanks to impregnation.

Recently a loophole has appeared: fabric with built-in "creased effect". For example, cotton with a textured surface, which looks creased initially, but evenly. In general, the product looks neat. However, such fabrics are unlikely to fit into elegant classic style.

Everything would be fine, but a hilarious combination of these properties neutralizes or reinforces each other. It happens that looseness of the material helps it not to crease, despite thinness and plain colour. Otherwise, it is impossible to get out from the car in creaseless thick coat wool, because this fabric is smooth and thick, so each crease is visible. But still you can predict whether the material will crease or not. If colour is more or less clear from the photos, you can learn about other properties from the seller. Of course, you can just ask: "Does it crease?" But knowing theory is always better, right?

So, if you do not care about creased clothes, you can safely sew blouses from plain cotton batiste. If you need a more practical blouse for hot days, you can choose viscose with floral pattern. For a special occasion, you can buy a dress made of thin plain wool, and for every day, it is better to choose bright melange chequered more dense and loose fabrics. But in any case, it is better to spend time to choose fabric or iron it than to wear practical synthetics, isn`t it?

I would also like to know what you find interesting. I am going to write a general instruction on how to take care of fabrics (Yes, it can be made general and universal), write about ironing separately (iron can be wonderful for your look, and I will even tell you what to do if you are lazy to iron). Anything else? What information will be useful for easier and more confident online shopping?