Wrinkle-resistant cotton

Wrinkle-resistant cotton is cotton cloth that has been chemically finished so that it keeps its shape and resists creasing after washing and wearing. Untreated cotton and other cellulose fibres crease easily because the molecular chains slide and set in new positions when wet. The finish links those cellulose chains together, usually with urea-formaldehyde derivatives such as DMDHEU, so that the cloth behaves more like a synthetic fibre and stays dimensionally stable. Treatments of this kind have been used since 1929, and the approach was refined from the 1940s onward to overcome yellowing, odour and fabric weakening. A wrinkle-free cotton credited to the chemist Ruth R. Benerito was used by Brooks Brothers in 1953 in wash-and-wear shirts, helping make non-iron clothing a common household product.