We Stained The Unstainable Shirt — You’ll Never Guess With What

The white silk shirt is one of those things that can strike fear into the hearts of even the tidiest of people. Because, even if you avoid drinking coffee and switch your merlot out for chardonnay, there will be that person at the next barstool who’s using her glass as a conductor’s baton. Soon enough, a white shirt becomes a slightly beige shirt speckled with a condiment drawer’s worth of splotches. But, one shirt company has come up with a technology that repels all water- and oil-based liquids, appearing in a flattering, simple, affordable line of shirts that has that “You’ve Got To See It To Believe It!” quality. It’s literally awe-inspiring — during our demonstration, the Elizabeth & Clarke team poured soy sauce, ketchup, red wine, and coffee onto a shirt, and it took everything in us to not to run through the office in utter rapture. Topical products like Never Wet spray onto surfaces, including textiles, to coat the surface with a protective sealant. But the problem, of course, is that it’s not really made for clothes, and the coating gives them a plasticky texture, which isn’t quite what you want your everyday blouses to feel like. On the other hand, Elizabeth & Clarke’s Unstainable technology is actually woven into the silk and cotton fibers of the shirt to repel water. That means that your shirt will feel like a shirt, not like a bag of potato chips, and will never need to be "resprayed.” But, what if you’re really messy? Like, beyond just a little drop and dribble here and there, and a big-time klutz who’s been known to empty an entire glass of red on your lap? We’ve put the shirt to the ultimate test, and while it did withstand true liquids with minimal staining, it didn’t quite hold up to more viscous substances like mustard and red paint. Check out the video above to see the practical (and not-so-practical) applications of the shirt, and then click over to the Kickstarter to place your own order. Elizabeth & Clarke have already reached their goal of $30,000 to create the shirts, but are still shy of the $250K stretch goal to create shirts in both petite and plus sizes (currently, the garments come in sizes 00 - 14). If they raise $500K, the shirt will come in a variety of other colors, all utilizing the same Unstainable technology.