Textile Glossary · Quality · Dye Retention
Colorfastness
Colorfastness is a fabric's ability to retain its colour without fading, bleeding, or transferring when exposed to washing, sunlight, perspiration, and friction.
Understanding the Term
What keeps your black t-shirt black.
Colorfastness is tested across multiple stressors: washing (laundering fastness), light exposure (light fastness), perspiration (perspiration fastness), and rubbing (crocking). Each is rated on a 1–5 grey scale, where 5 is no change and 1 is severe fading.
The three variables that determine colorfastness are fibre quality, dye type, and dyeing method. Long-staple cotton absorbs dye more uniformly because its fibre surface is smoother and more consistent. Reactive dyes form chemical bonds with cellulose rather than just sitting on the surface.
Poor colorfastness is why cheap black t-shirts turn grey-brown after a few washes and why white laundry turns pink when washed with a red garment that bleeds. Premium colorfastness means your colours stay true and your other clothes stay safe.
Why It Matters
How colorfastness preserves your wardrobe.
The invisible quality that shows itself over time.
01
Long-Term Appearance
A t-shirt with excellent colorfastness looks nearly new after 30 washes. One with poor colorfastness looks faded after 5. The difference is stark.
02
Wash Safety
Colorfast garments don't bleed onto other clothes. You can wash darks and lights without anxiety — a small quality-of-life improvement that adds up.
03
Value Retention
A faded garment gets relegated to sleepwear quickly. A colourful one stays in regular rotation. Colorfastness directly extends the useful life of your clothes.
Our Standard
Grade 4–5 across all stressors.
We use reactive dyes that form covalent bonds with the Supima cotton cellulose. Combined with mercerisation (which improves dye uptake by 20–30%), our colours achieve grade 4–5 colorfastness across washing, light, perspiration, and rubbing tests. Our blacks stay deep. Our whites stay clean.
4–5
Grey Scale Rating
Across washing, light, sweat, and friction tests
Related Terms
Explore more textile terminology.
See how Supima compares:
Common Questions
Colorfastness — your questions, answered.
Common questions about dye retention.
Minimally. After 30 washes, our black shows less than 10% colour change — a rating of 4 on the grey scale. Most conventional cotton blacks lose 25–40% in the same period.
See It in Practice
Our blacks stay black.
Our navys stay deep.
After 30 washes, the colour difference between our shirt and a conventional one is visible from across the room.
Free returns · 30 washes guaranteed · ₹1,299
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