Diane Gilman jeans- chemical stink!!

Cannot guarantee this and please do not pour vinegar directly on jeans but thinking it might help to dilute vinegar with lots of water and soak jeans in it.  Just a suggestion and cannot guarantee it.  I have used it for other things similar to this. 

I had to send some back recently due to the smell. I washed them and still was there! 

WOW!!!

My Mom bought a pair of tennis shoes and they were a name brand, she told me the bottom of her feet was starting to burn. Soon every time she wore the tennis shoes she said the bottom of her feet felt like they were on fire. She looked and they were made in China. She stopped wearing them and her feet stopped burning. She swore they had used a chemical that reacted to the skin.

I have wanted to try her jeans but  do not want to risk shipping to returning. I am always reading about problems with sizing and quality. I do agree that Diane need to update her clothes. Also less talk of her travels.

I, too, have had simialr issues with "some" of her jeans…not all. It took forever to be rid of the smell. However, only twice did I have to return. What is that smell from? I agree, it does have a chemical smell…but can’t figure out WHY it would be on clothing.

It’s probably the dye. No telling what is in it.

I had the same problem with the black ones.  I had to soak them in Febreeze for the washer 3x to get the smell out.  It seems to only happen with the dark ones.  I also had that happen with some black jeans I bought at Walmart.  It must be the dye.

:smileyindifferent:cant take the smell off and its been a year i dont wear them…tried everything… any ideas?

wont buy another pair till they do something about it…

After reading everyone’s posts about the chemical stink, I Googled "chemical smell in black jeans" to see what I could find. Looks like it could possibly be formaldehyde. Clothes and other items are sprayed with it for the transport so they don’t develop mold or mildew. But if that is the case, they all would smell like that I think.

Another thing is the dye. Darker clothes have to be dyed several times. Then chemicals are used to ensure the color of the denim. Many blogs, articles, threads out there about it. I’ve just read a few but that’s what I have so far.

They all say to use the vinegar during wash or rinse, some say do that two or more times. Then dry. Be sure to turn them inside out, I do that when washing all my jeans anyway no matter the color.

The smell has been an issue with black jeans I purchased from her in the past. Lately, I had not had the problem with the smell so I am sad to hear the newest version of the jeans has the return of the odor. I soaked the jeans in water and part vinegar then washed. The smell remained so I purchased a detergent used to get odors out of clothes. It did little so I soaked again. I then washed again with detergent and baking soda. Still smelled so I kept repeating until smell lightened. I also added scented fabric softer and dryer sheets after the odor lifted some but not in initial washes. I would say I washed three to four times before smell faded. It was so frustrating to get rid of smell but I am a fan of the fit so I toughed it out.

What about Febreze? Would that work? 

I bought a few jeans items that stank of chemicals in the past – one was DH2 jean jacket and the other I don’t remember. I think I simply aired it out for a while and washed it a couple times. Dark colored denim, in my experience, needs washed a couple times before wearing anyways lest it dyes my skin, underwear, other clothes and car seats.

On a related note, I am obsessed with graphic print shirts and a lot of the time those will arrive smelling horribly of somthig like vinegar, especially the ones f rom DesignbyHumans. I air them out a bit and then wear to the gym because nobody will smell me there and I want to wear a new shirt when it’s at its sharpest looking. Then I wash them and they no longer smell. 

On a blog I just read, the OP had tried everything that has been suggested here. Apparently it’s the sulfur causing the smell that won’t go away. She noticed that every time she put them on and they warmed up, the smell would get worse. After some research, she tried "cooking" them. I really would have to love the jeans for me to go through all this to get the stink out.

"After this many failures I was about to give up and resign these pants to my donation pile until I read on wikipedia: “Sulfur dyes are water insoluble. They have to be treated with a reducing agent and an alkali at temperature of around 80 degrees Celsius where the dye breaks into small particles which then becomes water soluble and hence can be absorbed by the fabric.”. This explains why soaking did nothing – if the dye was the source of the smell and insoluble in water then no length of time underwater was going to help. This got me thinking, what if I exposed them extreme heat? 80°C is about 176°F – no issue for an oven. I preheated my stove to 400°F and turned it back to 250°F once it was hot enough (I did this to prevent the heat from coming back on while the jeans were inside). Flipped inside out and folded to fit on my center rack I stuck them in for a few minutes and shut the door. When I pulled them out the smell was worse than ever, with visible fumes coming out of the fabric. I opened the window and turned on the fan, refolded and repositioned the jeans back on the rack and waited some more. I was careful to keep repeating this process so the pants wouldn’t scorch. When I was finished the smell had lessened to such a degree I could actually wear them for an entire day.

"After another overnight soak I noticed the water had turned more grey than any of the prior soaks. To be thorough I gave the pants a 2nd oven treatment and a few clean water baths until the rinse water was no longer turning color. Once the fabric dried the smell was finally gone."

Ok, a question, wouldn’t a dryer do the same thing?

Thank you all for all your wonderful ideas. Kinda scarey if these chemicals don’t wash out and then you wear them & the chemicals go into your pores. Maybe I should just stop shopping.

I continue to read about the Diane Gilman products, and think that she must be laughing all the way to the bank. Her followers will buy anything that she sells…and she knows it. I use to get just a few laughs at what she pushes off on her customers…now I laugh all the time because she keeps pushing her poor quality products…and thousandsof people buy it…it’s almost like a sad joke being played on her followers/customers over and over.

When all else fails…soak the pants in a mixture of baking soda and water.