Is This Stain-Proof T-Shirt the Future of Fashion?

High-tech fashion—like the self-lacing shoes Marty McFly wears in Back to the Future: Part II—is fun to think about, but other than smart watches and other accessories, it’s not easy coming across truly wearable pieces. Until now. Australian company Threadsmiths makes cotton t-shirts with a patented hydrophobic nanotechnology application that repels liquid and dirt for up to 80 washes. Though understanding the advanced technology behind the fabric is a bit, well, complicated, we do know this shirt's a total game-changer. Think about it: Mum wouldn’t need to launder her toddler’s clothes every time ketchup was spilled, chefs could wear their jackets without worrying about stains, and so on. Intrigued, we put the brand's basic Cavalier t-shirt to the test.

Keep reading to see how this stain-proof shirt held up (and check out the cool video at the end demonstrating how it works).

Here’s the shirt for women. (They make a men’s style, and one for children is in the works.) It’s a basic soft white tee, which is arguably the most difficult kind of shirt to keep clean, and retails for about $53.

Although the shirt can repel any liquid, black coffee is pictured here (though we also tested out red wine, soy sauce, and maple syrup with fantastic results). When we poured coffee on the shirt, most of the liquid simply bounced off its surface, almost as if the shirt were a trampoline. The riveted Who What Wear staff was convinced it was sorcery... when it reality, it's really just very cool wearable technology.

Some of the liquid, however, remained and beaded up on the surface of the shirt, as you see here. By the way, it’s worth mentioning that the shirt doesn’t contain any aerosol applications or dangerous chemicals. It’s supposed to be completely safe, and—another major plus?—it’s fully machine and hand washable. In other words, it’s very easy to wear.

In order to get rid of the liquid that’s beaded up, all you have to do is wash it away with water, which is exactly what we did, and the shirt dries completely on its own, too—total magic!

Threadsmiths Hydrophobic T-Shirt from Threadsmiths on Vimeo.