Starch, essentially. Most, if not all new clothing is treated with starch and other chemicals to make is appear crisp and bright. Men’s dress shirt are the worst - DW grumbles every time that I refuse to wear a crisp, new shirt until it has been laundered (and consequently ironed).
it’s called sizing? Wow, I had no idea.
I actually pretty strongly dislike shopping malls and shopping for clothes, in general. All the fibers and…sizes? (
) that are on all the clothes just irritates my eyes. Before I go wearing something I want all of that (and the lint, and the germs off of everybody’s hands) off of it!
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I’ll wear socks straight out of the package, but everything else that will touch my skin must go through the wash first.
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To be clear — who knew this thread would take off? — it’s just socks and pants I’m planning on wearing new. My past experience is that they are delightfully soft when new and — as has been observed — if I were superrich I’d only ever wear new socks.
New shirts — particularly formal ones — are ghastly.
New duvet covers? I literally have to wash them half a dozen times until I can sleep under them.
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Especially considering that biblically feet does not always mean feet…
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Remember your audience here - are you talking Brit English pants (underpants) or Am English pants (trousers)? 
Either way, I wash ‘em before I wear ‘em…
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I saw an episode of a murder mystery tv show where the victims were poisoned by chemicals on new blue jeans. It was probably CSI or Bones or one of the science-y ones. I’ve always washed new clothes since then.
I never wash new clothes before wearing, except certain brands of scrubs which are as “ghastly” as the formal shirts mentioned up above when new
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Oh, with blue jeans, I try to wash them as LITTLE as possible. They become less and less blue each time. As a result, after reading about how the CEO of Levi Strauss or something never washed his jeans EVER, I decided to give it a go. The end result is that I end up going 1-2 months between washes and they have stayed newer looking far longer as a result.
(This is for dark wash jeans…light jeans, it probably doesn’t matter so much.)
Anyhow, if I’m slowing being poisoned by my jeans, I’ll blame the CEO of Levi Strauss .
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I do the same with my jeans, I like them dark.
The new items are underwear items.
And I’m with the Levis guy, I only ever wash my jeans if I spill something on them.
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Here is a great chart on how often you need to wash different clothing items:
https://yesplz.co/how-often-you-should-wash-your-clothes/
“Jeans: When they smell”
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Hopefully if you follow this rule you have an average or better sense of smell or else you are walking around in smelly jeans and don’t know it.
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You mean I am doing way tooo much laundry for NO REASON?!?!
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I’ve never heard of this concern … Consider me learned. 
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Funny how times have changed. When I was in high school, if you didn’t wash your jeans at least 4 or 5 times before wearing them you were mocked; “new” looking jeans were a major faux pas…
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