Is improper storage causing all my suits to tear prematurely???
(TLDR AT BOTTOM)
For context, I don't get to wear my latex that often because there is nobody around here to participate in this kink with, and when I do it's generally with my rubber sister when she's visiting from abroad a few times a year (she made the catsuits in question, also). Both of these suits were probably worn less than twenty times each over the course of three years.
In January, when suiting up in the orange and black catsuit, I felt a massive blowout along the butt-cheek and felt the rubber open up into an irreparable tear. Bummer, I thought, rubber sister will have to make me a new one (she'll be bringing another one in August/September).
Last night, I'm trying to suit up in my plain black one. The exact same thing happens again (though the tear wasn't as large). And it looks like it originates in exactly the same spot, on the sides of the zipper where all the panels meet.
I wanted to chalk up the first tear to just "oh well, it happens" but now that it's happened to ANOTHER suit in the same spot, I can't give it the benefit of the doubt. Something is going on. They also cannot be repaired because the latex is heavily chlorinated and the tears are in the latex themselves, not on a seam.
My first suspicion is maybe it's the way I'm storing it. I clean all my garments when I'm done, let them dry, then Vivishine them in the bathtup, let them dry again, before putting them in half fabric/half plastic garment bags, then hanging them in the closet. They are being kept in a very dark place, but they are not in an airtight seal owing to the fabric part of the garment bag. I keep my smaller latex pieces, oversized latex bedsheets, and lower value things in simple large storage bags IN an airtight seal and I seemingly don't have these problems; but then again I'm not straining to put a lot of those pieces on, either.
My other suspicion is maybe it was the soap I used to clean it originally. For a while I was using orange Ajax dish soap to disinfect them from all the sweat, but I was recently told that the dyes in there were not good AND I was probably rubbing the latex too hard together trying to clean it out. So I have recently switched to non-scented, non-dyed soap instead, but perhaps the damages have already been done here.
My only other thought is that there just isn't enough reinforcement in the crotch area and these are just the natural result of the latex aging and being used. I'm just incredibly sad that this is seemingly happening in the same spots, and I'm not even wearing these things every week. Like once a month, MAYBE. That being the case, I asked my rubber sister if she could put a reinforcement patch on the replacement black/orange suit she's currently making to hopefully keep a tear like this from happening again. I also ordered a replacement black catsuit from LatexVogue that won't be ready until around the same time as the black/orange one, so I just want to make sure I preserve these other two for as long as I possibly can.
TLDR: Is my latex tearing in the crotch because of simple tension and aging, is it tearing because I'm storing it on hangers in a garment bag instead of a Ziploc bag, is it tearing because I've used an improper soap to clean it and weakened it, or is it a combination of all these?