Toss the iron: wrinkle-free shirts that work.(up front)

To make consumers happy, cotton has to suffer. "Soaking the fabric in formaldehyde and pressing it flat makes it wrinkle-resistant," said Eva Osborne, project manager of women's apparel at JCPenney. "The molecules line up like little soldiers and remember where they're supposed to be." But there's a downside, Osborne says: The molecular change makes the fabric more brittle, so its life expectancy may be cut by 25 percent.

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People willing to trade durability for wash-and-wearability shouldn't choose just any no-iron shirt. Our tests of nine men's 100 percent cotton, no-iron (or wrinkle-free) shirts found that some stay smooth far better than others.

How we tested. We corralled 13 male employees who were spied wearing long-sleeve dress shirts on scorching days in July and gave each man two to four of the test shirts. Each man wore a test shirt for a day, then filled out a questionnaire. They followed that procedure two or three times per shirt. We also had trained testers look for wrinkles and seam puckers after 10 wash cycles. Scores are based on their assessment. Note: All but the Jos. A. Bank shirt say they should be removed immediately from the dryer, which we did in our tests. That, of course, can be a hassle.

What we found. Shirts from Lands' End, L.L. Bean, Stafford, Brooks Brothers, and Jos. A. Bank stayed wrinkle-free throughout the day, kept sharp creases, "breathed" well, and were often called soft or supple. The first three, all $40, are CR Best Buys. All come in white, at least one shade of blue, and at least one other pastel ...