“The colour of cotton woven fabrics is a factor that has a remarkable influence on their protection against ultraviolet radiation,” said Dr Ascension Riva, who led the study.
Colours such as white and yellow, however, place holidaymakers at more risk from getting skin cancer, they claimed.
The study, reported in the journal Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, found fabrics with darker, or more intense colours, were much better at absorbing the sun’s rays.
They found that dark blue offered the best protection while yellow coloured cotton was the worst.
Most people when they go on holiday, their clothing will protect them from the sun while sunscreen was all they needed to wear on exposed skin.
But clothing such as thin white T-shirts, skimpy tops and wet swimming costumes usually fail to protect us from harmful ultraviolet rays.
Clothing manufacturers could use information from this study to better design sun-protective clothing, Dr Riva said.
