A circularly knitted fabric for fashioning clothes prior to heat treatment, formed out of a polyurethane elastic fiber and a non-elastic fiber, the polyurethane elastic fiber satisfying the condition, 1R/S12, wherein R/S (%)=(R₃/S₁)100, S₁ is the forward stress when the fiber is expanded by 200% at the first expansion in a 300% expansion-recovery repetition test, and R₃ is the reverse stress when the fiber is recovered at the third 200% recovery in the 300% expansion-recovery repetition test.