Novel textile finishing compositions for finishing textile articles are provided via the present invention. The textile finishing compositions disclosed herein comprise a cross-linking agent and a catalytic amount of an esterification agent. The cross-linking agents employed herein are selected from polycarboxylates such as homopolymers of ethylenically-,-unsaturated dicarboxylates, copolymers of all ethylenically-,-unsaturated dicarboxylates, and copolymers of ethylenically-,-unsaturated dicarboxylates polymerized with vinyl-containing monomers. Also provided via the present invention are methods for applying the aforementioned finishing compositions to textile articles.