guide to touching up your suit without wrecking it - Page 6

Bingo.

You guys explain this better than I do. Maybe one of you can get through to gdl.

You may not notice it now but if I showed you, you would. Like once you didn't know the difference between fused and canvas and then someone showed you.

What I showed was the only thing that could easily be shown in a photo and hopefully is much worse than anything you might encounter at home; the video of the woman with the iron was another good example. Mostly, though, they are things that would be very hard to demonstrate using photos and a message board. I am hoping that people will take it on faith that all the tailors on here all cringe at the mention of steamers and that it is not a good thing, since we can't demonstrate in person.

Aside from the seam puckering, the loss of shaping is not something I can easily demonstrate with photos but is nonetheless real. The shoemaking analogy is very valid- the cloth has been shaped in the same way but wool is much more sensitive than leather and by steaming you undo the shaping that you would made by stretching the skin over the last, or however you would call it; there is limited space in my brain and most of it is occupied by tailoring, no room for shoemaking.

You, of all people, should have an appreciation for what goes into a good suit, especially since the drape and soft tailoring are the most reliant on shaping and manipulation. Drape + Steam = Droop.

With the iron and ironing board that they hang in the hotel room closet. I travel a lot, too. And when I do, I am usually seeing clients; imagine my horror at seeing my clothes come out of my luggage and I have to get dressed to meet the buyers for X department store and I, of all people, am expected to look right. I travel with a press cloth, then I set the ironing board up next to the desk so the bulk of the jacket can rest on it while I press the rest, as if using a sleeve board. It's not ideal, but I would never dream of steaming or hanging it in the bathroom while I ran the shower.

Inconvenient. You spent how many thousands of dollars on it and you want a convenient solution to its maintenance? And not only will he want to do it, he will thank you for it. Try it. If he doesn't, I will personally pay for it to be sent to Madame Paulette.


But wait. You like drape. You pay extra for unsightly wrinkles.