How much do you pay to dry clean your suit?

[cbbuff]

I am scared to take my Brioni, Oxxford or even Canali suits to the local "$1.50 for anything" dry cleaner. I heard about a reputable cleaner (La Nouvelle http://lanouvellecleaners.com/La_Nouvelle.html) 20 miles away in Denver, but they charge $40 for suits and $50 for Brioni suits.

I do think they are good, based on their reputation. Is this a reasonable price? And what about a Brioni would make it cost $25% more to clean (besides the idea that the guy with the Brioni can afford more)

How much do you pay to clean a decent to high quality suit?

 

[Mark Seitelman]

They might charge more for a Brioni suit because they had some problems in the past. Also, Brioni is a more expensive suit. It is like the garage that charges more to park a Rolls Royce because a scrached fender on a Rolls is more expensive to fix.

The $40 price seems to be in the ball park for a top of the line cleaner.

I use Hallak of NYC occasionally. I think that my neighborhood guy is as good at much a lower price. Hallak's price always varies, and they never give you fixed price; the final price depends upon the amount of work. I have had some suits for $40 or so. I recall one suit at $75 because they had to sew a lining!

I recently had two pairs of trousers cleanned at Hallak at $22 each. My doorman saw the bill pinned to the pants, and he asked "what kind of cleaner charges so much?"

Sometimes the prices at the top cleaners are very arbitrary. I know of a salesgirl at a top store who had to clean one of the store's expensive gowns which got stained. She rang-up Madame Paulette for a quote: $1,000! She called Hallak: $180. She went with Hallak.

Good luck.