If not Dry Clean, what else?

[farfisa23]

I have two sport coats and a suit - one linen, one cotton and a wool suit - that need to be cleaned.

I know dry cleaning is bad, bad, bad (well, I know now after spending a lot of time on this forum) so, how do I get my nice threads clean again? Steam? What should I ask for?

Advice please.
Thanks...

 

[meister]

Good question as I just put a Brioni suit I have and really it didn't need it. Mr drycleaners said a good press and steam. But then I want to sell it.

 

[TomW]

Dry Cleaning is not bad, bad, bad per se. It's bad, bad, bad to do it often. No more than once a year, unless you spill something that can't be spot cleaned. I tend to go 2 years or so between dry cleanings and air, steam and brush my suits after wearing to keep them clean as long as possible and immediately spot clean any food or oily stains.

 

[visionology]

Yeah people that shorten the lives of their clothes are the ones that dryclean every week.

I just got my yearly dry clean on one of my suits done because there was an unfortunate wine accident at a wedding and it came out great.

I also recently dry cleaned all my wool/etc winter sweaters so I can put them in storage for next year. They also came out great.

So don't be afraid to dc, just don't do it too often. Rotate your clothes so you aren't wearing the same items. It gives them less time to get dirty.

 

[Joffrey]

It's really humid in DC. I feel once a year is good for my suits and jackets - depending on how often I wear them, tho.

 

[farfisa23]

What about linen? I just bought a really nice RLBL coat in 100% Flax and have been wearing it a lot. After a month, it is starting to look threadbare and too wrinkled, even for California.

 

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by farfisa23

What about linen? I just bought a really nice RLBL coat in 100% Flax and have been wearing it a lot. After a month, it is starting to look threadbare and too wrinkled, even for California.

Steaming the jacket should be enough to take care of the wrinkling. No reason to expose it to dry cleaning unless it's actually dirty as opposed to wrinkled.

 

[Faded501s]

First off I just want to say that I'm not disagreeing with the consensus that dry-cleaning can harm suits. I do question the opinion that it is evil and will harm suits.

For 2 1/2 years between 1993-1995 I wore suits daily. I had 5 fused suits in my rotation (2 RL Polo University, 2 Nino Cerruti and a Sequel by Louis Raphael). All of them were pressed and cleaned by the corner cleaners every single week. I did this because I thought it was what you were supposed to do. So that comes to about 125 dry-cleanings each and none of them suffered any ill-effect from this routine.

Just saying

 

[a tailor]

clothes are made to be worn and cleaned. if you want them to last for ever then do this. hang them in back of the closet and never wear them.