Protecting white clothes from (inevitable) stains?

[Dalaran1991]

Hi gentlemen,

Apologies if this has been posted before but I couldn’t find anything on the topic with a search.

It's finally getting sunny here and I'm swagging my kick ass white blazer. I have a love/hate relationship with these things.

Of course at the end of the day while walking home some stupid bugs landed on my blazer. I swatted it away and it left a disgusting stain on my white canvas. Spent 2 hours trying to get that off with baking soda, virgin's tears and holy water. The stain is gone but the general area has a pale light blue. It's not noticeable (much less than a yellow/green stain) but me being OCD it just pisses me off.

Is there a way to protect white clothes from stupid **** like this? (please no mention coffee stain...) I heard there's some waterproofing spray for clothes that is designed to protect against these things but never tried.

 

[Veremund]

You just learned two very important lessons. White is very hard to keep clean, and don’t swat things when they land on you. Shoo them.

 

[stubloom]

The internet is awash in stain removal advise (baking soda, virgin's tears, holy water, etc.) that's the stain removal equivalent of junk science.

Fact is, the probability of ruining the garment rather than removing the stain is greater than 50:50.

Bottom line: You're not a stain removal expert. You're experimenting. You're hoping and praying that somehow the stain will disappear if you throw enough "stuff" at it.

Suggestion: Find a local dry cleaner who has a strong reputation for stain removal. To find one, call the manager of the most expensive clothing store in your area and ask them who they trust to restore inventory that has soiled and that they still want to sell at full price.

Further reading: http://ravefabricare.com/stains-spills-fine-garments-4-dos-donts/

 

[Hung-Wei Long]

First off, a white blazer is a brave (and very expensive) choice for cleaning and maintenance. Your only real bet here is for any form of either external or bio-stain is to get it dry cleaned.

 

[Dalaran1991]

Thanks for your comments, it seems there isn't much I can do then.

Guess I understand now why white has mostly been reserved for the rich. Taking it to the cleaner every time it get stained would cost as much as the jacket itself.

I got a throw away old white blazer, I shoulda have practiced on that before trying to do anything on my new one. Oh well lesson learned.

 

[maxalex]

A friend of mine was recently relating, after the death of Tom Wolfe, about meeting him at a party and noticing a large red wine stain on his white jacket, which of course was one third of a no-doubt very expensive bespoke suit. The author took it in stride, as someone who sells milllions of books can.

Short of writing any bestsellers to fund my tailoring habit, I have what’s called a flyscreen on my Vespa; it’s a little windshield that protects the heart of your jacket (but not the sleeves) from catastrophic collisions with winged pests. It’s effective but I would not trust it with white.

In your case I would try a good dry cleaner, and resolve never to associate with insects or winos.