Shirt buttons

[jkarnold]

I'm certain that this topic has been addressed in this forum, but with limited time to search I've not been able to find the discussion.  I'm at wit's end trying to preserve the double-thick buttons on a number of my English dress shirts.  I usually launder my shirts and have them ironed without starch.  But I often get my shirts back with cracked and fraying buttons.

Any suggestions on what I should instruct the cleaner to do?  I do not have the time to handwash and iron my shirts.  If there is a previous discussion of this topic, I'd gladly accept directions to it.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

 

[kabert]

Yes -- change dry cleaners. Â They seem to use different methods, some gentler than others. Â For a year or so several years back, I used a cleaners who would almost without fail destroy, crack, grind down (seriously&#33

, etc. one or more buttons. Â Each time that would happen, I'd have them sew on new ones. Â Finally, I bailed out, nice people as they were. Â The cleaners I use now, and have used for 3 years, hasn't broken, cracked, etc. a single button yet, and they do all my shirts -- Barba, Brooks, Borrelli, Charvet, Paul Stuart, Lorenzini, Filson, T&A, etc. (i.e., even the ones with the big buttons (like Borrelli) and the thin, seemingly delicate MOP ones (like Charvet and T&A). I never hand wash my shirts or hand iron my shirts. Â It would take forever. Â Good luck

 

[Leo Jay]

I was always under the impression that most drycleaners subcontracted their shirt laundering to a separate facility -- are there many who launder and press them themselves, onsite?

 

[jkarnold]

I use what is probably the most reputable cleaner in town and they do launder and press on site. Generally, they do a terriffic job, but the buttons issue persists.

 

[houston]

Kabert, aren't you in DC? Curious as to who you use. The only "high quality" cleaners I know are a place on 14th street that charges $10 per shirt and Parkway cleaners (I think about $4 per shirt, though they returned a shirt to me with a stain on it that I just got out by soaking in a little Oxiclean - I would expect better).

 

[Tom]

Kabert,
Which filson fabrics do you own? and how do you find the fit? I'm considering, because I love my other filson goods, but I have a sneaking feeling that Filson shirts are for the portly.

tom

 

[Navy09]

For those of you in DC, Rosa's Cleaners next to the Calvert Street bridge in Adams Morgan is very good and does all their work in shop. I'm not sure how much it is per shirt but it's reasonable enough that I haven't noticed the price - so that's pretty good. I had the button problem from a place on Columbia Avenue.