Do You Know How to Take Care of Your Suits and Shirts?

Section: Tailoring and Clothing Maintenance - Blog

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Have you ever looked at your custom tailored shirt and thought, "This looks like a child's art project - wrinkled, creased, a complete mess!" Well, we’ve all been there; however, that’s no excuse. Taking proper care of your business shirts and suits is quite simple once you know the basics of garment care.

When we look good, we feel good; that's common sense. So why is it we spend so little time taking the right approach to protecting our tailored business  wear? First off, let’s take a look at the obvious:

Cleaning

The most important aspect of clothing care is cleaning it. Whether it’s steak sauce on your shirt or red wine on your suit, one thing is certain; the stain must be removed. There two options when it comes to cleaning; dry cleaning and home washing.

It’s also common knowledge dry cleaning is considered the superior choice, but why?

• Limits Colour Loss – Dry cleaning allows delicate fabrics to maintain their shape and colour.
• Removes Stubborn Stains – The spot of butter on your shirt from that lobster dinner is easily removed in the dry cleaning process using special cleaning fluids, thus causing less damage to your garment.
• Expert Advice – If you’re not sure how to care for your shirt or custom tailored suit, the dry cleaner is an expert.
• Long Term Storage – Items such as tuxedos or wedding suits are rarely worn, and many dry cleaners can help you to make sure they’re packed right so they are well preserved in storage.
• Pressing – If you’ve ever struggled with an iron minutes before running out for an appointment, then you’ll know having a professionally cleaned and pressed shirt on hand is the stuff of dreams for a busy man.
• However, please remember never to over dry clean your suit! Excessive dry cleaning can damage the internal structure of your suit and so you should only dry clean when absolutely neccessary.

Storage

Yes, that’s right, even when you’re not wearing your custom made suit, you could still be doing it harm. As we mentioned in our post on your suits’ worst enemies, the wire coat hanger is your formal wear’s Kryptonite; it will inflict a slow and painful death on any garment unfortunate enough to be hung on it over a prolonged period of time.

Choose wooden hangers for hanging items in the wardrobe and while you’re in there, make sure you have at least one wardrobe dehumidifier to soak up the moisture in the air. This prevents mildew and mould from forming on your clothes, and on your shirt collars in particular. You should also allow for at least half an inch of space between each garment, something that depends largely on the size of your wardrobe and exactly how many shirts and custom tailored suits you have in there.

Are you struggling with a particular aspect of garment care? Drop into our showroom for a chat or give us a call. Either way the men of Montagio are only too happy to help.