A friend’s two suits were wrinkled and musty. He asked if he should take them to the dry cleaners. It can cost as much as $30 per suit. Yes, they come back looking amazing.
I answered with questions: Are they soiled in some way? If yes, can you get the spots out yourself using familiar techniques (we will talk about those)?
The truth is that people resort to professional dry cleaning far more than they should. Mostly, it is unnecessary. It’s amazing what this old technology called an iron with an ironing board can achieve. My strong sense is that people don’t know about ironing anymore. This is a cryin’ shame.
The iron started to experience a cultural deprecation starting a half-century ago, with the advent of polyester. It was a new marketing thing to brag that a certain piece of clothing was no-iron. That meant (mostly) that it was either knit and didn’t wrinkle or that it was made of some petroleum product. The running suit became fashionable to wear in real life, and then jeans, sweats, and yoga pants took it from there.
That was when real clothing became ever less present in our lives. People started looking like heck. For a time, people imagined a future in which everything we wore was “wash and wear,” meaning that we would use the magic electric box to wash and dry all things. Decades went by when whole populations forgot even how to clean clothing themselves.
Now, everything comes with a tag. It says “wash in warm water and dry” or it says “dry clean only.” People are so ignorant about cleaning basics that they follow these industrial instructions. So when the suit is wrinkled or hasn’t been worn in a year, they take it to the dry cleaners. They get so upset about the bill that they are discouraged from wearing it again.
Also, the typical man has no idea how often to do this. After each time one wears it? After a few wearings? What is it?
The truth is that a steam iron both presses a suit and pants and provides cleaning services, too. You just have to know how to use it.
First, the basics. Why is an iron called an iron? Because it was made of iron. Easy answer, but it’s surprising how many people don’t know this. The iron was placed on a wood stove to get it hot. It was very heavy, obviously. Then water was sprinkled on the garment and the iron run across it to flatten the fabric.
Now, we are much better off. We have irons that plug in and create steam from a water well within them. There have been no real innovations in this technology since the 1950s. Forget the lightweight irons you see at the store. They are junk. The lighter they are, the more pressure you have to apply, invariably unevenly. You still need a heavy iron.
We also have heat settings today, another improvement. You can set it for as hot as possible for cottons, provided you don’t let the iron sit in one spot for too long. For woolens and silks, you need a lower setting.
For wool suits, please pay attention. You can absolutely ruin a suit with an iron that is directly on the fabric. It will burn the wool and there is no fixing that. You'll have to throw the suit out. Instead, use a cotton sheet, pillowcase, or handkerchief to create a layer between the iron and the wool. If you do that, you will protect the fabric.
It takes time to gain ironing skills. It’s great if you have a teacher. If you do not, you can watch a YouTube video or just figure it out yourself. You will improve with time.
With lots of steam, you can get most suits looking as good as the dry cleaner would, paying not $30 but rather about 20 minutes of your time.
If there are stains, that’s another matter. Wine or blood is easily removed with the magic combination of some soap, hydrogen peroxide, and water. You have to let it set for 10 minutes or so and then add water. The stain disappears as if by magic.
For oil, soap does the trick. For wax, use a newspaper and the iron. The wax transfers from the fabric to the paper. For soiled cottons with stubborn stains, a mixture of vinegar and baking soda fizzes off nearly anything. Never use bleach—it eats your clothes.
Shirts made of cotton and linen need starch. Mostly the spray starch works just fine. If you are really fussy, you can make a bath using liquid starch (yes, I do this) and soak them and let them dry in the sun. You will end up with shirts like cardboard and can iron from there.
Keep in mind—and this is personal to me—that the United States has no fine English-style laundry. This means that there is no service in this country that can do a proper collar or bib for a formal-wear shirt. This means that you must do it yourself. That absolutely requires liquid starch-soaking. There is no amount of spray starch that will get it done.
A quick story about seersucker and white linen suits. As everyone knows, these are terrible for picking up stains. You cannot wear them a second season without cleaning. I took my seer sucker suit for dry cleaning. It came back still dirty, so I took it back. They said they would need to give it a special bath cleaning.
That’s when I put my thinking cap on. What exactly can they do that I cannot do? I can give this suit a bath. This is exactly what I did, against every instinct that a suit cannot be submerged in water. I ran a warm bath and let it soak with soap. Then I used my hand washboard to work the stains. Then I rinsed and hung it to dry. Then I ironed.
To my total amazement, it worked beautifully. It was clean. Perfectly so. And not misshapen. It was at this point that I began to rethink the whole dry-cleaning issue. It needs only to be deployed when absolutely necessary, which means extremely rarely. Actually, I don’t think I’ve been back.
What about silks? Here’s a funny story. I noticed that I was wearing a bowtie that seemed a bit dirty. Dry cleaning costs $10. I tried a little experiment in a soapy warm bath. I threw it in. Then I noticed I had other ties that were dirty. Then more. I kept putting them in. After a while, I had 30 bowties floating in the bath.
I went to work on them with a washboard, rinsed them, and hung them in the sun to dry. Then I ironed. Again, it was like magic. They all looked perfect. All of them, no matter their fabric but especially the silks, just gleamed.
So there we go: another escape from the dry-cleaning matrix! Plus I saved nearly $300 and felt the profound sense of satisfaction you get from any DIY project.
Yes, my proposal here requires that you develop some ironing skills. But that’s something you will use your entire life and pass on to the kids and grandkids. There really is no substitute.
My lesson here: There is a third option aside from machine washing and dry cleaning. You can clean nearly all your clothes yourself. I’m not sure an exception even comes to mind. Perhaps a silk ballgown for a lady? Not sure. I would even like to try that one out, too.
The dry cleaner is a great institution, but like all businesses, it serves a particular purpose. Most of what it does, you can achieve at home.
