Third generation dry cleaner here. I would recommend that you give any potential new dry cleaner a trial run with a cheap dress shirt and a suit you bought at the thrift store before you trust them with your bespoke wardrobe. Purposely put a food stain on the front of the shirt and don't even mention it when you drop it off. A good cleaner will see it and remove the stain or at the very least return it with a "Sorry, we tried" tag. A bad cleaner will return it with the stain or no sorry tag. The suit should come back with a plastic clip in front to hold the buttons in the right place and a hanger with a shoulder shroud between your suit and the wire. The better ones are plastic but cardboard works too. If you really want to test them drop the suit off with your own quality wooden hanger and request that the suit be returned on your hanger. Make sure you can identify your hanger on sight as not all wooden suit hangers are equals. Want to do an honesty test? Drop off a few shirts and leave the a cheap set of cuff links or a five dollar bill in the pocket. A good cleaner will return these to you. Drop of a shirt with a top button purposely cracked in half. A good cleaner will return your shirt with a new button at no extra charge. And keep in mind that no cleaner is legally liable to reimburse you the full sales price for an item that is damaged in the process. Used clothes are like used cars. Their market value is not what you originally paid. But if you are a regular good customer a good cleaner will offer a reasonable store credit to keep your business. I usually offer half what the customer paid and of course no charge for the botched job. It happens even to the best. And unfortunately the law of averages means the rare damage is likely to strike your best customers.
Mark DiChiara do you have a website? My area is a nightmare when it comes to dry cleaners and at this point I’m willing to ship them out if I can find a reputable cleaner.
Excellent Video! Forgive me for butting in, I would appreciate your initial thoughts. Have you ever tried - Siyamilla Financial Bigshot (do a search on google)? It is a great one off guide for getting financial success without the headache. Ive heard some great things about it and my cousin after many years got great success with it.
I’ve been a dry cleaner all of my adult life (18 yrs in the shop) and he is 100% correct..... except! DO NOT ‘pretreat’ your stains!!!! Let us do that! That makes it infinitely more difficult to remove stains. Great video!
Brother!!! I know nothing about these things...you have dropped big bucket of knowledge at my feet right now. I am now smarter (and greatly encouraged) about many things after listening to this! 😅 I've had a closeted desire to learn more and eventually get into the dry cleaning business for the past 15 years. I suppose the way that I've expressed it over the past decade was through a low-key love of ironing clothes for my family over the years. It is at this point, after completing 5 years of seminary and 5 units of clinical pastoral education - of which I am extremely thankful for, that I decided to start ironing as a very small business. Now finding this channel proves to be very comforting for me as I am sure it is for others. What am I saying? Thank you for all of your efforts sir and carry on!
I am a Jamaican subscriber and I love your videos. That picture for Thomas Jennings is actually Paul Bogle, one of our honoured national heroes. He is also on our $2 denominations. Keep up the great work.
The8858481 The Gleaner did a story in 2012 that the popular image of Bogle is not actually Bogle, but Jennings. It was incorrectly attributed based on clothing style and age of photo.
Sewist here. Silk can be colorfast. In fact I would expect a high quality tie to be that way. There are ways to set most dyes and inks in silk. Before I would give up on a tie I would try removing the stain and then wash it in a mild soap and cold water. What do you have to lose? I would then lay it flat to dry so that hopefully it would keep it's shape and not require pressing. Careful using steam or an iron on silk. Silk proteins are very sensitive to heat and can burn or become brittle.
I almost forgot. Oil stains are annoying and there is usually an oil component to most food stains including dairy. The best thing I have found for oil is Janie Dry Spot Cleaner. It's a special type of chalk that comes in a little box that looks like a lipstick tube. Wait till the oil has dried and rub the chalk over it. Allow it to sit for several minutes then brush the chalk away using the brush in the lid. It might take a few applications but Janie usually does the trick.
I have never gone to the dry cleaners for a very long time already. I have learned to hand wash and hand press my expensive suits and delicate shirts. I know and am assured I have cleaner and fresher smelling clothes all the time.
Im thinking about opening a dry cleaner as one of my buisnesses, I have OCD and I think ill bring back the un-sewing of the back of ties to iron, I have a couple buisness ideas for ties to so you should see more convienence in them in the future.
I very much appreciate your informative video about dry cleaning. I have learned so much from your incredible videos about dressing like a timeless gentleman. Keep up the great work!
The dry cleaners are getting hit really hard right now and a lot are struggling. Support your local dry cleaners right now, if you are able, we need it. ❤️
@@jenn7559 Shop around. I have an excellent Cleaner . Professional Work Good price. One of the best I've used in over 20 years. Word of mouth is best feed back for selection.
Could you explain the brushing for suits? Also I brought a decent $100 suit supply Egyptian cotton dress shirt to the local dry cleaner and they gave me back my shirt looking like it got pressed into a ball. It was horribly deeply wrinkled, but they didn't care when confronted. What do you do when a item comes back like this and looks worse than when you brought it? I was angry and they didn't care.
Basically store policy would dictate what would be done. As for things to do not much besides different cleaner or doing your shirts yourself except leaving a bad review online and not recommending them. To answer your first question google how to use a clothes brush and I can recommend the method found on thebutlerscloset. The same information is also found in "The Butler's Guide to Clothes Care, Managing the Table, Running the Home & Other Graces" by Stanley Ager
The best country in the world for dry cleaning are the Gulf countries. Because everyone wears white ankle-length clothes and are very expensive silk and cotton, which have to look clean and they better do a great job. The other place is London UK where you can find cleaners like Blossom & Browne's Sycamore which have "by appointment to the Royal Family", etc. What we need in the US and Canada is something like that.
What about sport coats or suit jackets that have a lapel roll? Can the dry cleaners press them so that the roll is preserved, can it be done if pressed with a machine? I would imagine you would at least have to tell the cleaner about the rolling lapel.
Thank you for sharing, very informative. Just fyi: In medical school, back in the 1990's, school faculty started requiring medical students to begin wearing suits as physicians were known previously not dressing appropriately at the physician's office. By requiring medical students to wear suits, the hope was to create a dress standard that medical students would take into their own respective practice and maintain a basic dress code for themselves and staff members. Ravi Peiris M.D.
Get video very informative ! I got a couple questions, #1 At the risk of sounding too "red neck" I wear boots every day with my suits, however what I call boots are boots (American cowboy boots) not high top dress shoes. Have I been breaking all the rules ? to my defense they are polished. #2 Maybe a little off point but what is the name and artist that is playing during opening and closing of your videos?
I usually go with my collection of Chelseas as I don't own any Chukkas. With a fitted shirt and darker jeans or chinos, it works very well and elevates you above your tee shirt and medium wash jeans and sneakers friends.
I was able to partially restore the volume of a necktie flattened by the dry cleaners, by spraying water mist / shower steamimg and gently ironing the flattened edges out.
For me liquid ammonia and petrol clean every stain, even those I got hand me down and had been stained for years. I haven't noticed any fabric damage yet. I use it on dry clothes and let it rest with a tissue I put the liquid on, then wash it with regular water, or if it can be washed with detergent, I do that. After that I use ironing or steaming.
DJ Astro Studios Woolite makes an at home dry cleaning kit that has worked well for me. You can find them on amazon for around 10-15 bucks. It's basically a glorified dryer sheet, but actually does a great job at removing light stains in my opinion.
Different stains require different products. Without going into the when and how here are some recommendations for spot cleaning. Fuller's earth, water, mild clear liquid dish soap, denatured alcohol, oil solvents (K2R ect.), white vinegar, and glycerin. As an aside remember how Sven said petroleum based solvents were used for dry cleaning? Stoddard solvent was originally used for dry cleaning and became a quite popular less flammable option. Interestingly it was also a former active ingredient in Fels Naptha. You might better know Stoddard solvent by the name mineral spirits, which it is a derivative of. I know mineral spirits work well against grease, wax, and probably oils but besides that I really don't know what it would be good for but it is something to ponder.
I have a 100 percent wool overcoat. That I recently had professionally dyed from navy blue to black. I want to bring it to the dry cleaners just once because during the dying process it got a tad wrinkled and weathered looking, but I'm concerned that the dry cleaning process may affect the dye in the wool and have it fade closer back to navy blue. Do you have any wisdom on this matter?
I know I'm very late but talk to your drycleaner about it. I'm sure they will have their professional experience to share, and if they don't perhaps they don't have enough experience or professionalism to justify your business.
I went to the dry cleaner for the first time earlier today to get my both vintage Ralph Lauren blazer and suede Harrington jacket cleaned and I hope everything goes well. I like your outfit in this video Raphael and how do you spell the name of the jacket maker?
I just bought a brand new Burberry trench coat but I don’t know how to clean it. Is it best to dry clean it or hand wash it? There’s leather buckles on it so I’m not sure really what to do.
Hi Raphael, I know this comment is unrelated to the video, but I ask it here because you are most likely to respond. In the quality hallmarks of a shirt you said that a quality shirt should have one layer of single VISIBLE stiching. I want you to elaborate because I saw a shirt I like in the store that has one visible layer of stiching on the outside and one on the inside, witch is not visible outside, is it a quality garment or not ?
Excellent video and excellent channel. But, dry cleaning a wool suit ... I think you mention to do it every year or two (and others also say this) ... even assuming no stains, or excessive sweat, this seems insufficient. Perhaps the climate has much more of an effect; much of Europe might see few days over 20-22 C, while the US can regularly see 30-32 C over the summer months ... and then there's humidity. Assuming 5 wool suits and a 50-week work year, each suit gets worn 50 times per year. This strikes me as quite a lot. 1. How much of a role does steaming the jacket and pants (at least the inside areas) play in preventing smells? I have this feeling that regular steaming before each wearing is a significant factor. 2. Will using an atomizer to spray denatured alcohol (90%) on certain inside areas (particularly of pants) help? I received this recommendation many years ago, and it seems to work for polyester blemds. 3. Do you have any advice for the newer machine washable suits? True, they're not nearly as nice as wool, but for every-day office wear (out on the floor, not the executive areas), they seem acceptable.
To Douglas Arbalist, That has been my concern as well. I've recently gotten into making suits and I'm concerned more about smells than stains or dust. Most sites I've found seem to neglect this. Where I live, the temperature can range from -20*C in the winter to >35*C (plus humidity) for most of the summer. Finding fabrics to accommodate these extreme temperatures that can also be cleaned has been quite the task. Have you come across any other means of regularly getting smells out of wool suits that won't destroy the fabric? Did the means you mentioned work out for you? All the best, Kyle
Hi Raphael, thanks again for the video!! I have an old sport coat, small grey squares with small white checks, wool/silk blend, that has never been worn (with tags) but has discolored (slightly yellow) on the shoulders due to the age. Can dry cleaning brighten the coat? Internet also says diluted vinegar can whiten the yellowing; any thoughts? Thanks!
My mum took my whitest of white hoodies to the dry cleaner's and, well, it came back light pink... dunno if it's the cotton fabric or the tommy lettering (tho it's blue lol) but 🤷
I only have two suits, so I constantly wear he same suit several times a week. I want to protect my garments, but I also want to remove any dirt, sweat stains and other bacteria that were left on my suit. How often should I dry clean my clothes? I usually dry clean once a week.
I would say that dry cleaning once a week is too much and it will ruin your clothes on a longer run. I think as a rule, that you should only dry clean your suits when they actually needs to be cleaned, which shouldn't be more than maybe once a month, maybe even less. Otherwise maintain them with a brush and use undershirts (you can find undershirts with extra padding for sweat issues on amazon for instance) to both protect your shirts and suits from sweat etc. Anybody who has some other thoughts on this?
Raphael, I have a question: I have a vintage Aquascutum trenchcoat which needs re-proofing. Do you think I'm better off taking it to a dry cleaners or reproofing it myself? People have had some pretty poor results from taking them to dry cleaners in terms of the proofing lasting, so I have no idea what to do now! I'm loving those vintage oxfords, BTW!
Im only watching this because at my job they gave me a NASA DM-2 Launch America On-Air Jacket, cause of the launch event and sadly it says you can pnly clean it with dry cleaning only :c it also came with some wrinkles so idk if its supposed to be like that or if you could press it idk tbh
I got a few shirts with those types of collars from Amazon. One brand was jack martin and the other was John clothier, both of these I believe came from England. Nice cotton fabric. Take your measurements as the sizing can be a bit off from US sizing. Hope this helps-good luck!
D. Fenestrator . Hi, there is no such thing as Eco-Friendly Dry Cleaning. The only Eco-Friendly Garment Cleaning process is a process called Wet Cleaning.
Tip anyone that you want quality service from. Some examples are delivery drivers, waiters, etc. Im a delivery driver and im always sure to be extra nice when a customer tips ahead of time, or it's a reoccuring customer that always tips.
Well... where i live there are like 1 dry cleaner. And i live in a 69000 people city and that’s large for my country. I perhaps have to drive like 100+km to find another.... it also very expensive. We don’t have many dry cleaners to go to here. 😕
For the sweat/deodorant stains there are many options. Here are a couple; mix a 1/4 cup household ammonia with a 1/4 cup water, daub on stain, let stand for an hour, then launder. DO NOT MIX AMMONIA WITH OTHER CLEANERS. Mix 4 Tbs. baking soda with 1/4 cup warm water , rub paste into stain, let stand for around 2 hours, after rub a few drops of laundry detergent into stain, then launder. Should also work well for ring around the collar. Use oxygen bleach, NOT chlorine bleach, to make mix equal parts soda ash aka washing soda with 3% hydrogen peroxide. To use dissolve 2 Tbs. oxygen bleach with 1 cup hot water, add 1 Tsp. of detergent to the solution, rub into stain, let stand for 2 hour out of direct sunlight, then launder. Dirt stains are considerably easier to deal with. Commercial stain pre-treats work, you can treat the stain with laundry detergent or dish soap, another option would be a paste made from borax or baking soda. Besides that I can't think of anything. As for how to avoid these stains an under shirt should help with sweat, the dirt though I am not sure since I don't know what causes it.
@@evanator166 Thanks for the advice on getting out stains. It's been interesting reading through the tips from various people here in the comment section. Do you have any suggestions for dealing with odors accumulated from repeated wear in wool garments, such as trousers or suits? I'm hoping to try making one soon, but we get very hot and humid summers here. All the best!
You need to bring your dress shirts to the dry cleaner? Aren’t they machine washable? I machine wash my dress shirts at home after every wear and they are great so far. Is it the right way to do it? Thank you for the advice.
Dry cleaner here. Most of your shirts can be laundered. Common fibers like Polyester/cotton, even rayon can be laundered. Finishing the garme may be a problem, but if you can press them yourself, go ahead. Most people just send them to us, because it's like 2 bucks and saves time. For fancier dress shirts that contain silk or colorful designs in the collar/cuff should be dry cleaned or at least laundered and pressed by hand. The shirt machine presses the shirts wet. Which can cause collars and cuffs to bleed. I've seen a few shirts get ruined like this when customers have refused to get them dry cleaned. Now your shirt is ruined because you didn't want to pay 2 more dollars to have them hand pressed. A lot of times if I see this I just press it by hand anyways, but that's a loss on us.
Raphael says dry clean as little as possible. When it comes to the suit jacket and waistcoat, I can see that. They seldom get dirty. But what about the trousers? That’s the problem for me.
But I still don’t think watching the video and after reading massive amount of comments, many not very helpful I still don’t get or understand how often I should clean my Wool, Wool blend dress trousers if I’m wearing them, 2-3 times a week. The answer is always seemingly vague and not very clear. It’s like, well not very often, once a month but that’s too much. I just wish for a clearer concise answer.
Nice video and good advice. Unfortunately I will never have a chance of good dry cleaning service, since I do not own enough suits needed to build a rapport with a dry cleaner. The gentleman in the video states that he himself brings a suit to the dry cleaner once every 2-3 years. To build the rapport with a dry cleaner would mean that the gentleman in the video owns no less than 52 suits (one suit for dry cleaning every 3 weeks for 3 years period).
nice video, thanks for the great information you always share with us. just a quick question, did the suit had one vent, two vents or no vent and if no vent why made you make that choice?
Does anyone know any cleaners in the states that will accept items sent from out of state. I’m down to one possible hope for finding a decent cleaner in my area. I’ve had too many garments DESTROYED. I know other people don’t care but when you take your new shirt or sport coat to a cleaner and find it with sheen on the first day it’s very frustrating because you don’t want to take back anything.
The constant snare drum starts to get annoying starting at 7:23 when the cadence of the host's voice lines up with it. I think it might be better to fade out the snare drum about 1/4 of the way in and fade it back in the last quarter of the video. This will keep it classy without overdoing anything distracting. I am a sample size of 1, though. I might be wrong.
If you see this comment I could use some advice on a product I used tohave but it's now illegal. In lo don UK in the 80s we were encouraged to buy a tiny glass bottle of expensive filth eating liquid gold! You'd pour a bit into the cap, dip dirty sable ,akeupbrush, s2irlit around on paper how I and off you go! I miss this contraband invaluable energy saving miracle in a bottle. Theatre makeup stores used to carry it! My question is 1st have you heard of such a thing? 2nd- what is comparable that's easy to get my hands on?
This is why I don't like wearing suits. It's such a palaver. But I kinda don't have a choice if I'm going to a job interview or if I end up working somewhere whereby I have to wear a suit all the time...
great detailed content. friendly feedback though, maybe not stand in front of a bookcase as there's too much going on. just need a monotone or simple background so viewers can more easily focus on you.
I enjoyed watching your video I have been for 21 years stim iron a laundry shop is running I.d like to go Germany give you a laundry shop if you can holp
Third generation dry cleaner here. I would recommend that you give any potential new dry cleaner a trial run with a cheap dress shirt and a suit you bought at the thrift store before you trust them with your bespoke wardrobe. Purposely put a food stain on the front of the shirt and don't even mention it when you drop it off. A good cleaner will see it and remove the stain or at the very least return it with a "Sorry, we tried" tag. A bad cleaner will return it with the stain or no sorry tag. The suit should come back with a plastic clip in front to hold the buttons in the right place and a hanger with a shoulder shroud between your suit and the wire. The better ones are plastic but cardboard works too. If you really want to test them drop the suit off with your own quality wooden hanger and request that the suit be returned on your hanger. Make sure you can identify your hanger on sight as not all wooden suit hangers are equals. Want to do an honesty test? Drop off a few shirts and leave the a cheap set of cuff links or a five dollar bill in the pocket. A good cleaner will return these to you. Drop of a shirt with a top button purposely cracked in half. A good cleaner will return your shirt with a new button at no extra charge. And keep in mind that no cleaner is legally liable to reimburse you the full sales price for an item that is damaged in the process. Used clothes are like used cars. Their market value is not what you originally paid. But if you are a regular good customer a good cleaner will offer a reasonable store credit to keep your business. I usually offer half what the customer paid and of course no charge for the botched job. It happens even to the best. And unfortunately the law of averages means the rare damage is likely to strike your best customers.
Mark DiChiara thanks for the thesis...
Mark DiChiara do you have a website? My
area is a nightmare when it comes to dry cleaners and at this point I’m willing to ship them out if I can find a reputable cleaner.
Thank you
Excellent Video! Forgive me for butting in, I would appreciate your initial thoughts. Have you ever tried - Siyamilla Financial Bigshot (do a search on google)? It is a great one off guide for getting financial success without the headache. Ive heard some great things about it and my cousin after many years got great success with it.
What's the name of your business? Where is it located?
I’ve been a dry cleaner all of my adult life (18 yrs in the shop) and he is 100% correct..... except! DO NOT ‘pretreat’ your stains!!!! Let us do that! That makes it infinitely more difficult to remove stains. Great video!
Agree!! Get it here as soon as you can. The faster we can start treating the stain, the better chance of getting it out.
Man I'm glad I found this channel. My clothes have been getting destroyed for years, it's the most frustrating thing.
TheRealUnconnected
Likewise, I’ve spent so much cash on formal shirts recently and I’ve basically been doing everything completely wrong.
@@Anonymous-vh6kp so whats the correct way? To avoid this same issue
Brother!!! I know nothing about these things...you have dropped big bucket of knowledge at my feet right now. I am now smarter (and greatly encouraged) about many things after listening to this! 😅 I've had a closeted desire to learn more and eventually get into the dry cleaning business for the past 15 years. I suppose the way that I've expressed it over the past decade was through a low-key love of ironing clothes for my family over the years. It is at this point, after completing 5 years of seminary and 5 units of clinical pastoral education - of which I am extremely thankful for, that I decided to start ironing as a very small business. Now finding this channel proves to be very comforting for me as I am sure it is for others. What am I saying? Thank you for all of your efforts sir and carry on!
The best part he says cashmire and in the video the label says 2% cashmere.
I am a Jamaican subscriber and I love your videos. That picture for Thomas Jennings is actually Paul Bogle, one of our honoured national heroes. He is also on our $2 denominations. Keep up the great work.
The8858481 The Gleaner did a story in 2012 that the popular image of Bogle is not actually Bogle, but Jennings. It was incorrectly attributed based on clothing style and age of photo.
That's what i taught too .thats was Paul Bogle our jamaican hero
You know he takes this seriously when the vid for dry cleaning is 13+ minutes lol
And includes microscopic slides from scientific literature.
Sewist here. Silk can be colorfast. In fact I would expect a high quality tie to be that way. There are ways to set most dyes and inks in silk. Before I would give up on a tie I would try removing the stain and then wash it in a mild soap and cold water. What do you have to lose? I would then lay it flat to dry so that hopefully it would keep it's shape and not require pressing. Careful using steam or an iron on silk. Silk proteins are very sensitive to heat and can burn or become brittle.
I almost forgot. Oil stains are annoying and there is usually an oil component to most food stains including dairy. The best thing I have found for oil is Janie Dry Spot Cleaner. It's a special type of chalk that comes in a little box that looks like a lipstick tube. Wait till the oil has dried and rub the chalk over it. Allow it to sit for several minutes then brush the chalk away using the brush in the lid. It might take a few applications but Janie usually does the trick.
I have never gone to the dry cleaners for a very long time already. I have learned to hand wash and hand press my expensive suits and delicate shirts. I know and am assured I have cleaner and fresher smelling clothes all the time.
Great video Raphael!!!! You look older - did you just have a B-Day :) Haha - hpe all is well my friend!
Oh he is your friend is he? Well Good Luck to you friend.😊
Im thinking about opening a dry cleaner as one of my buisnesses, I have OCD and I think ill bring back the un-sewing of the back of ties to iron, I have a couple buisness ideas for ties to so you should see more convienence in them in the future.
The future is here. How is this business?
I very much appreciate your informative video about dry cleaning. I have learned so much from your incredible videos about dressing like a timeless gentleman. Keep up the great work!
This is quite an extraordinary ensemble you present to us today!
The dry cleaners are getting hit really hard right now and a lot are struggling. Support your local dry cleaners right now, if you are able, we need it. ❤️
I seldomly use Cleaners on my suits; however, I do use them for pressing my suits and all my Slacks.
My dry cleaners are a piece of sh!t I hope they get shut down
@@jenn7559
Shop around. I have an excellent Cleaner .
Professional
Work
Good price.
One of the best I've used in over 20 years. Word of mouth is best feed back for selection.
That suit you're wearing is a real favourite for me.
How about doing a shirt ironing video.
Could you explain the brushing for suits? Also I brought a decent $100 suit supply Egyptian cotton dress shirt to the local dry cleaner and they gave me back my shirt looking like it got pressed into a ball. It was horribly deeply wrinkled, but they didn't care when confronted. What do you do when a item comes back like this and looks worse than when you brought it? I was angry and they didn't care.
Erik Bonde Haha yes of course I am but, I meant any rights or things to do.
Basically store policy would dictate what would be done. As for things to do not much besides different cleaner or doing your shirts yourself except leaving a bad review online and not recommending them.
To answer your first question google how to use a clothes brush and I can recommend the method found on thebutlerscloset. The same information is also found in "The Butler's Guide to Clothes Care, Managing the Table, Running the Home & Other Graces" by Stanley Ager
Garrett Evans Thank you very much for the information!
1:56 i swear every single dry cleaner place has those exact coat hangers that say "We ♥️ Our Customers."
Finally, you are doing a review of what you are wearing in your videos. Keep doing it. 👍
The best country in the world for dry cleaning are the Gulf countries. Because everyone wears white ankle-length clothes and are very expensive silk and cotton, which have to look clean and they better do a great job. The other place is London UK where you can find cleaners like Blossom & Browne's Sycamore which have "by appointment to the Royal Family", etc. What we need in the US and Canada is something like that.
What about sport coats or suit jackets that have a lapel roll? Can the dry cleaners press them so that the roll is preserved, can it be done if pressed with a machine? I would imagine you would at least have to tell the cleaner about the rolling lapel.
Tuomas Aalto A proper dry cleaner knows how to press a jacket without crushing the lapel.
What font do you use for your logo? I like it. It has a classy look.
Thank you for sharing, very informative. Just fyi: In medical school, back in the 1990's, school faculty started requiring medical students to begin wearing suits as physicians were known previously not dressing appropriately at the physician's office. By requiring medical students to wear suits, the hope was to create a dress standard that medical students would take into their own respective practice and maintain a basic dress code for themselves and staff members.
Ravi Peiris M.D.
I’ve had silk ties dry cleaned, never had an issue.
The shoes would look far better if you applied a bit of polish and shined them. I hate to see scuffed shoes. They destroy the whole look.
Agreed, suprised more people have not commented on this
They looked shined to me! Aren't they just vintage? 😝
Nice vid. 0:48 That African American inventor pictured is actually Jamaican pastor and abolitionist Paul Bogle.
Thank you for the video. What could happen to the lapel roll at a cheap dry cleaner? Are there ways to fix a lapel roll once it's been damaged?
Will a old grease stain come out?
Need to clean my CANADA GOOSE jacket, thank you for this video. Watching from Belgium 🇧🇪
Another really good and informative video. Thanks, Raphael!
Get video very informative !
I got a couple questions,
#1 At the risk of sounding too "red neck" I wear boots every day with my suits, however what I call boots are boots (American cowboy boots) not high top dress shoes. Have I been breaking all the rules ? to my defense they are polished.
#2 Maybe a little off point but what is the name and artist that is playing during opening and closing of your videos?
Unrelated question.. Can you wear dress shirt+jeans/chinos with chukka boots? Or should I invest in some derbies ?
Anmolorb Chukkas would be perfectly fine with that outfit
Thank you!! I only have loafers and chukkas so I needed to know if it were appropriate!!
I usually go with my collection of Chelseas as I don't own any Chukkas. With a fitted shirt and darker jeans or chinos, it works very well and elevates you above your tee shirt and medium wash jeans and sneakers friends.
I was able to partially restore the volume of a necktie flattened by the dry cleaners, by spraying water mist / shower steamimg and gently ironing the flattened edges out.
I love this channel, great job! 🇮🇹
For me liquid ammonia and petrol clean every stain, even those I got hand me down and had been stained for years. I haven't noticed any fabric damage yet. I use it on dry clothes and let it rest with a tissue I put the liquid on, then wash it with regular water, or if it can be washed with detergent, I do that. After that I use ironing or steaming.
What kind of fabrics were you able to successfully use that combination on? All of them or just some?
@@plissken94th57 petrol can be used on silk, ammonia on cotton.
You mentioned at-home spot cleaning as a defense against dry cleaning - what product(s) would you recommend for spot cleaning dress shirts and suits?
DJ Astro Studios Woolite makes an at home dry cleaning kit that has worked well for me. You can find them on amazon for around 10-15 bucks. It's basically a glorified dryer sheet, but actually does a great job at removing light stains in my opinion.
Different stains require different products. Without going into the when and how here are some recommendations for spot cleaning. Fuller's earth, water, mild clear liquid dish soap, denatured alcohol, oil solvents (K2R ect.), white vinegar, and glycerin.
As an aside remember how Sven said petroleum based solvents were used for dry cleaning? Stoddard solvent was originally used for dry cleaning and became a quite popular less flammable option. Interestingly it was also a former active ingredient in Fels Naptha. You might better know Stoddard solvent by the name mineral spirits, which it is a derivative of. I know mineral spirits work well against grease, wax, and probably oils but besides that I really don't know what it would be good for but it is something to ponder.
I have a 100 percent wool overcoat. That I recently had professionally dyed from navy blue to black. I want to bring it to the dry cleaners just once because during the dying process it got a tad wrinkled and weathered looking, but I'm concerned that the dry cleaning process may affect the dye in the wool and have it fade closer back to navy blue. Do you have any wisdom on this matter?
I know I'm very late but talk to your drycleaner about it. I'm sure they will have their professional experience to share, and if they don't perhaps they don't have enough experience or professionalism to justify your business.
I went to the dry cleaner for the first time earlier today to get my both vintage Ralph Lauren blazer and suede Harrington jacket cleaned and I hope everything goes well.
I like your outfit in this video Raphael and how do you spell the name of the jacket maker?
caraceni milan ;)
I honestly was wowed by the detailed describe of your suit and the thought you put into it 👏
I just bought a brand new Burberry trench coat but I don’t know how to clean it. Is it best to dry clean it or hand wash it? There’s leather buckles on it so I’m not sure really what to do.
This is probably late but there are instructions inside that say how to clean it.
Hi Raphael, I know this comment is unrelated to the video, but I ask it here because you are most likely to respond. In the quality hallmarks of a shirt you said that a quality shirt should have one layer of single VISIBLE stiching. I want you to elaborate because I saw a shirt I like in the store that has one visible layer of stiching on the outside and one on the inside, witch is not visible outside, is it a quality garment or not ?
Where can we find more info on cleaning a tie, undoing the stitching and removing the lining?
Excellent video and excellent channel.
But, dry cleaning a wool suit ... I think you mention to do it every year or two (and others also say this) ... even assuming no stains, or excessive sweat, this seems insufficient. Perhaps the climate has much more of an effect; much of Europe might see few days over 20-22 C, while the US can regularly see 30-32 C over the summer months ... and then there's humidity.
Assuming 5 wool suits and a 50-week work year, each suit gets worn 50 times per year. This strikes me as quite a lot.
1. How much of a role does steaming the jacket and pants (at least the inside areas) play in preventing smells? I have this feeling that regular steaming before each wearing is a significant factor.
2. Will using an atomizer to spray denatured alcohol (90%) on certain inside areas (particularly of pants) help? I received this recommendation many years ago, and it seems to work for polyester blemds.
3. Do you have any advice for the newer machine washable suits? True, they're not nearly as nice as wool, but for every-day office wear (out on the floor, not the executive areas), they seem acceptable.
My response is that wool is an incredible material.
Greece is in Europe
To Douglas Arbalist,
That has been my concern as well. I've recently gotten into making suits and I'm concerned more about smells than stains or dust. Most sites I've found seem to neglect this. Where I live, the temperature can range from -20*C in the winter to >35*C (plus humidity) for most of the summer. Finding fabrics to accommodate these extreme temperatures that can also be cleaned has been quite the task. Have you come across any other means of regularly getting smells out of wool suits that won't destroy the fabric? Did the means you mentioned work out for you?
All the best,
Kyle
What's that at 09:10 ?
Great video! I enjoyed watching through it all
Hi Raphael, thanks again for the video!! I have an old sport coat, small grey squares with small white checks, wool/silk blend, that has never been worn (with tags) but has discolored (slightly yellow) on the shoulders due to the age. Can dry cleaning brighten the coat? Internet also says diluted vinegar can whiten the yellowing; any thoughts? Thanks!
My mum took my whitest of white hoodies to the dry cleaner's and, well, it came back light pink... dunno if it's the cotton fabric or the tommy lettering (tho it's blue lol) but 🤷
I only have two suits, so I constantly wear he same suit several times a week. I want to protect my garments, but I also want to remove any dirt, sweat stains and other bacteria that were left on my suit. How often should I dry clean my clothes? I usually dry clean once a week.
I would say that dry cleaning once a week is too much and it will ruin your clothes on a longer run. I think as a rule, that you should only dry clean your suits when they actually needs to be cleaned, which shouldn't be more than maybe once a month, maybe even less. Otherwise maintain them with a brush and use undershirts (you can find undershirts with extra padding for sweat issues on amazon for instance) to both protect your shirts and suits from sweat etc.
Anybody who has some other thoughts on this?
Raphael, I have a question: I have a vintage Aquascutum trenchcoat which needs re-proofing. Do you think I'm better off taking it to a dry cleaners or reproofing it myself? People have had some pretty poor results from taking them to dry cleaners in terms of the proofing lasting, so I have no idea what to do now! I'm loving those vintage oxfords, BTW!
tetrachloroethylene and perchloroethylene are the different names for the same chemical
Im only watching this because at my job they gave me a NASA DM-2 Launch America On-Air Jacket, cause of the launch event and sadly it says you can pnly clean it with dry cleaning only :c it also came with some wrinkles so idk if its supposed to be like that or if you could press it idk tbh
Rave fabricare offers proper tie cleaning I believe.
This dude got some nice stuff and really knows how to dress...
Where did you get that dress shirt? Can’t find anything with that type of collar
I got a few shirts with those types of collars from Amazon. One brand was jack martin and the other was John clothier, both of these I believe came from England. Nice cotton fabric. Take your measurements as the sizing can be a bit off from US sizing. Hope this helps-good luck!
What about eco-friendly dry cleaning?
D. Fenestrator . Hi, there is no such thing as Eco-Friendly Dry Cleaning. The only Eco-Friendly Garment Cleaning process is a process called Wet Cleaning.
I didn't know you tip dry cleaners at all?
Tip anyone that you want quality service from. Some examples are delivery drivers, waiters, etc. Im a delivery driver and im always sure to be extra nice when a customer tips ahead of time, or it's a reoccuring customer that always tips.
Well... where i live there are like 1 dry cleaner. And i live in a 69000 people city and that’s large for my country. I perhaps have to drive like 100+km to find another.... it also very expensive.
We don’t have many dry cleaners to go to here. 😕
Personally I think the yellow pants clashed heavily with everything else, but otherwise very professional look and an informative video.
I love your outfit in This video!
Well done, Sven. Thanks for the info!
You are welcome!
Love it! Thanks for the lesson.
Nice video. Thanks.
How do you avoid or treat the sweat or dirt ring around the collar of a dress shirt? Great video as always. Keep up the high quality content.
For the sweat/deodorant stains there are many options. Here are a couple; mix a 1/4 cup household ammonia with a 1/4 cup water, daub on stain, let stand for an hour, then launder. DO NOT MIX AMMONIA WITH OTHER CLEANERS. Mix 4 Tbs. baking soda with 1/4 cup warm water , rub paste into stain, let stand for around 2 hours, after rub a few drops of laundry detergent into stain, then launder. Should also work well for ring around the collar. Use oxygen bleach, NOT chlorine bleach, to make mix equal parts soda ash aka washing soda with 3% hydrogen peroxide. To use dissolve 2 Tbs. oxygen bleach with 1 cup hot water, add 1 Tsp. of detergent to the solution, rub into stain, let stand for 2 hour out of direct sunlight, then launder.
Dirt stains are considerably easier to deal with. Commercial stain pre-treats work, you can treat the stain with laundry detergent or dish soap, another option would be a paste made from borax or baking soda. Besides that I can't think of anything.
As for how to avoid these stains an under shirt should help with sweat, the dirt though I am not sure since I don't know what causes it.
@@evanator166 Thanks for the advice on getting out stains. It's been interesting reading through the tips from various people here in the comment section. Do you have any suggestions for dealing with odors accumulated from repeated wear in wool garments, such as trousers or suits? I'm hoping to try making one soon, but we get very hot and humid summers here. All the best!
How are the quality of the pants? I'm visiting Sri Lanka and looking for a good tailor
You need to bring your dress shirts to the dry cleaner? Aren’t they machine washable? I machine wash my dress shirts at home after every wear and they are great so far. Is it the right way to do it? Thank you for the advice.
Dry cleaner here. Most of your shirts can be laundered. Common fibers like Polyester/cotton, even rayon can be laundered. Finishing the garme may be a problem, but if you can press them yourself, go ahead.
Most people just send them to us, because it's like 2 bucks and saves time.
For fancier dress shirts that contain silk or colorful designs in the collar/cuff should be dry cleaned or at least laundered and pressed by hand.
The shirt machine presses the shirts wet. Which can cause collars and cuffs to bleed. I've seen a few shirts get ruined like this when customers have refused to get them dry cleaned. Now your shirt is ruined because you didn't want to pay 2 more dollars to have them hand pressed.
A lot of times if I see this I just press it by hand anyways, but that's a loss on us.
Now, how do we find the best dry cleaners, Yelp is no help. Any tip as to ratings/guides
Like the tie in this one
what types of clothes have to dry clean ?
Raphael says dry clean as little as possible. When it comes to the suit jacket and waistcoat, I can see that. They seldom get dirty. But what about the trousers? That’s the problem for me.
Brush, steam, use soap and water
Get two pairs of pants with your suit.
But I still don’t think watching the video and after reading massive amount of comments, many not very helpful I still don’t get or understand how often I should clean my Wool, Wool blend dress trousers if I’m wearing them, 2-3 times a week. The answer is always seemingly vague and not very clear. It’s like, well not very often, once a month but that’s too much. I just wish for a clearer concise answer.
How old is that suit ?
So, what to look for in a quality steamer?
Nice video and good advice. Unfortunately I will never have a chance of good dry cleaning service, since I do not own enough suits needed to build a rapport with a dry cleaner. The gentleman in the video states that he himself brings a suit to the dry cleaner once every 2-3 years. To build the rapport with a dry cleaner would mean that the gentleman in the video owns no less than 52 suits (one suit for dry cleaning every 3 weeks for 3 years period).
nice video, thanks for the great information you always share with us. just a quick question, did the suit had one vent, two vents or no vent and if no vent why made you make that choice?
where do you buy your rings
I trust him... IDK why, but I do. :)
Thank you
I heard some dry cleaners nowadays are using carbonic acid or carbon dioxide.
This stresses me about my future, when I will most likely be wearing suits etc.
Does anyone know any cleaners in the states that will accept items sent from out of state. I’m down to one possible hope for finding a decent cleaner in my area. I’ve had too many garments DESTROYED. I know other people don’t care but when you take your new shirt or sport coat to a cleaner and find it with sheen on the first day it’s very frustrating because you don’t want to take back anything.
Rave fabricare
Great video but I think you should polish those shoes to attempt to fill the cracks and such.
The constant snare drum starts to get annoying starting at 7:23 when the cadence of the host's voice lines up with it. I think it might be better to fade out the snare drum about 1/4 of the way in and fade it back in the last quarter of the video. This will keep it classy without overdoing anything distracting. I am a sample size of 1, though. I might be wrong.
Hello, would this work on my navy suit, for war?
No
Thanks for sharing!
i have a dry wash laundry shop where the stream is ironed
Omg I only do my laundry once a year. Who knew all this time I was just Fancy.
If you see this comment I could use some advice on a product I used tohave but it's now illegal. In lo don UK in the 80s we were encouraged to buy a tiny glass bottle of expensive filth eating liquid gold! You'd pour a bit into the cap, dip dirty sable ,akeupbrush, s2irlit around on paper how I and off you go! I miss this contraband invaluable energy saving miracle in a bottle. Theatre makeup stores used to carry it! My question is 1st have you heard of such a thing? 2nd- what is comparable that's easy to get my hands on?
The pants don't go with the jacket/vest.
that's hell of detail for washing clothes
What is French Cleaners?
“A machine that looks like a person who blows out hot air”
An electric politician?
Great tip about the Edelweiss :-)
Wow he’s so exited he’s about to drool 🤤
This is why I don't like wearing suits. It's such a palaver. But I kinda don't have a choice if I'm going to a job interview or if I end up working somewhere whereby I have to wear a suit all the time...
Very nice
I personally wash at home then do press only at the cleaners, works well
2012lel2012 cos your tight
Interesting video.
Perchloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene are the same thing.
great detailed content. friendly feedback though, maybe not stand in front of a bookcase as there's too much going on. just need a monotone or simple background so viewers can more easily focus on you.
I enjoyed watching your video I have been for 21 years stim iron a laundry shop is running I.d like to go Germany give you a laundry shop if you can holp