Care Notes

The most expensive thing most people do to a garment is dry-clean it on a schedule. Solvent is hard on a lining, harder on a shoulder pad, and it does almost nothing that airing would not have done. A wool coat worn twice a week wants cleaning about once a year. A silk shirt wants washing more often than the label admits.

What follows is what we actually tell people across the counter, which is occasionally at odds with the care label. When it is, the label wins in law and we win in practice, and you should decide which of those you want.

By fibre

Wool and cashmere

Air it for a day between wearings and it will need cleaning a third as often. Hand wash cool, no agitation, dry flat on a towel and never on a rail — the water weight is what stretches a shoulder. Two hours in the freezer in a bag kills moth eggs; nothing else in the house does.

Silk

Wash it, do not dry-clean it. Cool water, a drop of shampoo rather than detergent, no wringing, and out of the sun to dry. Deodorant is what destroys silk under the arm, not sweat, and it does it permanently within about four wearings.

Linen

Machine wash warm and stop worrying. It creases because it is linen. If you press it, press it damp and on the reverse; a hot dry iron puts a shine on it that does not come off.

Cotton shirting

Wash at 30, hang it wet on a hanger and most of it presses itself. Collar and cuff first with the iron, body last, and never fasten a top button while it dries or the collar sets open.

Leather and suede

Nothing wet, ever, including the products sold for it. Brush suede dry in one direction. Rain marks come out as they dry if you leave them alone, and do not if you help.

Denim

Cold, inside out, as rarely as you can stand. It is the tumble dryer that kills a waistband, not the wash — the elastane goes long before the cotton does.

If it has already gone wrong

Do not iron a stainHeat sets it permanently. Whatever it is, cold water and patience first, and if that fails bring it in before you try anything from a bottle.
A shrunk knit is sometimes recoverableSoak in cool water with hair conditioner for half an hour, then block it flat to its old measurements while wet. Works about half the time and never fully.
A moth hole is not the endKonstantinos reweaves them from thread taken out of a seam allowance. From €40, two weeks, and after a wearing you will not find it again.
Bring it in rather than describe itNobody has ever described a stain accurately over the phone. Monday to Saturday, 10:00 to 20:00, and there is no charge for being told it is fine.