Looking after your suit
You’ve got yourself your dream suit, congratulations! Now you can just hang it up from time to time and put it in at the dry cleaners every couple of weeks, right?
Nope, wrong!
I mean of course put it on a hanger and yes take it to the dry cleaners but only once maybe twice a year. We’ll explain. Suits aren’t like shirts or jeans that you wear once and then chuck in the wash, far from it but of course they still need looking after.
Let’s get the basics out of the way first.
Always, and we do mean always put your suit on a hanger at the end of the day. Make sure the trousers are flat following the crease. It’s easy to do if you hold them by the cuffs and match the lines of the pressed creases, and then lay them over the hanger bar, pulling them through until they are balanced evenly and aren’t going to slide back off. If you have the hanging space you can even get clip hangers to hang them straight down from the cuffs. Getting fancy now!
Now the jacket (or coat as we tailors call them). We would always advise using a wide shouldered hanger for your jacket and that it the same width as your jacket shoulders, you don’t want it pushing the sleeves out of shape or allowing the shoulders to droop at the ends. Both are a no no. so put your jacket on the hanger so it sits flush, with the jacket collar sitting smooth without wrinkles close to the wide neck of the hanger. Voila!
Nothing to tricky there, that’s the basics as we said, now you can pop it in the wardrobe, yep? Nope. It is really important to let your suit air before bagging it or putting it in the wardrobe. Allowing the days body heat and moisture to evaporate and the cloth to dry back is vital if you want your suit to last and keep looking pristine for years to come, even an hour before putting it away will really help.
Believe it or not, this is the minimum we would recommend but don’t feel bad if this is all you do, we get it, most of us want good results with minimum fuss, if that’s you then your reading is done, well almost, scroll down to the end for a summary of dry cleaning and cleaning recommendations.
Still here? Want to dig a little deeper? Well, why the hell not.
Ever seen a boar hair clothes brush? Maybe not but they are amazing and worth getting if you want to look after your suit, but it doesn’t have to be boars’ hair (and to be avoided if you are a vegan) just find a clothes brush that suits you. Once you’ve got the brush you like we would recommend brushing your suit before and after you wear it.
Do make sure though that you are brushing the suit gently, don’t go crazy, and brush in a downwards direction following the fibres of the cloth. This helps to take any dust or debris from the day out of the cloth, helping keep your suit clean and prolonging the life too. Don’t forget to do the trousers and jacket.
What to do if the suit has got dirty or there is a mark on it. Firstly, grab yourself a clean cloth, cotton or linen works great, nothing that will leave fleck and certainly not the cloth by the kitchen sink or kitchen roll, oh he horror. We find a linen tea towel kept just for the purpose of the suit is a great idea.
Next up damp the cloth, damp not wet, you can wrap the cloth around your fingers and damp it and then use this to dab the mark, lifting the dirt out, don’t rub it or scrub it, just dab, apply pressure and repeat until the stain has lifted, if it’s really stubborn it might be a job for the dry cleaners but don’t be afraid to have a go.
It helps as well if you have a dry cleaner that will just press your suit from time to time, of course this is something you can do yourself but that is a whole other tutorial and one that can go very wrong if you aren’t careful so do some research before even trying this, maybe we will do a video to help. Worth a thought. If you are very lucky, you’ll have a nice tailor like us who will press you suit for you if you drop it in, worth asking your local tailor just in case.
Shall we level up again and really push the boat out? Of course, but how?
Well, here are a few top tips. If your budget allows, always get a second pair of trousers for your suit and rotate wearing them. This lets one pair air and rest between wearing and also ensures that the suit ages at the same pace, not a great look to have a brand-new pair of trousers with a jacket that you’ve been wearing for years, it just looks odd on the eye. Even better for regular suit wearers to have more than one suit and then you can rotate your suits between wears as well as the trousers with the suit. This will help your suits to last so much longer that just having the one.
Having a suit that fits you well also cuts down dramatically on the wear and tear too. Better fitting means less frictions, rubbing and folding of the suit where it shouldn’t, all of which damage the cloth and the in workings of the jacket. If your tailors didn’t give you protective carry bags or covers then it is worth investing in suit bags to put your suits in, once correctly on hanger, brushed and aired of course, this helps protect from dust and dirt as well as sunlight, but also the dreaded MOTHS!
A moth ball or even lavender in the wardrobe can help but there are also very good preventative sprays and treatments on the market but these are a little more offensive on the senses and not so kind on the environments either but go with what works for you, just make sure you read the labels properly as some sprays can damage the cloths and aren’t meant to be sprayed directly on the suit itself. Caution is advised.
We could go on but all of this will give your suits the best chance of a long life and you the most enjoyment of wearing them. It’s like most things in life, show some care and put in some effort and you’ll get the best out of them, and it really helps make sure the investment you made in to a tailored suit works hard for you, the more you get to the wear them the less each wear costs you, sounds like a good idea to us.
So, here’s that summary for the people who skipped a bit.
- Keep your suits on good quality hangers and put them on correctly.
- Dry clean as little as possible (2-3 times a year max)
- Invest in a good clothes brush and brush your suits before and after wearing.
- Spot clean areas of your suit if they need it using a clean cloth
- Let your jacket and trousers air before putting them away
- Get some good suit bags to store them in
- Watch out for moth
- Find someone who will give them a press
- Buy something that fits well
- Rotate your suits and buy two pairs of trousers if you can
- Wear your suits, enjoy them, that’s why you got them
- Be kind to them and they will be kind to you (ahhh that’s sweet isn’t it)