How To Care For Your Suit
Wedding menswear specialists Mia Sposa think that if you’re going to spend money on a decent suit, you ought to spend a little effort taking care of it. We’re inclined to agree.
Hang It All.
The temptation to drop your clothes on the bedroom floordrobe is never greater than after a hard night of partying and boozing, or in the heat of passion. With both factors in play in a big way on the wedding night, proper suit care is probably going to be the furthest thing from your mind, but while you’re sober and have the time to consider this, it’s worth bearing in mind that your wedding suit may well be the most expensive you will ever own. Letting it fall in a crumpled heap will see it lose that sharp shape, so hang it up.
This needn’t be a passion killer – make a show of it.
Hanging it on the back of a chair is no good either. The shape of the jacket hangs from the shoulders, so make sure it goes on the hanger that came with it. If you don’t have it, invest in one of those decent wooden ones. It’s cheaper than buying a new suit. The trousers should be on a hanger with foam grips to stop them from sliding off.
Steam, Punk.
Your suit should be dry-cleaned regularly, but don’t confuse regularly with frequently. Once or twice a year is about right. Dry-cleaning keeps creases intact and suits smelling fresh, especially after exposure to wet weather, but excessive dry-cleaning can strain the fibres.
You’re generally only going to want to get your suit dry-cleaned if you know you won’t be wearing it for a while, so you know it will be fresh as a daisy when it comes out of storage.
Regular cleaning should be done with steam. You can buy a steamer for home use – don’t use your iron unless you’re pretty confident with it, or you might end up with a new pattern on your suit in the form of a nice big burn. If it’s an iron or nothing, use a handkerchief or similarly weighted clean piece of fabric to shield the suit from any direct heat. It’s far better and easier to use a steamer as the heat is indirect, putting less stress on the fabric.
Sweat It Out.
If you boogie like a pro on the dance floor then you’re probably going to work up a sweat born of alcohol and rich food. You’ll probably be tempted to get the steamer out the next day and scrub away that odour, but steaming an already damp suit is a bad idea, as excess moisture is another way to put stress on the fabric. The good news is, your suit sweats too, so if you’ve paid attention so far and hung your suit as instructed above, you’ll find this will allow the moisture to sweat out on its own.
Don’t try to clean the suit while damp, as it can shrink, or wrinkle. Once it’s been sweating for a while you can hang it in a summer meadow to let the fresh air breeze through it. Or just near the window, if a summer meadow is not available.
Seal The Deal
Putting your suit in storage can leave it vulnerable to all manner of contaminants and fashion hungry critters if it isn’t stored properly. You don’t need to go hunting down any mothballs though; ingenuity has provided us with a far more ingenious, modern solution. For short term storage the familiar garment bag will suffice, but if it’s going away until the next big family do you should seriously consider sealing it in vacuum bags.
Be sure to keep the trousers and jacket in separate bags, or risk each ruining the shape of the other over time as they are squashed up against each other.
Stain Power
If the worst happens and you do end up with a spill, splash or stain on your suit, don’t panic. You know the old trick with mud from your school days: don’t attack it with a wet cloth; let it dry and then brush it off.
For anything else you might spill on there, consult the Staggered guide to dealing with stains. I mean, we don’t cover every stain traditionally associated with the wedding day/night, ahem, but yo can use your noodle and apply these tips appropriately.
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