How to Care for your Suits Properly
You’ve pulled the trigger on a new suit, spent a good chunk of change on it and it’s fitting perfectly (if we made it anyway) so you want to make sure you keep looking good in it as long as possible. Here’s how to care for your suit!
We often get asked:
How do I care for my suit properly? I don’t want it going to ruin.
Caring for your made to measure or off the rack suit isn’t as simple as just hanging it up after each wear, it’s something most of us overlook but it’s really important to ensure you look after your suit so that it keeps looking great for many years to come.
This is what we’re going to cover in this article:
- Use Quality Coat Hangers
- Make Space For Your Suits
- Using Cedar For Your Suits
- How To Clean A Suit
- How Often To Wear A Suit
What’s involved? Thankfully, suit care is simple once you have the know-how.
There are two main suit-care areas: storage and cleaning. We’ll cover each below in detail, and don’t worry, neither are overly-expensive in time or money!
1. Use Quality Coat Hangers
We all have clothes hangers, but do you have the right ones for your size? The correct size will protect the shoulders, and allow the jacket to drape correctly while hanging, keeping a better shape. Hint: You can’t get them in Penneys.
The correct hangers are not only wide, they are also thick. Using thin and sharp hangers may affect the shape of your garment. For instance, t-shirts and polos may essentially develop “nipples” from where the ends protrude.
What you want from a hanger is a wider end to ensure it fills out the shoulder correctly. Furthermore, there’s no particular benefit to using wooden hangers unless they’re made from untreated cedar as we’ll detail below.
2. Create Ample Closet Space & Garment Bags
Unfortunately, your suit jackets now need more storage space due to the larger coat hangers we recommended.
It’s important to provide ample space for your suits so that they can drape correctly during storage. If their packed too closely, your garments can wrinkle. Similarly, if they’re too close together, air won’t be able to circulate, which can cause the build-up of humidity and damage the fibres.
Additionally, we advise storing all suits and jackets in garment bags to protect from dust, moths. We try to store all our suits this way; even our off-season sports coats.
Obviously, it can be a pain that you can’t see your beautiful collection of suits so keep a few out of the bags if in regular rotation.
Finally, ensure that you invest in breathable garment bags. If they’re sealed, air won’t be able to properly circulate and moisture may build up inside them, our garment bags are woven so are all breathable.
3. Correct Suit Cleaning Practices
“But I look after my suit – I have it dry-cleaned regularly.” It’s something that we often hear, but, paradoxically, dry cleaning is something that should be a last-resort, if you’re intent on prolonging the life of your suit. While we have made great advances in hygiene over the years, there are times where it becomes obsessive. A particular problem these days is the liberal use of dry cleaning for keep suits in good condition.
The chemical process involved in dry cleaning is actually harder on buttons than it is on fabric, but, even so, it should only be dry-cleaned when absolutely necessary.
Although it has its place if you have a nasty stain, you shouldn’t really need to get a suit dry-cleaned more than twice a year. Even if you wear it more than once a week, dry cleaning too much can actually cause your suits to degrade!
If the suit is just wrinkled, rather than soiled, a good steaming/pressing (see below) will rectify that. But, trust us, keep dry-cleaning to an absolute minimum — once a season is plenty — if you’re serious about suit care.
This is because the chemicals are damaging to natural fabric fibers and reduces the overall appearance of quality and the longevity of your garment. Furthermore, one should not wear a suit more than once (at most twice) per week, because the fibers need time to rest between wearings.
Use A Horse Hair Brush
Prevention is better than cure, and that’s true with suit cleaning.
Get a horsehair brush and give your suit a gentle once-over when you’re done with it for the day. This removes lint and other gunk from the fibers, enabling them to last longer and thus protect your investment.
After each use, a quick 60 second brush-down is more than enough. We recommend a soft-bristled brush so as not to damage the fibers. A large, 10″ long horse hair brush yields the best results and is relatively inexpensive.
Finally, a bonus of brushing is that it renders your suit a less attractive meal for moths, which is never a bad thing!
Use A Garment Steamer Or Iron
A quick steam in the morning is optimal, but that 5 minutes is usually precious in the wee hours if you can. Realistically, steaming is best done for special occasions or to remove any wrinkles out of fabric.
I use the a steamer I got in Lidl as it only costs €30. Despite its small size, it kicks off pretty much unlimited steam, and we’ve seen it work wonders on some vintage suits also.
If you don’t have access to a steamer, hanging your suit in the bathroom while taking a hot shower will help relax the fabric’s fibers, dropping out wrinkles. This is a great trick when travelling.
Steaming can also be good to get out certain kinds of particle-based stains. If, however, you have an oil-based stain, try putting some talcum powder on it to draw it out.
If both of those fail, this is when dry cleaning becomes the best (and safest) solution. After all, if you try to remove a stain yourself, you may even make it worse.
4. How Often To Wear A Suit
Similar to the importance of not wearing the same shoes two days in a row, it’s important to rotate your suits. The fabric needs time to recover, and allowing this to happen will extend the lifespan of the suit greatly.
After wearing a suit all day, it’s going to have picked up dirt and moisture from your body and the air’s humidity. While the dust can be removed using a brush, the moisture needs to be allowed to leave naturally.
We do this by letting the fibers relax after use by hanging for at least 24 hours. If the suit is crafted from heavier fabrics, consider even letting it hang for 48 hours. This airing is all that’s needed to get the suit back into it’s optimal drape. Now you’re ready to put it back in the lineup for a future sartorial instalment!
Extra Pants:
If you’re going custom or, getting off-the-rack “suit separates,” it may be worth getting an additional pair of trousers. Pants wear much faster than jackets, and this is especially true in cooler climes where slush and salt are plentiful.
These often damage trouser bottoms, even if you have the correct length trouser. As trousers are usually a fraction of a jacket’s cost, it makes economic sense to do so.
Travelling with a suit
Unless you’re the proud owner of a bag that it specifically made to store a suit (we happen to stock them), you’ll need to up your packing game to prolong your suit’s life (and looks).
A simple yet effective trick is to turn the suit inside out, put the shoulders together, and roll it up. Take care to ensure the seams and lapels are lined up as you fold, then do an easy loose roll from the bottom up. Result!
And that, gentlemen, is how to look after your suit. Sure, it’s more time-consuming than simply hanging it on the back of the kitchen chair after a long day. But proper suit care will pay dividends, prolonging the look and longevity of your investment. Now, where’s that wooden hanger….?
If you’re going custom or, getting off-the-rack “suit separates,” it may be worth getting an additional pair of trousers. Pants wear much faster than jackets, and this is especially true in cooler climes where slush and salt are plentiful.
These often damage trouser bottoms, even if you have the correct length trouser. As trousers are usually a fraction of a jacket’s cost, it makes economic sense to do so.
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