Dry cleaning fine clothing nightmare! Especially for fabric and drycleaner people!

Factual Questions
1

Mrs. Bernse owns some fine clothing along the lines of Gorgio Armani and Calvin Klein suits. These are worth in the neighborhood of a few thousand dollars each (give or take). I realize that to some people that may be a “typical” outfit for them, but for us it is a rarity to need such a luxurious clothing. Being so, they may only get worn once or twice a year for real fancy functions. Hence, they’ve only been cleaned once or twice since they were purchased in 1999.

About 3 years ago, Mrs. Bernse took one of the Armani’s to get dry cleaned at (what we thought) a respected dry cleaner in our city. When we received it back, the sleeves shrunk about 2-3 inches, the shoulders were tight and stitching of the sleeves to the body of the suit were slightly “puckered”. The pants were fine. The cleaner tried to stretch the material, which helped a bit, but not all the way. The cleaner sent it out to get “analyzed” at some lab in Maryland. The analysis came back (I don’t have it in front of me) that the cleaner was not at fault. We found out later this fabric institute place is funded by drycleaners, so it is questionable if they are unbiased in my mind. Either way, we weren’t happy. The suit, which was of course fitted properly from the start didn’t fit quite right anymore… although it was still showable, it was not perfect by anymeans. For the record, the suit was 70% wool, 20% silk and 10% mohair. The lining was 100% Cupro (??).

Fast forward to this week. Mrs Bernse needed another Armani cleaned. There are 2 drycleaners in town, the one we went to earlier and a “commercial” drycleaner. By commercial, they don’t really do just “walk in customers” clothing. So, we took a chance and took this suit to the earlier cleaners as we though maybe it was a fluke and not their fault. So, we took this outfit to them as well. This suit was 100% wool and the liner was “Curpo”. This time we alerted them from the start that it was a very fine garment and to be extra careful with it. No problem, they said.

THE EXACT SAME THING HAPPENED, AGAIN. The sleeves shrunk and the arms were very tight and the stitching of the sleeves to the body of the suit were slightly “puckered”. Once again the pants were fine. I spoke to the owner yesterday and voiced my displeasure. He of course wants to see it and we will of course show him once our schedule allows it. I am leary to let him “stretch” it again, as in my mind a cleaner shouldn’t need to “stretch” you clothing after they clean it. I think it probably will need to get analyzed again as the cleaner doesn’t sound too eager to claim responsibility.

Does anyone have a clue as to what could possibly be going on? I would like to be semi-educated or at least not sound like I am talking out of my ass when I see him.

2

First off: Cupro is Rayon (or a form of Rayon).

Shrinking of woolens usually happens when they’re exposed to moisture. A dry-cleaner, by definition, won’t wash garments in water, so one of two things is happening:

  1. The dry-cleaning solvent was recycled and contains some moisture; if either garment shows any greying, this is a likely culprit.

  2. The garment, or something else in the cleaning load, contained moisture.

I’m guessing here, but it may also be possible that overly aggressive steam during pressing might also be a possibility.

Here’s a link: http://www.alexreid.com/alexreid/advice2.htm

3

As an owner of fine clothing of my own, I was told this by my tailor: Unless you have sweated like a pig, or spilled something horrid on a fine suit, you don’t ever really want to have them cleaned. They will not last through many washings at all. Have them PRESSED as needed for wrinkles, but after an hour or three of wearing, brush them off with a boar hair brush and hang them back up.

As a last ditch, take them to the nicest hotel in your vacinity and have them done there. You may have to get a room for the night, but it’s far cheaper than replacing Italian wool. Call the concierge and explain that you need to have your finery cleaned. They have experiance with that level of garment that the local dry cleaner won’t, and they do it in house. Trust me on this one.

4

Not having the item in front of me, I think that’s what we call progressive shrinkage.

This is something that IS caused by a manufacturing problem. It’s caused by the manufacr not properly pre-shrinking the fabric or the thread - the thread tightens up, causing the puckers that you see. This happens even on very expensive suits - it’s a quantity versus quality issue. It’s cheaper to produce suits this way, so that’s the way it’s done.

The International Fabric Institute is an independant place, like the Better Business Bureau of fabric. It’s been around for more than 80 years.
When the IFI says that the cleaner is not at fault, that means that the Dry Cleaner followed the directions given properly, but that the company did not give proper directions, or it was a manufacturing defect with the materials used. Personally, I trust their judgement. They send very detailed analysis sheets back. I’ve seen them judge both ways - sometimes we’re at fault, too.

Try to return the suit where you bought it, if you can. This is not a fixable problem, and is inherent in the suit. It will shrink everytime you have it cleaned, no matter where you have it done. If you can get away with it, try to just have it pressed.

5

Flashpoint,

You appear to know what you’re talking about and I thank you. I am not disagreeing with you as you undoubtly are more familiar than I in this regard. However, the chances that there are manufacturing defects in two different suits? In the exact same area? I was under the impression that Armani suits are not made cheaply.

When the first one happened a few years back we went to the store where they were purchased (Holt Renfrew) and the manager said that she hadn’t seen that before. She consulted the cleaners the store dealt with and they were skeptical of the cleaner too… I dunno… I wish this were easy. :frowning:

6

Interesting by ‘dry cleaning’ is not dry, but wet.

"Q. Does drycleaning shorten the life of a garment?

A. On the contrary, drycleaning prolongs a garments life. Not only do stains set with age, making the garment unwearable, but ground-in dirt and soil act as abrasives, causing rapid wear of fibers. Insects are attracted to soiled clothes and cause further damage. "

Q. What causes a “puckering” and excess fabric in shirt collars and cuffs?

A. This is caused by excessive shrinkage of the interfacing within the collar and cuffs. The manufacturer must select an interfacing, which is compatible with the shirt fabric. "

&

"Q. Does drycleaning shrink clothes?

A. No, not if the drycleaning process has been carefully controlled…(more at the URL)
https://id262.securedata.net/sparklecleaners/faq.php

7

Odd as it seems, shrinkage is actually a pretty common problem. Not to say shrinkage happens all the time, but as far as manufacturing defects, it’s really up there. (I’m going to spare you about the color loss problems that can occur due to a new variety of cheap coloring techniques that are currently reigning terror on the dry cleaning industry.)

Armani & Calvin suits may not be manufactured quite as cheaply as your Eddie Bauer or Banana Republic labels, but everything is made with the idea to make money. (You may be surprised how much clothing, especially suits, are made in places reputed for “sweat shop style” manufacturing.) If they weren’t making a handsome profit, they wouldn’t bother.

Retailers, clothing manufacturers and dry cleaners all have a love-hate relationship. If there’s a problem, it can get thick trying to get someone to own up to the responsibility for it.

If you have a good dry cleaner, and they make a mistake, they should own up to it. If they send it to IFI, they should be willing to accept they may be at fault. At our shop when deemed we’re not at fault for something, we give the IFI analysis to the customer so they can take it to the retailer and get their money back.

Now, lots of people who work in retail shops don’t know as much about fabric as someone who works in a dry cleaner might (I learned tons of things I had no clue about until I started where I am), and it’s not uncommon they haven’t heard about such problems. Also, the retailer doesn’t want to lose the sale. Now, I don’t mean to imply every retailer won’t honor your return, they’re just working with what they know and its common they’ll be skeptical.

No one really ever gets to talk the manufacturers directly in most cases, but this is where the IFI comes in handy. If they notice large amounts of problems with particular things they investigate them, and by golly- they have the right to fine manufacturers if they have poor, inappropriate, etc. care guidelines.

Not to stall the point, our poor customer can get caught between quite a battle between retailer and dry cleaner each one saying “he’s at fault, go get your money from him.”, and the customer probably doesn’t know who to believe until an analysis is actually done and a clear party is named (not everything is sent out for analysis immediately, something things are known problems).

If both suits were bought around they same time, they could be made with similar techniques and trends used at that time, though they are different brands. So, it could happen. (Here’s one of my personal hate new trends sweeping through right now: glues and adhesives holding in linings. Dry cleaning is a heated process, care to guess what a hot solvent does to adhesive? Another: using two dyes to produce a particular color [such as green and yellow to make beige], and one of the two isn’t colorfast. You end up with a one color item, and it isn’t beige…)

If your dry cleaner wants to send out this one for analysis too and you agree, ask if you can see the paperwork returned to him. A cleared cleaner should be more than willing to show off this information. And heck, don’t be satisfied until you do see it. Be sure, so you feel comfortable with the situation and resolution.

I appreciate that your clothes cost money, and you don’t want to see them ruined (I’m not rich, I’m not even middle class, I hate buying a piece of clothing that’s more than 10 or 15 bucks), and being caught where you are sucks, I know that. I wish I had the one true answer for you, but advising you to hang in there until there’s some real resolution is really the best I’ve got.

I don’t particulary like the clothes stretching thing either. Makes me nervous, though I’ve seen some fine results. The idea of it bugs me though…

As for hotels, some of them do have their own laundry services, but not all of them do it in house, some send out to a local cleaner. Before you hand over your finery, I suggest asking if they do it in house or not, for peace of mind if nothing else, they may send out to a place you’re avoiding! (All the hotels in my local area send out all their laundry services, mostly to my place, and one of them is a nice enough place you’d think they did their own stuff- I did.)

I guess I can ramble no more… Good Luck!

8

Re cupro

Cuprammonium Rayon Fibers

Rayon is a very dicey material to dry clean in some cases and will shrink easily unless drycleaner takes care.

9

Funny, but there is no www.armani.com …otherwise I would ask them what’s going on. It doesn’t seem to me that their stuff would shrink.