An investment in your wardrobe is an investment in yourself. When you buy a designer dress or a tailored suit, you don’t intend to just wear it a couple of times and then throw it away; you intend for it to become a part of the image that you present to the world for years to come.

For this reason, you expect to pay more for these items than you would for something you get in a department store or thrift shop.

Since you ask a lot from your clothes, it only makes sense to also expect to put a fair amount of effort into cleaning and maintaining them. You can’t expect to just ignore the care label on laundry day and have your clothes emerge from the dryer in perfect condition. Treating your garments as an investment includes taking proper care of them; anything less would be a waste of their long-term potential for beauty and function.

So when you need clean clothes, and you have certain items that you hope will stand the test of time, give them the best chance by choosing a dry cleaning service with an excellent reputation for amazing customer service and professional results.

The Dry Cleaning Process: Help Your Clothes Retain Their Condition

There are many reasons why a certain outfit might require dry cleaning services. Some are simply because of the fabric that was used to make the clothes. Others need dry cleaning because of delicate stitching, complex padding, or decorations like embroidery, sequins or beads that would simply come loose and be ruined by conventional laundry.

So if your care tag recommends dry cleaning, it may be a good idea to try to determine why that recommendation was made. Then, choose a reputable dry cleaning service that will pay careful attention to the unique requirements of your garments.

How Dry Cleaning Differs From Other Laundry Services

Dry cleaners use solvent-based cleaning instead of water-based, which means that clothes that may be damaged by water will not be exposed to hydration.

In the dry cleaning machine, dirt and stain removal is accomplished with the solvent spray, and the clothes are agitated to ensure thorough exposure and cleaning; the chemical solvent is then recovered, redistilled, and used again for the next batch of clothes, while the articles in the machine are gently tumbled dry to ensure that no solvent (or other harmful chemicals) remains in their folds.

Once the clothes are finished, they are carefully checked by staff for lingering stains. After that they are quickly and efficiently pressed, ensuring that they return to you in pristine condition.

Why Dry Cleaned Clothes Last Longer

Many people choose to simply launder their dry clean only clothing, ignoring the label. While your clothes may survive this treatment for a while, they will lose quality over time.

The washing machine is a harsh environment. straps and cords get tangled and the agitation and spin cycles are made even more violent by the presence of water, which makes the clothing more heavy and therefore more prone to being stretched out of shape.

High-end clothing may also have artfully placed padding, boning and other structural elements that can be irreversibly displaced by the forces exerted by the washing machine.

Upon removal from the conventional washer, clothes need to be dried somehow. For some clothes the dryer is a suitable choice, but others will be shrunk or otherwise damaged by the dry heat; but hanging can also lead to the clothing becoming misshapen and damaged, and if it takes too long for them to dry they can grow mildew.

The dry cleaning process is much less likely to damage your clothing in these ways. There will be no damaging spin cycle, no hot dryer, and no chance of mildew.

Laundry and Dry Cleaning: Impeccable Maintenance For All Your Favorite Items

So when your wool pea coat, your sequined gown or your favorite dress slacks need to be cleaned, please don’t toss them in the washer. Bring them instead to the dry cleaners, where their professional techniques and attention to detail will result in clean clothes that look good as new and are ready to wear at the moment of pick-up.

Also ask them about dry cleaning your favorite purse, returning it to pristine condition without damaging it. While you are there, some bedspreads should also be dry cleaned, so make the most of your trip to the cleaners by bringing other items that require dry cleaning.