Avoid Dryers. They will break down the fibers of the fabric and cause the garment to shrink and age prematurely. Instead, Air-Dry on Hangers. Colban prefers wooden ones. “The width of the hanger should not overpass the width of the shirt shoulders. Make sure the shoulders are well laid on the hanger and more generally, pull a little bit the fabric of the shirt to limit wrinkles (this will facilitate ironing).” When storing hangers in the closet, she suggests leaving space between them — to keep the pressed shirts smooth. Rewash Stains. “Before ironing, it is important to check that there are no more stains. If there are, wash the shirt again.” Iron With Water. Colban advocates for steam or no steam, whatever you prefer, but cautions against completely dry ironing. “It is better to iron the shirt when it is still humid. If necessary, a spray with water can make ironing more easy.” Iron in Order. The correct ironing order is: collar, cuffs and then the rest of the shirt, says Colban.
Pack Them Well. Before traveling with a dress shirt: Button the shirt completely. Put a plastic or cardboard band — the kind that come inside new shirts from the store, or from the cleaners — inside the collar (to help support the collar and maintain its shape.) With the shirt front-side down, place a sheet of paper or tissue paper on the back of the shirt before folding it (to avoid creases). Use soft cases, like these, to keep the shirts in good condition. When piling the shirts, alternate their directions. Insider Tip: Wrinkle-Free Traveling. “I travel with a small spray bottle, and then I fill it with water,” says Bruce Pask, Bergdorf Goodman’s men’s fashion director. “When I unpack, I just give the shirts a quick spritz and tug on the bottom of the hem, and then the wrinkles kind of come out naturally without needing to press it again.”
T-Shirts The designer Tony Melillo, whose eponymous line of super soft T-shirts (ATM) is beloved by T’s web editors, wears a white T-shirt almost daily. Here are his simple tips for taking care of them. Wash Gently. Melillo suggests washing T-shirts with cold water and drying on permanent press to avoid wrinkles. Also, try OxiClean. “I’m not saying it’s going to take away pit stains but I put it in everything.” Stash Carefully. Folding T-shirts keeps them fluffy. Melillo suggests folding in the sleeves toward the back, and then folding the T-shirt in half once crosswise, to avoid creating extra creases. And keeping them in a light stack on the shelf. Don’t hang your T-shirts: He says it creates unsightly hanger marks, and it stretches them — T-shirts can grow an inch just from gravity’s effect on cotton.
Pants "Clean pants twice during the summer. And then when you’re done with the season, clean them once again before you put them back into your closet." —Bruce Pask, men’s fashion director at Bergdorf Goodman, a department store that specializes in luxury goods. To avoid high-maintenance care, Bergdorf Goodman’s men’s fashion director Bruce Pask recommends being mindful of the types of pants you buy in the first place. “I’m not a fan of a linen pant,” he says, for example. “I think they’re far too wrinkle-prone and fragile.” Instead, he sticks to worsted wool pants in the summer and wool flannel in the winter, both of which you can clean at home yourself. Pask’s other low-maintenance pants rituals include: Don’t Overwash. “I think your regime is a very personal choice but I would say, depending upon how heavy the rotation, clean pants twice during the summer. And then when you’re done with the season, clean them once again before you put them back into your closet.”
Insider Tip: Buying. Even if a pair of pants says it was prewashed, Pask cautions that a bit of shrinkage will inevitably happen in the laundry. “I make sure to give a little bit of allowance for shrinkage when I buy them.” Never Underestimate Moths. During a traumatizing moth infestation (from a European hotel, during fashion week), Pask discovered Insects Limited’s pheromone traps. “I order from them on a yearly basis and I’ll just get a set of traps and put them throughout the house just to have as a preventative measure.” For the less gung-ho, T’s market editor Angela Koh recommends stuffing drawers and closets with sachets of lavender to repel the pests and keep things smelling nice. Hang Mindfully. Instead of organizing pants by color, Pask suggests arranging them by season, keeping lighter-weight pants together on one end of the closet and heavier ones together separately — so that you can easily find what you’re looking for while getting dressed. Travel Smart. “Since I go to Italy so often for work, I bought an Italian travel iron there because no matter how good the adapters are with things like hair dryers and travel irons, the voltage variance is just never quite right and you end up blowing out the circuit of the item.” He also travels with a lint roller, and suggests a retractable option: Flint rollers are compact and keep the refillable lint sheets safe in your bag.
White Shirt DressPrepare to Sew. “Buttons just pop. It just happens. So whenever I’m at a hotel, I always take the sewing kit and just leave it in my luggage. Don’t be above taking them home — that’s what they’re there for.” (If you prefer something with nicer thread and tools, Sweethome tested 9 sewing kits to find the best.) Denim Jeans may be the most low-maintenance pants of all. According to Daniel Corrigan, half of the design duo behind Simon Miller, “Wearing raw denim consistently and not washing them will give you a more interesting pair of jeans down the road.” But he also adds that washing won’t hurt them, and turning jeans inside out will protect the indigo hue. Similarly, don’t worry about how you store your denim, whether folded neatly in a drawer or tossed into a pile on a chair — "the great thing about denim is that it’s not delicate"— and don’t think twice about wearing it every day, or getting holes. "The knees are typically the first to get worn out, but denim looks great with ripped knees!"
The longer you wait to remove a stain, the less likely you’ll be able to remove it. —Johnny Xirouchakis, general manager of Madame Paulette, a high-end, New York City cleaner. Madame Paulette, the gold standard for New York cleaners, is a fashion-world fixture (Vogue and Anna Wintour are clients). According to the company’s general manager, Johnny Xirouchakis, “It’s been proven in studies that the longer you wait to remove a stain, the less likely you’ll be able to remove it.” And his do-it-yourself stain-removal tip couldn’t be simpler: Wet a cloth with cold water. (Avoid using paper towels so that they don’t shed on your garment and create more of a mess.) Add a drop of dish detergent to the wet cloth. (Xirouchakis suggests using “a citrus-based soap — anything that smells like lemon or orange.”) Place another cloth beneath the stain if you can.
Press on the stain, over and over, to lift it out. Resist the urge to rub, or you might damage the fabric. You can let the stain sit overnight, even in water, before putting it in the laundry. Or you can wash immediately after treating the stain. Here, Madame Paulette’s experts share how to safely remove other kinds of stains at home — on garments that can be safely cleaned with water. Follow each instruction by washing the garment as you normally would. Blood or Ink. With a cloth underneath the soiled area, re-wet the stain with ice cold water. Using a Q-Tip or small towel soaked in a cleaning solution (5 ounces water, 1 ounce ammonia, 1 ounce peroxide, 1 ounce color safe detergent) lightly tap the stain, pushing it onto the cloth underneath.
