How often should you dry clean a suit?

For a suit worn a couple of times a week, three or four cleans a year is about right. Cleaning a suit more often than it needs is one of the commonest ways people wear one out, and cleaning it far too rarely is the other. The useful rule is to clean it when it is dirty, smells, or has a stain, and to handle everything else with brushing, airing and pressing.

Why not clean it more often?

Every clean puts a garment through mechanical action and heat. Wool suiting is woven from fibres that have a finite tolerance for that, and the parts of a suit that fail first, the lining at the underarm, the trouser seat and the collar roll, fail through friction and pressing, not through dirt. A suit cleaned every fortnight because it has been worn will look tired in a year. The same suit cleaned quarterly and brushed weekly will hold its shape far longer.

What to do between cleans

• Brush it down after wearing, with a clothes brush, working downwards. This removes the dust and grit that abrades fibres.
• Hang it on a broad wooden or shaped hanger, not a wire one, and give it a day off between wears so the wool can recover.
• Air it overnight somewhere with moving air rather than putting it straight back in a packed wardrobe.
• Press it when it looks creased rather than cleaning it. A press is a smaller intervention than a clean and costs less.
• Deal with a spill quickly by blotting, not rubbing, and bring it in rather than attacking it with a home remedy.

Always clean the whole suit together

Jacket and trousers go in together, every time, even when only the trousers have been worn. Cleaning shifts colour very slightly. Clean the trousers three times without the jacket and you will eventually have two pieces that no longer match under daylight, which is not recoverable. This is the single most common avoidable mistake we see.

When to clean it regardless of the schedule

• There is a visible stain. Do not wait, and do not let it set.
• It smells of smoke, food or perspiration. Airing will not fix a set-in smell.
• It is going into storage for the season. Moths are attracted to soiled wool, not clean wool, so store it clean.
• It has been rained on heavily and dried out of shape.

What about a suit worn every day?

If you wear a suit five days a week, rotate two or three of them rather than cleaning one more often. Rotation is cheaper than replacement and it is much better for the garment. With rotation, each suit still only needs cleaning three or four times a year.

Cleaning a suit in Gillingham

We clean suits in water with biodegradable detergent rather than perc, press them and return them on a hanger, and most are back within 48 hours of when we have them. If the lining has gone at the underarm or a trouser hem has dropped, we mend it on the same ticket rather than sending you to a tailor. Call 01634 577066, walk in at The Boathouse on Ocean Drive, or book a collection. Collection and drop-back are free on orders of £45 or more.