On the Care and Feeding of Couture, or How NOT to Destroy Your Apparel

One of the crucial things to keep in mind about buying good clothes is how to maintain them. And despite what you might think, it's not by having them consistently dry-cleaned.

Why is that? Let's take a quick look at what happens when your fine designer men's apparel is put through a typical dry cleaning routine.

Clothes are placed in a large machine, similar to a household washing machine. Now, dry cleaning doesn't use water, but it does rely on a liquid solvent. That solvent is pumped continuously into the machine's rotating chamber. Continuously and forcefully -- the typical solvent is almost twice as heavy as water, and is often pumped through your clothes at a rate of about 1,500 gallons an hour. If a cycle lasts for eight minutes, the clothes would be doused during mechanical action with 200 gallons of solvent. (Thanks to HowStuffWorks.com for these last two stats.)

All the while, the clothes are also being worked over by baffles, which serve to agitate fabric and pound out stains.

After a session, the clothes are spun (like in the final cycle of a household washer) to remove the solvent. That's followed by a cycle that's not unlike your household clothes dryer -- clothes are heated to get the last bit of solvent out.

Ouch -- that's a lot of abuse for your fine designer apparel to take. Over not much time, the dry cleaning process can weaken seams and dull fabric. Eventually, your expensive (or expensive-seeming) finery will look like little more than crud.

How to minimize the damage? Well, for one thing, don't use the dry cleaner too often. And by too often, I mean more than monthly. That can even be pressing it -- take good care of your high-quality suits, and you should only have to get them dry cleaned annually.

Between trips to your dry cleaner, clean your couture by hand. That's right -- detergent and water. (Or get someone else to do it, naturally.) Hang to dry. For your most expensive suits, get out stains immediately with a bit of mild detergent and water applied directly to the stain.

For less-expensive clothing, you can wash them in household washing machines and hang to dry. Some cheaper fabrics can even be dried in dryers, but always check the labels before doing so. You still can't go wrong with hanging.

A caveat: Many often feel that darker-colored dress shirts should be dry cleaned rather than machine-washed, so as to prevent fading. Essentially, you're trading luster and construction to maintain color -- keep this in mind when buying dark shirts. They have a limited lifespan any way you cut it.

As for suits, have them professionally steamed and pressed regularly to keep them looking crisp. Having your other clothes professionally steamed also prolongs their longevity, since the iron can damage or dull fabric.