THE JO-TEL …believes some of what Nathaniel and John say, but believes England is still our sovreign

In this instalment, PETE gives us his definitive, boring guide to laundered clothes.
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The rule of thumb for shirts is, if they’re new, dry clean them topreserve the color. After a few dry cleanings, the color with stayfast, so you should get them laundered.

Most places I’ve been to will always ask whether you want your cotton items dry cleaned or laundered. But if they don’t, assume they dry clean everything. Also, they’re generally pretty close in price, with laundry being a bit cheaper, generally around the $2 per shirt range.

Wool, satin, or pretty much anything that’s dry-clean only will automatically be dry cleaned.

They key to not getting ties ruined is to ask that they not press them, but steam them only. Same goes from pretty much anything, like silk or synthetics like Rayon, that have a sheen. Those fabrics are easily burned and you’ll get that shiny effect around seams, which pretty much ruins the stuff.

Also, some places press sweaters which, if they’re not 100% wool, can also easily burn, so request no press on those as well.

One more thing, if you don’t mind paying the extra buck or so, there’s nothing wrong with getting your shirts dry cleaned every time. I generally dry clean all of my shirts that are no mostly white with colored checks or pinstripes or whatever. If they’re mostly white, I’ll get them dry cleaned the first two times and then laundry.

I also generally ask for no starch or very light starch on the shirts. Some people like the starch because it makes the shirts look mad crisp, but they also will hold wear wrinkles better, which leads to more ironing for me, which I hate. Whereas if you don’t get them starched you can let them hang and most of the wear wrinkles will just sort of naturally fall out.

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