Top 10 Tips for Preserving Expensive Dresses

My wardrobe is always bulging out with clothes, how do I manage my wardrobe? Most of the times it’s the large number of clothes that are picked up at the spur of a moment.

Several Cheap Apparels Vs Limited Expensive Apparels

Did you notice we are buying use-and-throw apparels more often? Rather than buying a limited number of expensive dresses? What makes us afraid in buying an expensive dresses like gowns, lehengas, heavy-embroidered garments? Do we feel repeating it at many occasions would reduce our style statement? Or have we forgotten the art of preserving our expensive dresses?

Gone are the days when one maintained wardrobes and wardrobes of apparels and wasted a lot of time in managing them. The monetary aspect also remains the same in both the approaches because the wastage in buying several cheap clothes is far more.

Why Should I Reduce my Wardrobe?

The real estate to keep them too is bothersome as our homes become more refined and unaccustomed to waste. Only reasons one would wish to manage a limited set of good-fitting apparels vs several cheap apparels are:

1. Peace of mind
2. Wardrobe real estate
3. Cost of recycling the cheap clothes

So, it’s a collection of limited good quality apparels that are easier to manage and always feel special. This strategy wins in the long term.

Main Problems in Preserving Expensive Dresses

If we often are worried with the upkeep of our expensive dresses then there could be several reasons to it. And often we don’t know the correct procedure to keeping our apparels in best shape.

Let’s study what are the problems that we experience or fear

1. Apparels get crushed/crumpled during storage, one has to iron them again before wearing.
2. They get damaged by silver fish/moth when kept without protection.
3. The beads/embroidery/chikan/zari, etc., work gets damaged as they rub against each other during storage.
4. Spots appear at the place where perfume is sprayed.
5. Zips do not work after they are taken out from long storage.
6. Button holes become bigger and buttons come out easily by self from them.

Do you think these problems are too great to solve? No, these are actually very simple problems that can be solved if appropriate storage techniques are used.

How Should I Preserve my Expensive Apparels?

1. Reading the tag instructions: Reading the tag instruction is the last thing we do as we feel its not important. Remember to always read the instruction on the care label before washing any of your garments. Most pieces come with specific instructions on using the right washer setting, detergent or washing them inside out to preserve their life span.
2. Selecting the right dry cleaner: Dry Cleaner plays an important role in your apparels life. Choosing a good dry-cleaner is important as the place where dry-cleaning of your apparels happens is the key to ensure that your expensive garments remain in original condition for a long time. For Indian apparels with intricate flourishes, make sure that the pieces are dry-cleaned by a special technique where the ornamentation is covered with net.
3. Washing similar colour clothes together: Same colour garments should be washed together. Separation of colours while washing garments is a must. As many of the custom made outfits have delicate embroidery, hand detailing and textures on the pieces, the best way to ensure that they are not ruined is to dry clean them.
4. Steam ironing for removing stains: Steam ironing outfits is the ideal way to avoid iron marks, lines and creases especially on delicate fabrics like silk jersey. There are various options available for home-use steam irons which are very simple to maneuver and not particularly time consuming.
5. Giving special care to woollen garments: Delicate garments like woollen garments, cashmere or silk knits must be dry cleaned first and then stored in transparent air tight plastic containers or bags.
6. Covering embroidery of garments: Storing your embroidered clothing in white soft (mal-mal) fabric or keep a butter paper over it to ensure that the embroidery does not get tarnished or blacken over time. You could opt for plastic or fabric covers—the main-point for both is to keep dust, moisture and insects away.
7. Keeping leather/fur in cool place: Since original leather is made from living thing – it could have traces of microbes. Leather and suede should be stored in a closet which is cool and well ventilated and should be stored in muslin or soft mal-mal fabric.
8. Rolling linen before storing: If linen garments are stacked over each other you sure would need to iron them once you take them out again. So rolling them and then storing works a long way. Linen garments should be rolled first and stored to avoid permanent creases.
9. Never hanging knitted fabrics/jerseys: Knitted and silk jersey fabrics should be stored flat as they tend to hang and lose shape if they are hung on a hanger.
10. Hanging heavy garments on thick padded hangers: The heavy apparels have various paddings, folds that might lose their crease if they are stored in a folded condition. Hanging your heavy outfits such as lehengas, anarkalis, long jackets and gowns on thick padded hangers is a better way to store them over folding them.

IMPORTANT TAKEAWAY

Areas where the garments are stored should be dark and cool as light tends to fade colours and attract insects. Moths are often drawn to the smell of perfume. A good way to keep them away is to ensure that your fragrance does not get into your clothing when your store it in your cupboard. Adding moth balls, cedar blocks or sachets with lavender or rosemary in the storage area while storing your garments is also an effective way to avoid moths.

There are times the garment maker itself provides the cloth storage material such as this that goes a long way in cloth maintenance. It protects. Bloomdaloom provides one with every purchase you make with them to ensure you properly store your expensive dresses.

So, overall the place of storage, the way it is stored and the treatment done to the garment before storing are the main factors that should to be considered to preserve the garment.