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A
GENTLEMAN
TAKES CARE
OF HIS
CLOTHES

A Guide to Preserving Your
Investment

A gentleman considers his clothes an investment. He buys the best-quality garments he can afford and has them tailored so that he looks and feels comfortable.

Thus, he does his best to make his clothes last—and look good—for as long as possible. Upon arriving home, he removes his suit jacket or sports coat and drapes it over the back of a chair. He takes off his trousers and lays them across a chair arm. He never returns his clothes directly to the closet. Instead, he lets them air out overnight, checking them in the morning for any stains or splotches. When it comes time for him to hang his slacks or his suit pants in the closet, he clips them by their cuffs to a hanger equipped with the necessary grippers. Unless he is trapped in a hotel room where no other option is available, a gentleman never hangs his trousers over a standard hanger. He knows that if he does so, when he needs those trousers again they will require a trip to the ironing board to remove the knee-level creases.

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In many cases, and especially if a gentleman’s clothes are constructed of high-quality, naturalfiber goods, he may remove stains and splotches by using a clean, lightly dampened washcloth and some delicate rubbing, removing any leftover moistness with a hand-held blow-dryer, turned to the lowest heat setting available.

He knows that it is morsels and dribblings of leftover food that attract moths to his fine wool jackets and slacks. They come to his closet to lay their eggs within the fibers of his jackets, especially in spots already enriched with foodstuff for the moths’ emerging larvae. Cedar chips help keep the pests away. Clean jackets do an even better job.

The goal is for a gentleman to send his clothes to the dry cleaner as seldom as possible. Even the highestquality dry-cleaning operation uses chemicals that attack and weaken fibers—especially synthetics. The seams of some high-style suits may even be “fused” rather than stitched, which means, basically, that they have been glued together. Dry-cleaning chemicals are particularly hard on fused seams.

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To make matters worse, even high-quality garments are often stitched with synthetic thread that eventually dissolves after being repeatedly subjected to the dry-cleaning process. If a gentleman sends his suits to the dry cleaner after every wearing and begins to note signs of deterioration, the problem is not with the dry cleaner. The problem is his, a problem of poor stewardship and lax maintenance.

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Because he may need the skill at
any time, a gentleman knows how
to sew on a button.

At home, at the office, or when traveling,
a gentleman is never without a needle,
black and white thread, and a few extra
buttons, in a variety of sizes. Even on
workday mornings—especially in the
few frantic seconds before an important
meeting—he will be grateful to have his
button-sewing skill and the necessary
resources ready at hand.

A gentleman establishes a professional
relationship with his dry cleaner, making
sure the dry cleaner knows how he prefers
his shirts to be starched and how he
wishes his pants to be creased.

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A gentleman points out any stains or
spots on his clothes when he brings them
to the dry cleaner. He does not assume his
dry cleaner will simply catch them and
make them disappear.

A wise gentleman examines his clothes
after he picks them up at the laundry
or dry cleaner, checking for cracked
or lost buttons, ripped pockets, or
malfunctioning zippers.

A gentleman does not assume that his dry
cleaner is a miracle worker.

A gentleman knows that over time,
professional dry cleaning and laundering
will take a toll on his clothing.

A gentleman knows his dry
cleaner’s name.

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A gentleman never hangs his suit or
sports coat on a wire hanger.

A gentleman never hangs his sweaters
on hangers of any sort.

A gentleman uses shoe trees even
if they are of the most inexpensive,
plastic variety.

A gentleman maintains a selection of
spare shoelaces.

Even if he has thrown away an old dress
shirt, a gentleman saves the collar stays.