How to Care for a Bespoke Suit: Resting, Brushing, Pressing and Dry Cleaning

A fully canvassed suit, looked after, is worn for ten years and often longer. The same suit, hung on a wire hanger and sent to the dry cleaner every month, is tired in three. Almost none of the difference is accident. It is habit, and the habits are small ones.

This is what we tell clients when they collect a garment at 221 Culver Blvd. None of it takes more than a minute a day.

Rest it

The single most useful thing you can do for a suit is not wear it tomorrow. Wool is a living fibre, and it recovers its shape when left alone to dry out. A day of wear puts moisture into the cloth from the body and pulls the knees and elbows out of true; twenty-four to forty-eight hours on a hanger and most of that disappears by itself. This is the real argument for owning two suits rather than one. Worn in rotation they will outlast a single suit worn daily by considerably more than double, because neither is ever worn damp.

The hanger matters more than you think

A jacket hangs from its shoulders, and the shoulder is the most structured and least repairable part of the garment. It wants a broad wooden hanger with shaped ends that fill the shoulder of the coat. A thin wire hanger concentrates the whole weight into two points and, over a year, leaves a dimple in each shoulder that no amount of pressing takes out.

Trousers are better hung than folded, clipped at the cuff so their own weight pulls the creases straight, or laid over a wide bar. Leave air between garments: cloth crushed between other cloth creases, and a crease that sets needs pressing to remove.

Brush it

A clothes brush of natural bristle is the least glamorous and most valuable thing you can buy for a suit. Brush the jacket down, in the direction of the nap, from the shoulders to the hem, after every wear. It takes thirty seconds.

What it removes is not dust but grit: fine particles of city dirt that settle into the weave and cut the fibres like sand every time the cloth moves against itself. It also lifts the nap and brings back the depth of the colour, which people tend to notice before anything else.

Steam, do not iron

Most of what looks like damage after a day of wear is simply a crease, and a crease is water and time. Hang the suit in a bathroom while a hot shower runs, leave it twenty minutes, then let it dry on a hanger. A handheld steamer does the same job faster. If you must use an iron, keep it low and work through a damp cotton cloth, never directly on worsted: direct heat flattens the fibre ends and leaves a permanent shine, usually first on the seat and the point of the elbow, and shine cannot be reversed.

Never press a crease into a lapel. A lapel should roll, not fold, and the roll is put there by hand in the making. There is more on how a jacket is built in our piece on full canvas, half canvas and fused construction.

Dry clean far less than you think

Here is the honest answer, and it is not the one the dry cleaner gives. A suit worn once or twice a week needs dry cleaning perhaps twice a year, and a great many suits need it less than that.

Dry cleaning is a solvent bath followed by a hot press. The solvent strips the natural oils out of the wool, leaving it drier each time, and the press flattens the chest, where the canvas has been shaped by hand to sit against your body. A suit pressed flat forty times has had the shape ironed out of it.

Instead, in order: brush it, air it, steam it, spot clean the one mark that is actually there. Send it out when the garment genuinely smells or is genuinely soiled, ask for hand finishing rather than a machine press, and always send jacket and trousers together so they fade at the same rate.

Marks, rain and the things that happen

Blot, never rub: rubbing pushes a stain into the weave and lifts the surface of the cloth. Plain water on a cloth takes out most fresh things. For red wine, blot and then dab with soda water. For grease, do nothing beyond blotting the surface, because water sets it and a cleaner can lift it properly if you have not made it worse first.

Caught in rain, hang the suit properly and let it dry slowly at room temperature, away from any heater, shaping the shoulders with your hands while it is damp. Wool handles rain perfectly well; what it does not handle is being dried fast and hot, which shrinks and felts it.

Pockets

A jacket is cut and balanced to hang from the shoulders, and a phone, a wallet and a set of keys in the outside pockets pull it out of balance and stretch the pocket bags permanently. The inside breast pocket is the one that was made to carry something. Outside jacket pockets are for the hands of men standing in photographs, and little else.

Storing a suit out of season

Clean it before you put it away, even if it looks clean. Moths are not interested in wool; they are interested in what is on the wool, which is perspiration and food. A soiled suit stored for six months is the one that gets eaten. Store it in a breathable cotton garment bag, never plastic, which traps moisture and can yellow the cloth. Cedar or lavender in the wardrobe is pleasant and mildly effective; mothballs work but leave a smell that takes months to shift.

When to bring it back to us

A bespoke suit is not a finished object. It was cut for your body on one particular day, and bodies change. Bring it back when the trousers feel tight or loose at the waist, when the collar lifts away from the neck, or when a lining goes through at the armhole. Every garment we make carries one year of complimentary alterations from the day you take it home. After that, alterations are $80 an hour and most take an hour or less. We also repair and re-line garments we did not make; the tailoring services page sets out what we do.

Two repairs worth knowing about. A moth hole or small tear in a good cloth can be invisibly rewoven rather than patched. And a lining is a consumable: it wears out long before the cloth does, and replacing it makes a ten-year-old jacket feel new for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

What all of this is worth

A two-piece suit from the house starts at $1,795, fully canvassed and cut from a pattern drawn for one man, made by hand in our atelier in Southern Brittany. Spread over ten years of proper care, that is a cost per wearing off-the-peg clothing does not come close to, and it is the part of the argument usually left out. There is a fuller account on the bespoke page and on what a bespoke suit costs in Los Angeles.

If you have a garment that has not been looked after and you are not sure whether it is worth saving, bring it in and we will tell you honestly. The consultation takes an hour and costs nothing, and you will meet Robb or Ben. Book a consultation, or call 310-503-3592.

Questions we are often asked

How often should you dry clean a suit?

Twice a year at most for a suit worn once or twice a week, and less for one worn rarely. Dry cleaning strips the natural oils from wool and the hot press flattens the hand-shaped canvas in the chest. Brushing, airing, steaming and spot cleaning handle almost everything between cleans.

Can you wash a wool suit at home?

No. Water and agitation shrink and felt wool, and a tailored jacket contains canvas, padding and tape that will shrink at different rates from the cloth and buckle the garment permanently. Spot clean with plain water on a cloth, and send it out when it genuinely needs it.

How do you get wrinkles out of a suit without an iron?

Hang it in a bathroom with a hot shower running for twenty minutes and let it dry on a broad wooden hanger, or use a handheld steamer. If you use an iron, keep it on low and work through a damp cotton cloth. Direct heat on worsted leaves a permanent shine.

How long should a bespoke suit last?

A fully canvassed suit that is rested between wears, brushed, and cleaned rarely is commonly worn for ten years or more, and can be re-lined and altered along the way. A fused jacket has a shorter life regardless of care, because the glue in the chest eventually separates and bubbles.

What is the best hanger for a suit jacket?

A broad wooden hanger with shaped ends that fill the shoulders of the coat. Thin wire hangers concentrate the weight of the jacket at two points and leave dimples in the shoulders that pressing will not remove.

How should you store a suit for the summer?

Have it cleaned first, because moths are drawn to perspiration and food residue rather than to the wool itself. Store it on a proper hanger in a breathable cotton garment bag, never plastic, with cedar or lavender in the wardrobe.

Do you alter and repair suits you did not make?

Yes. Alterations are $80 an hour and most take an hour or less. Garments made by Mr James carry one year of complimentary alterations from the day of collection. We also reweave moth holes and replace worn linings.