Care Tips For Your Suit

Unlike the more casual tee and jeans part of men's fashion, suits aren't usually the items you get for 24/7 utility. You wear one to a fancy event for an evening and then put it into your closet until the next posh ball. Or maybe you wear a heavy suit for fall and winter, and then forget about it until September comes around again. Whatever and however you use your suits, there's a proper way of storing them to make them last as long as they can.

Hang It Up
Ask any fashion guru and he'll tell you that the shape of the suit is one of its most crucial elements. Once it loses its sharp, snazzy shape, you may as well chuck it in the bin and go out to buy a new one. That's why you have to learn to always hang up your suit after you use it, no exceptions. And there's a 'proper' way of doing that, too.

Some men just can't lose the habit of hanging their suits up on the back of a chair or a clothes peg when they finish. With all the weight that goes into making a suit, hanging one up on anything other than a hanger is the surest road to getting it all messed up. Get yourself a set of wood hangers with full shoulder support; there has to be some heft to keep the shoulders of the garment in their natural shape.

It's the shoulders that are the most important thing to maintain in a suit jacket, which is why you should really invest in a full-shouldered wood hanger. Those minimalist style wire pieces won't cut it. It's worth the purchase, too; new hangers are always cheaper than a new suit, any way you look at the situation.

Seal It In
One of the less common practices among men and their fashion is storing them in airtight containers. Believe it or not, simple exposure to air can already inflict damage on fabrics. Keeping them in one of those vacuumseal bags keeps them away from air, pollution and insect damage, all things that threaten your suits.

You don't need very many; just one for each suit piece you have. A two piece suit would thus require two separate vacuum bags, as the compression of the pants against the jacket could deform one or both pieces. It's not like you have to keep them in airtight storage after each and every usage, anyway. Reserve the vacuum bags for those times when the suit won't be seeing the sun for at least a week. Otherwise, a garment bag will be enough.

Full Steam Ahead
If you're serious about your fashion and how you maintain it, you'll want to consider a personal steamer unit. These things quickly and safely get wrinkles and creases out of your suits and just about any garment you have. Because it's just water and indirect heat, it's practically idiot proof because it's hard to actually over steam anything.

The crucial word there is 'indirect', which is how you should handle cleaning up your suit. Methods that require direct contact, dry cleaning is a prime example, should be done sparingly to prevent excess stress and strain on the fabric. That's why you should time all treatments and procedures that you do on your suit so that you end up doing them as infrequently as possible.

For example, send your suit only to the dry cleaners just before you put it into longterm storage, once or twice a year is ideal. That way, you get the dirt and sweat out of the suit before storing it, and you get a fresh, clean smelling suit once you take it out of storage. Anything more than is excessive.

Steaming, on the other hand, should be done before you wear the suit. After every time you wear your suit, let it hang in the open for a while to let the sweat and moisture wick out naturally. Steaming a sweaty suit could potentially cause damage to the stressed and moist fabrics, which is exactly what you want to avoid.