How To Clean A Silk Tie

Never, ever use water to try to clean a silk tie. Water and silk do not mix. You will destroy it if you do that. How to properly clean a silk tie, depends on what has happened, and where you are. It is a small spot of pasta sauce that splashed on your tie, or a full on major spill that has formed a giant stain? If you notice a silk tie needs cleaning and you are home looking over your wardrobe, just choose another, and take the tie for dry cleaning when you have the chance.

Be sure to tell the dry cleaners that the tie is silk, point out the stain, speak slowly and clearly, and make sure they mark the stain or write it down. Even dry cleaners frequently ruin silk ties by using improper methods. If they don't treat the stain properly, the dry cleaning process can actually make the stain harder to remove.

If you are at an event, and the lady standing next to you is bumped by some uncouth clod as he passes by , just enough for her to tip her glass of red wine and splash your tie, be gracious about it, excuse yourself and go immediately to the men's room. The question now is are you prepared?

Do you have the knowledge of what to do? Were you smart enough to bring along one of the new pen-shaped instant stain removers. Kudos if you did that because they really work and are very convenient to carry along in the inside pocket of your jacket. If you are empty handed, then the first thing to do is remove as much of the liquid as possible.

Blot the tie with clean paper towels. If you are lucky the appearance of the stain will reduce considerably. This is especially true if you had the foresight to treat all your ties with stain guard spray, just to be prepared for a moment like this. A tie treated with spray on stain guard with simply need a little blotting in the right places and voila' the liquid is absorbed from the surface of the tie, which has not be allowed to penetrate any deeper.

If you were not prepared with stain-guarded ties and the blotting is not completely effective there is one thing more you can do, besides hiding out in the men's room until all the guest have gone home. You can use a substitute for the best thing to use to clean silk ties, which is rubbing alcohol.

At home, using clean paper towels, you can saturate the stain with rubbing alcohol and then gently blot the stain away. It may take many repeats to totally get rid of it, depending on how old the stain is, but this works for just about anything. You can gently dry the tie with a hair drier between applications until you see that the stain is completely gone.

But if you are in a pinch at an event, let's hope they have an open bar and go get a shot of unflavored vodka, straight up, with no ice (ice is water!). In an emergency you can use this straight vodka as a substitute for rubbing alcohol to get rid of the stain by the blotting method, then use the hand drier for drying the tie if there is one in the restroom or wait patiently to let your tie air dry. Then go back to the young lady who now owes you the favor of a dance.