Lengthen the Life of Your Clothing
Care and cleaning can have a long-lasting impact on the life of your custom clothing. Help your attire enjoy a long life by taking care to store and care for it properly.
Suits should rest for at least 24 hours between wearings. This allows the suit fabric to breathe and return to its original shape. Place the suit coat on a wooden hanger with one to two inches of space between it and its neighbor. If possible, store trousers on a hanger which allows them to hang from the cuffs. When storing on a hanger with a pant bar, check creases and straighten the edges before hanging.
Take your suit to the cleaners once or twice a season to maximize freshness and appearance. Over-cleaning can reduce the life of the suit. Some wrinkles can be reduced by steaming the suit, either by hanging on the back of the bathroom door while running hot water, or with a portable steamer. Be careful to avoid excessive moisture by removing the suit after a few minutes.
Shoes, like suits, need to rest at least a day between wearings. Store your dress shoes on a wooden shoe tree to let them regain their shape, breathe, and shed excess moisture.
Caring for and protecting fine clothing lengthens its usefulness, enabling you to maximize your wardrobe investment.
Can I wear a striped tie with a striped shirt? What about with a striped suit?
While some would say, “Enough already with the stripes,” if you’re the adventurous type you could pull off a look that works if you follow some simple guidelines. First, when it comes to lining up the stripes, a little goes a long way. Next, keep the color palettes in the same family. Finally, watch the size and scale of the pattern, being certain to vary the scale, like wide with narrow. Wear a wide stripe tie with a narrow-spaced striped shirt or a narrow-spaced striped shirt with wider spaced striped suits. You have to feel comfortable with what you’re wearing, of course, so if stripes-on-stripes isn’t your thing, stick to convention. Dressing well should be a fun form of creative self-expression, so break old habits and be a little brave when it comes to mixing it up.
The Great Circle
The maxim, “You only have one chance to make a positive first impression”, is undoubtedly familiar to those who appreciate and have chosen to wear custom tailored clothes. You understand that you have only 4-5 seconds in which to make that critical first impression.
Focus your attention on what is known as the great circle. It is the area that encompasses your shoulder, face, shirt collar, jacket lapel, necktie and breast pocket on your suit or sport jacket. The visual impact made by keeping harmony among the elements in your great circle cannot be over emphasized. The right tie, the correct shirt collar and color, and the proper balance of scale and proportion in one’s accessories can make all the difference in the world. Take care to see that people’s first impression of you is a positive and lasting one. Today, no one can afford to make an impression that is anything less than the best.
