Garment care practices that I've found to be useful. 🧵 This thread does not contain affiliate links, secret ads, paid…

Garment care practices that I've found to be useful. 🧵 This thread does not contain affiliate links, secret ads, paid tweets, sponsorships, gifted products, influencer discount codes, subscriptions, etc. It's simply based on my experiences and interviews with professionals.

Michael J. Miraflor@michaelmiraflor · Aug 29, 2026

Wish more menswear influencers and creators focused on things like DIY tailoring or how to maintain and care for garments for the long term, etc. Like genuinely useful info on how to store, wash, etc your stuff. 95% of menswear content is just about consumption / buying things.

If you own any kind of tailored clothing — suits, sport coats, tailored trousers, tailored overcoats — then you need a garment brush. Dry cleaning can be hard on tailoring, so you should do it infrequently. Most men I know dry clean clothes one a year — if that.

Lay tailored trousers on a hard surface and brush along the grain of the cloth. For jackets, support the coat from the shoulders and brush downward. Anthony Rowland of Henry Poole demonstrates the technique in this video with Simon Crompton of Permanent Style.

I particularly like garment brushes from Kent England, which you can buy at retail or find second-hand on eBay. I have two: a double-sided one with different stiffnesses for the bristles and a specialized one for cashmere. TBH, I almost exclusively use the first.

Brush garments out every few wears, taking care to brush out lint and dust from crevices (such as inside trouser cuffs). Between dry cleanings, you can also send a garment in for what's known as a "sponge and press," which is gentler on your clothes.

Fine tailoring should always be hung on a hanger with flared shoulders to preserve the jacket's shape. Better still if the hanger's collar is round to preserve the jacket's collar. For long term storage, use cotton canvas garment bags, as plastics can off gas over time.

Fine knitwear should always be washed by hand. You can do this by simply filing up a basin with room temperature water, then submerging your sweater. I use Soak for detergent, as it's suds free. Take care to not let running water hit your sweaters or wring it when it's wet.

To dry your sweater, gather it into a ball and squeeze out as much water as you can. Then roll it into a towel like a burrito to remove even more water. Finally, lay it to dry on a sweater drying rack. I use these from Whitmor, which can be stacked and deconstructed for storage.

Even the best-made sweaters will eventually pill, so you'll want to use something to remove those fuzzy balls. I find sweater shavers to be better than sweater combs, as the second only adds more breakage in the yarns, contributing to future pilling.

A few years ago, I spent about $100 on sweater shavers and found Conair’s Fabric Defuzzer to be my favorite. It doesn't feel the sturdiest and it's not the prettiest to look at (that award goes to Steamery), but it's big, easy to handle, and effective. Plus, it's cheap at $17.

To store sweaters, always fold and never hang, as mechanical stretch can distort the shoulders. For long term, off-season storage, put them in a clear bin. Then lay a pillowcase over the top before snapping the lid down. This will keep out moths and silverfish.

The most common failure point for t-shirts is at the neck. This area can get stretched out, distorted, and wavy, sometimes because there's too much mechanical movement in the wash. To minimize this, put t-shirts in laundry bags. I like iDesign's, as they have a durable zip pull.

To remove stains, I've found three useful products: OxiClean (far and away the most useful), Dad Mode pre-treatment stain remover, and Dirty Labs's Laundry Boosters. Pretreatments like Dad Mode send a scattershot of enzymes that attack different types of molecules.

But if your stain is not made of those molecules, then it's not very useful. Still, good to have in the laundry room. Upon spraying, tamp with a stiff bristle brush; don't scrub, as you can ruin the fibers. It can also help to rub a drop of clear dish detergent into the stain.

However, OxiClean is far and away the most useful product I've used, as it's an oxygen-based cleaner with sodium percarbonate and surfactants that help emulsify oils and lift stains. Always follow the package instructions. It's safe on cotton, but not silks or wools.

If your garment is important, consider sending it to a professional. Water-based stains, such as juice, can be removed in a wet wash. But oil based stained, such as pizza drippings, may require dry cleaning. It helps to identify the type of stain before proceeding with treatment.

You can use this thread to find a good dry cleaner. However, if you don't trust anyone that's local to you, you can always send stuff to Jeeves (NYC) or RAVE FabriCARE (Scottsdale, Arizona). They are among the two best cleaners in the US.

derek guy@dieworkwear · Apr 24, 2024

Let's talk about how to find a good dry cleaner. 🧵

I think it's easy to get carried away with shoe care, but you only really need to do a few things. Fine dress shoes should be stored with shoe trees, ideally ones made on the shoe's last (although those are nearly impossible to find nowadays). These preserve the shoe's shape.

Always use a shoe horn when putting on shoes, as your heel can otherwise crush the shoe's heel stiffener, which will be somewhat expensive to repair. I use cream and wax polish once every few years. Apply with a dauber and brush out with a horsehair brush.

Since I apply shoe cream once every few years, I've found that I don't need to use leather conditioner. Still, it's good to keep a bottle on hand for when leather looks a bit dry, as dried out leather can crack easily. You can also add a sole protector to extend the shoe's life.

I personally don't do this because I prefer the look of an all-leather sole. But a cobbler can add this for about $20. The rubber also provides a bit more grip and protection in the rain (wet leather wears down faster, much like wet cardboard).

At the end of every summer, I also clean my sneakers using Jason Marrk's "Essential Kit." It's basically a soapy solution that's safe for any kind of material. Add the solution to water, apply with a brush, and then scrub. Stuff the shoes with paper towels and allow to dry.

For DIY care, learning how to sew a button is probably the easiest thing you can pick up. You can buy a basic mending kit from your local crafts and notions store, or even a supermarket. Picking up this skill takes maybe ten mins — if that. Look up tutorials online.

When you sew a button by hand, you have the opportunity to add a shank, which is wrapping the thread under the button a few times, so it stands proudly. This can make it easier to fasten the button, especially if the garment is made from a thick cloth (e.g., an overcoat).

Finally, here is a service directory for companies that can help you clean and mend garments. I recommend keeping it on hand for when emergencies come up. I will try to do more threads like this in the future on how to mend holes and treat stains. putthison.com/a-service-dire…

Also, for more articles on care and maintenance, you can check out this link. I've been writing about menswear for over fifteen years. Much of this work is about how to care for a wardrobe and the information I put up is always available for free. putthison.com/tag/care-and-m…