Laundry Love

by Patric Richardson

    Start with the collar, first removing any collar stays (if applicable). Iron the underside of the collar, moving in the direction of its point from one end to the middle and then from the other end to the middle. Then flip the collar over and repeat this process. Do not refold the collar and iron the crease. If your shirt has a yoke (a separate section across the shoulders), iron the yoke flat, working from each side to the center.

    Next, iron the cuffs and the sleeves. Unbutton one cuff and iron its inside and then its outside, carefully moving the iron’s point around the buttons. If it’s a French cuff, unfold the cuff and iron it flat; don’t refold and iron the crease. Next, ensure that the two layers of the sleeve’s fabric align; even refold, if possible, along the previously ironed crease. Then iron the sleeve from its top edge to its bottom edge; flip the sleeve over to iron from its top edge to its bottom edge again on the other side. Repeat this entire process with the other cuff and sleeve. Alternatively, with a steam-generating iron (which you can use vertically), you can iron sleeves to perfection while the shirt is on a hanger. Roll up a thick magazine (I use Vogue) and place it into one of the sleeves. Then iron the sleeve, actually pressing the iron to the cloth, all the way around its circumference. (Again, be careful so you don’t burn yourself.)

    Next, iron half of the shirt’s front. Place the side of the shirt with the buttons at the wide end of the ironing board, hugging the inside of the shirt’s shoulder around the board’s corner. Iron the shirt near the buttons, carefully moving the iron’s point around them. Then press the iron from the shoulder down to the hem. Ensure the top of the shirt looks especially smooth since that area will get more attention when you wear it.

    Then pull the shirt around the ironing board to iron half of the back of the shirt, moving the iron down the shirt, from shoulder to hem. Pull the shirt further around the ironing board to iron the other side of the back of the shirt. If the shirt has a centered back pleat, pull the pleat up with your fingers and reset the pleat by ironing flat.

    Complete the circle by pulling the other half of the shirt’s front to the top of the board and iron this last section, paying close attention to the placket (the length along the shirt with the buttonholes). If your shirt has one or two pockets, iron each from the bottom up, pulling each taut as you do.

    Finally, like letting a manicure set or meat rest before carving, allow the garment to dry for a minute or two before hanging. This ensures the creases remain and no new wrinkles appear in your freshly ironed shirt.

  How to Iron Pants

  Same as with shirts, begin by gathering your ironing supplies: an iron (a steam-generating iron is preferred), distilled or soft water (whichever your iron requires), a bottle of water for misting, a small bucket of water, and a pressing cloth.

  You can buy a pressing cloth designed especially for ironing, you can make one by cutting a roughly twelve-inch by thirty-inch square of fabric from an old sheet, or you can use a handkerchief—it’s smaller, but in a pinch, it’s effective. When pressing blouses, delicate items, or garments with a water-repellant finish, lay the cloth atop your garment as you iron; this prevents the iron from causing a sheen, a scorch, water spots, and pressing marks on your items. It also safeguards the iron from a print transferring on to your iron or a cheap fabric from melting on to your iron.

  If you typically wear casual pants, there’s likely no reason to iron them. I never iron my jeans or my khakis. If, however, you wear casual pants as part of a company uniform, say waiting tables, you may want to consider ironing them. For dress pants, however, it’s always a good idea to iron them after washing them—which should just be once or twice a season. (Remember: Ironing a pair of pants takes far less time than taking your pants to the dry cleaner and retrieving them later.)

  When ironing pants, you’ll always want to use a pressing cloth to avoid creating shiny spots on the fabric. I learned the method I share below from an Eastern European tailor at Embry’s department store, where I worked as a sales consultant ages ago. The tailor generously taught me lots of ironing tricks, including how to use a pressing cloth for crisp sharp creases. And because I often ironed garments for my customers, rather than bringing their special requests to her, she also generously alerted me when she’d brought fresh, hot doughnuts to share.

  Before ironing, make sure your pants are still a bit damp right out of the dryer or mist them generously with water. And again, always move the iron in the direction of its point.

    First, make sure your sole plate (the bottom of the iron) is clean, fill your iron with the required water, select the setting with the lowest heat required by the pant fabric, and turn on your iron.

    Pull out the pocket liners and iron them; doing so will ensure they lie flat under the pressed pant legs.

    Next, leaving the pocket liners pulled out of the pants, iron the waistband and the top of the pants. Press and lift the iron as you move around the top of the pants.

    Then, if you’re ironing casual pants, simply tuck the liners back into the pockets and iron each pant leg flat, with no middle-of-the-leg creases. Two ironed pant legs equals done and done.

    If, however, you’re ironing dress pants, you’ll want to add a front crease and a back crease to the middle of each pant leg. To do so, tuck the liners back into the pockets and then hang the waistband off the end of the ironing board. Next, stretch out both pant legs along the ironing board, stacking one on top of the other on their sides. From the cuffs, align the seams and the front and back creases should fall into place, running along the edges of the pant legs. Briefly run the iron over the stacked pant legs. Next, fold the top leg back, toward the waistband.

    Dip a pressing cloth into a small bucket of water, wring it out, and lay it flat across the lower pant leg. Pressing and lifting, move the iron along the pant leg atop the pressing cloth. Then remove the pressing cloth, unfold the top leg back over the lower pant leg, and place the pressing cloth across the once-again stacked pant legs. Again, press and lift the iron along the pant legs.

    Next, remove the pressing cloth and flip over the pants to repeat these steps on the other side. Begin by wetting and wringing out the pressing cloth again.

    Once you’ve pressed the legs on the other side, remove the pressing cloth for the final time, and touch up any missed areas.

    Take a last look at the pants, touch up any missed wrinkles, and let them dry on the ironing board for a minute or two before hanging.

  Shirts and pants are the most complicated items you can iron. If you can iron these, you can iron anything. Be sure to give yourself some time—like anything worth doing, ironing takes a bit of practice. Just keep in mind a couple rules of thumb: Always iron a garment top to bottom and front to back. And once you’ve finished, be sure to hang up the garment on the correct hanger so that it hangs flat.

  Speaking of hangers, it’s our next topic—clothing storage, including hanging, folding, and a bunch of surprising tips and insights that come along with it. Let’s get started.

  6

  The Comprehensive Closet

  You’ve got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.

  —DON SCHLITZ, “THE GAMBLER,” COUNTRY MUSIC SONGWRITER

  Not long ago I was talking to a reporter about how I became an expert on textiles and their care. While I majored in the subject in college and have decades of experience, I really think it’s my lifelong passion for and curiosity about textiles and their care that has led to my command of the subjects. (It’s not every boy who requests the men’s fashion bible Dress for Success for his eleventh birthday.) These topics never grow tired for me, whether it’s about a garment’s inception, design, and creation, or its eventual place in our lives and in our closets.

  Long ago people owned so few clothes that they had no need for closets. Instead, at workday’s end, they’d just hang their smattering of garments on wall pegs. In fact, clothes hangers weren�
�t even invented until the mid 1800s. Now we consider hangers indispensible.

  Back in the seventeenth century and before, only wealthy people had a sufficient number of clothes to require storage—and these extra garments would be placed in armoires and wardrobes. In fact, closets weren’t for clothes storage at all, but instead were private, even secret spaces reserved for leisure time, including spiritual contemplation and art appreciation. For example, in the Bible, believers are advised to pray in their closets. And people today still talk about coming out of the closet when publically revealing a secret.

  There’s at least one historic exception to a closet’s use for actual clothes storage: King Louis XVI added a Clothes Cabinet (with two capital Cs) to his private apartment in Versailles in 1778. Boasting two large windows, white-and-gold arabesque wood paneling, a gilded mirror, and a fireplace, this space (reached via a secret door in the king’s bedchamber) was used not only to store his wardrobe (hidden behind elaborately carved doors) but also to consider his country’s challenges—and perhaps to plot his escape during the French Revolution.

  I imagine it was like one of those fancy walk-in closets of today, where you can not only select your daily attire but surf the web or read a good book while lying on a chaise lounge, glass of wine and pashmina throw at the ready. Given my own distinct lack of walk-in closets, I can only assume this is standard walk-in closet behavior—or at least it would be for me.

  The Dakota, the famous New York City apartment building—completed in 1884 and home, over the years, to numerous celebrities, including Leonard Bernstein, Roberta Flack, and John Lennon—was the first luxury American multifamily residence to introduce walk-in closets, reportedly with locking doors, built-in shoe shelves, marble basins, and electrical outlets.

  A few decades later, around the turn of the twentieth century, closets morphed into clothing-storage spaces for the rest of us—although most of them were narrow and simple “reach-in” closets.

  As a kid, I remember Granny Dude calling any closet in her house “the press”—as in, “Patric, will you put this in the press?” Only she pronounced it “pray-us” in her Southern way. An old term of Irish origin, using the word “press” for the closet seems to have been popular in the South, particularly in Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky.

  Walk-in closets wouldn’t really grow in popularity until much later. Given more space in my home, I’d happily convert my bedroom into a walk-in closet—complete with a fireplace à la King Louis.

  It’s Not Rocket Science

  Today, clothing storage has reached a fever pitch, with rules and regulations about folding, hanging, and storing. My take on all this? If it works for you, it’s the right method. But, for heaven’s sake, please fold and hang your clothes as soon as they’re done drying. Your clean clothes heaped into baskets are just getting more wrinkled by the minute.

  I’ve always enjoyed folding. When I was in college, I began working for McAlpin’s department store. When business was slow, we could always stay busy folding clothes. I remember my first Christmas there. It was so busy that we’d start on one end of the clothing tables, folding sweaters, and by the time we got to the other end, we had to start folding all over again.

  Of course, there are lots of ways to fold things. I remember discovering a new way to fold towels at my neighbor Ruby’s house. I liked her way so much better than my mom’s method that I still fold all of my towels her way to this day (for more on Ruby’s method, see page 87).

  While we don’t need to take these activities too seriously—most are common sense—there are some basic guidelines that can help us prolong the lifespan of our clothes, keep our clothes (nearly) wrinkle free, and make us look a whole lot better. Consider how you feel when you throw on a T-shirt and crumpled jeans, retrieved from your bedroom floor, compared to your attitude when you select a cleaned and pressed outfit from your closet.

  I’ve been working in retail so long that folding and hanging clothes is like brushing my teeth or even, dare I say, breathing. I don’t have to think about how to fold practically anything anymore. If you’ve worked at a clothing store, you know exactly what I mean. Folding shirts and jeans to the exact same size is so second nature that I could perform it as a party trick—while blindfolded. The benefit? Folding all of your matching items, say T-shirts, to the same size allows everything to fit nicely in your drawers. That means you can see everything you own, easily select what you’d like to wear on any given day, and perhaps even resist the urge to buy more.

  I invite you to take your own clothing storage inspiration from retail. The next time you’re shopping, check out the clothing displays at your favorite shop. Which clothing items are featured together? Which garments are hung on hangers, and which are folded and neatly stacked on tables? Often all the dress shirts are hung up to prevent wrinkling, while sweaters are folded to prevent stretching. Similarly, dress pants are likely hung on dedicated pants hangers, while jeans are folded and stacked. And how is each category (for example, jeans or sweaters) folded—in halves, rolled up, or with fronts showing? Which do you prefer?

  Now consider the store’s arrangements of accessories. Are interesting containers—clear plastic racks, woven baskets, wine racks—used to store scarves or belts? And what do you already own that could cleverly serve this purpose? How do they display a complete outfit—on a dress form, a mannequin, or perhaps an antique brass or wooden hanger? Could the addition of an artistic hanger or a singular wall peg near your closet help calm your busy morning—by enabling you to display every item, from head to toe, that you plan to wear?

  Usually, a great deal of thought is put into retail clothing displays, making them attractive and engaging to browse. Doing the same in your own bedroom can make “shopping” your closet that much more fun.

  A friend’s teenage son recently learned that after a bedroom makeover—one he not only hadn’t asked for but didn’t want. He was accustomed to his space and liked it the way it was—even though he’d outgrown the furniture, piles of clean and dirty clothes littered much of his floor space, and the walls hadn’t been painted since his birth. Despite his reluctance, his parents were convinced he’d welcome the changes if he had a say in the process—including the selection of paint, a new IKEA bed (which he built himself), and lots of storage. Suddenly, his clothes were folded and placed, like with like, in his dresser; his socks, underwear, and bedding found accessible homes in drawers built right into his bed; and all his oxford and flannel shirts were hanging neatly in his closet. He had to admit—the changes were pretty awesome. Who knew that getting dressed could be so easy and enjoyable?

  Folding vs. Hanging

  So how do you decide whether to hang or fold an item of clothing? Garments to hang include dress shirts, blouses, dresses, skirts, dress pants, jackets, and suits. Clothing items to fold include sweaters, T-shirts, jeans, lingerie, underwear, and socks. From there, I’ve got many more suggestions. Let’s start with the clothes you hang.

  For All Your Hang-Ups

  First, for maximum storage in your closet, use matching hangers, as they’re meant to fit together nicely. (More on this in the sidebar below.) That means the shape, the color, everything matching. You don’t need a variety of hangers distracting you from the closet’s real stars: your clothes. While I love heavy wooden hangers, my narrow closet requires slim, velvet-covered hangers for maximum space efficiency. The velvet also offers staying power—I know that I’ll never find a shirt that has slid to the floor.

  Second, hang all of your clothes facing the same way, and keep like items together by category: for example, sleeveless tops, short-sleeved shirts, long-sleeved shirts, or blazers. You can even create subcategories, say, patterned long-sleeved shirts and plain long-sleeved shirts. Again, garments that should be hung typically include your fancier clothes—dress shirts, blouses, dresses, skirts, dress pants, jackets, and suits. While this is common sense, the more organization you bring to your closet, the more enjoyable getting dressed
is—whether for an ordinary Monday, your child’s eighth-grade graduation, or an epic concert.

  Selecting the Best Hangers

  I’m not the first person to say this, but don’t use wire hangers. They’re not strong enough to support your clothes, they can damage your garments, and there are many better options. Try any of the following instead:

    Tubular plastic hangers come at a great price, often ten for a dollar at a discount store. While they aren’t strong, I don’t hate them. They never rust, there’s no color transfer from the hangers onto your clothes, and your clothes will hang just fine. Their only negative is that they don’t come in men’s- and women’s-size hangers—which simply refers to two widths. Tubular plastic hangers do come in children’s sizes, however; if you’ve got kids’ clothes, children-size hangers serve these clothes best.

    Flat plastic hangers, like the ones often used at retail stores, come in endless sizes and colors. Stronger than tubular plastic hangers, these still tend to be inexpensive—and, fun tip, if you order directly from a retail supply store, you can replace all the hangers in your closets at once.

    Velvet-covered hangers are a great option if your closet space is lacking. Not only can you pack more clothes into a closet when they’re hung on these thin hangers, your clothes will never slip off—and, if you use the original brand, they guarantee not to release velvet onto your clothes, even if you hang up wet items. Finally, velvet-covered hangers prevent your clothes from stretching.