”Spotters vs. Toughies” might have been the title of Classic Cleaners’ latest film. The challenge – a white wedding dress with a big red wine stain.  The goal: demonstrate the Classic Cleaners expertise in stain removal. 

The profession of dry cleaning has challenges.  Some common “toughies” are:

• “Toughie” trimmings: beads, sequins, vinyl, feathers, fur, mesh
• “Toughie” fabrics: leather, suede, wool with spandex, cottons with silk
• “Toughie” stains: mustard, ink, caramelized sugar, oxidized oils
• “Toughie” reds – red garments, beet stains, and…wine stains!

When the going gets tough, Classic Cleaners gets going, and, as you can see from the before-and-after photos, the score was 1-0 in favor of the spotters. 

Savvy post-”game” commentators on the Spotters vs. Toughies might have mentioned several points:

1. Classic Cleaners spotters knew the stain was from red wine. The toughest stains are often those the customer forgot about; the dry cleaner needs to solve the “mystery” before deciding how to treat the stain!
   
2. The stain was recent. The sooner a stain can be treated, the better the chances for success in removing it without damaging the fabric.

toughie wine stain on wedding dress

Wine stain gone

“The Terrible Twos are a phenomenon most parents could quite happily live without,” says suite101.com, referring to toddlers who say “No!” to everything and make throwing temper tantrums a habit, beginning around their twentieth month of life.

At Classic Cleaners, we only occasionally experience the results of Terrible Twos toddlers’ behavior in the form of some of horribly stained and ripped clothing coming in with Fluff and Fold family laundry orders (one can only imagine the tantrums!).

As members of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, what we are trained to look for are the “Terrible Threes”.  Just as the “terrible two” toddlers stretch parents’ patience and wreak havoc on toddler wardrobes, when it comes to the terrible threes – sugars, salts, and acids – these wreak havoc on wedding gowns, doing the kind of damage with which conventional dry cleaning simply cannot cope.

Wedding dresses with lace appliqué, beading, and trim are most vulnerable to theTerrible Threes, which accumulate near the borders of the trim or beading.  Left untreated – or treated using only traditional dry cleaning methods – the at first invisible sugars, salts, and acids turn into ugly brownish-yellow areas on the dress.

The MuseumCare™ system of wedding gown preservation used at Classic Cleaners was shown to be the cleanest and safest in a blind test of four nationally-known wedding gown preservation processes. In fact, Classic Cleaners is the only dry cleaners in its area endorsed by the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists.

Whew!  With the beautiful wedding gown having been given the proper care and then preserved in an archival-quality box, the Terrible Threes will be safely out of the way.  As they begin their family, the bride and groom can spend their next few years preparing for the Terrible Twos!

By Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Most women would agree – their wedding gown is the most important dress they’ll ever wear.  And, while all brides hope to preserve their marriage, quite a number desire to preserve the dress as well.  Why?

2009 Bride is Beautiful the 3rd Time Around in 1947 Wedding Dress

•  To wear at a ceremony to renew wedding vows
• As an heirloom for a daughter or granddaughter to wear someday.

In fact, the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines an heirloom as

1. A piece of property that is part of an inheritance

2. Something of special value handed down from one generation to another.

In the case of wedding gowns, though, there’s something every wedding dress owner needs to know: There’s a big difference between merely “heirlooming” a dress and preserving it for the future.

The truth is, as practiced by most dry cleaners, heirlooming a wedding gown consists of dry cleaning it and then sealing it in a box.  But cleaning and boxing a wedding gown is hardly enough to prevent fabric discoloration or the oxidization of invisible sugar stains on the dress.

That’s why, in preserving wedding gowns, Classic Cleaners uses the only process endorsed and recommended by the Association of Bridal Consultants – MuseumCare™ Preservation. Classic Cleaners partner and wedding gown specialist Leon Neal explains what is included in MuseumCare™:

• Thorough cleaning
•  Removal of sugars, salts, and acids (conventional dry cleaning methods cannot accomplish this)
• Conditioning the gown for long-term 
• Sealing in an acid-free environment
• Providing a lifetime guarantee against sugar stains and yellowing.  This guarantee is backed by more than 100 Wedding Gown Specialists worldwide.

 ”Love is lovelier the second time around,” Frank Sinatra used to croon.  Proper professional preservation can ensure that, the second – or third - time around, each wedding dress will be worn in its full loveliness!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“Today’s independent woman doesn’t want to go along with the crowd; she wants to stand on her own merit,” says Lovetoknow.com.

Jill F. said her vows in silver gray

While white wedding dresses remain the most popular choice for many brides, colored wedding dresses are growing in popularity for modern, trendy brides. Lovetoknow reminds critics that white wedding gowns weren’t the norm until 1840, when Queen Victoria chose a white dress for her wedding.

At Classic Cleaners, we know.  In just the past season, of the many beautiful wedding gowns brought in for post-wedding cleaning, one was red, the other a silver gray.

Jill F. confided that she’d never even considered white.  Seeking a non-traditional dress, she’d chosen the one with the most appealing style and fit – it happened to come in gray.

Lovetoknow names five reasons brides are beginning to branch out in their wedding color choices:

• Desire to be different
• Greater selection of styles
• Cheaper prices for party dresses as compared to bridal gowns
• Cultural considerations (where a certain color is traditional or symbolic)
• Ability to reuse the gown for other occasions

 Every profession has its special challenges, and dry cleaning is no exception. 

• The delicate fabric on evening gowns needs special treatment.
• The color red presents its own set of special challenges.
• Beading and trim need to be handled with special expertise.

Dry cleaning wedding dresses is a specialty at Classic Cleaners.  There’s an extra measure of satisfaction, though, when Classic Cleaners technicians can do their work in “Technicolor”!
 

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team