Not another tie! If you’ve given Dad a wardrobe of nice clothes over the past few Father’s Days, he’s probably running out of closet space. For the perfect Father’s Day gift, help him look his best with a gift card from Classic Cleaners. Here are some tips on how you can make your gift just right for Dad.

The avid golfer. An afternoon on the green can be quite sweaty, especially with Indiana’s summertime heat. Courses with no shade do little to protect golf shirts from unsightly underarm stains. Treat Dad to a day on the links, some new golf balls and a Classic Cleaners gift card to keep him looking fresh.

The proud veteran. Even if his days serving our country have ended, the service uniforms of these dads still deserve a salute. A great way to show your love and appreciation is by giving the proud veteran a gift card to Classic Cleaners for our heirloom services. We clean, restore and preserve armed services uniforms so future generations can respect and appreciate the sacrifices made.

The business professional. With tightly tucked-in shirts, these dads are no strangers to buttoned-up, business-casual or professional environments. If dry cleaning is part of your pop’s routine, make things a little easier for him. Classic Cleaners’ Pickup & Delivery helps him keep the errands to a minimum and his collared shirts clean and pants neatly pressed. Pickup & Delivery is free, so sign up today and then stop by your nearest Classic Cleaners location to purchase a gift card for Dad.

Show your love by helping Dad stay well dressed for any occasion. Happy Father’s Day!

“Once upon a time, women who bought their wedding dresses secondhand to cut costs may have kept it a secret; today they have bragging rights,”  says Bethany Kandel in New York Times’ Field Notes. Kandel cautions the now “in” frugal brides to budget for alternations and dry cleaning bills.

At Classic Cleaners, our wedding gown care professionals know all about the specialized dry cleaning, alternation, and pressing techniques needed for both brand new and “lightly loved” bridal attire.

While a surprising number of brides are buying used wedding gear online, as SmartMoney reporter Joan Magee notes, at Classic Cleaners we’re noticing more and more brides choosing to restore beautiful heirloom wedding gowns, first worn by Mom or Grandma, for their own wedding.

The Australian film released just last year, Second Hand Wedding, was dubbed a “first-class success by reviewers. Apparently, from the time Barbra Streisand lamented her status as “Secondhand Rose“, frugality has made quite a comeback. 

Of course, at Classic Cleaners, our job is making sure all our brides- and all their wedding gowns – make their absolute best appearance (whatever time around)! 

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“Sing me no song! Read me no rhyme! Don’t waste my time, Show me!” sings Eliza Doolittle in the musical My Fair Lady.

Recent Classic Cleaners blog posts have featured MuseumCare™, our wedding dress preservation system, guaranteed by all members of the worldwide Association of Wedding Gown Specialists.

Summerlot dress before restoring

While we love singing songs and reading rhymes, in today’s blog post we’re going to show

Summerlot dress after restoration

and tell you about the very special linen and lace wedding dress brought in to Classic Cleaners by customer Virginia Summerlot. Virginia’s daughter, a California resident, is getting married next year and plans to wear her mother’s 47-year old restored gown, matching gloves, train, and all. This promises to be a wedding story with not one, but two happy endings! (Who knows? With proper care and preservation, there might be more encore performances in store for this gorgeous garment!)

The special hand cleaning and preservation treatment system used on the Summerlot gown was showcased by Classic Cleaners at the

Classic Cleaners' Booth at the Scottish Rite Bridal Fair

bridal display at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on January 8th and 9th of this year. Our table features awards, photos, and the acid-free, archival quality wedding dress box we use for heirloom preservation.

Sing you no songs, you say?  Read you no rhymes?  Any time, we’ll show you!

By Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“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