Our own Leon Neal, master wedding dress cleaner, sent me a link to a very interesting article on www.preownedweddingdresses.com: Can that dress be cleaned?

The article quotes Sally Lorensen Conant, Ph.D., who  “is the executive director of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists – a network of cleaners represented in more than 500 cities that specialize and excel in wedding dress cleaning and preservation.” Classic Cleaners is a member of this association, so it’s no coincidence that we agree with the content in this blog post!

Here are some choice quotes from the post:

As a general rule, there is very little risk to buying a stained and discolored dress made of a non-silk fiber. Almost any stain or discoloration can be removed from these.

But note that a really dingy/ shopworn non-silk gown needs to be cleaned professionally rather than “spotted out.” That’s because you may dissolve the dinge when you dissolve the stain. And spot removal will remove specific stains but leave white spots.

The truth is a good professional cleaner can remove almost any stain, but there are some things no cleaner can do:
1) repair broken fibers
2) remove yellowing from overexposure to sun or fluorescent light

Yellowing/discoloration is not usually just a spot. On a silk gown, yellow areas may mean there has been a chemical change that cannot be reversed. Even if it can, the yellow may be very difficult to remove, especially if there is also metallic embroidery in that area because chemicals that remove the yellow can turn the metallic embroidery black.

In general, very badly discolored gowns may not be a good buy. If the gown is polyester, it may be expensive to clean it properly, and if it is silk, it may not be possible to remove the discoloration.

Although the content is accurate here, I have one caveat: a lot of yellowing, perhaps even the majority of yellowing, can be gotten out of a gown. I have seen Classic Cleaners take dresses that were horrendously yellow and make them look brand new! Click on our Classic Cleaners wedding gown services category to see some examples.

It’s true that there are some stains and yellowing we can’t handle, but if you show us a gown we can almost always tell you how well it’s likely to turn out. Feel free to bring in any wedding gown–or any heirloom garment–for a free consultation!

–Matt

Recently on this blog, we’ve told two wedding gown restoration success stories:

Classic Cleaners of Indianapolis restores improperly cleaned wedding gown to glorious beauty!

Classic Cleaners restores 1947 wedding gown–beautiful bride wears it with pride!

We use the same processes in Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective wedding gown restoration service and Classic Cleaners’ safe, gentle, and highly effective cleaning and MuseumCare preservation service for wedding gowns.

The main difference between the two services is this: We restore wedding gowns that have become discolored or otherwise damaged over time, and we clean and preserve recently worn wedding gowns so that they do not become damaged over time. Of course, once the gown is restored and worn again in a ceremony, it needs to be preserved thereafter to keep it beautiful for the next bride in your family.

One of the tools we use to preserve your precious gown is our archival-quality wedding gown preservation box. In this post I’m including two pictures of the box. The first is a professional photograph of the box, which, as you can see, has an inner box with a see-through window and an outer box.

The other photo is not professional (I took it!), but I’m posting it here to show you that we put our preservation boxes on display in many of our stores. In the display models, the outer box has been cut away to show the inner box, but, of course, that’s just for display.

Classic Cleaners’ archival-quality wedding gown preservation boxes have many special features to keep your gown clean and odor-free while preserving its original beautiful color as time goes by. As we say on our wedding gown preservation page (linked to above),

We layer your gown with acid-free tissue and carefully fold it into an acid-free, archival-quality preservation box. We store metal buttons and findings and shoulder pads separately, stuffing the sleeves, bodice, and folds with additional acid-free tissue to prevent hard wrinkles. The preservation box, designed especially for this purpose, allows the gown to breathe, keeping it in perfect condition for many decades to come.

The box itself is made of acid-free materials and lets your gown breathe.

We’ve earned a reputation of having the best wedding gown preservation service in Indianapolis because we take such exquisite care with your gown. For a gratis consultation on your gown, please visit your favorite Classic Cleaners location or contact us at the number below!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

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Who truly enjoys washing clothes at home? Here’s some good news: You don’t have to do it yourself! Classic Cleaners offers the best laundry service (fluff and fold, family wash) in Indianapolis. Here’s how it works:

• Simply take all of your unwashed clothes and put them in your Classic Cleaners laundry bags (if you don’t have your own Classic Cleaners laundry bags yet, come on in for VIP-level customer service!).
• Put items to be dry-cleaned in separate bags–we’ll take care of those for you too!
• Bring your bags into your favorite Classic Cleaners location.
• Or use our FREE home delivery route to have your laundry picked up–and then dropped off once it’s perfectly clean and fluffy!

You’ll save lots of time and hassle! Try it today–you’ll be amazed by the convenience!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

•For immediate help with cleaning, please call (317) 845-5244 or email us
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If you live in McCordsville, Indiana, you are in luck! Classic Cleaners’ FREE home delivery area covers the entire town of McCordsville.

How does it work? We’ll provide you with your own personal Classic Cleaners laundry bags–as many as you need. Into these you simply put anything and everything you need dry cleaned or laundered.

Then you just leave the bags on your front porch or similar location. Your Classic Cleaners driver will pick everything up–then bring everything back perfectly clean for you on hangers or however you like it!

Are you ready for the ultimate in dry cleaning convenience? Then please contact us today to set up your FREE service!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

•For immediate help with cleaning, please call (317) 845-5244 or email us
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Recently I cleaned some shirts at Classic Cleaners. I dropped them off at one of Classic Cleaners’ extremely convenient stores in the Indianapolis area. Then, I had Classic Cleaners deliver the shirts FREE to my home, since I’m located in the Classic Cleaners delivery area.

As you can see from this photo, Classic Cleaners’ work was pure perfection! Beautiful white color, cuffs beautifully pressed, and the collar–to me the most important part–crisply and neatly finished.

Classic Cleaners is able to do such a great job on shirts because of processes that reflect the highest standards in the industry. Classic Cleaners has special enzyme-based detergent that allows shirts to get exquisitely clean even in cold water–which is better for the shirts.

Then Classic Cleaners uses a series of stations to finish the shirts part by part. It’s a more time-consuming process that results in extra quality that really makes a difference!

It’s for all these reasons that I think it’s fair to say that Classic Cleaners offers Indy’s best shirt cleaning!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

•For immediate help with cleaning, please call (317) 845-5244 or email us
•Share your Classic Cleaners stories and photos on this blog
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You’ll be noticing some changes on our Classic Cleaners website! Of course, we are constantly working on the site to make it better. We have brought the blog over from the WordPress server to make the appearance of the blog and the website uniform and improve the user experience overall.

As before, however, we’ll be exploring the wide world of dry cleaning with a special focus on the great services offered by Classic Cleaners in the Indianapolis area.

There’s a simple reason why dry cleaning and laundry are interesting and important: Clothes are an essential part of everyone’s life, and how one cleans and maintains them has a substantial impact on both one’s appearance and pocketbook. As a Classic Cleaners customer and a member of the blog team, I appreciate how well Classic Cleaners takes care of clothes while helping customers save money and enjoy greater convenience.

In this blog, we’ll be presenting the following:

• Information about technologies and trends in the dry cleaning industry.
• Links to news items about dry cleaning.
• Stories and photos from customers.
• Questions from customers with answers from our experts.
• Stories about and by the employees of Classic Cleaners.
• Stories about Classic Cleaners’ technologies, facilities, and equipment.
• Updates on specials and other offers and opportunities for customers.
• Classic Cleaners news of every type.

How can you participate? In addition to commenting on posts, please email us with any stories, photos, questions, or comments you might have related to dry cleaning and Classic Cleaners. For example, we would love to hear your stories about how Classic Cleaners made a difference in your life and see your “Before” and “After” photos of stain removal and restoration work! In addition, should you ever have any concerns about our service or results, we will address them immediately and personally.

Thank you again for reading, and we look forward to hearing from you!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

Yesterday I wrote a post called When should you ignore care labels and clean garments yourself? I’ve been curious about this topic and poking around the Internet to see what others think.

As professional cleaners, we definitely tend to lean in the direction of sending out any garment we care about to be cleaned (in our case, by us!). Sure, socks and undershirts and other garments that you don’t mind getting a little roughed up are fine just to throw in the wash. With just about anything else, however, we hesitate.

I have shirts I treasure from the early 1990s that look brand new because I’ve always sent them out to the dry cleaner to be cleaned. They are about five or six brightly colored short-sleeve shirts that I only wear in summer. I know that if I’d tried to wash them myself, I could have saved money in the short term but those shirts by now would simply not have been worth keeping. Their colors would have faded, and they would have gotten that rough, washed-at-home look.

Colleen Dunn has written a very reasonable article called Save Money on Dry Cleaning. Says she (my edit),

Some items marked “Dry Clean Only” can be safely home laundered. The Care Labeling law states only one method of cleaning must be communicated to the consumer, not all acceptable methods.
What will affect the success of home laundering are the following: fiber type, garment construction, fabric construction, dyes, printing processes, finishings, trimmings (example: beads), soil, and stains.

When washing at home remember to always use cold water, a hand process (machine washing may be too rough), and a gentle cleanser ( I have used Dove Dishwashing liquid). Never use bleaches, regular laundry cleansers, fabric softeners, or rinse additives. Do not twist or wring the garment as some items can be damaged by twisting or wringing them.

Dunn goes on to provide many more caveats. She also gives a long list of garments NOT to try to wash at home, a few of which are:

• The garment has a lot of structure, such as a suit. This would be extremely difficult to iron and not worth saving a few dollars. This also applies to a garment which requires a lot of attention when ironing (pleats).
• The garment is leather or suede.
• The garment is special to you.

This last item pretty much says it all! Saving money is a noble goal, but time spent washing is money and wear and tear on a garment is money, too. We advise following care labels and erring on the side of caution in choosing when to use a professional dry cleaner!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

I recently noticed an interesting article on www.ecosalon.com (“the green gathering”): Dry Clean Only? An Eco Expert Tells Us When It’s Safe to Ignore Labels.

Eco dry cleaner par excellence Karl Huie (of the San Francisco Huies) provides his take, and the long and short of it is that one really oughtn’t try to do too much without the permission of the care label:

Just because something is washable doesn’t mean that’s the best way to handle it. If you’ve got good quality jeans, sweaters, linens, bedding, etc. you want to protect them. Dry cleaning your fine things extends their longevity, keeps color from fading and prevents shrinkage. Plus you get a professional’s skills in stain removal. Talk to your dry cleaner to determine the best way to protect and preserve all your fine things.

We’d have a hard time putting it any better! Take a look at the article–Huie ends up talking about all the things that can go wrong when you “do it yourself.”

We’re not concurring with Huie’s opinion just because dry cleaning is our business and we don’t want anyone to try things themselves. We just happen to know how tough so many garments are to get clean in a gentle way. In fact, the dry cleaning industry came into being because people had beautiful clothes they wanted to preserve. We’ve developed many different processes to handle each type of garment and indeed each part of each garment.

While we’re on the topic of “eco,” it’s worth mentioning that Classic Cleaners is a certified environmental drycleaner and holds itself to the highest standards of environmental responsibility. So you can always use our services in complete confidence!

–Matt
The Classic Cleaners Blog Team

I live near Broad Ripple, and it’s one of my favorite places to go walking in the city–either on the Monon Trail or just around the village. This is what Wikipedia has to say about this great Indy location:

Broad Ripple Village is one of six areas designated as cultural districts in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Located about six miles north of Downtown Indianapolis, Broad Ripple contains many of Indianapolis’ premier upscale restaurants, art galleries, and the popular Monon Trail. It also has a reputation for being socially, economically and ethnically diverse, and is generally associated with progressive political attitudes. Established in 1837, Broad Ripple was originally an independent municipality. It was annexed to the City of Indianapolis in 1922.

Classic Cleaners loves Broad Ripple too! In fact, we have three locations in or near Broad Ripple Village, which are listed below.

Also, don’t forget  that Classic Cleaners’ home delivery area covers the entire Broad Ripple Village area. Check out our map for details! It’s the ultimate in dry cleaning service and convenience!

Store hours are…

• Monday-Friday: 7:00 am-7:00 pm
• Saturday: 8:30 am-4:30 pm

The exception is the 1037 Broad Ripple Ave. store, whose hours are…

• Monday-Friday: 7:00 am-10:00 pm
• Saturday-Sunday: 8:00 am-10:00 pm

The day of the Weekly Special for each store is listed after the phone number. Currently we offer the following special at each store:

• Plain slacks and skirts $5.99
• Plain business shirts (on hangers) $2.20

Broad Ripple (3 locations)

4211 E. 62nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46220
317-253-6544
•Wednesday special

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1037 Broad Ripple Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46220
317-257-8267
•Wednesday special
•Tanning beds
•Self-service laundromat

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8515 Westfield Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46240
317-254-8844
•Wednesday special