With Classic Cleaners so involved in the care and preservation of bridal attire, it’s natural for us to hear all about different weddings – and about different wedding legends and superstitions!

Just the other day we were discussing with one of our recently married Eagle Creek dry cleaning clients one of the oldest superstitions surrounding weddings:

                    It’s considered bad luck for the bride to try on the entire wedding outfit – meaning the dress, shoes, veil, train, gloves, etc. – before the wedding itself.

How did the topic of wedding superstitions and folklore come up in that conversation? Well, with so many lakes and the reservoir, rainbows may often be seen in the Eagle Creek area. In fact, a very beautiful rainbow had appeared on the very day of this Classic Cleaners’ client’s wedding.  We discussed the fact that, in folklore, if a bride sees a frog, a dove, or a rainbow on her way to the ceremony, good luck will follow.

One tradition it seems everyone knows about is the “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue”., with the “old” and “new” representing the bride’s life pre-wedding and post-wedding, and the blue standing for the traditional color of wedding dresses before Queen Victoria changed the fashion to white.

From Eagle Creek to Noblesville, our customers seem to honor old traditions while creating some new ones of their own.  We so enjoy being part of marriage-in-the-making!  Before the big day, Classic Cleaners professionals perform alterations and prepare dresses for travel to destination wedding sites. Afterwards, our expert stain removal process and archival box storage come into play!

Whether or not we’ve seen that rainbow or dove, At Classic Cleaners we feel lucky to play a part in the wedding tradition!

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

“Consumers aren’t just time-pressed – we’re downright lazy,” according to USA Today.As one sign of the times, USA Today points to ConAgra, maker of Orville Redenbacher Popcorn.  Next month, the company will roll out the PopUp Bowl, microwave popcorn that pops into a convenient one-serving bowl.

Convenience - from popcorn to dry cleaning at Classic Cleaners!

Classic Cleaners is several jumps ahead of the popcorn maker when it comes to using the latest and most complex technology to make customers’ lives simple.

Time-saving:
Our innovative heat seal system has been in place for more than a year.  Heat seals guarantee we know exactly – every time – which garments belong to which customers. Zero time is wasted collecting garments – our order and bagging system is all computerized.

Convenience:
Popcorn buyers need to take the product off a grocery store shelf.  Classic Cleaners’ customers, by contrast, can choose our FREE pickup and delivery service!

Quality:
No matter how innovative the microwave bowl, the way to eaters’ hearts is through their stomachs – the popcorn must be delicious to keep the clients loyal.  At Classic Cleaners we know all about the quality our customers expect, and we deliver clothes as close to new as possible.

Our equipment represents th very latest in dry cleaning and laundering technology Our Unipress shirt machine, for example yields the kind of results that cannot be duplicated by most competitors.

The 2011 trend towards simplicity and speed? At Classic Cleaners we’ve been “on it” before it was a trend! Most important, though, once you’ve finished ooh-ing and ah-ing over the technology, are the beautifully finished clothes, ready to make you proud!

 by Reb of the Classic Cleaners’ blog team

mold spores

“Mold thrives in places of high humidity and warmth,” explains Moldblogger.com. “This includes floors, walls, personal items, and yes – clothes.”

Some examples of what causes mold to form on clothes:

• Leaving soaking-wet garments in a plastic bag for days or even weeks
• Storing clothing in a basement with water leakage
• Allowing damp, soiled clothes to remain in a laundry hamper too long
• Leaving clothes or linens out on a screened porch during wet weather or in a baby stroller left outdoors or in a dark, damp place
• Failing to brush clothes that have been worn to clean out a crawl space
• Leaving a garment next to books, papers that are damp, or inside luggage that has become moldy

  The first thing to remember, warns Moldblogger, is timing.  “The faster you can find a mold-contaminated item, the better. Mold becomes increasingly hard to remove and to deal with as it grows and thrives.”

At Classic Cleaners, we agree.  Put mold-contaminated items in a separate bag from other garments and bring it to our technicians as soon as possible. Using bleach or even vinegar at home can in fact help treat mold, but often at the expense of ruining the color of the garment.

Classic Cleaners professionals, who have earned a reputation for expert stain removal, and who are often called on to treat water-damaged household items such a drapes and bed coverings after a house fire, find that odors from mold and mildew can prove exceeding challenging to remove.

Mold can be a formidable opponent, dangerous to health as well as to clothes. But when alert customers team up with the dry cleaning professionals at Classic Cleaners, the odds are in favor of the good guys!

 - by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team

Classic Cleaners professionals pride themselves on being able to meet all challenges in garment care.  But it sometimes happens that the manufacturer omits an important step in the making or in the labeling of clothing, and sometimes that makes it impossible for any dry cleaner to make things right. We see that a lot when it comes to “fun fur”.

Fun fur, also called fake fur or faux fur, is material made of synthetic fibers designed to resemble real animal fur. Faux furs have increased in popularity at least partially due to promotion by animal welfare organizations.  That’s more than fine with us at Classic Cleaners, the first dry cleaner in the Indianapolis area to be certified as a Certified Environmental Drycleaner from the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute.

Fake fur has several advantages over animal fur:

  Fake fur does not require cold storage.

  Fake fur is not susceptible to damage by moths.

  The manufacture of fake fur uses a fourth the energy used to raise or trap animals

 The materials out of which fake fur is made are derived from coal, air, water, petroleum and  limestone,  which,  unlike real fur, do not dry out or deteriorate.    

So what’s the problem?

• Classic Cleaners looks to the care label on each garment for instructions before selecting a cleaning solvent, a temperature for dry cleaning and drying, or to help decide if hand cleaning with steam, compressed air, or special tools is the best approach.Laundryandcleaningnews.com points out two issues that arise with care labels:

First:  The label is supposed to apply to the whole of each garment, including the trim. Too often, that rule is not followed by the manufacturer.

Second:  The care label needs to address any adhesives that have been used to affix the fun fur to the garment.  The    manufacturer might not have used the correct adhesive, and too often does not include instructions referring to the adhesive.

According to Federal Trade Commission rules, if a label says “dry clean”, ALL elements of that garment must not be altered by normal dry cleaning.  Classic Cleaners experts try their very best to hunt for clues before beginning garment care.  But every once in a while, we find ourselves  needing to point to the manufacturer’s name on the label, saying “Call them!”

by Reb of the Classic Cleaners blog team