You really shouldn't dry clean stuff once a week. Makes the life of the garment much shorter.
How often do you dry clean suits/trousers?
- Thread starter Sunbed
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You really shouldn't dry clean stuff once a week. Makes the life of the garment much shorter.
If you sit in a sweaty office 40 hours a week, it definitely makes sense to regularly dry clean an affordable 'dry-clean only' suit that you'll replace in a year or two.
Just get them aired. They'll last loads longer.
Everything is, of course, a function of money, but what makes more sense (if you can afford it) is to have several suits and make sure you have at least 24 hours of airing between successive wearings. Better yet, several days or a week. Do that, and it should be quite a few more wearings of a given suit before it needs cleaning, which in itself extends the life of each suit, because repeated dry-cleaning damages the fabric a bit each time.
Then if, like me, you spend far more time in suit trousers than you do trousers and jacket, buy at least two or three pairs of trousers per jacket. That extends the life of the combo, and also gives some cover for accidental damage to trousers, making the overall cost-effectiveness better.
A fair bit depends on what you mean by "affordable". My experience is that over a period, and provided you treat them properly, cheap suits work out more expensive than decent ones because, treated properly, a good quality material lasts a lot longer, and more importantly, looks great for a lot longer, than cheap suits. But for decent ones, you do have to be prepared to pay more up-front.
But if, for example, you pay twice as much and, given the same usage patterns, it lasts four or five times longer, then over time, the more expensive one is considerably more affordable.
Good quality cloth, without going to obscene costs, is usually a good move simply because it's more durable, lasts longer and looks good for longer.
Not all 'more expensive' suits are good quality, though, so buy carefully. But generally, good quality cloth will be more expensive, at least up to the point where you start paying for fancy designer names.