Maintaining a shirt is an art whose challenges we don't necessarily consider. To wear it well and to wear it as much as we want, it should be washed using a specific method. Here are some tips on the subject, with the collaboration of Nicolas de Bronac, founder of Sequoia dry cleaners. They know how to do it on this side since the chain now has 57 stores, each of which handles some 1,000 shirts per month. Bonus: at Sequoia, the treatment of clothes is done without perchloroethylene, this carcinogenic solvent used for ages by many laundries. Nicolas' chain, on the other hand, uses liquid silicone solvents, odorless and colorless, which are recycled, just like the water in the machines.
At home
• We never really pay attention to it, but by wearing and rewearing a shirt without washing it, tiny deposits of fat secreted by the body end up clinging to the collar and the ends of the sleeves. These stains embed and eat into the fibers, to the point that when it's time to finally wash your shirt, it risks tearing. "The slightest drop of washing water can break everything," explains Nicolas de Bronac. You have to get into the habit of washing your shirt regularly, even if you don't have a particular stain. This extends the life of your garment."
• Whether it's a sweat mark or a common grease stain after a wild meal, it's important to start caring for your shirt by pre-brushing it. This is used to start the thickness of the stain. You should then dip a small nail brush, one of those sold in any drugstore, in a homemade preparation made of water and Marseille soap, and then lightly brush over the affected areas of your shirt. Sequoia dry cleaners take care of these stains using a silk brush for woolen items, and a nylon brush for cotton items.
"You should get into the habit of washing your shirt every week, even if you don't have a particular stain. This way you extend the life of your garment."
• To wash your cotton shirts in the washing machine, it is absolutely necessary to never exceed a temperature of thirty or even forty degrees. “If you increase it, the cotton will heat up and the stitches will tighten. The clothes will shrink and then it's over,” warns Nicolas de Bronac. The choice of detergent is also crucial. Low-end brands contain active ingredients that don't work at all at low temperatures. So you have to know how to pay the price for a detergent, as you would for any good product that you like.
• It's an essential rule: you should never dry your wet shirt on a hanger. Never. With a metal hanger, red, rusty stains can quickly appear. With a painted wooden hanger, traces of paint can rub off on the shirt. The ideal is to hang your shirt astride a clothes horse. Better yet: if you only have to dry one shirt, you can hang it out full length on the clothes horse.
• It's a common problem: an iron that lasts a second too long and your shirt gets an ugly reddish stain. Burnt. To avoid the worst, a tip is to place a thin cloth or an old shirt between your utensil and your clothing. "This also prevents white stains from appearing because of the bits of limescale that get stuck under the iron over time," adds Nicolas de Bronac.
At the dry cleaners
• Because of dark stories in which we never pay too much attention, it happens that we end up with huge stains on our shirt. Paint, wine or even blood. So, instead of playing apprentice laundry, it is better to run as quickly as possible to your dry cleaner. In these cases, time is always of the essence: if we wait too long, the stain will set into the fiber and dye it for good. “You really should avoid using stain removers and bring us your shirt very quickly,” insists Nicolas de Bronac. By acting quickly, a good dry cleaner has a 99.9% chance of making the item look like new.”
• Dry cleaning is also a necessity for flannel shirts or other knits. When stained, they must be put in dry cleaning machines, and only dry cleaners have them. “Cold, even with a great detergent, it would be suicide,” shudders Nicolas de Bronac. At Sequoia, the dry cleaning machines are tall, roaring drums that work with liquid silicone, a biodegradable product that slides between the stain and the fiber while smoothing the garment as if it were automatically ironed.
Once your shirt is washed and ironed, you now have to face one last mountain. A terribly perilous exercise that few people master: folding. Here, dry cleaners will always have an advantage over individuals. With this cardboard wedged on the back of the garment that we use in stores, it is always easier to obtain a straight, square shape, ready to be slipped into a chest of drawers. That said, there is another solution, simpler and which requires no expense, to maintain the shape of your shirt: put it on a hanger. Not stupid, yes.