mastering wardrobe maintenance
Often overlooked, ignored or just plain cut off, the care tag is one of the most underrated resources when it comes to maintaining your wardrobe. Often, we blame manufacturers and brands for short-lived clothing pieces, citing cheap fabrics and poor manufacturing. But, what it it was us? Could we be ignoring the very tools given to us to uphold the fabric of our wardrobes?
Why yes, we are.
The Care Tag
The Care Tag is a mini manual on each clothing item. It primarily breaks down 3 things: fabric composition, washing instructions and drying instructions.
Fabric Composition: The care tag will break down the fabrics or materials used in the garment & their percentage. This is good for deciphering whether or not this piece is made of a natural or synthetic fiber, which will, in turn, let us know whether it’s worth the investment.
Washing Instructions: How you wash your clothes is a huge part of maintaining the shape, structure and quality of garments. The machine wash symbols, typically tubs, on the care tag tell you how to wash: machine wash, hand or dry clean, and what temperature to wash them at. The number on the tub tells you what the temperature of the water should be. Fun fact: it’s in Celsius.
Drying Instructions: Similarly, the care tag tells you how to dry the clothing item, and how hot the dryer should be. If there’s a square with a circle inside, you can tumble dry. The number of dots inside of the circle indicates the heat level. If it’s crossed out, do not dry it. A square with a curved line means you hang it, and a square with a horizontal line means you lay it flat.
There are also ironing instructions and many clothing items that say Dry Clean Only also have instructions for dry cleaners, like what type of solvent to use.
Check the care tag of an item before you purchase it, so you know what kind of fabric you’re dealing with and how you’re gonna have to treat her. She might be more high-maintenance than you’re willing to deal with. If you’re shopping online, this information is typically found in the product description.
Must-Have Closet Tools for Wardrobe Maintenance
There are a few tools you should always have in your wardrobe maintenance arsenal. These will make your life easier when it comes to maintaining your clothing and looking put-together when getting dressed.
I don’t know about you, but it seems like everyone is afraid of the iron these days. You need one. There’s a reason why your mom, grandmama and auntie all had one. Irons are essential for creating seams and clean lines, laying down lapels and collars, and applying pressure and heat for heavy duty fabrics like wool, denim and more.
The fabric steamer is definitely the trendiest closet tool, with good reason. It’s compact, easy to use and a quick solution. The steamer is great for getting wrinkles out of more delicate fabrics like chiffon, lace, silk, linen, etc.
If you’re a cozy girl like me, you know that sweater weather fabrics like knits can create pilling, or small balls of fluff that appear on the surface. How many sweaters have you stopped wearing because of pilling? Given away? There’s a solution for that, and it’s called a fabric shaver. Remember, this is just a maintenance tool, so don’t overuse it. Be sure to follow washing and drying instructions, too.
Quick Fixes
Beyond the closet tools, a girl’s gotta have a solid repository of quick fixes. These are your best way of getting past those annoying, last-minute issues standing in the way of you getting out the door in the outfit you planned.
Fashion Tape: For those rogue bra straps, blazer lapels and any thing you want to hold down or secure in place. These come in many sizes, from small strips to wider, longer rolls.
Stain Remover: From OxyClean to Folex, Tide Pens and Miss Mouth’s, there are so many stain removers on the market. The key thing to remember when using a spot cleaner is spot cleaning stains before throwing your clothing in the wash gives them a fighting chance and helps make sure the stain is removed, even deep in the fibers.
Deodorant Stain Remover Sponge: Other than ruining a perfectly good all-black outfit, deodorant stains also cause yellowing in white shirts, breakdown fabrics and create oil & residue build-up. This sponge will help you keep your clothing from breaking down in the long-run, and keep your outfit on.
Taking care of your clothes is like taking care of yourself—you take care of them, they last longer, look better, and make you feel more confident every time you wear them. Remember, a well-maintained wardrobe isn’t just about style, it’s a form of self-respect. And it’s sustainable!
