Really celebrating quality craftsmanship requires an attitude of care and dedication that must be sustained – from the love with which an artisan makes your garments to the maintenance of them once they are part of your wardrobe. Even the best made clothing requires a little love from time to time to ensure they last as long as possible. Maintenance is not difficult, provided you have the right tips and tricks to do so. Style advisor Kevin from our flagship store in Toronto was more than happy to provide some essential tips and tricks to help us treat our garments with the same love and respect with which they were selected, tailored, and crafted. In other words: how best to maintain and bring new life to your clothing and shoes.

Limit your wear

In terms of longevity, I think actually for any suits, jackets and shoes, I try to give them some breathing time. Instead of wearing something I love every single day, I usually try to rotate them every couple of days. I think that is particularly crucial for white dress shirts, I probably wear them max twice in a week or so. Because usually what happens is, you end up with sweat stains on the collar. The way that I like to deal with that is, I have something called the Oxiclean Spray, I’ll spray the collar or armpits. I’ll use an old toothbrush and just brush it all up. Then I will put it in the washing machine, on a gentle cycle. And let it hang to dry. Then most of the sweat stains, the yellow stains will be gone.

Opt for durability

For those that do wear suits often, I would recommend a full canvas garment. It’s handwork, so that durability is all part of the artist’s craftsmanship. Full canvas on a suit absolutely contributes to the longevity of the garments, because the canvassing is usually done with horse hair. It’s woven and sewn together with the suit. Some places will glue the canvas, which you don’t want because then once you wear it for a long period of time, you’ll realize bubbles will start to form inside the jacket, usually after the dry cleaning because the glue melts…

Cycle with the seasons

Usually I’ll separate my everyday clothing between spring and summer clothing, and fall and winter stuff. The latter I try not to wear as often, just because the fabric is a little more dense or heavier, so it can catch a little bit more and over time begin to fray underneath the armpit because of the friction points. So we like to fix that up a little bit with little clippers, or we’ll take them to the tailors and just have them finish it up a little bit, or press it out properly.

Take your storage seriously

If people are not wearing their clothes for a longer period of time, we like to provide them with garment bags for proper storage. Proper storage is very, very important. The garment bags that we provide allow the garments to be maintained without having moths or anything like that to come into contact with the clothing. Since we are now approaching fall, I myself have a lot of spring wardrobe, so a lot more linen, cotton, wool blends with linen, lighter garments. If I’m transitioning into the fall, I will store my suits into a vacuum sealed bag. If you don’t have storage, definitely vacuum seal it, otherwise keep it in the garment bags and have them in your closet.

Choose your hangers wisely

Every suit and jacket we have is hung on plastic hangers, which we provide to our customers after purchase. However, once in your wardrobe, a hanger of Cedarwood is very much preferred. The most important thing is to have a Cedarwood hanger with a broad shoulder, so it keeps the proper shape of the shoulder intact. A lot of people will just put their suits and jackets on the same plastic hangers as they do for their shirts, but those don’t give that ideal structure. Moreover, usually with Cedarwood the garment is protected by absorbing smells and inconvenient odors.

The same goes for your shoes

The maintenance of shoes is very practical. Of course, every single shoe comes with a dust bag that we provide, but one of the most important things that people don’t utilize is the shoe tree. Because people think, oh it’s an additional add-on, whatever, whatever. But truthfully, I think shoe trees are most important to have in your wardrobe, especially the Cedarwood ones. After a long day wearing your shoes, you sweat, it smells. So the Cedarwood actually helps to break down the sweats and it kind of absorbs all the smells from the shoe. And the best thing about it too, is that it helps hold the shape of the shoe, in terms of the leather molds.

Prevention is better than to cure

In terms of repairing, it’s simple. We do have a sewing kit of course, but to prevent is better than to cure. What usually happens, is that a lot of people are a little too tight in their elbows, or too tight in the arm specifically, and then it starts to wear at the elbow of your respective garment. Because a lot of people have desk-jobs, they stay with their jacket on, they have their arms on the table when they are typing for example, but that puts strain on the fabric as well. So I would recommend removing your jacket, especially when you’re driving. That’s very, very crucial by the way. Because every time you sit, you’ll get creases, wrinkles in the back from sitting. So always take off your jacket!

Leave repairs to the professionals

If there is a tear in the elbow, we can add those suede elbow patches, for example on sports jackets. You can do that, or to fix a jacket for any of those rips there’s something called invisible mending. They will actually blend in the fabrics together and sew them, but it’s very, very extensive to do, and rather expensive. Similarly, sometimes when clients get their garments dry-cleaned for example and the dry cleaners don’t properly maintain them or tape them up, the buttons can get broken or fall off. So of course, if anyone needs repair on buttons or new buttons ordered, we take care of it in one of our stores.

The correct equipment is key

To remove the wrinkles from your shirts or jackets, I like to use a steamer or a press. A good steamer is all you need. You don’t have to dry-clean your suit very often, in fact, we don’t recommend doing it much at all, unless absolutely necessary. For other maintenance purposes, you’ll notice that when people have animals in the household, like cats or dogs, they typically use a lint roller, right? We try not to use that, because the adhesive from the lint rollers gets to the fabric, so the glue from there will stick onto the surface of the fabric. We recommend a simple clothing brush instead.

Knitwear needs extra love

For your knitwear, it sounds obvious perhaps, but we don’t recommend hanging them out. Whatever it is, we prefer to fold them, because hangers can start to change the shape of your knit. Then for cleaning purposes, hand wash is usually crucial, or a very delicate cycle in your washing machine, especially with super soft cashmere or silk or anything like that. You don’t want to ruin that!

Don’t forget finishing touches

Another way to properly maintain your wardrobe is to clean your shoes with a brush with a bit of spitshine wax or anything like that. One of my favorites to use is probably the Saphir shoe polish. My favorite is the Saphir renovator, I use it to really polish up the shoe a little bit. That’s more of a white cream that you can use on any of the leathers, and then afterwards you’ll use a brush or you use your finger, and then you can really see the smoothness of it. If you really want true color, the Saphir comes in many, many different colors, you can even have a little bit darker, lighter, whichever. Saphir also have the Pate Deluxe, which is the wax for it as well. It’s beeswax actually, so, you do it over the shoe after you finish the neutral cream and that gives it a good beautiful mirror shine.