In
yesterday's post, I repeated Will
Boehlke's comments about true quality cleaning entitled
"Maintenance: Clothing Cleaners."
In today's post, I repeat Will Boehlke's April 26, 2009 post
entitled "Maintenance: Whiter Whites".
Here's what he had to say . . .
"I get more questions from men looking for quality cleaning and
alterations services than I do of any other kind, and after I
mentioned RAVE FabriCARE's Clean by Mail cleaning service a few
weeks ago I thought it useful to provide a review of the company's
Jermyn Street Shirtcare service. Five dress shirts were dispatched
to Scottsdale, Arizona by FedEx and arrived back in San Francisco
about two weeks later. They literally looked as good as new.
Now in my
book, the world of $400 and up bespoke shirts has been
waiting for someone to take advantage of today's moderately priced
air shipping services and offer quality shirt cleaning from a lower
cost labor area. That day has arrived. I use what I consider
to be the best service in the Bay area and the results, though
good, are definitely not up to RAVE's standard. I doubt if better
work could be done at home by a dedicated laundress.
This is no same day service because the preliminaries take
longer than that. RAVE's process begins by soaking each shirt for
12-24 hours in fluid that loosens oil-based grime from collars and
cuffs without the abrasion of scrubbing. Ground-in dirt on the
inside of one shirt cuff was completely removed. And the
combination of RAVE's soaking process and its quality
laundering also means that RAVE's finished shirts are noticeably
cleaner and brighter.
Another most impressive technique is that after laundering the
shirts are completely pressed by hand. They are folded gently
instead of being pressed hard, so there are no creases. They
are folded in half for shipping instead of into the usual third, so
the entire shirt front is uncreased. And they are sealed in a heavy
gauge shirt bag with a "built in" cushion of air so they resist
wrinkles until they are taken out to be worn.
All is not perfect of course. Rave's service is priced at about
double the cos
t of my current service, roughly $14 a shirt
rather than the $7 I usually pay. Call that a $2,000 a year premium
for remote cleaning which is noticeable. But price is not the real
barrier for me. Space is.
You see RAVE's method of folding means their clean shirts take
up twice as much space as the system I use currently, so they
simply will not fit into the cabinetry that I use for storage. So
much as I might be tempted to redesign my closets, I am going to
stick with my current supplier.
But men who have the budget and the space are likely to be very
happy that they found RAVE."
Addendum to this post from RAVE: As a result of Will's post and
his specific comments about his shirts being folded in half to
minimize creases, RAVE FabriCARE now offers a choice in folded
shirts: folded in half or folded to the maximum length specified by
the client. Will continues to entrust his fine garments to us.
How can I help you?