True Quality CleaningStraight talk about caring for fine garments & household textiles from an expert who calls it like it is. In plain English.

Fixing your dry cleaner's work

Upper pic

At RAVE FabriCARE, we provide specialist cleaning services to couturiers, upscale department stores, upscale clothing boutiques, upscale clothing boutiques, upscale resale boutiques, upscale direct sales clothiers, custom clothiers and tailors, upscale bridal salons, fine linen stores, and interior designers.

Not only do we care for store inventory that has become soiled in some manner, but we also restore customer owned garments that have been improperly cleaned - and possibly ruined - by other cleaners.

A perfect example of our restoration services to upscale stores involves two Ralph Lauren Black Label silk charmeuse blouses.

Apparently, the Ralph Lauren client dropped off these two silk blouses at a middle-of-the-road cleaner who dry cleans in synthetic petroleum (aka DF 2000) and who wet cleans upon request. When she picked them up she was appalled by the condition of her blouses.

She immediately called her personal shopper at Ralph Lauren who advised her to return them to Ralph Lauren for restoration by their trusted dry cleaner - who just happens to be RAVE FabriCARE.

One of my functions at RAVE FabriCARE is to visit all our merchant clients twice a week. So on my next visit to Ralph Lauren, those two blouses were waiting for me.

After viewing the blouses, I understood why the client was so upset. The issues were extensive ...

The luster had completely disappeared
The double seams were puckered
The front placket and sleeve plackets were puckered
The fabric was incredibly hard pressed
The perspiration stains were still visible
The soil line in the french cuffs were undisturbed
The mother of pearl buttons were chipped.

Quite frankly, the blouses looked like they had been washed and then hard pressed in an attempt to mitigate the effects of the washing. To describe these two blouses as rags would be quite appropriate.

The following before and after photos reflect the transformation from "rags to "never worn" ...

BEIGE BLOUSE - BEFORE