# Steaming a suit - risky?



## Drogue (Mar 24, 2009)

Like many people I steam my suits in the bathroom after a shower to freshen them between cleans. However having read this thread I'm a bit concerned I might be removing the shape pressed in by the tailor and possibly puckering seams and such:



> First of all, NEVER use a steamer on a suit, and never hang your suit in a steamy bathroom. This bears repeating. NEVER use a steamer on a suit, and never hang your suit in a steamy bathroom... I know a lot of people enjoy the ease of a steamer or hanging a suit in the bathroom to get rid of wrinkles, but it is really a very bad idea.


Has anyone had any problems using bathroom steam? Is there any other way to freshen a suit between cleans (besides brushing and airing)?


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## eagle2250 (Mar 24, 2006)

I have not found steaming a suit or sportcoat using bathroom steam to be particularly effective but, for the past couple of years and at the urging of members of these fora, I have used a commercial hand steamer to good effect in maintaining my suits/sport coats. By doing so, I have greatly reduced the frequency of which dry cleanings were required and have yet to note any ill effects to my garments. If I'm off my nut, in following this practice, I wish someone would tell me, before I inadvertently kill one of my suits or sport coats!


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## PJC in NoVa (Jan 23, 2005)

I have been using handheld steamers (currently a Jiffy eSteam) on my suitcoats and odd jackets for years to remove the wear wrinkles that appear on the inner sides of the sleeves opposite my elbows and across the back and tails.

I typically do this after just about every wearing: The wrinkles are worse in the warm, humid times of year and less in the winter, but they just about always show up after a day of wearing, and will of course get worse depending on activities (such as being jammed into a theater seat for a 2.5-hour play). 

This type of steaming--note that I am NOT running the steamer over the coat canvas or fusing--has NEVER caused a problem. And I'm glad it's so easy to do, as one thing I can't abide is walking around in a rumpled suit with a bunch of accordion-like wrinkles all over it.

I too have never found the hang-in-bathroom-while-showering method to work very well. A steamer is much more effective as it produces an intense stream of steam that you can target precisely at wrinkles.


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## Dr. NS (Aug 25, 2009)

I often use a handheld steamer to get rid of the wrinkles (especially when I'm traveling) and never had a problem. It can't be worse than dry cleaning, right???


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## alphadelta (Oct 2, 2007)

Most high-end men's boutiques, department stores and tailors use steamers on suit coats and trousers to remove wrinkles. It does not seem like it would be a problem when done in moderation (your not steaming vegetables here).

AD


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## jst (Oct 22, 2008)

Till now I have not seen any ill effect of hand held steamer on my suits. While steaming the suits the exposure to steam is only short. 

I too have much better results with the steamer than with hanging in the bathroom.


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## Reds & Tops (Feb 20, 2009)

I've never run into any issues and never once heard that using a steamer damages a suit. In fact, many people in the clothing industry recommend their use.


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## Dr. NS (Aug 25, 2009)

So most of us are in agreement, but why am I still waiting for some genius to correct us all?


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## Blueboy1938 (Aug 17, 2008)

*The poster shall be nameless, apparently . . .*

. . . but I should like to know the rationale behind the proscription. Why is it "really a very bad idea"? I'm willing to listen. Bring it on!

However, I'm not going to go around with creases and assorted wrinkles in my clothing if I can do something about it, and that something is not going to be taking wool suits to the cleaners every time they have a crease. That's just preposterous, absent some rationale as alluded to above. A hand steamer is a suit's best friend. It doesn't create a shiny, deflated fabric look, and it's extremely effective.

If the concern is seam pucker, as implied, all one has to do is pull the seam gently and steam out the pucker. Hanging something in a steamy bathroom, what's more, is not subjecting it to boiler-temparature steam, after all. Had that person a horrible experience of some kind? Enquiring minds want to know


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## JLibourel (Jun 13, 2004)

I use bathroom steam every time I wear a tailored jacket (or suit--since the demise of the leisure suit, I'm not sure there is such a thing as an untailored suit) for years and I have never been able to discern the slightest ill effects. I have a Conair steamer, but about the only time I use it in earnest is to remove the wrinkles when I have just extracted some sartorial treasure from my friends in Kowloon from the FedEx box.


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## pkincy (Feb 9, 2006)

Has anyone wondered whether the OP on the other thread owns a dry cleaning business or not?

In 1982 a professor of microbiology at U Cal Berkeley gave a paper at the Amer Chem Society meeting. In that paper he claimed that a glass of wine (or was it red wine) a day would reduce the risk of heart disease. This paper has been widely quoted ever since.

No one ever reported that besides being a very successful professor he also owned a very successful California winery.

Perry


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## Checkerboard 13 (Oct 6, 2009)

A little quick googling turns up the original post on SF:
https://www.styleforum.net/showthread.php?t=88504

While I don't believe the OP states his occupation (someone please correct me if I'm wrong), the very detailed post appears to be from the tailor's point of view.
Having read it, I would have to say that he makes a very good case for what he says, and backs up his points with sound reasoning based on what would seem to be intimate knowledge of the tailor's art.

Though the concept of steaming being bad for a suit goes against my desire to accomplish things in the simplest manner possible, I must admit that, in my mind, the thorough discussion in his post probably outweighs the anecdotal evidence to the contrary, as posted by others.


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## Pipps (Dec 20, 2005)

Shower-room steaming will most definitely NOT remove the already pressed-in shape, such as the trouser-front creases.

Only dousings with physical water - such as being caught in a rain storm - will present detriment to a suit's creases.

So keep showering away - safe in the knowledge that you are substantially extending your suits' lives and substantially reducing your dry-cleaning costs.


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## Pipps (Dec 20, 2005)

PS: Remember - shower-room steaming is only a very light steaming process. It is only sufficient to remove moderate creases. It cannot, and in my experience in years of doing it, DOES NOT remove construction creases or pre-pressed creases. I hope this helps clarify what may be cross-purposes being introduced into this thread.


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## jefferyd (Sep 5, 2008)

I wrote the post quoted by the OP.

I am a tailored clothing designer and I work in the RTW/ MTM industry. I am responsible not only for styling but I also make the patterns, design and select the trimmings and instruct the factories in how the garment is to be sewn and pressed to get the look I am after. I was trained as a bespoke tailor, something I still do on the side because I enjoy it. I am not affiliated with any dry cleaner or other similar operation and the only reason I took my time to create a guide to suit touch-up is because people asked for a professional's advice on the matter. It was not meant as a complete course on pressing and shaping, it was a guide to touch-up maintenance so you can walk around accordion-free between trips to the presser. It takes me less time to do this type of touch-up than it does to press a shirt. YMMV.

There are many people who say that they steam their suits and do not see any problems. My response is that you do not see canvas. At one point in your life you had no idea what canvas was. Perhaps now you have an idea of the importance of canvas versus fusing because you have been shown or informed about it. Tailored clothing does not stop there- there are many elements that contribute to the quality and shape of a suit, most of which you would not recognize unless you were trained to do so but that, nonetheless, have a greater or lesser impact on the garment. Just because your untrained eye does not recognize something like the presence of canvas, does not mean it is not there and that it is not important.

Like a shoemaker who stretches leather over a last to give it shape, we stretch and shrink cloth, using steam and pressure, to give it shape in order to conform to the body. Garments with more shape, i,.e. more fitted, curvy ones, require more shaping than boxy ones. Exposure to any sort of humidity without the proper pressure and shaping (in the for of an iron and a board or a press buck) will ruin that shaping. You will not notice it at first but the garment will not conform to the body in the same way that it was intended to. Some people have marveled how a garment "came back to life" after they took it in for a good pressing. Richard Anderson, a Savile Row tailor, has this to say about it on their web site



> Hand pressing is of extreme importance and will increase longevity and maintain the garment's appearance. All hand pressing is done on our premises by the experts involved in the original process of making our bespoke clothing, so you are assured of the most professional service carried out by people that truly understand how clothes are made and how they react to pressing.


Note that they do not say that their tailors will steam the garment for you.

There are also problems with seams and the finish of the cloth that can occur . There is also the misconception that dry cleaning makes fused suits delaminate (made the fusing bubble). It does not. Many dry cleaners use inflatable steam dummies and other dubious pressing devices to get garments out quickly. Steam applied without pressure is what softens the fusing resin and can cause delamination, which does not always present itself immediately.

A few anecdotes.

Garments which are produced in humid climates and then shipped, hanging, in containers, are usually packed with silica gel packets (which cost money) to absorb the humidity in the container. Because exposing garments to random humidity is bad.

The factory I work for made some suits during the summer, to be shipped in the fall so they hung in the warehouse during the hot, humid summer months. Some of the cloths reacted badly to the humidity and they are being sent back into the factory for repressing before we ship, which costs lots of money and screws up the production cycle. This factory is not in the tropics, it is in Canada. You may not have seen what we did and what caused us to send the suits back, but it was there.

Steaming does not remove odors, which are caused by tiny particles lodged in the cloth. Brushing will remove some, and only cleaning will remove all of it.

In the end, what you do with your garments is up to you; if you search the internet hard enough you are going to find suggestions ranging from steaming to machine-washing and each will tell you that they did it with great results.


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## Sean Archer (Mar 29, 2009)

Use your iron and use the steam blast function.


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## Checkerboard 13 (Oct 6, 2009)

I wonder whether anyone has taken the time to read the quoted post, or the reply in this thread from the OP of said quoted post.
His qualifications appear to be the highest, and his explanations quite clear.

To my understanding, it boils down to the fact that suits are three dimensional forms, constructed from two dimensional pieces of fabric. 
Clearly, if one looks at suits, their construction does not result in an assemblage of flat panels, but in fully rounded, curving forms, including several compound curves. 
From the OP's description, the only way to achieve these form-enhancing curves is to press them into the fabric.

Considering the subtle nature of this curvature, as compared to something as sharp as a crease, it certainly stands to reason that one could apply steam to a suit in a manner that would not noticeably affect the creases, yet _could _very well relax the careful and sublime shaping that makes for a wonderfully well-fitting suit.

In such a case, the suit might appear unaffected to an untrained eye, yet have lost some of its form (and likely could continue to do so with repeated steaming.)

Perhaps for an inexpensive, poorly constructed suit, steaming could be of less consequence, but if what the OP describes is true (and I see no reason to doubt it) I can clearly understand why it might not be at all good for a quality suit.

While I like to consider my long-held beliefs valid, if I hold fast to them in the face of contrary evidence, I deprive myself of the ability to learn.
In this case, it appears I may have just increased my knowledge on the subject of pressing suits.


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## Davelli0331 (Mar 3, 2009)

I read the post to which the OP was referring a couple of months ago while in Portland on my honeymoon. I had taken an H. Freeman MTM with me for a night on the town, which of course had gotten pretty wrinkled while in transit. After reading all of the rebuttals in the original post of people saying that hanging one's suit in the bathroom while showering was a great idea despite what the OP of that post said, I went ahead and did it.

Upon first putting the jacket on thereafter, I was slightly horrified. The shape of the jacket was still fine. However, the fabric above the shoulder pads had sunk in slightly, just enough to show outlines of the extra fabric where the seams are. Now, outlines of extra fabric show on the shoulder along the seam where the sleeve attaches and the seam running down from the neck to the sleeve. I frantically asked teh Googles if this was fixable, but found no response. It doesn't seem like it would be, but I will take it to a cleaner at some point to see if having it pressed might lessen the effects.

That H. Freeman MTM was my first really nice suit, and I absolutely love it. The outlines on the shoulders, however, stick out like a sore thumb and I'm now reluctant to wear it. I'm still really bummed about how shower-steaming turned out, so no more shower-steaming my suits. While what happened to my suit won't happen to everyone, keep in mind that I'd never read about that happening before, and it was obviously completely unexpected!


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## Checkerboard 13 (Oct 6, 2009)

Perhaps it would be of benefit to ask a local bespoke tailor (if there is a good one local to you) where he would recommend taking it to have it pressed. (No sense making two mistakes on the same suit!)


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## sko (Jul 1, 2009)

jefferyd said:


> I wrote the post quoted by the OP...
> 
> Exposure to any sort of humidity without the proper pressure and shaping (in the for of an iron and a board or a press buck) will ruin that shaping. You will not notice it at first but the garment will not conform to the body in the same way that it was intended to. Some people have marveled how a garment "came back to life" after they took it in for a good pressing. Richard Anderson, a Savile Row tailor, has this to say about it on their web site...
> 
> ...


This thread, and the post by the individual supposedly quoted in the OP, is rather frustrating. I think everyone agrees that dry cleaning isn't really that good for clothes and should be performed in moderation, but steaming isn't okay either? There's no way to clean or freshen a nice suit without ruining it over time? Or the only way is to take it to a tailor for a pressing, which would cost god knows what? (I'm guessing more than dry cleaning, and certainly more than using a steamer at home.)


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## ksteryous (Jul 7, 2008)

I agree that he makes a good case for not steaming, however I've never had any problems so far. BUT, I mostly stick to steaming only the problem areas which don't have any canvas or particular shape anyway....the elbow and knee areas. Maybe that's a good compromise....only steaming the areas you must.


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## Dr. NS (Aug 25, 2009)

ksteryous said:


> I agree that he makes a good case for not steaming, however I've never had any problems so far. BUT, I mostly stick to steaming only the problem areas which don't have any canvas or particular shape anyway....the elbow and knee areas. Maybe that's a good compromise....only steaming the areas you must.


Good point...


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## Pipps (Dec 20, 2005)

sko said:


> This thread, and the post by the individual supposedly quoted in the OP, is rather frustrating.... There's no way to clean or freshen a nice suit without ruining it over time?


Daily shower-steaming, and the very occasional professional recrease-steaming, is all that a very high-quality suit will need. So be-not frustrated, my dear Sir!

I have been steaming my suits like this for several years now, and I can assure you that a suit cannot be cared for in any better way! The results are optimum! No dry-cleaning required!


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## Dr. NS (Aug 25, 2009)

After all, if we are that worried about our canvas... we'll be at the gym pumping irons instead of being at home using the internet.


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## Scott Hill (Jun 9, 2009)

A hand held steamer is fine to work on wrinkles in the trousers and the back of the coat, and even the sleeves. One should never steam the lapels or front of a coat; as the fabric will pull away from the canvas and create puckering. Balance of the garment is fine to be steamed.


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## lt114 (Jul 30, 2009)

What if the lapel is wrinkled? What's the best way to get the wrinkles out without causing damage, other than having the suit dry cleaned?


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## jefferyd (Sep 5, 2008)

lt114 said:


> What if the lapel is wrinkled? What's the best way to get the wrinkles out without causing damage, other than having the suit dry cleaned?


With an iron and a press cloth. That's the best way to get wrinkles out of any part of a suit.


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