Second hand/vintage clothes - washing them before you buy

Kimia

I just recently discovered the joy of thrift shopping - and I made some fantastic purchases of a couple of blazers and a suit for work. I got a fantastic Max Mara suit for like 20 bucks.

Any time I have bought used clothes, I've naturally washed them once taking them home before wearing them. However my problem now is that there are no tags on the inside of one of the blazers or the suit, so I don't know if I have to dry clean them or not.

And I can't afford to dry clean them.

So what's the home alternative to dry cleaning used clothing? Bearing in mind I don't want to damage the suit/blazers (even though they are not super delicate, just regular fabric)

I also don't want to get bed bugs or something from the clothes (although I think this is fairly impossible as over here they wash/clean everything before putting it out on the shop floor). Still, if I'm not able to dry clean them, how can I thoroughly clean these used clothes without damaging them?

lainey316

A MaxMara suit is definitely without doubt dry clean only - is there any fabric description at all? If there's any wool it could be difficult. The main issue with suits is reshaping, and the lining washing differently to outer layer causing a distortion in the shape.

Blazers as well, if you wash the them, it's very hard to get the shape back in.

Handwashing in cold water might work, but won't kill any bugs

There are 'dry clean' kits you can get, that you can use in the tumble dryer, but it's not great

http://www.lakeland.co.uk/21276/Hagerty-Dry-Cleaner-Kit

Kimia

thanks! How bad would it be if I just hand washed everything and lay it flat to dry?

lainey316

Depends on how distraught you would be at disaster. I couldn't risk it, personally, on the suit. I'd chance it on the blazer and see how I got on but I'd save up the dry cleaning money for the suit - can't be more than 25 quid, surely?

fillefatale

I'd save up for the dry cleaning to be honest. If its a quality item it'd be worth paying the money to get it cleaned properly rather than taking the risk.

That being said I thrifted a Max Mara skirt, turned it inside out, put it inside a pillowcase and washed it on a delicate wool wash and allowed it to dry flat. This is what I do with all my vintage clothes.

ipadzz

Perhaps go back to the store you found it at and ask them whether they would know. Also, there's a lot of good, honest laundrettes who are not just out to make a penny - they will advise you if and how it can be cleaned at home.

My advice would be, take it to the dry cleaners. Don't chance it, at least get it done in there before you wear it so you definitely know it's clean. Once in there, enquire as to whether it would be easy to clean it at home etc..