RAVE FabriCARE'S True Quality Cleaning Blog

Fine garment care: It’s not solely about the dry cleaning machine or solvent

Dry cleaners are quick to tell you all about their “great” dry cleaning machine and their “great” dry cleaning solvent or fluid.

The implication is that true quality cleaning is all about machines and solvents or fluids.

That’s a false and misleading premise.

Truth is, true quality garment care is the result of the integration of the right dry cleaning machines and right solvents or fluids into a garment care process that involves an entire chain of specific tasks. Independent of the process, the dry cleaning machine and the solvent or fluid are worthless.

In this post, I explain why it’s important to understand your dry cleaner’s process instead of focusing solely on the brand of the dry cleaning machine or the generic type of solvent or fluid used.

Fine garment care can tolerate no shortcuts. Nothing takes just a second.

At RAVE FabriCARE, we frequently refuse to accommodate requests accompanied by the refrain that “it’ll will only take a second.”

Fact is, nothing takes a second. Quality work can’t be rushed. Everything worth doing right, takes time. If we aren’t afforded the time to do it right, we ain’t doing it.

In this post, I provide examples of requests that are typically accompanied by the refrain that “it’ll will only take a second” and explain why a true quality cleaner should not — barring very unusual circumstances — accede to such requests.

Changing the exterior color of your leather handbags, purses and backpacks

Handbags, purses and backpacks that are in relatively poor condition may not respond favorably to cleaning & conditioning alone. Quite often, the only way to transform the accessory is to recolor or repaint it after cleaning and conditioning.

If the handbag, purse and backpack requires recoloring, many clients elect to retain the original color.

But there may be another option: Depending on certain elements associated with the construction of the handbag, purse or backpack, you may be able to create a one-of-a-kind accessory by changing the exterior color of your handbag, purse or backpack.

In this post, we illustrate the recoloring opportunities by showing you the results we achieved on a beaten up, dirty olive Balenciaga handbag that was recolored gray.