Packaging

Protecting your investments

You have a substantial investment in a high quality wardrobe or in a few prized garments. And you want to protect them with packaging that won’t harm those investments over the long term.

At RAVE FabriCARE, our packaging is designed to protect your investment, and reflects the extraordinary care and attention to detail we invest in the cleaning, finishing and inspecting process.

Specifically, we protect your garments by only using

Heavy duty clip and contoured hangers
Unbuffered, acid-free tissue
Extra wide, heavy gauge poly
Breathable sweater bags
Breathable suit, dress and gown bags
Flat necktie and scarf boxes
Acid-free rollers

Heavy duty clip and contoured hangers

Garments can easily loose their shape and drape when hung on wire hangers; develop holes when hung with metal pins or metal clips; and loose their shape and/or exhibit deep impressions when hung on plastic, wood or chrome hangers that are non-contoured and non-supportive in the shoulder area.

At RAVE FabriCARE, we never use metal pins or metal clips on your shorts, slacks, trousers or skirts. Nor do we use plastic, wood or chrome hangers with metal clips.

Instead, your shorts, slacks, trousers and skirts are hung on a white, heavy duty, molded plastic clip hanger with wide, soft, rubber-padded clips. Unlike hangers with short plastic or metal clips, these hangers won’t leave impressions on your garments.

All blazers, sports coats, suit jackets and overcoats are returned on white, heavy duty, contoured, molded plastic hangers with a wide shoulder surface area that contour the neck and support the shoulders. These contoured hangers help maintain the shape and drape of the garment while simultaneously preventing wrinkling.

At RAVE FabriCARE, we’d never use thin straight or thin wishbone wood, chrome or wire hangers on your blouses, blazers/sport coats, suit jackets or coats.

Unbuffered acid-free tissue

Another way we ensure safety is by only using soft, white, unbuffered acid-free tissue for packaging your garments and household textiles. We don’t use acidic, logo printed tissue.

Why is unbuffered acid-free tissue important?

Because acids cause whites and creams to yellow and fabrics to deteriorate prematurely.

RAVE FabriCARE’s unbuffered acid-free tissue will not acidify your garments and household textiles.

Which means you can safely leave our tissue in your garments and household textiles over the long term.

Extra wide, heavy gauge poly

At RAVE FabriCARE, we’d rather be safe than sorry.

That’s why we take extra care to wrap your garments and household textiles in extra-wide, heavy gauge poly – one dry cleaned or laundered garment per poly bag.

This temporary packaging is designed solely to keep your garments and household textiles wrinkle free. And protected against dust and dirt, against undue wrinkling, and against excessive movement between our fabricare facility to your home. Whether we deliver them or you pick them up yourself.

It’s just one way we work to maintain the pristine condition of your garments and household textiles.

However, once you get home, we strongly suggest that you remove the plastic covering.

For 3 reasons:

All fabrics – both natural and synthetics – must “breathe”.
Plastic tends to trap moisture and promote mold and mildew.
This type of plastic will degrade over time, acidifying your garments and household textiles. Which, in turn, can cause them to discolor and deteriorate prematurely.

Breathable sweater storage bags

Most ordinary cleaners offer a sweater bag completely constructed of cheap plastic.

At RAVE FabriCARE, our custom-made sweater bags are made from a breathable, polypropylene material.

They come in three different sizes: small, medium and large.

These reusable, breathable sweater bags are designed primarily for sweaters and knits and are safe for long-term storage because they allow for proper air circulation.

Additionally, they enable you to

easily view your sweaters and knits
protect the shape of your sweaters and knits
store your sweaters and knits flat
stack them vertically on a shelf or in a drawer or chest.

To separately purchase these breathable polypropylene bags, please click here.

Breathable suit, dress and gown storage bags

Plastic, nylon and vinyl suit, dress and gown bags are detrimental to your garments over the long-term.

So are those canvas storage bags that are starched to provide added “body” (starch is the perfect food for feeding month larvae!).

Just like our reusable, breathable sweater bags, our suit, dress and gown bags are made from a breathable, polypropylene material.

They’re safe for long-term storage because they allow for proper air circulation, they won’t trap moisture and promote mold and mildew, and they won’t acidify over time.

To separately purchase these breathable polypropylene bags, please click here.

Flat necktie and scarf boxes

At RAVE FabriCARE, we package your neckties and scarves in custom designed boxes. Each box has a clear, see-through lid so they’re easy to store and easy to find.

All scarves are also cushioned with unbuffered acid-free tissue.

Why do we package your neckties and scarves in this manner?

Because neckties and scarves are best stored flat. This helps prevent rippling, and maintains the fullness and rolled edges of your neckties and scarfs.

Acid-free rollers

Our reusable, acid-free rollers are perfect for storing your fine table linens when you want to achieve a creaseless presentation. And because our acid-free rollers come in various lengths, we can accommodate table linens of almost any size.

Our rollers are made from acid-free, lignin-free tan paperboard, are buffered to a pH of 8.5 (slightly alkaline), and are bonded with a neutral pH PVA adhesive.

The archival purity of our rollers will ensure that your fine table linens won’t yellow or embrittle over time because of direct contact with acidic packaging materials.

Tell us your preferences

If you’d like us to package any or all of your garments or household textiles in a particular manner, we’ll enter your request in our RAVEtrac computer system. That way we can return your garments and household textiles packaged according to your personal preference. Every garment. Every order.

RAVE ReviewsRecent customer testimonials

“What technique! RAVE FabriCARE are extremely meticulous and responsive, especially Mr. Stu Bloom, the owner. When I recently soiled my dinner suit with cake frosting on the silk-covered lapels and the body of the jacket, and spilled drinks all over, RF restored it to it's former glory, and returned it meticulously packaged in a box with a built-in rack, and with support stuffed under the shoulders so that they wouldn't loose their shape. The suit was perfectly spotless, odorless, and pressed. Couldn't ask for better service! On the strength of this experience, and a conversation with the erudite Mr. Bloom, I am planning on trusting them with all my future suit-cleaning and clothes-storage needs.”
Thanos P (screen name)
citysearch.com

“I received my first cleaning back from RAVE and I am more than impressed. The care in processing and packing each item is impeccable. It's too bad one sweater was stained by my previous cleaners, but that is a valuable lesson learned. I'll be sending more items!”
Benito C. – Philadelphia, PA
email

“You recently cleaned some vintage table linens for me and they were beautifully done and packed. Thank you.”
Millicent M. – Bethesda, MD
email

“I received my gray suit on Friday and I want to thank you for removing the wine stains. The suit looks great. I also want to say I really appreciate the attention to packaging. I expected some steam pressing would be necessary after traveling 3000+ miles, but the suit arrived with basically no wrinkles. Should the need arise I will definitely be using your services again. I have also passed along your firm information to my Neapolitan tailor. They visit NYC five times a year and, until now, didn't have anyone to recommend.”
Scott S. – Washington, DC
Email

“For the RAVE Bespoke Service, the jackets come back on wide hangers hung within individual tombstone boxes, stuffed carefully with acid-free tissue that their excellent ironwork is completely undisturbed. They will photograph items on arrival so that there is a reference for the pressing staff. The quality of the ironwork is no less than from a tailor. It's entirely above the standard of a dry cleaner. I can't imagine settling for anything less than this for bespoke clothes, and cross country is still easier than cross Atlantic, which is what I used to do. The last delivery that I got was about an eight foot high stack of such boxes.”
F. Corbera (screen name)
F. Corbera has an extensive wardrobe comprising bespoke and classic garments and accessories, is a frequent commentator on various forums and exhibits his wardrobe and his knowledge of bespoke and classic garments and accessories through his online photo album, www.voxsartoria.com.
styleforum.net

“... I just received some items back from RAVE FabriCARE, one suit and two pairs of my wife's white pants. First, what packaging. Each item was carefully padded and wrapped, the sleeves stuffed, and the lapel not crushed. The suit fabric looked and felt new. Even better, my wife's whites were restored. Both had become dingy and gray from other dry cleaners. She was ready to donate them but we decided to give Stu a try. Everything is just perfect. I almost don't want to wear the suit just so I don't wrinkle the pants. It's a little pricy but I highly recommend RAVE FabriCARE. I only wish I could afford this more often.”
dks202 (screen name)
askandyaboutclothes.com

“Stu at RAVE is an old school artisan who understands stains and cloth. His business is quality hand cleaning of garments, not tubs of shirts at $2.49 on a hanger. I priced out Jeeves in NYC for some Hermes scarves that needed help. Stu did a better job at half the price. I do not live in Arizona so our transaction took place completely thru email and UPS. The scarves were returned on a tissue covered board - a real presentation. Just perfect. He saved one I thought was lost and brightened the color a good bit. I can only imagine how dresses come out. I am about to try an ochre silk covered with breading from the 40s. If you have good clothing this is a way to help them last longer. If you have an ugly spot, he can probably find something to remove it and not hurt the cloth. A fine place all round.”
Judith T (screen name) – San Francisco, CA
yelp.com

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