RAVE FabriCARE'S True Quality Cleaning Blog

Summer’s here. Keep those white, dry clean only garments brilliantly white.

The color white is truly timeless. White is classic, sophisticated, distinctive, versatile and soothing. All at the same time.

To put it bluntly, white – with all it’s countless variations in hues and intensity – is simply brilliant.

With Memorial Day just around the corner, it’s time to bring out those white cottons and linens from their winter hibernation.

But you’re anxious. Your dry cleaned whites probably look yellow, gray and dingy.

Don’t despair. It’s not your fault that ordinary cleaners have abandoned all quality standards in their never-ending quest to “produce” a garment ever more cheaper and faster.

In this post, we explain why your fine white, dry clean only garments turn yellow, gray and dingy. And what you can do about it.

Cleaning and restoring sports memorabilia: Signed Muhammad Ali Robe

Many collectors of sports memorabilia own textile-based memorabilia — jerseys, jackets, shorts, robes, sporting patches and the like. Typically, they’ll display these textile-based memorabilia in display boxes.

For the most part, these displays are esthetically-pleasing. In other words, they look good.

The problem is that, despite all your best intentions, these artifacts may be deteriorating (and losing value) with each passing month.

That’s because of factors such as exposure to natural or artificial light, physical contact with acidic woods or plastics used in the construction of these display boxes, proximity contact to acids that off-gas from these woods and plastics over time, lack of air circulation, and the like.

In this blog post, we highlight the destructive nature of mounting textile-based sports memorabilia — such as a signed Muhammad Ali robe — in a display box that’s not archival using mounting techniques that are not archival. We further explore the results that might be achievable through professional restoration.