Ties & Scarves
Infinite variety of fabrics
Ties and scarves come in an infinite variety of fabrics, weaves, patterns and colors. As such, they offer the wearer the opportunity to express their individual flair and style and allow their personality and mood to shine through.
At it’s most practical, ties and scarves can function as a lynchpin that pulls an ensemble together, complementing, strengthening and softening other elements without detracting from the overall look.
High-end specialization
At RAVE FabriCARE, we specialize in high-end ties and scarves from the likes of Allison, Anderson, Bergdorf Goodman, Bijan, Brioni, Cappelli, Cavalli, Charvet, Drakes, Ferragamo, Hermes, Howards, Kiton, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Ricci, Saks Fifth Avenue, Talbott, Turnbull & Asser, Zegna and many others.
The owners of high-end ties and scarves are often reluctant to clean their ties and scarves. So much so that their “unwearable ties and scarves” are banished to the far reaches of their closets. After all, a grubby, wrinkled tie or scarf screams sloppy, no matter how formal the rest of your ensemble may be.
The owners of high-end ties and scarves often attribute their reluctance to clean their ties and scarves to their past experience with dry cleaners:
- no attempts to remove stains (beyond tossing them into a dry cleaning machine and hoping for the best)
- puckered shells
- twisted knot fabric
- stretched seams
- distorted interlinings
- razor sharp edges
- loose keeper loops, brand labels and bar tacks
- misaligned tips and uneven margins/hems
- unravelling slip stitches.
Whether your ties and scarves are grenadine silk, printed silk, woven silk, knitted, wool, cashmere, linen, or blends thereof, or whether your ties are four-in-the-hand or six or seven fold construction, you can trust RAVE FabriCARE to care for your ties with extraordinary technical skill.
Tie cleaning
Unfortunately, ties are often the first garments to accumulate soil and stains.
At the same time, ties – especially those made of silk – are very delicate items. That’s because ties are carefully folded lengths of volatile material that are sewn together with loose, sparse stitches, thereby providing room for the silk to drape and stretch.
Ties don’t take kindly to oil-based stains (such as body oils, steak sauce, salad dressing, etc.) and water-based stains (such as perspiration, wine, beer, coffee, etc.).
And ties absolutely hate being rubbed, wiped, scrubbed or sprayed with a DIY miracle potion such as club soda, hairspray, white wine and other internet-certified cures.
That being said, most ties can be properly cleaned – provided the process used to clean your ties has been specifically designed for ties.
And only for ties.
At a minimum this process should involve:
Hand cleaning
Your ties should always be hand cleaned – in whole or in part – prior to being soaked in a fabric-gentle dry cleaning fluid.
Your ties should never be merely tossed into a dry cleaning machine on a hope and a prayer that the stains will miraculously disappear based on the aggressiveness of the dry cleaning solvent used and the tumbling action of the dry cleaning machine.
Dry cleaning
Your ties should always be gently folded into specially-constructed tie net bags, placed into the wheel of the dry cleaning machine, soaked in a fabric gentle dry cleaning fluid such as siloxane, extracted for about a minute, dried for about 3 minutes and then hung to a complete dry.
This is essentially the same process we use to dry clean bespoke garments.
Your ties should never be tossed into a dry cleaning machine, tumbled in an aggressive dry cleaning solvent, extracted and tumble dried for 20 to 30 minutes. And ties should never be cleaned together with any other garments.
Just a quick note about our siloxane dry cleaning fluid…
Siloxane means a crystal clear, odorless, dermatologically friendly, chemically inert (non-dye stripping) dry cleaning fluid that’s so gentle you can (legally) wash your face and hands in it. This also means no cleaning in fabric aggressive, dye stripping, toxic dry cleaning solvents such as perchlorethylene, synthetic petroleum or formaldehyde dibutyl acetal.
Hand rolling
Your ties should always be lightly hand ironed (with the hand iron barely touching the fabric) to it’s original volume and the edges of the tie should be “rolled” back to original shape.
Your ties should never be machine pressed or steamed. At an ordinary cleaner or wannabe cleaner, this typically involves laying a tie lengthwise on a press pad, lowering the head of the press onto a tie, and crushing the tie with pressure (up to 80 pounds per square inch).
And the result?https://ravefabricare.com/poor-pressing-permanently-damage-fine-garments/
Seam impressions and razor sharp edges. And a tie that’s destined for the tie graveyard.
Packaging
Each tie is returned to you in a white, 16 inch long tie box with a clear, plastic cover. Perfect for return shipping (we ship nationwide), travel and home storage.
Summary
There’s no “secret” to caring for fine ties. It’s really quite simple. When you know how and care enough to do it right!
Tie restoration
We often receive ties (and, to a lesser extent scarves) that that are not only stained but also distorted (wrinkled, stretched, flat pressed with razor-sharp edges, etc.).
The prescription for these ties often involves:
- Disassembling the tie into it’s component parts (shell, interlining and tipping)
- Pre-spotting the stains on all component parts by hand
- Dry cleaning the component parts
- Reconstructing the tie
- Hand ironing the tie, focussing on overall smoothness and volume-holding rolled edge.e
Scarf cleaning
Scarves are a perfect accessory to any outfit.
Just like ties, scarves are very delicate items, particularly if your scarves are hand rolled and hand stitched, a la Hermes scarves.
And just like ties, they don’t take kindly to oil-based stains (such as body oils, steak sauce, salad dressing, etc.) and water-based stains (such as perspiration, wine, beer, coffee, etc.).
And they absolutely hate being rubbed, wiped, scrubbed or sprayed with a DIY miracle potion such as club soda, hairspray, white wine and other internet-certified cures.
That being said, most scarves can be properly cleaned – provided the process used to clean your scarves has been specifically designed for scarves. And only for scarves.
At a minimum this process should involve:
Hand cleaning
Your scarves should always be hand cleaned – in whole or in part – prior to being soaked in a fabric-gentle dry cleaning fluid.
Your scarves should never be merely tossed into a dry cleaning machine on a hope and a prayer that the stains will miraculously disappear based on the aggressiveness of the dry cleaning solvent used and the tumbling action of the dry cleaning machine.
Dry cleaning
Your scarves should always be gently folded into specially-constructed scarf net bags, placed into the wheel of the dry cleaning machine, soaked in a fabric gentle dry cleaning fluid such as siloxane, extracted for about a minute, machine dried for about 3 minutes and then hung to a complete dry.
This is essentially the same process we use to dry clean bespoke garments.
Your scarves should never be tossed into a dry cleaning machine, tumbled in an aggressive dry cleaning solvent, extracted and tumble dried for 20 to 30 minutes. And scarves should never be cleaned together with any other garments (other than ties).
Just a quick note about our siloxane dry cleaning fluid…
Siloxane means a crystal clear, odorless, dermatologically friendly, chemically inert (non-dye stripping) dry cleaning fluid that’s so gentle you can (legally) wash your face and hands in it. This also means no cleaning in fabric aggressive, dye stripping, toxic dry cleaning solvents such as perchlorethylene, synthetic petroleum or formaldehyde dibutyl acetal.
Hand rolling
Your scarves should always be lightly hand ironed (with the hand iron barely touching the fabric) to it’s original volume and the edges of the scarf should be “rolled” back to original shape.
Your scarves should never be machine pressed or steamed. At an ordinary cleaner or wannabe cleaner, this typically involves laying a scarf on a press pad, lowering the head of the press onto the scarf, and crushing the scarf with pressure (up to 80 pounds per square inch).
And the result?
Seam impressions and razor sharp edges. And a scarf that will, in all probability, never be worn again.
Packaging
Each scarf is returned to you in a white, scarf box with a clear, plastic cover. We gently fold your scarves in scarf boxes (we offer two different box sizes) and cushion the folds with acid free tissue. Perfect for return shipping (we ship nationwide), travel and home storage.
Summary
There’s no “secret” to caring for fine scarves. It’s really quite simple. When you know how and care enough to do it right!
Tie and scarf alterations
Please note that we do not narrow ties, widen ties, shorten ties, lengthen ties or reline ties.
We’re Hermes tie and scarf specialists
At RAVE FabriCARE, we service high-end ties and scarves.
Over time, however, we have developed a particular speciality servicing ties and scarves made by Hermes.
