If you’ve gotten into the habit of lugging your wool knits, cashmere cardigans and silk blouses to the nearest dry cleaners, this news may transform your laundry routine — and your budget.
Turns out, ‘Dry Clean Only’ could be a total lie.
“It’s just easier for a lot of brands to just put that on everything,” stylist Liz Teich, otherwise known as The New York Stylist, told The Post.
“I always say to my clients, ‘Look at the fabric and not necessarily what the clothing care instructions are.'”
At a mere glance, Teich can tell when a cashmere sweater has been dry cleaned — for one, it pills — because the chemicals “can break down the fibers of the cashmere.”
Instead, she puts hers in the washing machine inside of a delicates bag on a cold, gentle cycle and lays them flat to dry.
Wool knits, on the other hand, can’t be machine washed because the shape will be destroyed, she continued.
Teich recommends hand washing wool in the sink using specialty wool detergent.
However, she warned, do not wring the sweater — roll it in a towel, even if its soaking wet, to absorb some water before laying it flat to dry.
And while it may be “easier” to tote your knits to the cleaners down the block, people “don’t really take into consideration that your sweater is absorbing all those chemicals from the dry cleaning, and you’re wearing it,” she said.
Certain chemical solvents used when dry cleaning can pose health risks — studies have even linked some dry cleaning agents to cancer and Parkinson’s.
“So you don’t need to dry clean all your sweaters…such a misconception,” said Teich.
“It’s not great for you. It’s not great for your sweater.”
Teich first learned of the “dry clean only” myth while interning for a clothing brand, where it was her job to print out the care labels. She noticed that every garment was instructed to be dry cleaned.
When she asked the designer why there weren’t other instructions for washing, she claims they admitted “it was because they want to protect the brand.”
“That way if the customer messed up something and in the laundry, the brand wasn’t at fault, that it’s a dry clean only, so it wasn’t their problem,” she explained.
Not to mention, she added, it’s “easier” to slap a “dry clean only” tag onto an item.
However, fabrics like polyester, cotton, viscose and linen can be thrown into the washing machine, she explained, and even garments made of silk labeled as “dry clean only” can be tossed in on the “delicate” cycle or hand washed.
The caveat, she noted, is that silk is normally dry cleaned to preserve the dye — white fabric, however, can easily be washed at home.
Viscose, or rayon, is notorious for shrinking when washed, but Teich argues that hot water and heavy agitation inside the washing machine drum are the culprits for shrinking fibers.
Instead, she advised, put rayon fabrics in the machine on cold, or simply hand wash.
“A lot of people complain that when they take viscose or rayon out of the machine, it gets crunchy and a little wrinkly,” she said. “So what you can do is just use a steamer and soften it up, and a steamer is a great tool to revive your clothes after you wash it anyway — everybody should have one.”
“It’s not great for you. It’s not great for your sweater.”
Liz Teich, The New York Stylist
But machine washing may come at a cost — not only to apartment dwelling New Yorkers who pay-per-load, but also there is a risk of snagging in the machine or on other garments’ hardware, such as buttons and zippers.
When in doubt, hand wash, Teich advised.
“If you’re paying for your laundry, you’re probably not separating just a few sweaters at a time,” she said.
“It’s important, if there are any more fragile pieces, to keep that separated.”
There is one garment, however, that she will always dry clean: Blazers. Dry cleaning preserves the lining, while machine washing may ruin it, but she only cleans her blazers once per season.
While it can be tempting to launder clothes often if you live in a polluted metropolis — cough, New York — Teich says that denim, blazers and knits can be worn multiple times before washing them.
Between wears, she recommends using a DIY spray comprised of one part vodka and one part water to eliminate odor, while jeans can be placed in a plastic baggy inside the freezer to “kill the germs.”
At the end of the day, infrequent washing will extend the life of any fabric, especially with less exposure to chemicals.
“If you’re wearing clothes all day, it’s touching your body all day and your skin is your biggest organ, so it’s really important to be conscious of that,” Teich said.
