My tolerance for creases is low. My style moniker is Urban Polish, and I take the polish part to heart. Outfit polish means different things to different people, but to me it’s about wearing great-fitting and well-pressed clothing that looks pristine.
Compared to many of my friends, family and clients, my intolerance for outfit creases is extreme. Here are the lengths I go to prevent them.
- I re-press clean, folded wardrobe items if they look creased before wearing them.
- I re-press a wardrobe item that I’ve worn already but can be worn again before it goes into the laundry.
- I press all my clean jeans and flannel pyjamas after they’ve air-dried.
- I press many of the items that come out of a suitcase wrinkled when I travel.
- I repress a jacket or coat if it’s creased but doesn’t need a dry clean yet.
- I send items to eco-friendly cleaners, where they are beautifully pressed. I take the items off the wire hangers and use our hangers so that they stay wrinkle-free.
- I don’t overpack my storage spaces for wardrobe items. That way items have enough room to breathe and don’t get creased by being squashed into a too small a space.
Yes, I haul out the iron and ironing board frequently. Although I don’t enjoy ironing, being crease-free adds to the happiness factor of an outfit, and makes it worth the effort. I relax into the process and simply make ironing part of my dressing ritual.
Most importantly, I check how crease-resistant an item is BEFORE I purchase it. There is no point in going to the effort of being crease-free at the start of the day if I’m going to be a wrinkled war zone in half an hour. I scrunch the fabric of items on hangers before I commit to buying them to test how wrinkle-resistant they are. I do sit-down tests at home, wave my arms around, bend my elbows and knees, and look at how the fabric of the items handle movement. Items do not have to be completely wrinkle-free, but the fewer creases I can prevent upfront, the better.
100% Linen, viscose, rayon, and all sorts of cottons and wools are the worse crease offenders. That’s why I’m not opposed to fabric blends that make natural fibres more wrinkle-resistant and robust. That said, I do have some 100% cotton, wool and rayon items that stay fairly crease-free throughout the day.
This brings me to my four-year-old toffee-toned Club Monaco trench coat. It fits like a dream and is beautifully made. The fabric is luxe and feels good on the body. It looks pristine and professional at the start of the day after I’ve given it a press, but wrinkles a lot during the day. I can’t wear it twice without a press in between. It’s a high-maintenance trench coat, and that’s why I don’t travel with it, or wear it too often. But I can’t pass it on just yet because it’s gorgeous. Ideally, it needs to go to a new owner who is more tolerant of creases than I am.
I have clients and friends with a very high tolerance for wrinkles. In fact, some don’t even notice them. Many never iron or steam anything, and creases don’t bother them at all. Or the creases bother them, but not enough to haul out the iron or steamer. Some press items after they’ve been laundered and leave it at that. And others are as extreme as I am, freshly pressing many items before wearing them.
There is no right or wrong way to feel about clothing creases. It is simply a personal preference. What is your crease-tolerance level for clothing, and how do you manage it?
