Hello all! Newbie here!

[SirPandaEsq]

Hey everyone, I am a 28 year old banker and have been trying to notch my style up every year or so I've been with the bank. Began with K-Mart dress shirts, and now adorn french cuffs, boutonnieres, and a few hats! It is amazing, I always assumed I would have been 'over doing it' but found as long as I don't actually over do it, ie: Every accessory under the sun, I get plenty of compliments and my clients overall take me much more seriously.

I have a few questions for you lovely people, such as how to get rid of stains around the collar and cuff of my french cuffs from my apparently dirty desk, and a few questions on hats, however I will create separate threads or search your wonderful forum for the answers. Just wanted to say my hellos!

 

[Mathematicus]

Welcome to the forum, I hope you will appreciate it.

Regarding your question, I can suggest the following procedure. Notice that I wear almost exclusively white shirts so I don't really know whether this works for coloured ones.

1) First, spot-treat the stains in your shirt with a spray stain-remover and rub thoroughly. This includes the collar and cuffs folds, armpits and whatever.

2) Place the so treated shirts in a large bucket and fill it with hot water

3) Once you have covered all the shirts, add a couple of spoons of some good stain remover powder. I don't know if this process may alter colours, actually.

4) Leave soaking at least a couple of hours, better overnight.

5) Place shirts in washing machine and wash normally. I was them at 40 C with normal detergent and conditioner. I don't tumble dry because I don't have the relevant machine and because it will wear the hell out of the fabric!

If your shirts are really really stained and yellowed by aging, I recommend letting them soak overnight with water and white vinegar before applying the forementioned procedure. This will help soften the dirt and will also remove the excess soap in the fabric left from previous washing cycles.

I hope this helps!

 

[SirPandaEsq]

Welcome to the forum, I hope you will appreciate it.

Regarding your question, I can suggest the following procedure. Notice that I wear almost exclusively white shirts so I don't really know whether this works for coloured ones.

...

If your shirts are really really stained and yellowed by aging, I recommend letting them soak overnight with water and white vinegar before applying the forementioned procedure. This will help soften the dirt and will also remove the excess soap in the fabric left from previous washing cycles.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for your reply sir! Yes, I too wear almost exclusively white shirts. My style is reminiscent of the 50-60's and the white dress shirt is the perfect canvas to add things to. I do own a few black dress shirts, but thats the only color other than white I own. I find that color best comes from the tie or pocket square rather than the shirt. And I tried spraying stain remover on the cuffs and neck, however I never tried agitating the area, or letting soak for more than the 10min the bottle recommended. Thank you for that! I will also try the overnight method as a few stains around the neck and collars have gotten noticeable. I found that applying something like Pinaude Clubman powder around my neck before putting the shirt on has greatly reduced the likelihood of staining however.

 

[TheOldFashioned]

Welcome to The Lounge! You will find a lot of great information from very knowledgeable, friendly people here.

I concur with the stated above, although my routine isn't as thorough. I've had great success using a prewash spot treatment with Oxy-Clean, rubbing, and let stand for 10-15 minutes before washing. I'll use a prewash soak in the washing machine too.

In terms of drying, heat is your enemy. If the stain still exists and you put it in the dryer it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to remove. It also is hard on the fibers and not good for your shirt in general. I hang and air dry all of my dress shirts.

This is just my two cents, but it's worked well for me. I would venture to guess you're not the first to ask, so if you dig through the threads you will probably find more. It's easiest to search thefedoralounge through google as opposed to the native search function in here.

 

[belfastboy]

Welcome to The Lounge! You will find a lot of great information from very knowledgeable, friendly people here.

I concur with the stated above, although my routine isn't as thorough. I've had great success using a prewash spot treatment with Oxy-Clean, rubbing, and let stand for 10-15 minutes before washing. I'll use a prewash soak in the washing machine too.

In terms of drying, heat is your enemy. If the stain still exists and you put it in the dryer it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to remove. It also is hard on the fibers and not good for your shirt in general. I hang and air dry all of my dress shirts.

This is just my two cents, but it's worked well for me. I would venture to guess you're not the first to ask, so if you dig through the threads you will probably find more. It's easiest to search thefedoralounge through google as opposed to the native search function in here.

I concur. I hang dry all of my shirts, dress, Henley, t-shirts. I place them in the dryer for just a few minutes to tumble out the wrinkles and then hang to dry. All clothing lasts and looks better for a longer period of time without the bashing the dryer inflicts. Still have to iron the dress shirts but at least the big wrinkles are taken out.

 

[Mathematicus]

I've had great success using a prewash spot treatment with Oxy-Clean, rubbing, and let stand for 10-15 minutes before washing. I'll use a prewash soak in the washing machine too.

Precisely, I use Oxy-Clean powder and I have always had great results. I have also been able to rescue an old dress shirt which had yellowed like crazy after years of careless washings and an unfortunate treatment with hard bleach. Now it came back crispy white like new.
If you have a good washing machine then you can do all the treatment without having to handle the garments directly. Some machines have the soaking programme, which will allow you to let clothes rest in the treating solution for a specified time, after which the usual wash cycle will start. I'd like one of those for my work shirts and undershirts weekly load!