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The cleaning, refinishing
and pressing of leather garments is time consuming and requires
considerable skill on the part of the cleaner.
The majority of
leather garments received by drycleaners have received considerable
wear and are heavily soiled and the soiling is of long duration
because many consumers don't consider cleaning leather garments
until they have been worn for a number of years.
Soiling and staining
migrates deeply into the structure of leather over an extended
period of time, assisted by wear and flexing of the leather
during use. This leaves not only overall ingrained soiling
but also specific areas which are excessively soiled.
It can be difficult
to return such items to 'as new' condition and the cleaner
should give the customer a realistic expectation of the outcome
on acceptance of the garment.
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Don't
let a garment become heavily soiled before having it cleaned. |
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Have
matching pieces, e.g. a skirt and jacket, cleaned at the
same time. |
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Give
your cleaner any care information that came with the garment. |
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Point
out any stains and ingrained soiling. |
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Be
prepared for a change in colour depth after cleaning as
some dyes used on leathers are soluble in drycleaning
fluids. The cleaner can correct some colour loss but can't
always achieve the same depth of shade as the manufacturer. |
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During
tanning, leathers are impregnated with special oils to
keep them supple. Some of these oils are lost in cleaning,
and although the cleaner will use special additives to
replace the oils, there may be some change in the feel
of the garment. |
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Always
take items to a specialist leather cleaner. |
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Important oils
are removed from leather garments during dry cleaning. These
oils lubricate the leather fibres to keep them soft and their
partial removal can leave the garments feeling firmer after
drycleaning.
The removal of
oils will also cause a colour change, normally making it lighter,
so another role of the drycleaner is to put oil back into
the garment after cleaning to soften the garment and bring
it back (as near as possible) to its original feel and colour.
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