Winter Wear, Down Jacket & Outerwear Cleaning in Singapore

How winter wear cleaning works, step by step

Every piece goes through the same stages. What changes between them is the method, and that is set at the first stage rather than at the machine.

1. Assessment, and a method for that piece

   Fill, shell fabric, trims, linings and the care label are read together, along with any staining, odour or earlier home treatment. That is where wet or dry cleaning is decided, and we tell you which at drop-off.

2. Leather, shearling and fur separated out

   Hides do not go through the garment cycle. Anything with a leather, shearling or fur component is routed to the leather process and quoted on its own timeline.

3. Cleaning matched to the construction

   Cleaned by the method chosen at assessment, with stain work done before general cleaning where a mark needs it rather than after.

4. Slow, staged drying and re-lofting

   This is the stage that decides how a down piece comes back. Drying is low and staged rather than fast, and the fill is teased back into even loft by hand instead of by heat.

5. Hand finishing, then a final inspection

   Structured coats are finished by hand so the canvas and shoulder line hold. Down and embossed or coated shells are not pressed, because pressure flattens the baffles and the relief. Every piece is checked before it is returned.

Assessment always comes first, and our read on your piece applies only to that piece.

How down, wool and structured coats differ

These three sit on the same rail in a wardrobe and want three different things in a workshop.

Down cleaning and re-lofting

Down works by trapping air in its clusters, so warmth is a function of loft. Wet clusters clump if they are dried fast, and a press flattens the baffles so the fill no longer sits evenly across the panels, which is why drying is done low and in stages with the loft worked back by hand. A limited-edition Louis Vuitton puffer with its monogram embossed into the shell went through exactly that: neither the press nor the hot tumble was available, because either would have taken the embossing as well as the loft.

Wool and cashmere

Wool fibres carry surface scales that lift when the fibre is wet and warm; under mechanical action they lock onto the scales of neighbouring fibres in a ratchet-like mechanism that is irreversible, and the fabric densifies and the garment shrinks. That is the reason wet wool is not agitated freely. It is not a rule about the fibre name, though: wool given a shrink-resist treatment, sold as machine-washable or Superwash, has had those scales smoothed or removed. Which of the two you own is rarely obvious from the garment, so the label and the fabric are read before anything is decided. Reblocking a felted knit is a good deal harder than protecting one.

Structured overcoats

A tailored overcoat holds its shape through canvas, interlining and a shaped shoulder, and those layers move differently from the face cloth when they are cleaned. Hand finishing is what puts the line back, and it is done to the coat rather than to a standard setting.

1. The Woolmark Company: Caring for Wool (scales lift with heat and moisture and lock in a ratchet-like mechanism under mechanical agitation; irreversible fibre entanglement and shrinkage)
2. The Woolmark Company: Machine Washable Wool (shrink-resist or Superwash treatments smooth or remove the scales so the wool can be machine washed)

Why winter clothes are cleaned before they go into storage

A winter wardrobe in Singapore is worn for two or three weeks a year and spends the rest of the time in a cupboard, so storage is where most of the risk sits rather than the wearing. The damage starts with what is invisible on packing day: perspiration, body oil, food and drink residue.

Sweat and sebum move from skin to cloth and are adsorbed into the fibre, where they act as the precursors skin bacteria convert into the compounds we smell. Some sebum is difficult to remove from synthetic shells in particular, so fatty residue that survives a clean stays behind as a substrate for microbial growth, and clothes left in humid conditions are known to develop malodour. Singapore's relative humidity averages over 80 per cent, and mould growth increases in vigour above 75 per cent. That is also why airing a coat or spraying it does not end the smell: both act on the air and the surface, and the residue is sitting in the fibre.

Pests read soiling the same way. Clothes moth larvae feed on wool clothing, furs and stored woollen items, and fabrics carrying food, perspiration or urine stains are more subject to damage, because insects are less likely to feed on clean fabric than on heavily soiled fabric. Soiling also increases susceptibility to pest attack in silk and cotton. A clean coat is not immune; it is simply a poorer meal.

How to store winter clothes in Singapore's humidity

• Clean it before it goes away, not when it comes out. The clean that protects the garment is the one before the eleven months, not after.
• Make sure it is completely dry. Anything still holding moisture when it is put away is the start of the problem.
• Breathable cover, never sealed plastic or a vacuum bag. Moisture trapped in a sealed container is how mildew starts, and prolonged compression can damage down.
• Keep down and padded pieces loose. Hang them with room around them, or lay them flat rather than squeezed between other coats.
• Dark, ventilated, off an external wall where you can. Keeping the air in the cupboard dry is the point; many people keep a desiccant in there for the same reason.
• Look at the pieces once or twice a year, rather than opening the bag the night before a flight.

We do not store garments, so none of this is a service we are selling you. It is what we would do with our own coats in this climate. A vintage leather jacket that came in carrying musty storage odour is what the alternative smells like.

1. Van Herreweghen, Amberg, Marques and Callewaert, "Biological and Chemical Processes that Lead to Textile Malodour Development", Microorganisms 8(11) (2020) (sweat and sebum adsorbed on clothing as malodour precursors; sebum components hard to remove, remaining as a substrate for microbial growth; clothes left in humid conditions develop malodour)
2. Meteorological Service Singapore: Climate of Singapore (mean annual relative humidity around 82 per cent)
3. University of California Statewide IPM Program: Clothes Moths (clothes moths feed on wool clothing, furs and stored woollen items; fabrics with food, perspiration or urine stains are more subject to damage; insects are less likely to feed on clean fabrics than heavily soiled ones)
4. Canadian Conservation Institute: Agent of deterioration: pests (soiling increases susceptibility to pest attack, in particular silk and cotton; mould growth increases in vigour above 75 per cent relative humidity)
5. Rab: How to store your sleeping bag (prolonged compression can damage down; breathable storage rather than a plastic bag, where trapped moisture can cause mould)
6. University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, G1820: Care of Quilts: Storage and Display (moisture trapped in sealed plastic bags and mildew)

What we do not promise

Cleaning takes soil out; it does not put back what has gone. Down that has spent years compressed, or has lost fill through a seam, will not return to the loft it had new. Pilling is fibre that has already broken. Moth holes and worn elbows are damage rather than soiling, and closing them is repair work. Wool that has felted can sometimes be relaxed and reblocked and sometimes cannot, and how far it goes depends on the knit and on what was already done to it. Where odour or staining has been in a shell for a long time, we tell you what we see at assessment before any work starts: complete removal is possible on some garments but cannot be guaranteed.