Must

[darkemeralds]

The Holy Grail garment into which I intend to fit again one day is an espresso-brown, classic leather bomber jacket. It's a men's model and therefore extremely well made (complete with inside breast pocket), and it used to fit me when I was around a size 10-12.

(To quantify, I will have to be ten inches smaller about the "high hip" before it hangs properly on me again.)

I bought it in 1993 for approximately half a month's wages, wore it on every possible occasion until I could no longer shut it around the aforementioned "high hip," and finally, tired of its constant reproach but unable to jettison it, two or three years ago I laid it to rest in my basement.

My mistake.

The experts at Oregon Leather Company assure that there is no way to get the musty smell of mold out of a lined leather jacket. The internet, however, begs to differ.

I swabbed it (the jacket, not the internet) all over with an alcohol-water mix, then hung it to dry for a week over my ozone-generating air purifier.

Better. But still musty.

So today I basically soaked it in alcohol. Then I hung it to dry outdoors in the wind.


Wet leather jacket weighs a ton.

I don't dare hang it near a heater because it reeks of isopropyl alcohol and would probably catch fire, but maybe by tomorrow I can move it indoors.

I've got heavy-duty conditioner standing by--supposing that the leather survives its radical demustification.

Comments

[executrix]

Cover (dry) leather jacket with a large quantity of baking soda and wait?

I don't know HOW a plastic tub of clothes wrapped in a contractor bag could get soaked through in the basement, but I took them out, wrung out as much horrible-smelling water as I could, and washed the whole lot (including the wool pants) in hot water with lots of soap and baking soda, and they all came out fine.

[darkemeralds]

I considered putting the leather jacket into the washing machine. I treated the fabric items pretty much the way you describe and they came out okay. If rubbing alcohol doesn't eventually do the trick on the jacket, there are several other things I can try. But I'm hopeful.

And since the damn thing isn't gonna fit me for a year yet, it's not as if there's any great rush for a solution, except to get a rather smelly item out from among my daily clothes.

Didn't the wool pants shrink? Or felt?

[executrix]

I was surprised that the wool pants were Just Fine. I have also had good success machine-washing cheap silk shirts--I tried it because I figured I only paid a couple of bucks for the damn things so I could cope if I ruined them.

I have a copy of a book written by an Edwardian butler who pretty much washed everything, including his employer's Savile Row suits and hand-made brogues (!) in hot water, and his employer seemed to be pleased with the results.

[darkemeralds]

A book by an Edwardian butler? That would be fascinating to read!

It's not hot water alone, but agitation, that causes felting--though shrinkage would be a problem with a lot of woolens. The main thing to get ruined in the washing machine is the tailoring itself--underpinnings get dislodged, etc., and no amount of steam pressing afterwards can put them back. Current-day stuff, with fused interfacings, seems particularly vulnerable to coming apart that way.

But on the whole, I agree that the "DRY CLEAN ONLY OMG!!!" label is unnecessary, and the main reason to take things to the cleaners is so that the cleaners will do the tedious pressing for one.

[darkemeralds]

Wait. "Brogues" meaning SHOES? Washed in hot water?

I must read this book!

[executrix]

Damn, it's not on the shelf where I thought it would be, and around here one book = needle in a haystack...

[darkemeralds]

Well, if it turns up, please do relay title and details, 'cause I'd love to check it out.

[executrix]

ETA: Yeah, he just put the shoes in the bathtub, I think he soaked them in the hot water, scrubbed them, and let them dry. Kids, don't try this at home!

And you're right about the interfacings on the shirts, I just ignore their condition because I didn't have to iron them if I got them right out of the dryer and onto a hanger. (If I'd paid more than $3 per item I wouldn't do this...)

[darkemeralds]

I draw the line at the dryer, myself. I use the hand-wash cycle on my washer for a lot of scary Dry Clean Only things, but then I regress to the clothesline.

Shoes in the bathtub. Wow. And yet why not? Leather can be gotten wet, as many a jacket caught in a downpour can attest. It's not water itself that hurts leather, it's the drying-out of the skin, the mildew, and the destructuring that can happen if the leather's allowed to dry crumpled up or creased.

I suppose Mr Butler knew all about shoe polish, and had all the requisite brushes, bunched newspapers, waxes, rags, and under-servants necessary to restore the gloss and shape of the hand-made brogues.

I also suppose that Mr Aristo Employer didn't actually own any machine-made clothes or shoes, so the exquisite was quotidian around that house.

[executrix]

I have found the book, and I see I am quite wrong about its provenance--it's "The Butler's Guide to CLothes Care, Managing the Table, Running the Home and Other Graces," by Stanley Ager and Fiona St. Aubyn and was published in 1980, but he first went into service in 1922. But I wasn't hallucinating the section on washing shoes "once a month to rid them of stale perspiration and to remove the dust caught in the seams, which on sewn shoes will cut the stitches" although only shoes with leather heels should be submerged. I can pop it in the mail if you'd like to borrow it...

[darkemeralds]

That sounds fantastic! Right up my alley as I move back into the world of decent clothes and shoes.

Not worth the trouble and expense to ship back and forth, though I thank you for the offer: I just one-click purchased a used copy on Amazon for a buck and a quarter.

[executrix]

$1.25? How art the mighty fallen!

I think before I put it back on the shelf I'll glean a few tidbits for my Downton Abbey Wimseyfic though. Who knew that "the vegetable most recently come in season should be served first"?

"I was offering a heavy, hot dish that was burning my hand, and the person I was serving wouldn't take any notice of me. So I just caught the tip of his ear with the second hot dish--see him jump! And as we weren't allowed to speak, I couldn't apologize."

Which just goes to show that a system that forbids even a deferential "Epinards a la creme, sir?" deserves at the very least to have its ears toasted.

[darkemeralds]

Eee! I can hardly wait to see this book!

And for what it's worth, there was one seller with a good-condition used copy asking over $40 for it. I would imagine the one I'm getting will need its own mildew treatment.

[executrix]

OT, but I was just in Duane Reade (chain drugstore) and they had a rack of clothing accessories made by a company called Hollywood. One of them is an elastic strap that in effect takes in your pants, but only at the back so the front stays flat. I have forgotten what this as distinct from their other gimmicks is called, but if you are interested and can't find it chez vous, I'd be glad to get you one. It sounds very handy for your now way-big pants that aren't horrible enough for you to be grateful for a chance to throw them out, but not good enough to have tailored (or not good enough to have tailored YET).

[darkemeralds]

Huh. That's a fit problem area for me in any case. But the pants I currently own aren't even worth an elastic thingy. The jeans (which are now, obligingly falling off) are only still in the house so I can take the famous giant-jeans After picture.

Vaguely related: I was intrigued to see Levi's ads for their Curve ID jeans cuts. I took their little test and ordered a pair of the Supreme Curve cut (specifically because it's designed not to gap at the back waist on women with rounder bottoms) dark blue skinny jeans in size Someday. It will be interesting to see how tiny they look.

[executrix]

From time to time, attempts are made to size garments based on the far-from-uniform body proportions even of women who are the same height and weight. So far they haven't caught on, but strength to Levi's' arm!

My mind totally went to a scenario where, with the new Supreme Curve jeans next to the giants, the Smaller Jeans will, of course, bottom...but the big jeans are bottoms too! It's so confusing!

[darkemeralds]

Fans.

We'll slash anything.

And those new jeans? Total banty rooster little tough toppy jeans.

[ranunculus]

Ok, now I have to get a copy as well.... :)

[executrix]

Awww, if you can't find another cheapie, the offer to lend still stands.

[ranunculus]

Thank You!
I'll bet that Green Apple Books here in San Francisco will have one!

Boston, Beautiful Balls

[executrix]

Also, see if they have any vintage Emily Posts. The one I have (I think it's 1926) has really useful advice, not only for those who can still Keep Up Standards (the most elaborate tray breakfast ever given is four courses...) but Mrs. Three in One, who is not a gender-swapped Trinity but a woman who has no servants and therefore must be cook and maid as well as hostess. And there's a chapter for the girl who is SO POOR SHE CAN ONLY AFFORD THREE EVENING DRESSES and therefore must coordinate her accessories.

Re: Boston, Beautiful Balls

[darkemeralds]

I've always been fond of etiquette books. On close analysis, most of it comes down to a sort of sublime common sense, the codification of basic survival skills in a complex urban society. The details are mere fashion--interesting in themselves, of course--but much of it is very practical.

Re: Boston, Beautiful Balls

[ranunculus]

Oooowww! That sounds like a fun one!

Three evening dresses, eh?

I'm actually considering BUYING a dress. What you need to know about me is that I have not voluntarily put on a dress for years. But I just might get a nice square dance skirt!

I Like a Dress With a Little Slink To It

[executrix]

I don't even have any ideological objections to skirted garments, and own many of them, but it's STILL been years since I wore a skirt. But dance dresses that swoosh around you are cool.

[darkemeralds]

Right? I'm really uncharacteristically excited to get hold of this book!

[vampirefan]

i'm curious about the results! and that must have been a *lot* of alcohol! lol

[darkemeralds]

The poor jacket is a bit stiff and dry now, but I'm persuaded that it will still respond to leather conditioner. Gobs and gobs of leather conditioner.

The soaking was half a bottle of 99% isopropyl alcohol in about a quart of water, lavishly sponged on in the sink until the whole jacket was pretty much soaked.

And result! The musty smell is gone!