Reader Questions: Trouser Maintenance

How do you handle your suits, specifically your suit pants–do you just let the dry cleaners put the crease back in or do you have an iron/steamer home set up for when they’ve been crumpled but aren’t dirty?

Asking for [a friend]–he was saying that he needs to get some suits for session and said that one day he hopes to have a trouser press, which he claims are widely used in Britain by men who don’t want to look sloppy–I’ve never known anyone who has one (and in poking around a bit I’m not even sure they’re easy to acquire in the US.) So what do Americans do?

First thing’s first: don’t crumple the pants. Always keep your pants on a hangar, and you won’t have to worry about creases as much.

You will, of course, eventually have to freshen up a pair of trousers… they’re not dirty enough to take to the cleaners, but they need to look like they’ve been to the cleaners. I suppose you could use a trouser press for something like this, but I never have. I use a steam iron to take the creases out. I get plenty of steam going, and use a very light touch with the iron itself, just barely touching the fabric. I start from the seam of the leg and work my way out to the creases. You will be tempted to do both legs at the same time. Don’t. Start with one leg, front and back, and then proceed to the other leg. You will be tempted to flatten the crease with your iron to make them perfect. This almost never works. Instead, iron out the rest of the trousers, and the crease will come naturally. It won’t look quite as good as having come from the cleaners, but it will be more than adequate until that’s possible.