Looking after your J.Hilburn wardrobe is made easy by our constant research for fabrics that perform well and are accompanied by clear care instructions that follow the international standards and symbol code. Despite urban legend, following our care instructions will enable you to continue wearing your beloved J.Hilburn wardrobe for many seasons to come. The time and investment spent building the perfect pieces will be returned in abundance.
The care label on each garment is compiled after a garment testing and fabric testing process that is a standard process followed by our manufacturers on all production, meaning every piece is not only controlled for quality and mirroring the exact measurements entered at the point of order, but the fabric yardage received from our global mills are analyzed and approved through multiple meticulous touch points. The touch points mainly occur in a protected and air-controlled laboratory, which keeps a constant air and temperature consistency for testing conditions. I have had the privilege of seeing, along with the other members of J.Hilburn leadership, as part of our tour in Asia last October, and we were all incredibly impressed by how experienced the technicians who work in this area are. The standards used reflect the wider industry standards and TAL’s own higher-than-industry internal standards, which we can all trust [see awards] This enables us to create care labels that should provide care instructions that are easy to follow at home or on the go.
We have all made mistakes with our laundry, haven’t we? The classic surprise pink underwear because of a red tee shirt hiding amongst a white-only wash, or forgetting a wool sweater in the hot setting of a dryer? Unfortunately, it’s so very easy to do and can render our helpful instructions completely useless at that point.
I am pretty good at keeping my J.Hilburn pieces laundered and on point, and if ever in doubt, a few of my personal tips should help in guiding you to care for your wardrobe easily and effectively.
Depending on how much a you wear your suit, I recommend that a dry clean every 5 to 8 wears is a good idea. I like to steam lightly in between wears occasionally, which helps not only with any wrinkles around the elbow and behind the knees of the pants but helps keep the pieces fresh. I personally avoid the lapels with steam at all cost as they can easily pucker the pick stitch in drier, flatter fabrics. Being rather good with an iron, I prefer to iron the lapel from the back lightly if it gets a crease from packing. Only with a cotton cloth in between the iron and the fabric, and I would only advise this with a very light touch and the correct wool setting on the iron.
Cotton and steamer machines are not the perfect match, and cotton shirts (non-iron aside) much prefer the press of an iron rather than just a steamer, as it tends to add wrinkles unless you can pull on the shirt as you steam to “set” the effects of the steam. Most of our blended fabrics in shirts and knits work perfectly with a light steam, though I love how seemingly wrinkle-free our 4-way stretch and Canclini Performante are.
The componentry of a suit, the fusible, internal linings, reinforcements etc., make cleaning and pressing a dry-clean-only process which we are all familiar with, but all wool and cashmere as a fiber itself and particularly our knit wools from Reda Active actually prefer cold water to chemical dry cleaning. Like cotton, a delicate and separate cold water wash (which most modern washing machines have) is an easy way to clean a Reda Wool knit. Cold wash with modern and mild detergents combined with updated washing machine cycles are my go-to for all my knits. What I prefer to do is to completely skip the dryer and any heat whatsoever, using a flat wrack over a bath-tub to air dry naturally. This is valid for your cashmere sweaters too.
Of course, these are my own personal tips, and after a few unfortunate mistakes along the way, I find that our J.Hilburn wardrobe is perfectly straightforward and easy to care for. Looking after your wardrobe shouldn’t take enormous effort and will extend its life and value for many seasons to come.
