Keep it for decades

Wool is resilient by design. Given rest and air, a good suit recovers from most of what a week does to it.

• Brush after wear with a natural-bristle brush, collar to hem. Dust is abrasive, and five minutes of brushing saves years of cloth.
• Rest a suit for a day or two between wears, on a shaped hanger, jacket buttons undone.
• Steam rather than iron. A hand steamer, or the suit hanging in the bathroom while you shower, relaxes creases without glazing the fibre.
• Dry-clean rarely: for actual stains, or a few times a year. Solvent strips the wool's natural oils.
• Hang trousers by the cuffs; the weight drops the crease back in overnight.

Cotton fails from heat and friction, not from washing. Keep both low and a good shirt stays good.

• Remove collar stays, wash at 30 degrees, and hang to dry on a shaped hanger.
• Iron while the shirt is still slightly damp, collar and cuffs first.
• Skip the tumble dryer. Heat is what breaks down cotton and sets stains permanently.
• Rotate your shirts. A shirt given a week between wears outlasts a hard-worn one by years.

Knits keep their shape if you never ask them to carry their own weight.

• Fold, never hang. Hangers stretch shoulders out of shape within a season.
• Hand wash cold, or use the wool cycle with a wool-specific detergent. Dry flat on a towel, away from direct sun.
• Pilling is fibre behaving normally. Lift pills with a cashmere comb rather than pulling them.
• Store clean, with cedar nearby. Moths go for soiled fibre first.

Silk asks for less intervention, done more gently.

• Untie fully after wear and hang or roll the tie. The crease falls out overnight.
• Never put an iron directly on silk. Hover with steam, or press through a cloth.
• Blot spills straight away and stop. Rubbing pushes the stain into the weave.
• Take stains to a specialist cleaner and tell them the fibre.

Leather is skin. It wants moisture management, feeding, and rest.

• Cedar shoe trees in after every wear. They pull moisture out and hold the shape while the leather dries.
• Rest shoes for a day between wears.
• Work in cycles: clean, condition, polish. Little and often beats heavy and rare.
• Suede wants a brush and a protector spray, never polish.
• Resole when wear reaches the welt stitching, not after it.

Most damage happens in the wardrobe, not on the street.

• Steamer first, iron second, and always through a press cloth on wool.
• Store tailoring in breathable garment bags. Plastic traps moisture; fibre needs air.
• Keep cedar blocks in the wardrobe and refresh them with fine sandpaper when the scent fades.
• Clean garments before long storage. Moths and silverfish prefer worn fibre.

A suit survives a suitcase if it is folded on purpose.

• Turn the jacket inside out, tuck one shoulder into the other, and fold once over the trousers.
• Roll knitwear and casual shirts rather than folding them flat. Rolls crease less.
• Shoes travel in bags, trees in, socks inside the shoes.
• On arrival, hang everything and run the shower hot for ten minutes. Most creases walk out by morning.