June 15, 2006
 
Reporter Test Wears Wash-and-Wear Suit from Penney
 
By LaMont Jones
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
 

With the expense of dry cleaning _ and the rising cost of gasoline _ a wise investment might be a wash-and-wear business suit. (SHNS photo by Martha Rial and illustration by Stacy Innerst / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

With the expense of dry cleaning -- and the rising cost of gasoline -- a wise investment might be a wash-and-wear business suit.
 
J.C. Penney recently introduced such a suit, produced by international tailored clothing company Bagir Ltd. as part of Stafford's "Washable Wardrobe" collection.
 
The wool-polyester blend suit, with a touch of Lycra, has a notched-lapel, two-button jacket with a single vent ($200) and double-pleated cuff pants ($100). It comes in dark tan, blue pinstripe and gray pinstripe.
 
Instructions sound simple: Wash the suit alone with a mild detergent in warm water on gentle cycle in the washing machine, remove before the final spin cycle and tumble dry on cool and gentle settings for about 45 minutes. It also can be drip-dried.
 
Susan Rolontz, executive vice president of the New York-based Tobe Report, an international group of fashion and retail analysts and consultants, said wash-and-wear suits have "never really caught on" and sees a "limited market" for such apparel.
 
"Somehow, it has never graduated into a real efficiency aspect for the population at large," she said. "I don't know that young people care. I just don't see that it's gonna be in takeover mode."
 
Nevertheless, we put one of the Stafford suits to the test.
 
I wore the tan version for one day -- a rainy day -- and my first experience washing it required more work than the instructions suggested. After removing the suit from the rinse water before the final spin, I let it drip dry about 20 minutes. Then, after 45 minutes in the dryer on a no-heat setting, it was still pretty damp.
 
So I hung it up to dry overnight. But in the morning, I found that it needed another 45 minutes in the dryer on the cool setting. That worked for the jacket, but the pants needed more time. I turned the dryer to the medium heat-permanent press setting, and they were good to go after 20 minutes. The manufacturer says it's OK to touch up the suit with an iron, but I found it unnecessary. That may be of benefit later, when the suit has experienced more wear. But the pants held their crease, the jacket retained its shape and neither had noticeable wrinkles.
 
While the first cleaning probably will require extra time to discover a process that works for you, the benefits of a wash-and-wear suit may make it attractive to some men.
 
Chemicals used in dry cleaning tend to wear out natural fibers faster. And then there's the cost. I phoned 10 dry cleaners across the region, and the cost of cleaning a two-piece man's suit ranged from $7.50 to $10.30, with an average of $9.34. Laundering costs a whole lot less.
 
Under normal conditions, a man's suit can be worn eight to 10 times before dry cleaning is necessary. The same can apply to a wash-and-wear suit.
 
Even given potential cost savings, what may matter more to some consumers is convenience and time. Many people simply aren't good at doing laundry, Ms. Rolontz said, and for many it's more time-efficient to pay someone else to clean your clothes.
 
"We're all lazy," she said. "That is, there are a lot of other things you'd rather do: work on the computer, talk to a friend on the cell phone, get your pictures out of your digital camera. Washing is not one of the most important 10 things you need to do. It's not a priority."
 
There's also the risk that a wash-and-wear suit can be ruined if washed the wrong way. And after repeated washings, the garments may not wear very well. A Bagir spokesman said the Stafford suit "still looked crisp" after 30 washes and 30 tumble dry cycles -- and identical to or better than a similar suit in the same fabric that had been dry cleaned 30 times.
 
Although not common today in the United States, wash-and-wear suits aren't new. Last week, a co-worker gave me a handsome pinstriped Haggar version he bought at a local department store in 1985. It was assembled in the Dominican Republic.
 
Stafford's model, which launched in more than 500 J.C. Penney stores in February, is made in Jordan with a patent-protected process and materials. What's new is that today's wash-and-wear suits are lighter in weight and more comfortable, thanks to advances in fabric technology that have produced higher-quality polyester and sophisticated wool-poly blends.
 
Stafford's wash-and-wear suits can be bought as separates to get the best fit. Each suit comes with a mesh wash bag.
 
LaMont Jones can be reached at ljones@post-gazette.com
 
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.