Storing and Pressing a Suit Between Wears

Dry cleaning is the hardest thing you can do to a suit, and plenty of men do it after every wear. The solvents strip the natural oils out of wool, and the big pressing machines flatten the soft roll of the lapel into a crease you can’t get back. A good wool suit worn twice a week and cleaned every month looks tired in two years. The same suit brushed, hung, and steamed at home looks right after ten.

That’s the core of how to store a suit. Empty the pockets, brush it, and hang it on a wide, shaped wooden hanger with an inch or two of space on each side. Let it rest at least 24 hours before you wear it again. Steam out wrinkles instead of pressing, dry-clean it two or three times a year at most, and for long storage use a breathable cotton bag, never the plastic from the cleaner.

None of this takes more than five minutes a night. Most of it takes less.

Dry-clean less than you think

Wool is springy and naturally resists dirt and odor. A day’s wrinkles drop out on their own overnight if the jacket hangs properly, and a day’s smell airs out of it the same way. What wool doesn’t love is solvent and heat. Every trip to the cleaner takes a little life out of the cloth, and on a fused jacket, where the chest is glued rather than sewn, the heat can loosen the glue and leave bubbles across the front.

So clean for a reason, not a schedule. A food stain, a smell that won’t air out, or a season’s end before storage are the three good reasons. Between those, a damp cloth handles most spots. Blot, don’t rub, with cold water, and let it dry on the hanger.

I’ll own up to the mistake that taught me this. For years I sent my one good charcoal suit out after every wedding, and by the third summer the lapels lay flat as cardboard and the cloth had a faint shine at the seat. I thought it was just old. It was barely broken in.

How to store a suit between wears

The hanger matters more than anything else in the closet. A suit jacket’s shoulders are built to sit on a human shoulder, which is round and about two inches thick at the point. Hang that jacket on a wire hanger and the weight of the canvas and sleeves pulls down on a sliver of metal. Within weeks you get dimples at the shoulder that don’t steam out. Since the shoulder is the one fit you can’t fix, it’s worth protecting.

Match the width too. The ends of the hanger should stop just inside the shoulder seams, not poke past them. For trousers, hang them by the hem from a clamp hanger so the weight pulls the wrinkles out, or fold them along the crease over a felt-covered bar.

Before the jacket goes on the hanger, take everything out of the pockets. A phone and keys left in overnight stretch the pocket and pull the front out of line. Undo the buttons. Then brush it with a soft clothes brush, top to bottom, with short downward strokes. Brushing lifts the dust and grit that work into the weave and wear the fibers down, and the soft hiss of the bristles is about the most satisfying sound in a closet.

Give it at least 24 hours on the hanger, ideally 48, with an inch or two of air on each side. That rest is when the wool recovers. Two suits in rotation will each outlive one suit worn twice as often, for the same reason I tell people to rotate shoes. Air does most of the cleaning, the way it does when you’re washing raw denim sparingly and letting it hang between wears.

Most of what a suit needs is a good hanger and a day off.

Steam first, press rarely

Wrinkles come out with steam. A hand steamer that costs $30 to $50 is the best tool you can own for a suit. Hang the jacket from a door, hold the steamer one to two inches from the cloth, and move it slowly over the creases at the elbows and the back. Work from the inside of the jacket where you can. Keep it off the lapel roll, which should stay soft and curved. The wrinkles relax in seconds, and the jacket needs ten minutes to dry before you put it on.

No steamer? Hang the suit in the bathroom while you take a hot shower, door shut, for about twenty minutes. It won’t fix deep creases, but it handles the wrinkles from a day at a desk.

Pressing is for the trouser crease, and only every four to six wears. Use a press cloth, a plain damp cotton dish towel, between the iron and the wool, and set the iron to about 300°F, the wool setting on most irons. Press straight down and lift. Don’t slide the iron. I once skipped the cloth on a pair of gray flannels in a rush and put a permanent shine down the front of one leg. Heavier cloth holds a crease better and wrinkles less in the first place, which is one reason suit fabric weights are worth reading up on before you buy.

Storing it for a season

The suit you wear once a year needs the most care. Think of the dark one that only comes out when you’re dressing for a funeral, or the linen one you wear three times every July. Clean it before it goes away, because moths go for dirty wool, and a summer in a dark closet is all the time they need. The same rules for keeping knitwear safe from moths apply here. Keep it clean and dry, sealed from bugs but not from air.

That means a breathable cotton garment bag, which runs $15 to $30. Throw away the plastic bag from the cleaner the day you bring the suit home. Plastic traps moisture against the cloth, and over months it can yellow light fabrics and encourage mildew. Hang a sanded cedar block in the bag, keep the closet cool and dark, somewhere around 60°F to 70°F, and keep suits out of attics and basements, where heat and damp do more damage than wear ever will.

A week before the event, take the suit out, check it in daylight, and steam it. You’ll have time to deal with anything you find. More of that kind of upkeep is in our care and repair guides.

The verdict: Hang every suit on a shaped wooden hanger 1.5 to 2 inches thick at the ends, brush it after each wear, and give it at least 24 hours of rest before wearing it again. Buy a $30 to $50 steamer, press only the trouser crease with a damp cloth, dry-clean two or three times a year at most, and store off-season suits clean in a cotton bag, never in plastic.