Whether or not you own custom clothing, your choice of dry cleaner should not be carried out carelessly. You want a dry cleaner who is trustworthy and reliable, which is to say, a dry cleaner who meets and exceeds the industry standards when it comes both to the quality of his or her clean and to the expediency of his or her service time.

Below, Alan David Custom Suits provides you with five key questions that will help you distinguish cream of the crop dry cleaners from run of the mill amateurs. Don’t be shy, ask your dry cleaner for answers.

1. Do you distinguish between cleaning and fabric care?

A positive answer means you are dealing with a serious establishment. A negative answer means you better turn around and head out the door. The truth is that the distinction between normal cleaning and fabric care is of the utmost importance. A dry cleaner who just “cleans” has a simpler agenda to follow: he or she will use all-purpose, aggressive solvents to remove dirt and spots, he or she will rely entirely on machines to press the clothing, he or she will package cleaned items in one bag. On the other hand, a dry cleaner with experience in fabric care is more likely to use gentler, dermatologically safe solvents, he or she is more likely to press tricky individual items by hand, he or she will package cleaned clothing individually, as requested. In short, a good dry cleaner has both the right tools and the right approach to cleaning and maintaining your clothing.

2. What are the key steps of your dry cleaning process?

Roughly speaking, a good dry cleaning process has four key ingredients: (a) the dry cleaner uses a high-quality dry cleaning fluid. (b) The dry cleaning is performed with little or no moisture, injected fragrance or perfume. (c) The dry cleaner performs meticulous fabric finishing and personally inspects the work. (d) The dry cleaner carefully packages the clothing according to your specifications. If the dry cleaner does not mention one of these four steps, you might want to consider a different establishment.

3. Do you perform “organic” dry cleaning?

This is actually a trick question. There is no such thing as “organic” dry cleaning. In one form or another, every dry cleaner performs “organic” dry cleaning. Do not pay higher fees to a dry cleaner who claims he or she is somehow more “organic” than the rest. You are being conned out of extra money.

4. Can I see a sample of your white clothing? Of your dark clothing?

There is no better way of evaluating a dry cleaner than by inspecting his or her work. Ask to see a few white shirts and a few dark ones. If the whites look off-colored, and if the darks look dull and faded, this isn’t the dry cleaner for you. However, the dry cleaner does have an interest in showing you his or her best work. What’s more, the dry cleaner is now aware that this is the standard you will use to measure your own cleaned clothing.

5. Do you have detailed quality standards in writing?

A truly professional dry cleaner will have his or her quality standards set down in writing. Review this information, and make sure it agrees with what the dry cleaner has told you so far.

For more information on how to properly clean and maintain your custom garments, please contact Alan or Arnold at 212-227-4040.