[Miket61]

I do light starch.

This was recent a source of contention with a lady friend - she would have her husband's shirts done with heavy starch because she thought it was more elegant and formal. I told her not to because it wears out the shirt and makes it less breathable. She accused me of having a superior attitude and thinking she was ignorant.

The irony is that we had the same conversation regarding the shirts of her previous husband, and she accepted the advice and changed over.

 

[eagle2250]

Used to lightly starch, years ago when shirts were sent to the laundry...looked great, felt terrible! As for now...I'm not really sure...my shirts are laundered at home but, the wife's still asleep (it's just a bit past 0600 hrs.)...and I'm not going to wake her to ask!

 

[Frank aka The Minotaur]

Starch? Yes and heavy. Love the starch. Especially on broadcloaths and pinpoints.

Almost exactly the same for me:
Starch? Yes and medium. Love the starch. Especially on broadcloaths and pinpoints.

 

[dhuge677]

I understand that the Army no longer allows the BDUs, or whatever the current name is, to be starched. Apparently starch makes them reflective to night vision devices.

I was told that they no longer polish their boots, but I can't remember the reason for that.

Because the boots are suede now!

 

[StylinLa]

I used to love putting on a professional laundry starched shirt, but came to the conclusion as many here noted, it seems to wear the shirts out faster, a lot faster. It was also much harsher in the neck, leading to irritation.

Lastly, depending on how heavy handed they were with the starch, it would sort of lead to creases that look almost like cracks in the shirt after you were wearing for awhile.

I tend to think between shirt quality and modern laudries, the shirts look just fine without starch.

Having said all that, if and when I do my own shirts, I do use a little Niagra assist, but I don't think that is anywhere near even a "light starch" from a laundry.

 

[mhdena]

I stopped starching and asking for starch 20 years ago when I noticed them wearing more quickly. I still have many of the more expensive Robert Talbott shirts I bought 17 years ago.

 

[Andy]

From the The Encyclopedia of Men's Clothes, Clothes Care Chapter:

Laundry starch comes from the complex carbohydrate manufactured by plants! Commercial starch is obtained by crushing or grinding starch containing tubers or seeds, and mixing the pulp with water. Corn provides 80% of commercial starch. The corn is soaked in water for 48 hours, then ground and carefully strained. The mixture is allowed to settle in vats, and then is washed, and bleached. The resulting paste is freed of impurities and then dried.

There are some advantages to using starch on dress shirts:

• Starch gives a crisp look to your shirts.
• Starch makes ironing easier by eliminating iron drag
• The moisture in the starch provides steam when you iron so you can use a lower steam setting on the iron.
• Starch provides some protection to fabrics from stains.
• Starched clothing can keep you cooler, since starched clothing allows more air to pass through it.

And a disadvantage:

• Fraying! After months of starching, residue builds up in the collars, cuffs, and seams where the there is a double layer of fabric and difficult to flush clean. Starch dries out the threads until they eventually snap or fray. This can reduce the garment's lifetime.

 

[fishertw]

I use light starch in most.Just habit from teenage years in the 60's.
At my age, I do not really worry about wearing out shirts.

 

[vonSuess]

Reasonably light starch for me. I don't need these shirts to last forever, although it seems like they do...

 

[challer]

Starch for black and white tie, and for when I am addressing large audiences. Otherwise no. Now I get my shirts done at a service and there is no doubt there is some amount starch getting in them from common washers and the presses.

 

[eagle2250]

My dress shirts get hit with a light starching, as the wife irons them, but when she irons my vented fishing shirts the rule is....No starch!

 

[challer]

My dress shirts get hit with a light starching, as the wife irons them, but when she irons my vented fishing shirts the rule is....No starch!

She irons your fishing shirts? Man you got it made!

 

[Andy]

She irons your fishing shirts? Man you got it made!

challer: Maybe we misunderstood. eagle2250 may have phishing shirts! ??

 

[Dcr5468]

no starch - my wife claims she “can’t” iron so I have done my own for 10 years since I started investing in nicer shirts. They get beat to death at the cleaners. I actually enjoy it

 

[Dhaller]

My father used to spray his shirts with starch and *refrigerate* them (???), and when he ironed them they were like thin cardboard or stiff paper. I've never felt more uncomfortable in a shirt in my life.

(He ironed his socks as well... the man left nothing to chance!)

Naturally, I went for the opposite extreme: I never starch my dress shirts at all. I iron them, and they look fine, and then they wrinkle when I put them on. I am at peace with this.

When I used to take dress shirts in by the sackful to the laundry, I used to request light starch on the cuffs and collars, but not on the shirt. I think they adhered to this maybe 10% of the time, but I always requested it. Now that I launder my shirts? No bother.

DH

 

[Vecchio Vespa]

I grew up in the world where OCBDs were not starched but formal shirts were. After school I entered the world of big banks and law firms, and for the seventies and eighties the look was professionally starched, even OCBDs! When I moved into government I reverted to no starch except for a light spritz from a weak solution of Niagra in a spray bottle for collars, cuffs, and plackets, if needed. Now that I am retired I'll iron an OCBD the same way if I am going to wear a tie with it, but otherwise I enjoy the comfort of unironed OCBDs (yes, the kind that are unlined, unfused, and have no treatment to prevent wrinkles). I still own one point collar French cuff broadcloth for things like weddings and funerals, and it goes out for laundering and gets lightly starched.