Be careful. We've heard reports you can get too much steam.

 

Could you elaborate? By too much steam do you mean if the steaming process is long, it can pose a problem?

 

What items are you intending to steam? It can't replace dry-cleaning for jackets and trousers. Jackets and trousers need to be pressed, not steamed. Steams causes them to misshapen, and the trousers will lose their crease. Steaming shirts causes the seams to pucker, but you can just iron a shirt again. You can steam knitwear and scarves. You can also steam anything you'd put in the washing machine. Steaming has many more applications for women's clothing.

 

What items are you intending to steam? It can't replace dry-cleaning for jackets and trousers. Jackets and trousers need to be pressed, not steamed. Steams causes them to misshapen, and the trousers will lose their crease.

Gabardine pants made merino wool with viscose lining.

I'm not too familiar with pressing in this particular context. Is it primarily used to get creases and pleats back to form?

The dry clear who suggested steam cleaning, as I asked for the lightest cleaning possible for pants without stains or odors, said it would not cause any issues. Is it possible that steam cleaning can be done so lightly and carefully that it does not cause any potential issue?

 

Suits - especially jackets - are 'pressed' by the tailor in the making. They use heat, small amounts of steam and specially shaped benches to press cloth so that it forms the shapes they want (along with initial cut of the cloth and sewing of the seams certain ways). I've read comments by a tailoring expert (can't find the link at the moment) that there's over 10 pressings of pieces of cut cloth and approaching 20 more in the assembled garment for a jacket, all of which combine to give it the final 'sharp' appearance. Steaming can (will!) make this pressed 'set' of the cloth (like a perm on human hair) fall out. Result - suit looks awful.

A really good cleaner who knows high-quality suits well will be capable of pressing a suit again after a clean, just like a tailor does in the initial construction, using the same skills and tools. However, cleaners with that level of skill and knowledge in the 21st century are few and far between. There's one that I know of in my home city, which is a city of 5 million people! Some top bespoke tailors now offer cleaning and pressing services for their clients as a sideline business, because it's become so hard to find independent cleaners who can do it. (Zink and Sons, the oldest tailor in my town of Sydney does this now).

 

Stuart, thank you for such a thorough explanation.

Matt, that's great to know about. I'll ask the dry cleaner if they would do that.