Where do you go to get that $5,000 handmade Cesare Attolini suit to ensure it is cleaned and pressed without losing its shape or the exceptional finish of its cloth? The dilemma has become so common that one dry cleaner, Manhattan-based Jeeves, recently introduced the Perfect Suit, a new hands-on dry cleaning service specifically tailored for bespoke clothing. “A suit that takes 25 hours or more of hand labor to make should not be subjected to spinning in a machine at 600 rpm; this is not what the craftsman who created this garment intended,” explains Gerald von Pozniak, Jeeves’ managing director. He has a four-person team that spends as long as five hours to hand clean a single suit. “An ordinary dry cleaner can clean 25 to 30 suits in one hour,” adds von Pozniak, whose shop also employs an environmentally friendly liquid carbon dioxide cleaning process in place of more commonly used petrochemicals. The Perfect Suit cleaning service starts at $145.
Jeeves gets its name from Reginald Jeeves, the “gentleman’s personal gentleman” in author P.G. Wodehouse’s books, and was established in the Belgravia section of London in 1969. The brand went global a decade later and now operates in seven cities, including Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Istanbul, Kuala Lumpur, and Bahrain. However, the Perfect Suit service, including free pick-up and delivery to New York residents, is available only through the company’s U.S. branch. Others wishing to take advantage of the service can overnight garments at their expense and have them returned anywhere in the world compliments of Jeeves. (212.570.9130, www.jeevesny.com)
