How to Care for Clothing With Pleats or Ruffles

You can wash and iron clothing with tricky details like beads and poufs. Here’s how.

How to Clean Embellished Clothing

This season it’s all about the add-ons: bejeweled dresses, ribbon-trimmed cardigans, and sparkly sequined tees.
 
First things first: See a stain on an otherwise unsoiled garment? Just spot-clean it. Use a cotton swab dipped in a mixture of mild detergent and water to remove hard-to-reach stains in between accents. (Do not attempt this if the stain is oil-based.) If you need to clean the entire dress/top/skirt, read on.
 
 Metal accents: Dry-clean any items with grommets and studs, as tarnish can bleed. Find a reputable cleaner in your area at ifi.org, the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute’s website, and tell him to “foil” all adornments so they don’t crack. Some high-end services will even remove embellishments before cleaning, then reattach them, but you can pay up to $125 for this.
 
 Beading, gemstones, rhinestones, and sequins: Harsh dry-cleaning chemicals can damage these ornaments, so find a dry cleaner that uses less harsh methods at epa.gov. Or ask a regular dry cleaner to “hand clean” the garment. Depending on the material, machine washing in a mesh bag may also be an option. But you’ll run the risk of the trim falling off or bleeding. (For details on what you can machine wash and how, see Do I Really Need to Dry-Clean This?) Note: Unless the label says otherwise, hand wash all sequined pieces.

 Ribbons: “Brush the ends with clear nail polish so they won’t fray,” says Jerry Pozniak of Cameo Cleaners in New York City, then hand wash in cold water to deter buckling.