Dry Cleaning In The USA

[Katia]

Just a couple off the top of my head-- if you must have it pressed, baste the pleats. Jacket buttons may tarnish, so you might consider removing or covering (did someone here once suggest tinfoil?). And I once heard of someone who had her dance kilt cleaned, and the dye from the straps ran onto the kilt-- the dry cleaner first tried to say the cleaning didn't do it, then tried to fix it, ruining the fabric in the process. Not sure how common of an issue this is, or if this person just happened to have low-quality straps on their kilt.

And, if I take anything expensive to the cleaners, I take photos first (have heard too many "they said it was already like that before they cleaned it" horror stories). Better if the camera date-stamps it or you have the newspaper in the photo or something.