Jennifer Steiner.
22,199 8A $3,000 metal Versace gown comes with several promises: you will explain to your friends why you spent the equivalent of a family\'s life savings on a piece of clothing.
You will be showing more skin outside the junior high school dressing room than ever before.
You will do it. clean.
But, according to a report released by the community Cleaners Association on Friday, many expensive dresses seem to really only be worn once because they can\'t dry-clean. In its report --
Based on the obsession with cleaning thousands of pieces of clothing-
The association believes that from high-
Versace\'s house, facing the unknown chenille sweater manufacturer, produces clothes that cannot stand the cleaning procedures recommended by its label.
\"There are a lot of people in the manufacturers who think the style is sold, and let\'s worry about applicability later,\" said Daniel Eisen, association chief analyst who runs its test lab . \".
\"I \'ve met a label on a $4,000 sweater that says the dress is washable and it\'s shrinking right away.
Mr. advertising.
Eisen tested clothing at the association\'s headquarters in Manhattan, and in an action so respected in the clothing industry, it was used to clean Diana Rose\'s gown and items from the Metropolitan Museum of Art\'s clothing Institute.
The association has 4,000 members worldwide, mainly to train dry cleaners and improve customer relationships. -
Often, cleaners are a sensitive topic, and they are used to accusing them of turning their favorite shirts into puppet outfits, a la \"Seinfeld \".
The lab regularly tests the garments so that manufacturers can find out if they do drycleaner safe.
Usually, if a piece of clothing is not called through the association, the manufacturer will keep it away from the market.
But the organization also spent a lot of time looking at the clothing brought by its members or customers, complaining that the dry cleaners had ruined it.
Often consult the association in dry cleaning arbitration.
The association will then carry out a rigorous test of the dress, sometimes thinking that the cleaner is at fault, but more often than not, it is found that the dress was not designed for dry cleaning.
In fact, the association found that in 43% of the dry areas,
The manufacturer is at fault in the cleaning disaster;
In 42%, the customer abused the item and in 15%, the cleaner mishandled the garment.
The association reports its findings once a year as a warning to its members and drought-stricken areasPublic cleaning.
Cleaners, for example, often hang notices in their stores to warn customers about what to bring, reporting that a striped Tommy Hilfiger shirt is a repeat offender in the dry cleaning Hall.
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Others reported include Versace clothing and various sweater manufacturers.
Mr. Versace, a $3,500 black Versace dress with a plastic chest Cup hardened by cleaning makes the dress unwearableEisen said.
In addition, he cited the metal dress of Versace, whose color will be worn out during cleaning.
\"I called the store . \"Eisen said.
\"I don\'t know if they went to school to learn to say this, but they all told me the same thing and they have sold 5,000 pieces of clothes without any problem.
In the meantime, I have three pieces of the same dress that have the same problem.
He said the association had received a letter from lawyer Tommy Hilfiger, but the letter ended after they sent him the offending dress.
A spokeswoman for Tommy Hilfiger said in a statement this week, \"We have strict manufacturing guidelines, strict testing procedures, and hired a fabric care specialist
\"Unfortunately, the community Cleaners Association did not share their test procedures with the company and did not show us the clothing for independent test evaluation,\" she added . \".
\"Taking into account the membership of the association, the association may only be the slightest prejudice and be challenged during a visit with Mr.
Eisen is in the lab on 29 th Street west of Manhattan. Dry-
There are cleaning machines all around him.
Several bottles of test solvent are arranged next to the ironing board. Mr.
Eisen is scrubbing and pressing with all the concentration of a nuclear physicist working on an atom.
On a shelf with samples hanging, he pulled at a Barnes private bar in New York
The label rainproof jacket became so stiff with cleaning that it actually stood on the table alone.
\"When it was brought in, it was as soft as butter,\" he said . \".
A red linen suit appeared to have been attacked by a squirrel.
The yarn was too weak, he said, and his voice smelled of disgust.
Versace\'s house does not deny that its clothes are sometimes difficult to clean, nor does it deny that the association quoted it.
The preparation and preparation of \'Versace\'s line haute Coture,to-
Dressed in high fashion, there are complex embroidery on exquisite silk, beads, leather, etc.
A spokesman said in a statement.
The applicability of these products is not easy.
But he added that Versace will continue to expand its business.
Taking into account the insights provided by the Association, an internal study of the applicability of fabrics. \'\'Mr.
Eisen is not waiting for a group of Versace Designers wearing spike heels to come to his dry and severe classroom --cleaning arts.
But he will certainly like it.
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A version of this article was printed on page 3003010 of the National edition on February 22, 1998, with the title: consumption;
New wrinkles in high fashion.