Suede, leather and cloth combined
Many garments in the fashion news today
combine the use of cloth fabrics with suede and leather trim or
combine contrasting colored suede or leather panels in a single
garment.
These high fashion items could at times
create problems for drycleaners who accept them for cleaning by
a cloth drycleaning or wetcleaning process or by a fat liquor
based leather drycleaning process or by a
wetcleaning process that does not
condition the water used to prewash, wash and rinse the leather
panels or trims.
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If the colors of the trims or panels are
light, natural or pale pastel shades, and if the garment is
processed by a high-tech leather drycleaning or wetcleaning
process like the Royaltone process, which stabilizes dye
colors, retains softness and works on both cloth fabrics and
suede and leather skins, there is usually no serious problem.
However, if the professional leather
cleaning drycleaning process utilizes tannery type fat liquor,
which is an animal fat or a vegetable fat extract, as an
additive to the drycleaning fluid used to clean the leather
trimmed cloth garment, there is likely to be undesirable
effects on the cloth portion of the garment.
Since fat liquor is 100 percent fatty
acid, the usual problems associated with fatty acids will be
seen on the cloth portion of the trimmed garment. These
problems include streaks and swales on silks and tight knit
sheer polyester fabrics and an oily residue on all trimmed
cloth items in addition to the bleeding of the suede or
leather trim on to the cloth fabrics that
are trimmed.
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Under these circumstances the problem
might be corrected by rinsing the garment in an attempt to
remove the fatty acid residues and the dye bleed. However, this
approach has some undesirable side effects such as: 1) If the
suede or leather trim is light in color it may become dried out
and stiff; 2) If the suede or leather trim is a dark or bright
color, rinsing could cause more color loss and more bleeding of
color onto the cloth portion as well as fading, drying out and
stiffening of the suede or leather trim or suede trim
stiffening and bleeding on to the adjacent cloth.
The bleeding on to the cloth might be
corrected by spotting, rerunning and rinsing until the bleeding
stops.
However, while the bleeding may be removed
from the cloth, the color of the suede or leather trim will
also be lost. This problem could be avoided if the leather was
removed and the cloth portion was spotted and rerun until the
dye bleed was gone. The leather could then be redyed or
repainted to restore its color and could be sewn back in place.
This procedure, of course, is not practical or economical.
A similar problem could occur if the
garment is made entirely of suede or leather panels of
contrasting colors sewn together next to each other. Here the
dark colors can bleed on to the light colors during the
cleaning process if the cleaning fluid is not chemically
conditioned to stabilize the colors and retain the softness of
the skins during the leather drycleaning process.
“That’s awful,” you may
say, and you are right.
What, if anything, can be done to solve
this problem of cleaning cloth garments trimmed in suede or
leather and cleaning leather garments made up of panels of
skins of contrasting colors, some light next to some dark?
Well, the real solution is chemical rather
than mechanical. The idea is to prevent the problem from occurring in the first
place rather to correct the mess after the damage is done. You
want to be able to do the job trouble free the first time
rather than to make a mess and then try to find ways to correct
it.
This can be done by using a leather
drycleaning detergent conditioner or a leather wetcleaning
detergent conditioner, which can be added to the water. Either
will prevent color loss and bleeding on garments made of panels
of contrasting colors of suede or leather sewn together next to
each other and prevent color loss and bleeding from suede or
leather trim on to the cloth garment to which it is attached.
Multi-piece trimmed cloth
Another related problem has to do with a
popular fashion trend of trimming multiple piece cloth garments
with suede or leather. The outfit may consist of two or three
pieces with only one of the pieces trimmed in leather or suede.
Typically, the customer will bring only the suede or leather trimmed piece for
leather cleaning.
Even in regular drycleaning or
wetcleaning, it is not good practice to run only one piece of a
multi-piece outfit because of the possibility of a slight
change in color due to the slight variations in drycleaning
fluid or
wetcleaning water conditions that occur
from one load to another.
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If you used a modern process of leather
drycleaning like the Royaltone leather drycleaning process that
is free of fatty acid fat liquors, or the Royaltone leather
wetcleaning process, then the result of not cleaning all of the
pieces of the multi-piece outfit at the same time will be no
worse than it is in regular drycleaning or wetcleaning.
However, if you use the old tannery type
fat liquor high fatty acid animal or vegetable fat system, the
result of not drycleaning all of the pieces of the
multiple-piece outfit at the same time will be very noticeable
when the pieces are compared.
In fact, the change in color of the cloth
portions of the outfit will be noticeable even if all pieces
are cleaned together in an obsolete fat liquor leather
drycleaning system.
The reason for this is that the old animal
fat oil system utilizes fatty acid oils and soaps in the
drycleaning fluid. This high level of fatty acid, combined with
the dye loss from the leather in the wheel, which is common in
this type of system, creates a different color in the cloth
parts of the outfit due to redeposition of these fatty acids
and the dye bleed non-volatile residues. The lighter the color
of the cloth and the darker the color of the suede or leather
trim, the more marked the change in color of the cloth portion
of the multi-piece outfit drycleaned in such a fatty acid
system.
The bottom line is that: 1) all pieces of
a multi-piece suede or leather outfit must be cleaned at
the same time if they are to match in color after being leather
cleaned; and 2) all pieces of a multi-piece suede or leather
trimmed cloth outfit should be cleaned in a modern, high-tech
leather cleaning system like the Royaltone process that does
not utilize fat liquor fatty acid animal or vegetable fat oils
and that chemically conditions the drycleaning fluid to prevent
color loss and bleeding of the leather dye from the trim on to
the cloth.
Wetcleaning cloth trimmed with leather
& multi-color leathers
Similar color loss and bleeding problems
can occur in wetcleaning, if the cloth garments trimmed with
suede or leather or multi-color suedes or leathers are
wetcleaned using regular cloth wetcleaning spotters, detergents
and procedures.
A trouble-free leather wetcleaning process
should protect the softness of the leather and stabilize the
dyes during a short dye setting prewash cycle. It should then
retain the softness of the leather and hold the dyes in the
leather during the longer wetcleaning main wash cycle.
Finally, it should condition the leather
to insure its softness while retaining the dye color in the
leather during a short final conditioning rinse cycle. The item
should then be dried in a controlled drying process to prevent
stiffening of the leather during the drying cycle.
This can all easily be accomplished by
using a modern high tech wetcleaning process and products.
Frank Lucenta is president of Royaltone
Co., Inc., a firm that manufacturers the products he developed
to make it possible for any cleaner to safely AND profitably
dryclean, wetclean and finish any suede, leather, fur and
trimmed cloth garment. He also wrote related instruction books
that document the process, entitled “Handling Leather and
Suede” and “Cleaning and Finishing Leather and
Suede.” He also teaches small groups of plant owners and
managers how to identify, accept, spot, dryclean and wetclean,
press and recolor suedes, leathers, and furs using his
Royaltone procedures and products. The next Royaltone Leather
training sessions are scheduled for Sept. 12-13, Dec. 5-
6and Feb 6-7 at the Royaltone Suedemate Leather Cleaning Center
in Tulsa, OK. For more information on training sessions or on
spotting charts in either English or Korean, call (800)
331-5506, (918) 622-6677, fax (918) 665-6017, or e-mail frank@royaltone.com. Information is also availbale on the Royaltone
web site, www.royaltone.com.
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