Laundry and dry clean
Laundry and dry clean
Graduation gown cleaning in Sydney is mostly about creases, not stains. The gown has usually spent a year folded in a satchel. It needs pressing far more than it needs solvent. For a quote, email info@washmate.com.au
The HSC written exams finish in early November. The university ceremonies follow soon after. So a lot of academic dress comes out of storage at once. Some of it is hired and must go back presentable. Some of it is owned and is about to be kept for thirty years. The two need different handling.
Pressing, in most cases. Academic gowns are usually polyester or a polyester blend. They are worn once, over normal clothes, so they rarely pick up body soil. What they do pick up is a grid of hard creases from being folded flat in packaging. Those do not fall out on their own.
Dry cleaning becomes the answer in three cases. Makeup on the collar, drink on the sleeve, or a genuine wool or wool-blend robe. Tell us which situation you are in. We will not sell you the more expensive one.
A gown is priced as a dress, from $28, with the final figure confirmed after inspection. Press-only is less involved than a full clean and is quoted accordingly. See the pricing page for the full list, or email a photo to info@washmate.com.au for an approximate quote.
If the hood, stole and cap are coming too, send them in the same order. One pickup fee covers the lot, from $15 per order across Sydney metro, seven days. Everything runs through our dry cleaning service.
You can, and plenty of people ruin one doing it. Polyester academic gowns have a low melting point and a slight sheen. An iron one setting too hot leaves a permanent glazed patch. It lands exactly where everyone will be looking in the photographs.
If you are doing it yourself: lowest synthetic setting, and a pressing cloth between the iron and the gown. Test on an inside seam first. The safer option is simpler. Hang it in a steamy bathroom the night before and let gravity pull the creases out.
The hood is the part that actually gets dirty. Its coloured silk or satin lining sits against the neck and shoulders. So foundation and hair product transfer onto it readily. It is also the most delicate part. That lining cannot be pressed flat without flattening the pile.
Caps hold their shape through a stiffened board, which should never be soaked. Tassels tangle, and are usually best left alone. We will comb and steam one. However, a tassel that has matted after years in a box does not fully recover.
Check your hire agreement before you do anything, because the terms vary between providers. Some ask for the gown back uncleaned and charge a cleaning fee themselves. In that case cleaning it first may not help you at all, so read what yours actually says.
Where you do need to return it clean, the thing to avoid is a home wash. A hired polyester gown that has been through a domestic machine comes back with set creases. Sometimes the lining shrinks too. That costs far more than the cleaning fee ever would have.
Clean first, then flat or on a wide hanger, out of plastic. The dry-cleaning bag is for transport, not storage. It traps humidity against the fabric, and Sydney summers do the rest. A cotton garment bag or an old pillowcase is better than the plastic it arrived in.
Fold the hood with the coloured lining facing outward, so it is not pressed against itself. Then keep the cap in a box rather than under weight. Gowns that are kept properly look the same in twenty years; gowns kept in plastic yellow along the fold lines.
A week, comfortably. Standard turnaround is three to five business days. Meanwhile graduation season across Sydney is compressed into a few weeks. So the week before a round of ceremonies is always the busiest.
If your date is fixed and close, book online, email or call. Then we will confirm what we can do for your timing, subject to availability. Our guide to how long dry cleaning takes in Sydney sets realistic expectations.
The outfit underneath it, almost always. The dress, suit or shirt being worn to the ceremony has usually hung unworn since the last occasion. So it needs the same week of notice.
Send them together and one $15 pickup covers everything. Our formal dress cleaning guide covers what to do with the dress before and after.
An inspection, then usually a press rather than a clean. We check what the gown is made of. Next we look for makeup on the collar and drink on the cuffs. Then we work out whether solvent is needed at all. Plenty of gowns leave having only been steamed and pressed, and we will say so.
Where a clean is needed, the hood is handled separately from the body. Its lining is often a different fibre with a different finish. Everything is then pressed with a cloth. Finally it is finished on a wide hanger, so the shoulders keep their shape in transit.
Then expect fold lines, possible yellowing along the creases, and a musty smell from a sealed bag. Fold lines usually press out. Yellowing along a crease often does not. That is oxidation in the fibre, so it is damage rather than soil. Cleaning reveals it instead of removing it.
The worst case is a gown stored in its original plastic for a decade in a Sydney wardrobe. Trapped humidity accelerates all of it. Bring it in, and we will tell you what is realistic before quoting.
Yes. Most polyester academic gowns only need pressing. However, a full clean is straightforward where there is makeup, drink or body soil, or where the gown is wool.
A gown is priced as a dress, from $28, confirmed after inspection. Press-only is quoted lower. Email a photo to info@washmate.com.au for an approximate quote.
Professional steam and press, worked with a cloth so the polyester does not glaze. At home, hang it in a steamy bathroom overnight rather than ironing it directly.
Check your hire agreement first, because terms vary between providers. Some ask for the gown back uncleaned and charge a cleaning fee themselves, so cleaning it yourself may not be required.
Three to five business days as standard. Graduation season is busy, so a week of notice is comfortable. If your date is tight, book online, email or call. We will confirm what we can do, subject to availability.
A gown that has been folded in a bag for a year does not photograph well. Book a pickup and we will collect across Sydney metro seven days from $15 per order. Then we press or clean as the gown actually needs, and have it back in good time. Drop-offs are welcome at Surry Hills and Leichhardt. Book online, email info@washmate.com.au or call 0403 861 744.
Follow @washmate.sydney on Instagram for before-and-after garment transformations, care tips and a look behind the scenes at how our Sydney team works.
