You bring that stained silk blouse or rumpled blazer into the dry cleaner, drop it off with the attendant at the front desk, then come back a few days later (or more if, like me, you forget) to pick up your cleaned, pressed items, hanging neatly on a hanger and wrapped in plastic. It’s a ritual that has been going on for decades, but what happens once your clothing or linens leave your hands? Do they go on a whimsical ride through dry-cleaning land, where industrious elves work their magic? Sort of! Just replace elves with launderers and finishers, and you’re close.
To get the full picture, we spoke with Mike Astorino, who has more than 34 years of experience in the business and is the owner of Fabricare, a luxury dry cleaner in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Read on to find out exactly what happens to your clothes at the dry cleaner.
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Why is dry cleaning essential for some items?
It’s all about keeping certain delicate items in tip-top shape—and cleaning them without accidentally ruining them. For those items that need this VIP treatment, the pros use solvents in place of water and traditional laundry detergent to remove stains, sweat and grime from clothing.
That said, even when a care tag says something is “dry clean only,” that doesn’t necessarily mean it is. “In general, manufacturers are careless with their labels,” Astorino says. “Big, luxury brands will put very specific care instructions onto the garment and even test fabrics before going to market. However, for the thousands of other brands out there, ‘dry clean only’ is a way for them to deny responsibility if you wash an item and it shrinks or deteriorates.” (To wit, the $12 pair of purple track pants I recently bought that are labeled “dry clean only.” I could buy a new pair for the same cost as bringing them to the cleaner’s!) In some cases, you can even wash silk and wool—if you know what you’re doing.
But certain items are essential to dry-clean, such as anything with leather trim, a loose weave that runs the risk of snagging anywhere along the process, or an item with ornamentation like crystal buttons, Astorino says.
What happens to your clothes after you drop them off?
More than you probably think! Let’s take a little trip through a dry cleaner’s shop below.
1. Your clothes are inspected
“The cleaner looks for defects, such as loose buttons, torn hems and stains, and reports them to the customer,” says Astorino. “This protects us from things we didn’t do and allows us to repair the item to return it to the customer in a wearable condition.” Then each piece gets a unique tag, which is used to track it throughout the process to ensure it doesn’t get lost.”
At Fabricare, the tag is a small sticker with a bar code that attaches to the care tag, and customers don’t typically remove it. This gives the cleaners insight into some of the garment’s history, including how often it has been dry-cleaned, as well as the date of its last cleaning.
2. Stains are identified and pretreated
“To simplify removal, we classify stains into two categories: plant-based, like coffee, wine or tomato sauce, and animal-based, like sweat or blood,” Astorino says. To determine which is which, common sense comes into play. “Stains in the front of the garment are usually some type of food, whereas you’re more likely to find makeup around the neck, and mud or dirt on the bottom of dresses or pants,” he explains.
Then there are invisible stains, such as perspiration, perfume or light drinks like white wine. You might not notice them, but if they’re not treated promptly, they can ruin a garment. (These are typically removed through the regular dry-cleaning process.)
Beyond the stain, the cleaner needs to consider the fabric, the dye and the condition of the item before beginning to clean.
3. The garment goes into the cleaning machine
The machine dry cleaners use is similar to the one you use at home, save for a few key differences. It doesn’t use water, and it has far more settings for temperature and speed than your home washer. “The machines are computerized for different types of loads,” Astorino says. “Delicate silks will have a gentle cycle, while heavy coats and sweaters can handle more aggressive types of cleaning.” Solvent is added directly to the machine through a hose, the same way water is introduced into your machine at home.
The other big difference? Clothes are cleaned and dried in the same machine, he explains. Just like with dry-cleaner wash cycles, there are a number of different temperature and speed options for drying.
Oh, and a single machine costs around $60,000!
4. Some garments may be cleaned again
If a stain didn’t come out during the first cleaning, cleaners will try a different type of solvent. At Fabricare, this happens about 30% to 40% of the time, Astorino says. As a last resort, the cleaner may need to use water, which is an aggressive cleaner. “Cleaners are trained to start with the safest stain-removal technique and gradually get more aggressive,” he says.
5. The cleaner stops before damage occurs
There comes a point when continuing to clean a garment will actually damage it, and “that’s the first thing we train cleaners [to recognize],” Astorino says. “I learned from a high-end dry cleaner in New York when I first got in the business that ‘people come to us because we know what not to clean.’ Or put another way, we know when to stop.”
If a stain won’t budge in the traditional process, Astorino’s team communicates with the customer to let them know they can’t get their garment fully clean and potentially get approval to take more aggressive steps, as detailed above.
6. The garment is “finished”
Once an item passes the cleaning department, it goes to finishing, which means “making the garment look like it did when you bought it,” Astorino says. “This is no easy task, especially with women’s garments. It requires knowing when to steam an item versus press it, or how to block a knit back to its original look. It’s really a craft.”
This is also the step when the item gets put on a hanger.
7. Your clothes are matched back to your order
Here’s where automation generally comes into play. At Fabricare, the unique bar code is scanned, and the item is put on a conveyor belt, aka the device that looks like a sky liner for your clothes. The system knows it has, for example, one out of three of a customer’s items. So it spits out the item, bags it and waits to pair it with the other two items to group it and return it to the customer. Chances are, your local dry cleaner has a similar conveyor belt to bring items from the cleaning and finishing area to the front, even if the process isn’t fully automated.
What actually cleans your items in dry cleaning?
At home, you use laundry detergent, which emulsifies stains so they can be rinsed away by water. In dry cleaning, fabric is cleaned with a solvent. The solvent works without water, to dissolve stains chemically. “Like water, the solvent helps lift soil from the fabric, which then gets flushed out through a rinse cycle,” Astorino says.
Hold on—are those chemicals safe?
They’re safer now than they used to be. Decades ago, dry-cleaning solvents were perchloroethylene-based (a chlorine derivative), also called PERC. The system was different too—there were separate washers and dryers, so the solvent would drip from clothing onto the floor as the item was moved to the dryer, and that floor waste was considered toxic, Astorino says. While you may have read that PERC is harmful, and is a carcinogen, the chance of freshly dry-cleaned clothing negatively impacting your health is negligible. There is some evidence, however, that PERC was harmful to workers who came into direct contact with the chemical more regularly. Still, it’s always a good idea to remove the plastic from your clothes so they can air out.
Today’s dry cleaning is more environmentally friendly as a whole, in part because the EPA passed a ruling to phase out PERC-based cleaners fully by 2034. Today’s solvents are silicone- and hydrocarbon-based, neither of which is classified as a carcinogen, and silicone solvent is the same ingredient used in many everyday skin-care products. (Fabricare has been using these types of solvents since 2009).
Plus, more and more dry cleaners are moving toward a closed-loop system, which keeps the solvent inside the machine and reuses it, to cut down on chemical emissions and waste. This means “a very high amount of solvent is reclaimed and the rest is filtered out,” Astorino says.
Should you limit the amount of dry cleaning you do?
Just like you wouldn’t wash your jeans after every wear, you don’t need to dry clean your sweater, blouse or suit jacket every single time. And thank goodness, because dry cleaning can be pricey! That said, you do need to clean clothing before putting it away for seasonal storage—remember, most stains are invisible and will set if you leave them. (Picture yellow armpit stains on a white blouse.)
The dry-cleaning process today is actually a pretty environmentally friendly way to get your clothes clean. It uses little to no water, and the newer solvents are gentler on you and the planet.
Can you simulate dry cleaning at home?
“Almost every type of wool or silk garment can be cleaned at home,” Astorino says. Options include wet washing (handwashing items in the sink or on your machine’s gentle cycle and drying flat) or investing in a DIY dry-cleaning kit. The latter typically includes a solvent you spray on your clothes prior to steaming them in your dryer.
In terms of what to try this with, use your common sense. You’ll want to be more careful with more delicate or meaningful items, like a “lucky” sweater or anything with leather trim or sequins. As for my bargain track pants? I’ve washed and dried them several times now, and they are just fine. (Phew!)
Sources:
- Mike Astorino, owner of Fabricare, a luxury dry cleaner in Connecticut; interviewed, October 2026
- EPA: “A Guide to Complying with the 2o24 Perchloroethylene (PCE) Dry Cleaning Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act”
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