Trench coat ruined by the rain or dry cleaners?

bromleymum

Treated myself to a lovely red trench from Hobbs last January and loved it.

Only wore it for a couple of months, had it dry cleaned, and stored it away until today.

Got absolutely drenched walking to the station tonight. Hung the coat up and had a look at it about an hour ago and could cry.

The sleeves and the collar are perfect but the lined body of the trench is creased beyond belief. It seems that the material that backs onto the lining had puckered everywhere into deep wrinkles.

I've ironed on the reverse as the care label allows but this has made no difference.

It looks terrible. Really, really wrinkled including the lining. The parts of the coat still in good condition are perfect.

So, who's to blame. Retail or dry cleaners? I suspect this will be a difficult one. I do have the receipt from January this year. Does anyone suspect it's been caused by poor dry cleaning.

Or ... does anyone have any tips for getting creases out of a poly and cotton trench. The lining is 100% cotton.

Help ... it was really expensive (£159) and now looks a right state. I can't have a trench coat unfit for wearing in the rain.

Fosterdog

Could it be caused by the way it has been stored since it was dry cleaned?

bromleymum

No. Hanging in a wardrobe in a protective cover. Looked pristine when I put it on this morning.

I've also noticed looking at the care label, that the label's been faded so you can barely read it. Looks like a label that's been through the wash hundreds of times rather than dry cleaned once. It's starting to look more and more like a dry cleaning mess up.

Wish I knew a dry cleaner who could tell me why a printed label would fade to almost nothing on one clean. Does that indicate too stronger chemicals used?

Furious.

tinkerbell28

I think you'll have a job proving it was the dry cleaners. Especially as it looked fine, and you've had it back what 6 months, roughy?

There is no way a court IMVHO would say they were liable. You could have stored it badly, cleaned it yourself, it has been a long time now. Anything could have happened between then and now. Not saying it has, but that is how they will see it.

It looked perfect today, so it could well be the coat is not fit for purpose, did you get it wet before?

mum2one

I worked as a dry cleaner (bear in mind was 10 yrs ago) sure the principles are the same.

I find it odd that the label had faded - the chemicals would not have done that, when we did trench costs etc they were in longer than a standard clean such as a jumper, as they were cleaned then they were "water proofed", it sounds like there could be a fault with the lining of the coat, is the whole coat wrinkled or just the lining?

x

peachyprice

Was this actually sold as a waterproof trench coat or is it a fashion coat in the trench style.

Also, when you had it dry cleaned did you have it re-waterproofed?

bromleymum

Thanks for all the replies.

Just happened to be popping my husband's trousers into a tailors and asked him to have a quick look at the mac.

He immediately spotted that the problem was caused by the adhesive between the thick cotton lining and the external mac material.

His opinion on the problem - the dry cleaners probably steam pressed the mac on far too higher heat causing the adhesive to break down and 'clump' and pull on the lining material. Although it looked pristine when I collected it my own body heat would be enough for the adhesive to expand and the clumps to cause the creases. Getting drenched is irrelevant as the rest of the coat had dried perfectly.

And he said whoever was pressing my coat would have realised their error.

And it's ruined. Nothing will reverse the problem. He did say that the retailer had used, in his opinion, too thicker lining and cheap glue and he had seen it plenty of times before on the lapels of suits.

My chance of proving it was the dry cleaner without spending money on an expert report was nil he said but he would argue the coat was poorly designed and the lining too heavy and needed too much heat to press for the adhesive underneath to take.

Deep joy!

wealdroam

bromleymum wrote: »

Thanks for all the replies.

Just happened to be popping my husband's trousers into a tailors and asked him to have a quick look at the mac.

He immediately spotted that the problem was caused by the adhesive between the thick cotton lining and the external mac material.

His opinion on the problem - the dry cleaners probably steam pressed the mac on far too higher heat causing the adhesive to break down and 'clump' and pull on the lining material. Although it looked pristine when I collected it my own body heat would be enough for the adhesive to expand and the clumps to cause the creases. Getting drenched is irrelevant as the rest of the coat had dried perfectly.

And he said whoever was pressing my coat would have realised their error.

And it's ruined. Nothing will reverse the problem. He did say that the retailer had used, in his opinion, too thicker lining and cheap glue and he had seen it plenty of times before on the lapels of suits.

My chance of proving it was the dry cleaner without spending money on an expert report was nil he said but he would argue the coat was poorly designed and the lining too heavy and needed too much heat to press for the adhesive underneath to take.

Deep joy!

Why don't you ask your friendly tailor to write an independent report stating just what you have told us here?

OK, it might cost a few pounds, but armed with that report you would stand a good chance of winning a court case and the report cost would be claimed from the defendant.

Seems as thought the seller of the coat might be partly to blame too.

bromleymum

Perhaps I should.

He's very old, semi-retired, and I would feel a bit cheeky!

I've always found Hobbs to be really top notch on customer service so I'm going to go in tomorrow armed with the facts and see what happens.

It's especially annoying as one of the first times I wore this trench I ruined the belt and Hobb's customer services tracked down a new one.

mttylad

Perhaps they can repair it, recoat the adhesive in it.

bromleymum

Beyond repair. The adhesive bonds the lining to the outer layer.

It's a bonded lining, not a stitched lining. You can't separate the two layers as they are stuck together. It's this adhesive that's 'wrinkled' the material by clumping together after being overheated.

The material that's wrinkled feels hard compared to the unlined parts of the coat. It did feel a little different when I put it on but I thought it was down to not being worn and stored.

I've learnt my lesson now and will insist on seeing all garments when I pick them up from the dry cleaners and, maybe what would have helped me here, feel them.

It's the red Ossie mac with the umbrella lining. Google hobbs Ossie mac if this helps to understand the lining issue.