How to Remove Stains from Ties & Pocket Squares: Clean Your Silk, Linen, & Wool Accessories

Our comprehensive guide on how to properly remove stains from your neckties, bow ties, and pocket squares!

#stainremoval #fabrics #notsponsored

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VIDEO CREDITS:
→ Script: Preston Schlueter
→ Camera & Editing: Chris Dummer

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Gentleman's Gazette

00:00 Introduction

It’s a simple fact of life that stains happen. Whether you’ve been a bit too careless with a mustard-laden hot dog or a spoonful of soup, had a mishap with a fountain pen, or just ran into some nasty outdoor conditions, we’ve all had to contend with unwanted materials on our garments.

01:50 Common Fabrics Used for Accessories
→ Silk
Completely saturating silk with water can not only aggravate a stain but can also cause rings or ripples that might ruin the texture or color or pattern of the silk. It weakens when it’s wet and it also degrades with heat and perspiration.
→ Linen
It’s important that you not squeeze or press linen fibers when you’re trying to get a stain out. If you do this, you may further grind the stained material into the linen fibers making it harder to get out.
→ Wool
Stains can often set especially quickly into wool fibers so tending to a new stain is especially key with wool.

05:21 Types of Stains
→ Organic
* blood
* grass stains
* red wine
→ Inorganic
Stains from man-made materials:
* ink
* solvents
* machine dust
→ Oily Organics
* barbecue sauce
* sweat stains
→ Oily Inorganics
* cosmetics

06:12 Things you'll need for Stain Removal
* Clean towel
* Clean white cloth
* Paper towels or napkins
* Club soda or plain water
* Talcum powder, baking soda, cornstarch, or borax
* Table salt
* A formulated stain solution
* Spray bottles filled with either vodka, isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol and a 50-50 mixture of water and white vinegar and lemon juice

07:40 General Stain Removal Tips for Accessories
1. Be Wary of Using Bleach & Bleach Alternatives
2. Be Careful with Biological Detergents
3. Check the Fiber’s Colorfastness
4. Don’t Iron You Neckties
5. Don’t Machine Wash Your Accessories
6. Don’t Scrub Out The Stains
7. Don’t Wring Them Out
8. Be Careful with All Cleaning Methods
9. Inform the Dry Cleaner of the Fabric Composition

11:21 Immediate Stain Removal
→ Organic Stains (Food or Bodily Fluids)
1. Scrape Off with A Knife or Spoon
2. Blot At The Stain
→ Inorganic Stains (Oil or Grease)
1. Blot Up As Much of the Stain Material
2. Apply Club Soda

13:47 Removing Hours-old or Older Stains
This particular treatment can also be a great method for removing older stains although you may want to use it in conjunction with some of the other processes we’ve already talked about.
Oil Stains
1. Leave Baking Soda for 12 to 24 Hours
2. Brush Carefully

15:14 Ink Stains
It’s best treated not right away but after it has completely dried. This is because, if you try to remove a fresh ink stain while it’s still wet, especially by introducing another liquid, there is a great potential for the ink to simply spread around to more of the tie or pocket square.

These methods could also likely work for other materials like cotton or polyester. Remember to always work slowly and carefully and not to expect miracles.

Not every garment and accessory is going to be able to be brought back to 100% but garment care techniques are always worth a try.

16:59 Outfit Rundown

[madsborup]

I really love that you guys just keep the bloopers in there, just to show what an eloquent speaker Preston is!

[robertdee]

Great tips I really need. Also, I love the way Preston handles little slips and bloopers. Rather than stopping the recording and editing them out, he turns them into entertaining snippets.

[rabignall]

The three of you seem to have so much fun together while still working together!

[pf]

Use talcum power to remove oil on silk or other materials! Fine powder absorbs the oil and then can be brushed off !

[고영환-yi]

This video reminds me of my late grandma. She was an expert at removing stains. No wonder my late grandpa loved and appreciated her a lot. Maybe she would have used the same ways just like on this video, but wish I could ask her the secrets of her magic... May you rest in peace, Grandma..

[Santiago-dmlw]

YES! I needed this because my tie got dirty from ketchup... I'm so clumsy.

[jacklau]

I learned to carry a Shout wipe as recommended by Sven, and they’re incredibly helpful. You can tell the appreciation from others when you handed a wipe to them!

[phillipmoodie]

Preston. Much needed advice presented with attention to detail without slipping into boredom. Phil.

[truthreigns]

Awesome. This is so helpful. Thank you Mr. Preston. I am glad you all care enough about giving us this wonderful help

[carltrotter]

Can we take some time to salute the Fort Belvedere products damaged in the making in this video?

[viclucyzia]

This is a keeper although with expensive clothes I am extremity cautious. Thank you again.

[amadejpesko]

Another great and useful video. Great. 👍👍

[supersonique]

Great video as usual! To be frank it's not so much the tie stains I worry about but rather the bullet holes when someone tries to 'ventilate' me, signed Peter Gun !

[layouts]

good video. I thrifted some high end ties with small discoloration on them, I'll try these methods to see if they can be saved

[workwithme]

How do I best remove the unpleasant smell of sweat from my neck ties? Is club soda enough or would you suggest to try out backing soda?

[rabignall]

Hope you understand my last statement! Love you guys!

[mnstr]

Im insanely clumsy and got a lot of stains on my tie and shirt at lunch so thank you 😩

[canadafree]

Thank you for this, very helpful. One should also avoid stains by not eating on buses, but if it is a long bus ride you may want to take your jacket and or tie off.

[CountElvis]

I found the hairspray works well to get ink out of silk

[mothadone]

I would love to have a life free of commitments where I could watch a video like this without screaming at my phone to get to the F’ing point. Even on 2x speed I learned literally nothing I couldn’t have read in bullet points on my initial google search.