Scarves Cleaning and Caring for Hermès Scarves

[essiedub]

Hi everyone, I'm so excited that I just wanted to share. I bought lovely couvee d Hermes scarf off ebay last week and got it for a song because it had colour runs on it. I tried the boiling water method of removing runs yesterday and it worked! I'm so pleased. It took me 3 hours as there were lots of little run spots, but it was worth it and so rewarding.

The background colour is pale yellow, so it didn't fade. I followed Geoff clark's bay guide and it was really helpful.

Just wanted to share in case it can help anyone else.

By the way, I hand wash all my scarves in cool water using fleurs' guide in this thread and the results have been excellent every time.

Hi Yenners, I know this is an old post of yours...just wondering if you did the "spot treatment" or the "dunk treatment." I saw the example in the Geoff Clarke guide and it was quite faded after the bleed "removal." You mentioned no fade on yours, which is good news indeed. I'm terrified and wanted to check in with you for support.

Thanks much

 

[yenners]

Hi Yenners, I know this is an old post of yours...just wondering if you did the "spot treatment" or the "dunk treatment." I saw the example in the Geoff Clarke guide and it was quite faded after the bleed "removal." You mentioned no fade on yours, which is good news indeed. I'm terrified and wanted to check in with you for support.

Thanks much

Hi essiedub, I've just spotted this - sorry for the late response. I stretched my scarf over a large bowl (used clothes pegs to secure it to the rim of the bowl) and very slowly and carefully poured boiling water through the stained bits.

It took a lot of patience as I had to repeat this process many times on each spot to clear the bleed.

I also had to put up with a lot of head shaking and 'I think you're crazy' looks from my DH!! Lol!

 

[nguyenp]

I have yet to wash any of my H scarves, but I have an LV multicolour bandeau, and over time the white silk get limp and no longer white, so I washed it with my Loreal sulfate-free shampoo and it worked like a charm! The silk got very clean and it feels a lot firmer (almost new!). I washed it with my Johnson's shower once before, but the silk didn't feel that "firm" (if you know what I mean).
The rest of the procedure I just rolled it in a towel just like all of you have mentioned earlier (so incredibly helpful, thats why I LOVE tpf!)

 

[Masik]

hello fellow scarfies
Question for San Franciscans! Does Penninou dry cleaners still good to go to? I have been MIA in Hermes world for ages (it's been a 7 year gap between my scarf purchases, yikes!), so I need a little update
I need to clean a few of my treasured possessions, and was wondering whether Penniniu are still good. I was very happy with them back in the days (8-10 years ago).
Thank you in advance!

 

[Masik]

I just finished reading this thread. THANK YOU for all the contributors!!! Now I have enough courage to wash my treasured HS myself . I ordered Rowenta and Le Blanc fragrance free from Amazon, and ready to proceed I'll take pictures along the way.

Question about boiling a scarf to get rid of old color bleeds. Since then a scarf was dry cleaned (no success). Will boiling help? Also there is quite a lot of bleeds (charcoal gray into white). Shell I wet a scarf first and then go with boiling it, bleed by bleed? Scary.

PLEASE HELP!

 

[CowPrincess]

I just finished reading this thread. THANK YOU for all the contributors!!! Now I have enough courage to wash my treasured HS myself . I ordered Rowenta and Le Blanc fragrance free from Amazon, and ready to proceed I'll take pictures along the way.

Question about boiling a scarf to get rid of old color bleeds. Since then a scarf was dry cleaned (no success). Will boiling help? Also there is quite a lot of bleeds (charcoal gray into white). Shell I wet a scarf first and then go with boiling it, bleed by bleed? Scary.

PLEASE HELP!

I've never boiled an entire scarf. Fortunately, none of my H scarves have colour bleeds. I was fascinated by this though, so bought a cheap silk scarf at a thrift store that had RED bleeds all over it.

Somewhere I'd read about just pouring the boiling water through the "bleed", instead of boiling the entire scarf.

So I took my "experimental" scarf, and some elastic bands. Found a container with a lip on it (to keep the elastic band in place), and elastic'd the bleed over the mouth of the container (like a canning jar or a big pickle jar or something -- needs to be able to hold a fair amount of water).

Boiled the kettle, scrunched up my face in fear, and poured the boiling water through the bleed. And kept pouring until it was no longer red OR pink. Did this on all the bleeds on the cheap experimental scarf, and (this SHOCKED ME) there was no change in texture in the silk.

This experiment paid off when I purchased another thrift store silk scarf that had blue and green bleeds all over it. I did the same thing as above, and the bleeds came out. No change in texture, and this 2nd scarf was much heavier silk, very similar to the texture of H scarves.

So, I recommend trying the boiling water method I used, a couple of times, on CHEAP scarves before trying it on an expensive scarf. This will give you a chance to figure out the physical process, y'know? And how to work through/around any problems you encounter.

Good luck! IMPORTANT NOTE: I have never tried this on an Hermes scarf.

 

[Masik]

I've never boiled an entire scarf. Fortunately, none of my H scarves have colour bleeds. I was fascinated by this though, so bought a cheap silk scarf at a thrift store that had RED bleeds all over it.

Somewhere I'd read about just pouring the boiling water through the "bleed", instead of boiling the entire scarf.

So I took my "experimental" scarf, and some elastic bands. Found a container with a lip on it (to keep the elastic band in place), and elastic'd the bleed over the mouth of the container (like a canning jar or a big pickle jar or something -- needs to be able to hold a fair amount of water).

Boiled the kettle, scrunched up my face in fear, and poured the boiling water through the bleed. And kept pouring until it was no longer red OR pink. Did this on all the bleeds on the cheap experimental scarf, and (this SHOCKED ME) there was no change in texture in the silk.

This experiment paid off when I purchased another thrift store silk scarf that had blue and green bleeds all over it. I did the same thing as above, and the bleeds came out. No change in texture, and this 2nd scarf was much heavier silk, very similar to the texture of H scarves.

So, I recommend trying the boiling water method I used, a couple of times, on CHEAP scarves before trying it on an expensive scarf. This will give you a chance to figure out the physical process, y'know? And how to work through/around any problems you encounter.

Good luck! IMPORTANT NOTE: I have never tried this on an Hermes scarf.

Dear CowPrincess,
thank you very much for sharing your experience!
Another very kind TPF member PM'd me and pointed to a HS group on FB, where the extreme cleaning was discussed. The word of warning though that all colors overall would fade, and that technique should be attempted on a white background scarf only. I'm still very much scared to try it as my bled scarves are an old special edition Le Gastronome, and orange old design Cosmos, which has a bleeding from some other garment, unknown to me (it was eBay find). But I'm eager to try that method anyways, so I'll look for something cheap just to master it! Also thank you about reminding about rubber bands! I forgot about that!

 

[sarafinadh]

hello fellow scarfies
Question for San Franciscans! Does Penninou dry cleaners still good to go to? I have been MIA in Hermes world for ages (it's been a 7 year gap between my scarf purchases, yikes!), so I need a little update
I need to clean a few of my treasured possessions, and was wondering whether Penniniu are still good. I was very happy with them back in the days (8-10 years ago).
Thank you in advance!

I have had them do questionable work... Never sent them a scarf as I hand wash all of mine myself, but other silks and vintage things have not come out as well as I would expect. It has been a few years since I sent them anything because of this. Maybe two and a half...

 

[Masik]

I have had them do questionable work... Never sent them a scarf as I hand wash all of mine myself, but other silks and vintage things have not come out as well as I would expect. It has been a few years since I sent them anything because of this. Maybe two and a half...

Hi Sara,
oh no! I was happy with them 8-something years ago. I guess, they've changed In any case, I'm determined to was my scarves myself, soooo they just lost me as a new old client

 

[sarafinadh]

I am sure you will be very happy with washing them by hand ; -)

One tip I have not seen here is when you finish rinsing, and have partly dried in a rolled up towel, lay the scarf out on a clean towel over a towel rod or the ironing board and blow it dry with your hair dryer. That will dry the edges with out crushing them. Then iron the center of the scarf to smooth it all out.

 

[Masik]

I am sure you will be very happy with washing them by hand ; -)

One tip I have not seen here is when you finish rinsing, and have partly dried in a rolled up towel, lay the scarf out on a clean towel over a towel rod or the ironing board and blow it dry with your hair dryer. That will dry the edges with out crushing them. Then iron the center of the scarf to smooth it all out.

Thank you again, Sara! Will do. I want to see plump edges on my beloved Gastronome. I will take pictures to share my experience.

 

[sarafinadh]

On the topic of cleaning scacrves... We were at the Festival on Monday, In San Francisco. During the patter the speaker made a BIG deal about how one must never wash a scarf, how it will ruin it and that they must only be drycleaned. The scarf I was wearing was a 1962 La Comédie Italienne by Ledoux. It caught the eye of the men giving the demo and he borrowed it (twice) to show to the audience. He made a point of the quality of the scarf, the excellent condition it was in and "what good care" I have taken of it. When I retrieved it after the last demo I asked if he wanted to know a secret about the scarf. He of course said 'yes'. So I told him that the scarf is hand washed every 3 or so years, and THAT is what keeps it in such excellent condition. I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head 8 -O He clapped his hands over his ears and drew back in horror for dramatic emphasis and told me I must not say such things!! It was pretty funny ; -)

 

[Pegase]

On the topic of cleaning scacrves... We were at the Festival on Monday, In San Francisco. During the patter the speaker made a BIG deal about how one must never wash a scarf, how it will ruin it and that they must only be drycleaned. The scarf I was wearing was a 1962 La Comédie Italienne by Ledoux. It caught the eye of the men giving the demo and he borrowed it (twice) to show to the audience. He made a point of the quality of the scarf, the excellent condition it was in and "what good care" I have taken of it. When I retrieved it after the last demo I asked if he wanted to know a secret about the scarf. He of course said 'yes'. So I told him that the scarf is hand washed every 3 or so years, and THAT is what keeps it in such excellent condition. I thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head 8 -O He clapped his hands over his ears and drew back in horror for dramatic emphasis and told me I must not say such things!! It was pretty funny ; -)

What a GREAT story!!!!
I ONLY wash all of my silks per Hand! have not had any problems what so ever! (cross my fingers it will stay this way!) I am convinced the chemicals of dry cleaning are dangerous to the tissue. And the smell is also not really appealing....

 

[sarafinadh]

Only once have I had problems... The only scarf that has ever had crocking issues was an odd one. Belonged to my sister, a two layer oblong made from the Parading Chevalier in a bright multi colourway with a lot of a magenta/red/pink on the white background. That raspberry started to run and I flushed it with a ton of water FAST!! There was a small amount of pale pink in a few small areas, but as my sister pointed out, the scarf was so soiled that it had become unwearable, so a tiny bit of crocking was a fair trade.

 

[francelamour]

I was offered a preowned scarf - I was looking for this special design a long time and also the colours are perfect!
The only problem is that is has already been washed...I can not see any damage on the photos but could this be a problem?What could have happened?