A guest hands you a jacket and asks you to "get the travel out of it". You need to know, in the two seconds before you answer, whether that jacket has a floating horsehair canvas that will recover on a hanger overnight, or a glued front that a steamer can bubble permanently. Construction dictates care.
Jacket construction
| Type | How it is built | Care implication |
|---|---|---|
| Fully canvassed | Floating canvas (horsehair/wool) stitched between cloth and lining | Recovers on a good hanger; steam gently; moulds to the wearer |
| Half-canvassed | Canvas in chest and lapel, fusible below | Steam the chest, keep heat off the lower front |
| Fused | Interlining glued to the cloth | Heat and moisture can delaminate the glue, causing bubbling; press with a cloth, low heat, never wet |
Signs of canvassing: pinch the cloth just above the bottom button and feel a third, floating layer. A "roll" in the lapel that springs back is canvassed; a flat, dead lapel is usually fused.
Other terms you will meet: shoulder (natural/unstructured, Neapolitan, roped/English), vent (single, double, none), lapel (notch, peak, shawl on dinner jackets), lining (full, half, unlined) and bespoke vs made-to-measure vs ready-to-wear — the first two carry unique alterations and must never be sent to a laundry that alters or presses to its own house standard.
Shirt construction
- Collars: point, semi-spread, spread/cutaway, button-down, wing (evening only), club, tab. Wing collars go with black or white tie; a button-down is never formal.
- Collar stays / bones: removable stays must come out before pressing and go back after. Losing them is a classic valet failure — keep a labelled pot.
- Cuffs: barrel (button), French/double cuff (requires cufflinks), convertible. Lay out cufflinks with any double-cuffed shirt.
- Placket, pleats, yoke, gauntlet button: press in a set order — collar, cuffs, sleeves, yoke, body — so you never re-crease finished work.
- Bib-front dress shirts: pleated or marcella (piqué) bib, studs not buttons. Handle studs like jewellery: count them in, count them out.
Womenswear tailoring
Womenswear is cut with more shaping, softer construction and frequently more delicate cloth. Jackets may be unstructured, bias-cut or fully lined in silk. Beading, sequins, appliqué and structured boning are common. Never assume a womenswear jacket can take the same steam and pressure as a mens worsted suit — check the label, check the fibre, test on an inside seam.
Onboard Notes
- If in doubt whether a jacket is fused, treat it as fused: low heat, pressing cloth, steam from a distance.
- Never press a lapel roll flat. It is a designed shape and a tailor is the only person who can put it back.
- Trouser creases are a preference, not a rule. Some suits (and most womenswear) are made creaseless.
- A jacket that has travelled should hang on a broad, shaped hanger in a ventilated space for 12-24 hours before you reach for any heat at all.