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The shades suspended in the lobby of The Westin Hotel.

I remind my staff  frequently that it’s easy to describe what Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park does. We can clean anything that a client wears or has in their home or office that is made of fabric, leather or suede.

This almost got the best of me.

A call comes in from a friend of mine, “Remember when you told me you can clean anything? Can you clean lamp shades? Really big lamp shades? Five foot high lamp shades that are five feet around?”

Sure I tell him, we can clean anything, anywhere.

Next the reply comes, “Well they are in lobby of a hotel that I manage in Times Square, suspended about 15′ off the ground”.

I send my on-site team to The Westin New York at Times Square; boy do those shades look big and they are really, really high off the ground. The lobby is packed with throngs of people and an escalator runs right next to the shades.

It reminded me of the time that I had a firefighter buddy of mine helping me clean gutters. I made the assumption that he would go up the ladder. Wrong, he didn’t like ladders.

My staff ropes off the first area and gets the ladders set up. Once the equipment is secured they start hand cleaning the first shade. It’s back-breaking work, each shade is made of two layers of delicate material and from hanging in the lobby for so long, they are very, very soiled. Plus working on the top of a ladder trying to squeeze your arms into a lamp shade is no joke.

Eight hours later my team is finally finished, four enormous lamp shades cleaned on what seemed like a high-wire in the busiest location we have ever worked in.

I hate to sound like a political ad, but “Yes we can”.

If you have something that you think cannot be cleaned, give Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park a call, we love a challenge, even a high-wire challenge.

Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park has been selected as one of America’s Best Cleaners for the last four years, we have also been selected as the best dry cleaner in New York City by City Spur.

Earlier this week The New York Times published an article about zero waste design, essentially creating a garment without the normal 15 to 20% of wasted fabric going into landfills.

This design concept is not as easy as it sounds because when creating a garment the main concerns are fit and fashion. Therefore getting all of the pieces which make up the garment to fit into fabric with minimal waste involves compromises. Some of these compromises will involve supply lines and the existing infrastructure,  thus changes which can become very costly.

The zero waste campaign has the potential to be very beneficial to the dry cleaning industry, for it could initiate the shift to environmentally responsible dry cleaning. The secret to responsible dry cleaning lies in the cleaning and packaging methods.

Dry cleaning is a very wasteful industry based on cleaning and packaging processes. Many dry cleaners use wire hangers, reams of tissue and polyethylene bags as part of the process. Though wasteful, this type of packaging does prevent wrinkling and protects the freshly cleaned garments on their trip home.

Before you get too discouraged and swear off dry cleaning listen up for there is an alternative! Many dry cleaners offer re-usable fabric garment bags as well has re-usable plastic hangers. Tissue can be removed from packacking within  the body of the garment though wrinkling may occur without this addition.

My shops, Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park and Arthur Copeland Cleansers offer “Naked Cleaning” which is our dry cleaning process that cleans clothes without harmful petro-chemicals along and offers a re-useable garment bag (from Green Garmento), no tissue packaging and re-useable hangers. What you get back is your wardrobe free of all chemicals and packed without any waste at all!

Our chemical free dry cleaning process is accomplished using the Solvair process which uses liquid CO2 in place of petro-chemicals. You can go to our website for more information.

Thanks for listening. Jerry Pozniak

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As much as I hate to admit it I am very guilty of opening the doors to my closet and staring longingly at the vast collection of clothing I have acquired over the years, yet remain immobile uninspired by anything.  Coincidentally I do the same thing in front of full refrigerators so maybe we should chalk this one up to indecisiveness?

Anyways back to the wardrobe… I am confident that I am not alone in my inability to select the first, second, or third thing I see in my closet and always coming full circle with the dreaded statement of ” I have nothing to wear.”

This statement is in fact a blatant lie, because I have more than enough to wear… probably enough to keep me outfitted for weeks if not months in fact so what is my problem?

An article in today’s New York Times evaluates this common disposition through a new project that is catching on around the world. It goes by many names some of which include “shopping diet” and ” six items or less” and challenges people to significantly minimize their wardrobe to see if it makes a difference.

This challenge requires that individuals limit themselves to a six item wardrobe for 30 days. Yes, you read that correctly six items of your choice to be mixed and matched and washed and rewashed across the span of one month.

Many claim that nobody notices and while this may be true I would notice and that would bother me enough. That being said I could clearly never manage this challenge despite my creativity and originality when it comes to my wardrobe. Of course I have my favorite jeans or a favorite shirt that I wear more frequently than others, but not twice weekly??

If you are participating in this challenge, or have toned down your wardrobe volume a good dry cleaner is absolutely necessary so that you can maintain the original qualities of this pieces you hold so dearly.

Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park and Arthur Copeland Cleansers both operate with  a CO2 cleaning system so that your clothes float while being cleaned thus significantly decreasing the wear and tear on your pieces during cleaning.

So if you are braver than me and have accepted the challenge of 6 items or less, or perhaps just prefer the life of a minimalist give Cameo Cleaners or Arthur Copeland a call to handle all your cleaning needs, and extend the life of your wardrobe.

New York is hot, hot, hot today.

Not just regular NYC July hot; but “someone is blowing a blow dryer on me” hot.

So hot that the New York Times wrote a story about frying an egg on the sidewalk. No, you can’t fry an egg on the sidewalk, but you can sear tuna.

So what does this opressive heat have to do with keeping your clothes clean?

Perspiration. Sweat.

On days like yesterday and today your sweat can take a tremendous toll on your wardrobe. Wrinkles we can fix, odor we can remove; but sweat can discolor and ruin your clothes, and that we can’t fix.

Certain fabrics and dyes will react badly to sweat and actually discolor. Underarms, collars and the backs of garments are all areas that we have seen damaged by sweat.

Silk and certain cottons seem to be most affected. We have seen French blue shirts and red silk blouses rendered unwearable by sweat.

Usually the underarms are the first to go with an orange stain appearing, though it’s not a stain. It’s sweat causing the dye to fail.  Sweat can act like a mild bleach and discolor dye.

What to do?

Try to minimize your perspiration on your clothes and clean them as soon as possible. The longer your perspiration remains in contact with the garment the greater the damage that can be caused.

Just get those duds off and into Cameo Cleaners or Arthur Copeland right away; you have enough to sweat about with the heat. Let the staff of Cameo Cleaners do their magic and make sure your sweat doesn’t damage your wardrobe.

If one were to have entered Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park yesterday afternoon they would have been overwhelmed by the very dominant presence of tulle, sequins, taffeta, and feathers lining the racks at the store.

Why did it appear as if we were preparing ourselves for the prom? Well, because we were. As you know Cameo Cleaners is a collection site for The Operation Fairy Dust Program, so we have been up to our eyebrows in prom dresses as the generous donations continue to come in.

Late Wednesday evening we received a call from Operation Fairy Dust Director Megan Kerrigan asking us to pull dresses for a satellite event she was helping with Thursday evening at the Hospital for Special Surgery. The hospital, project sunshine, and Operation Fairy Dust all worked in conjunction to coordinate a special pre-prom evening for 20 young girls suffering from Lupus.

We were more than happy to remove the dresses from our storage facility to assist Megan in her continuous efforts to bring joy to area high school girls. Once the dresses arrived at Cameo they were sorted by size, so that it would not be a struggle to bring a variety of sizes as weight fluctuation is a very common side effect of lupus treatments and medicines.

After playing her own mental game of dress up, Megan left Cameo with close to 30 dresses for these girls to choose from later that evening. Although we were not at the event, we heard that it was a truly wonderful experience and that all 20 girls were outfitted for the prom thanks to the efforts of all organizations involved.

If you would like to donate to Operation Fairy Dust it’s not too late to give your dress a second dance! We will be collecting gowns here until April 10, so that they can be properly cleaned before the event on April 17 at Brooklyn Borough Hall.

It is hard not to notice the rips and tears in jackets, shirts, and especially jeans that are crowding the retail stores right now. It is a mother’s worst nightmare to see clothing pieces that are not intact, and exposing glimpses to various body parts of bare skin on purpose!

Gone are the days of patches to keep that beloved pair of jeans in tact after they have been loved so hard. Instead men and women alike are purchasing these pre-shredded garments without hesitation.

If you prefer to keep your clothes in tact, and last so you can love them forever you should opt for a dry cleaner that uses carbon dioxide technology like the ECO2 Cleanse system at Cameo Cleaners & Arthur Copeland.

Due to the physical properties of CO2 your clothes literally float as they are cleaned causing significantly less wear & tear to your garments. Since they are not thrown against the sides of a machine, but instead rinsed in CO2 the same substance that adds bubbles to your champagne.  This process greatly increases the lifetime of your wardrobe.

If you have caught on to the latest trend Cameo Cleaners & Arthur Copeland can also care for your torn and ripped garments in the same fashion for the ECO2 Cleanse process will not further rip or tear your pieces so that they maintain their original shape and condition.

For the best in dry cleaning NYC and best dry cleaning Long Island go to Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park or Arthur Copeland Cleaners.

Did you know that the first St. Patrick’s day parade actually took place in New York City and not Ireland?? That would make sense why there is such a cause for celebration all over the streets of Manhattan today as everyone old and young pays tribute to St. Patrick in every hue of green from moss, to apple, and my favorite emerald.

It wasn’t hard for all the fashionistas in the city to select a shade today, as green garments continue to roam the runway season after season. Many believe that this is not the easiest color to wear, but the vibrant shade is so alluring.

The problem with purchasing clothing in such bright colors as the shamrock clad people today, is that they tend to fade and no longer offer the same “wow” factor that they possessed when purchasing.

The ECO2 Cleanse process offered at Cameo Cleaners NYC and Arthur Copeland Long Island cleans so well that colors stay fresh and bright! This is because the ECO2 Cleanse process is chemical free so your clothing is not exposed to products that will damage the dyes. If you are looking for some more ways to help keep your clothing bright you should remember to:

• Follow Care Labels exactly, if it says ” wash cold” WASH COLD!
• Don’t store in bright light this will cause colors to fade
• Be careful with cosmetics, perfumes, and deodorants! Some will cause bright colors to become faded or discolored. Try to remember to apply all of these a few minutes before dressing.
  

I hope that everyone enjoys the rest of their St. Patrick’s day. Just make sure not to pull an Irish goodbye, your friends may not care for that too much…

Dry cleaning has been in the news for the last two weeks and it has not been favorable. The most common dry cleaning chemical, perchloroethylene (perc) has been labeled by the US EPA as a “likely human carcinogen” in a report published this week.

Another report links perc exposure to Parkinson’s disease just released by The Parkinson’s Institute and Clinical Center.

85% of all dry cleaning firms in the US still use this chemical to clean clothes, but a ban on perc machines that are 15 years or older will take effect in a few months in California. A statewide ban on machines that use perc takes effect in 2023.

My question is why haven’t other states enacted the same legislation? There are many alternatives to perc that can be used for cleaning clothes with very good results.

The US EPA has listed two methods of garment cleaning “safe”, CO2 dry cleaning and wet-cleaning.

The only problem with CO2 dry cleaning is that it is not widely used, but it can be. This price for CO2 dry cleaning machines have dropped and have become somewhat affordable.

The results from the newest versions of CO2 machines exceed the cleaning quality of perc. How many more studies have to be published before perc is banned everywhere?

CO2 dry cleaning and wet cleaning is available in NYC and Long Island at Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park and Arthur Copeland Cleansers. You have a choice.

There are two reasons people typically bring their clothing to the dry cleaner. The first being that they have made a mess of some kind that has rendered the piece not non wearable until fixed. The other is that the stress of everyday life tends to build up overtime and naturally so does the odor.

Have you ever had the experience of taking something to the cleaner, and they had not taken care of the odor but instead had covered it treated in a way that was simply masking the original odor with a newer fresher one?

What is also a very common malady of dry cleaning is bringing in a garment that requires the first type of cleaning mentioned, and then it leaving with a very distinct chemical odor. This has recently become an even bigger issue with the resurgence of Lady Gaga inspired women’s looks, and the younger male generations relying so heavily on suits.

Lucky for you, I have a solution! Yes, that’s right. One answer for two very stinky problems… ECO2 Cleanse. This chemical free dry cleaning method offered only at Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park leaves your clothing sparkling clean, and smelling like roses.

Well… actually that’s a lie because the ECO2 Cleanse process has absolutely no odor, since there are not lingering chemicals on the garments. This is especially beneficial, for those of you who love big broad shoulders , because shoulder pads are one of the biggest culprits for trapping malodorous dry cleaning fumes.

You are probably again wondering, how something that has no odor can completely remove the odor from a badly soiled garment, and again I have the answer for you. Due to the heat free environment of the Eco2 Cleanse process the odors will not be set in during the process and will instead be absorbed by the liquid carbon dioxide. This CO2 cleaning method removes odors better than any other cleaning method available.

Don’t believe me? Come see for yourself why Cameo Cleaners ECO2 Cleanse process is Simply Green. Simply Clean. Simply Better for you