We’ve all been there: You pull your favorite sweater or pair of pants out of the dryer, go to fold it, only to realize—gasp!—you’ve gone and shrunken it.
That’s precisely what happened to this writer when—on a recent trip back home to visit my parents—my beloved Saint Laurent silk shirt got tangled up with their laundry pile, only to be thrown into the tumble-dryer—a big no-no, as it was specifically labeled dry clean only. I realized the horror and knew the damage was done, especially when I tried putting it on and could barely button it up.
There is truly nothing more devastating than shrinking a closet favorite. That perfectly-slouchy button-up or perfectly-cozy chunky knit? Now, it suddenly has a vacuum-sealed fit—or the sleeves end at your elbows. But just when you think all hope is lost, fear not: You may actually be able to un-shrink it.
At least, that’s what the professional laundry expert Zachary Pozniak told us when we reached out for his advice. As the co-owner of the luxury dry cleaning business Jeeves in New York, he’s solved all sorts of wardrobe dilemmas—so we knew he was the right person to call when pondering whether or not clothes can actually be un-shrunken.
Read on for his tips and tricks on how he would best unshrink your clothes. (And, if for some reason you’re looking to shrink your clothes, we have a guide for that, too.)
Do not try this at home
If you realize you’ve shrunk a piece, don’t panic and start immediately and haphazardly stretching it out. Seek professional help first. “We have rinse products known as ‘silk sheen,’ which can help quite a bit, but I think at-home methods may cause more harm than good,” says Pozniak. If you want to salvage a beloved wardrobe staple, don’t start by making it worse: Put the item down, and bring it to someone who knows what they’re doing.
Consider the material
The first thing to evaluate in the process of unshrinking an item is to find out what it’s made from. “We’d first check the material and amount of shrinkage,” says Pozniak. Some materials will be easier to stretch back to normal than others. “For example, an inch or two on cotton should be salvageable, but major shrinkage of an animal fiber like wool is not correctable,” says Pozniak. “Most animal fibers, minus silk, can be a problem, because of the barbs or scales.” A standard cotton top or a silk dress is easily savable—but a wool sweater will be somewhat trickier.
Gently stretch out the garment
Once you know what you’re dealing with, it’s time to get unshrinking—by gently and strategically stretching a garment back to its original size. “Minor shrinkage can be sorted out with steaming and stretching,” says Pozniak. How to do so? “Pump a lot of steam into a garment, and then stretching on a table, and using a bit of weight to keep it at size. Otherwise, keeping it on a hanger and stretching with your hands is fine.” However, do not excessively pull and tug: You don’t want to end up with the fashion equivalent of a long spaghetti noodle.
Form it back into shape
Once the garment has been elongated, you’ll want to form it into shape—meaning, shaping and forming it back into its original silhouette. “We’d use a combination of fabric conditioners, steaming, and blocking to get it back into shape,” says Pozniak. Wools will be the trickiest in this department. “Wool would go through a dry cleaning process with conditioning products to help protect, lubricate the fibers, and add some of that natural lanolin back in,” he says. “Blocking on a sweater board goes a long way too with the help of pins to keep shape.”
