21st Century Dry Cleaning Service Transformation

Author: Masashi Jurenki (Japan)

Masashi SHIMENOKI (Jurenki Masashi) Certified Fiber Product Quality Manager by the Japan Textile Management Association, full-time lecturer at the Fiber Product Care Research Society, consultant to the National Machinery and Material Dealers Association, author of books such as "Fiber Performance and Washing Accidents" and "Encyclopedia of Fibers"

21st Century Dry Cleaning Service Transformation

 
I am Masashi Jurenki.
My research focuses on end consumers of fiber textiles and the impact of fiber textile quality on dry cleaning. These research results are written by me and serialized in the quarterly "Pandora" published by myself. By the way, naming the publication "Pandora" is actually a form of black humor, originally intended to reveal the hidden flaws of superficially decorative fashion fabrics to society. Unfortunately, no one else has understood this except myself.
My books on fiber textiles and washing accidents have sold about 10,000 copies in Japan, and with the great assistance of Ms. Wang Shuyuan and Mr. Pan Wei, have also been translated and published in China (titled "Fiber Performance and Washing Accidents"). I express my deep gratitude to both. If possible, I also hope to get your help in translating and publishing an English version. Thank you all.
After the 1970s, against the backdrop of rapid economic growth, Japan's fashion fabrics and designs became extremely diverse and began to be widely used by world-class luxury brands.
I have served as an employee trainer for Japan's Giorgio Armani (GIORGIO ARMANI, JP) and as a consultant for Japan's Max Mara (Max Mar, JP). Through related personnel, I learned that it is estimated that over 50% of these brands are consumed in Japan. Today, Japan can be said to be one of the world's leading consumers of luxury brands.
Facing these rapid changes in new processing technologies and complex materials, I and knowledgeable people in Japan's laundry industry founded the Textile Maintenance Association Tokyo (TeMA) in 1988. This is a training organization composed of three main sections: basic courses, research courses, and special topic courses, each lasting one year.
In the basic courses, students learn the characteristics of various fiber materials and the structure of fiber textiles, as well as the effects caused by wearing, storage, and washing. The purpose of this course is not only to enrich knowledge but also to develop special service products based on this professional knowledge. In other words, with the increasing variety of fiber textiles made from multiple materials today, the laundry industry can no longer rely solely on simple washing services.
In the research courses, students learn testing methods for fiber textiles and analysis methods for washing-related fabric accidents, thereby developing certain judgment abilities to prevent fabric accidents in advance and provide appropriate advice and guidance to consumers.
There is no graduation from the special topic courses, so almost all students since TeMA's founding belong to this course. This course mainly organizes visits to fiber textile-related production factories, invites experts in the fiber field to give lectures, and sometimes asks students to report their personal experiences. Since its founding in 1988, over 1,300 people have completed the TeMA basic courses, receiving high praise from the clothing industry and consumer groups.
Before founding TeMA, our main training topics were washing theory and theories to promote sales and improve productivity. Due to major changes in the times, our industry needed to learn about fiber characteristics as well as dyeing and processing technologies.
There is a legend about the birth of the dry cleaning industry. CINET (International Fabric Care Committee) once described it as follows:
It is said that the dry cleaning method was invented by a French tailor named Mr. Jolly. The legend tells that Mr. Jolly once accidentally knocked over a paraffin lamp, spilling paraffin on a tablecloth. After washing this tablecloth, Mr. Jolly unexpectedly found that there were no stains or wrinkles on it. He inferred that paraffin oil could clean textiles. By removing local stains, dry cleaning was born. With his clever discovery, Mr. Jolly opened the world's first dry cleaning shop in 1825 on Saint Martin Street in Paris, named "Teinturerie Jolly Belin" (i.e., Jolly Belin Laundry).
According to the information I found, the first African American patent holder in the United States, Thomas Jennings, applied for a dry cleaning process patent in 1821 and opened a laundry in New York, achieving success. However, this fact is not widely known.
An important point about the above legend of Mr. Jolly is that stains attached to hydrophilic natural fibers—linen—were removed without any wrinkles, meaning the stains were removed without any risk of deformation to the product itself. It can be said that dry cleaning was born to meet the popularization of fashion that began almost at the same time.
Looking back at the history of fiber textiles and dry cleaning, the industrial revolution had already begun before dry cleaning appeared, and the fiber industry thus experienced rapid development. By the 20th century, it can be said that the fashion century had arrived, with mass production of fashion fabrics. Thanks to the contribution of the dry cleaning industry, fashion fabrics that once belonged only to aristocratic society could be repeatedly worn through washing, beginning to move toward popularization.
But an important point here is that before the 1970s, clothing materials were only hydrophilic natural materials. Hydrophilic materials, in principle, do not change in shape or color due to the influence of dry cleaning solvents. Therefore, laundries could profit by improving productivity and rationalization.
However, after entering the 1960s, chemical fibers such as polyester began to be mass-produced and occupied a large share as fiber materials after the 1970s.
Some may still remember that the American dry cleaning industry widely circulated the "Storm warning" in the early 1970s. The background for this warning was the popularization of wrinkle-free materials such as polyester fibers and neutral detergents that could wash textiles that should be dry cleaned at home.
As the warning states, with the lightening of clothing, technological innovations in home laundering, and the worsening global economic depression, the global dry cleaning industry has been in a downturn since 1990, continuing to this day.
On the other hand, after the 1990s, various processing technologies using chemical resins such as polyimide resin, elastic material processing technologies, pigment dyeing technologies, and others were developed. These new clothing materials often cause accidents in dry cleaning, leading to consumer distrust. I call them "difficult-to-clean fabrics." Please remember, most of these "difficult-to-clean fabrics" are oil-affinitive materials affected by dry cleaning. In the nearly 200-year history of the dry cleaning industry, these "difficult-to-clean fabrics" have only appeared for about 20 years. Without addressing these issues, the dry cleaning industry in the 21st century cannot prosper.

Below are some examples of "difficult-to-clean fabrics":
Polyester microfiber
This polyester microfiber only became widespread after the 1990s. Polyester is an oil-affinitive material and can only be dyed under high pressure and high temperature of 130°C. Microfibers require a large amount of disperse dye due to their huge surface area. If the dyeing process is not precise enough, the oil-affinitive disperse dye will dissolve in the dry cleaning solvent. For example: this purple jacket will turn red due to the dissolution of cyan disperse dye. This skirt developed new stains because oil-soluble stain removers used during washing caused dye dissolved from polyester to transfer onto the white cotton fibers.
Polyimide resin coating
Most people know that the polyimide resin coating on fabric surfaces will age. Polyimide resin undergoes hydrolysis due to moisture. Especially in high humidity summer regions like Japan and China, this resin mostly hydrolyzes after 2 to 3 years. When dry cleaning products that have undergone hydrolysis, the polyimide resin absorbs the dry cleaning solvent, causing peeling, damage, and other accidents. To reduce breathability, clothes are usually stored in plastic bags after dry cleaning, which also promotes hydrolysis. It is necessary to educate consumers about this knowledge.
Adhesion
Adhesive products are made by bonding two different fabrics with resin adhesives. These products also suffer from resin aging, making the adhesive resin easily dissolve in dry cleaning solvents. In this case, the dissolved resin re-bonds during drum drying, resembling a zombi (voodoo snake god).
Color pigment exhaust dyeing
This technology has become popular only in the last 4 to 5 years. Pigments differ from dyes in that they cannot dye fibers but can directly adhere to fiber surfaces. They have advantages such as bright colors and resistance to fading from sunlight, so they have long been used as printing materials. Recently, pigment exhaust dyeing technology was developed using adhesive resin to attach pigment particles to fibers, making it look like piece dyeing. This method is used for whole garment dyeing of white clothing to keep up with fast-changing market colors and reduce manufacturers' inventory. Also, fibers difficult to dye, such as hemp, can be successfully dyed with bright colors.
This is an example of pigment exhaust dyeing on pure hemp fabric, which faded due to dry cleaning. The faded pigment then stained other clothes.
In the basic TeMA course, I introduce these examples in 4-hour sessions, seven times in total, but the time is still far from enough. So I will not elaborate on these examples here.
Introducing these examples is to illustrate that for over 150 years since the invention of dry cleaning, only hydrophilic natural materials existed, but recently, oil-affinitive chemical materials and processing technologies have been increasing and will continue to increase. Oil-affinitive materials are easily damaged by dry cleaning.
In response to this change, TeMA member companies are trying special treatment methods for various products.
Recently, the low-price market called Fast Fashion, including Zara, GUP, H&M, UNIQLO, Forever 21, etc., has been expanding in the clothing industry. Similar to McDonald's situation, it is impossible to directly turn the laundry industry into textile professional care and charge high fees.
Because if the entire laundry industry tends to charge high fees, it will only further expand the demand for home laundering.
Here, it is necessary to separate from the traditional laundry industry and recreate the textile professional care industry, making it widely known to the public.
After separation, traditional bulk washing can pursue low cost through no ironing and no packaging. Compared to fast fashion, this could be called fast dry cleaning. However, this requires knowledge to identify difficult-to-clean fabrics. Because contracts with customers are needed, customers sign liability waiver agreements to provide low-cost services. Through this method, the popularization of laundry can be steadily promoted.
Of course, owners of ARMANI and CHANEL will not be satisfied with this kind of fast dry cleaning business. They need textile professional care services.
To create a textile professional care industry, it is necessary to learn knowledge about fibers, dyeing, design, etc., and also to make customers understand our advanced technology through advice, guidance, and consultation, proving that the fees charged are reasonable. Otherwise, it will be impossible to cope with the increasing difficult-to-clean fabrics in the future and ultimately lose customer trust.
If company costs increase and customer trust is lost, the laundry industry will collapse.
Kenji IGARASI, founder of the Japanese laundry industry, said:
"The reason I have devoted my life to developing dry cleaning technology is because the durability of textiles relates to human interests."
For the ecological and environmental protection culture of the 21st century, the dry cleaning industry must also be developed.
I am considering promoting the legalization of the textile professional care industry in Japan in the future. I think this is my life mission.
I hope that one day in the future, I can introduce it to everyone as a model of Japan.