How Theatres Manage Costume Laundry
The theatre, and the arts in general, whether it is on stage or screen, makes use of costumes quite regularly. Whether they be extravagant royal gowns in period pieces, uniforms, regular street where and literally anything you can think of.
So how exactly do they manage to clean these clothes properly without ruining them? And having them fresh and ready to use again?
In this blog, we will be addressing key points, and additional information worth considering when it comes to explaining how theatres manage costume laundry.
As a renowned and established service in personal and laundry services, we are extremely proud to offer a range of services to make your life easier. Whether you’re struggling to find the time, or suffering from physical issues, our services are here to make your life easier.
We provide laundry services, ironing services and dry cleaning, and more. Whether it’s a delicate piece of clothing or your sweaty gym gear, or even if you have commercial laundry needs, we have all the right solutions to clean your items in the best way for them.
How do theatres normally handle laundry?
If theatres aren’t using a laundry service to clean their costumes, they are more than likely cleaning their costumes in-house. This means they can have dedicated cleaning staff, in addition to their own washers and dryers.
The dedicated staff would normally arrange clothes to be cleaned based on fabrics, pre-treatment needs etc.
The benefit of an in-house system is that costumes can be cleaned immediately and ready for the next matinée or evening show, even if it is the next day! However, in-house cleaning is only really accessible to larger, established theatre companies with their own space.
There are many productions that don’t ‘belong’ to a theatre, but theatres are used as a space to host their performances. So how do productions like these, or touring theatre companies, manage their laundry?
How theatres manage costume laundry
Theatre productions can involve a multitude of costumes of all sizes and materials. Some of which require an extremely specific kind of clean. For some theatre productions, especially those that are well funded and have an in-house team at their own theatre, the process of cleaning clothes has the potential to be done in-house.
But an easier, and possibly cheaper method, whether you have your own in-house team or not, is by using a laundry service. A laundry service has the expertise, equipment, and experience in handling a variety of clothing of various materials, and various levels of sensitivity.
Theatre productions have a unique issue in which there are multiple performances over consecutive days. This means clothes should be cleaned regularly to ensure they aren’t dirty or smelly upon performance days.
The same goes for touring theatre companies. It can be difficult to find a place to clean costumes easily with no worries of how they may turn out. Especially if you are travelling to different cities to perform multiple times a week!
This is why using a laundry service like Love2Laundry is a major benefit to theatres and their productions. Aside from our experience in cleaning clothes right, we have multiple units across the country to help us deliver our expertise as quickly as possible, wherever needed.
Do costumes require special cleaning methods?
This depends on the costumes. Theatre productions can cover a variety of topics, whether it’s a telling of a Shakespearean classic, with garments relevant to the time, or a modern play with regular clothes. Theatre and film productions deal with clothing from the totally abstract, to historically accurate clothing, to the kind of clothes you are wearing right now.
With this in mind, some of these costumes may require special cleaning methods, whilst others would only require a regular wash. In very special cases, neither a regular washing machine nor a laundry service can safely clean some of these clothes, they may require a special hand-cleaning service.
If you have a theatre performance in the works and don’t know if you need to use a laundry service, you should start enquiring if any of the following applies to your costumes…
- They have intricate embellishments and attachments that are delicate.
- You require a quick turnaround for your costumes.
- The costumes are made from delicate fabrics.
- You don’t have the time, capacity, or facilities to clean these items yourself.
What happens if a laundry service ruins my items?
A laundry service is meticulous in nature and ensures to the best of their ability that your items are cleaned with no damages. However, whether it is due to mechanical faults, or circumstances outside their control, laundry services have their own stipulations regarding any clothes they may have ruined.
This usually follows a period of re-tracing their steps to find out if there was a mistake on their part. Once established, they can enact their stipulations if their customer is right in their complaint.
How to easily book a laundry service
Love2Laundry’s signature laundry service is a lifesaver for our users, whether it is for personal or commercial use. Our process is extremely simple and can be explained in four steps.
- Head to our website or app, and place your order. Your order includes a date and time you would like us to collect your items.
- We collect your items at the designated time.
- We clean your items, and can also dry and iron them, depending on the service you opt for.
- We return your items to you. Orders are always aimed to be delivered within 24 hours.
Do laundry services also iron and prepare clothes?
At Love2Laundry, we also offer services related to ironing clothes. You can begin the process in the exact same way as our laundry services. Simply start by clicking this link.
What is the benefit of using a laundry service?
One of the best ways to clean clothes is by using a mobile laundry service such as Love2Laundry. Here are some of the many benefits you can experience by using a recognised service like ours…
- Your clothes/items are organised, we aim to clean your items in the right way, that means taking the stress of organising washes out of your hands!
- Our service allows for you to choose when your laundry is collected by us, and where it can be returned, saving you the hassle of a trip. This can be extremely helpful for busy working professionals, for example.
- Our expert staff ensure that your clothes are cleaned accordingly, this means certain fabrics get the treatment they need!
- Our industrial grade washing machines and cleaning equipment ensures the best possible wash.
Clean your costumes easily
At Love2Laundry, we believe in the valuable services laundrettes and ironing, and cleaning services can offer, that’s why we dedicate our service to making your clothes clean, long-lasting, fresh and uncreased.
There are plenty of great hacks online that will make it possible to treat certain items that need dry cleaning, washing, or ironing. But without the professional products, services, and tools offered by a laundrette or ironing service, it may be difficult to consistently get the results you are supposed to have.
We are proud that we offer competitively priced services for you to achieve a perfect finish for your items for an affordable cost and a fraction of the time.
In this blog, we hope to have shown you vital information to help you understand how theatres manage costume laundry. Want to know how we can help you today? You can see our full price list or contact our friendly team to find out more about our services.
For further cleaning facts, our blog has a diverse selection of topics related to laundry and ironing.
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0203 600 0296
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