Storing velvet between seasons, and getting creases out of a garment that arrived folded

Velvet has one enemy and it is pressure held for a long time. That makes storage the part of owning velvet where most of the damage happens, quietly, over a summer, under a stack of coats. It also explains why a velvet dress arrives from a supplier looking far worse than it will look two days later. Both problems have the same fix and it is not an iron.

Hang it, with one exception

Folding velvet puts the pile under the garment's own weight along a line, and leaves it there for however long the garment is put away. Hang everything you can, and hang it with space around it.

Use a broad or padded hanger. Velvet is heavy for its bulk, a long piece especially so, and a wire hanger concentrates all of that weight into two points at the shoulder seam. The dent it leaves there is considerably harder to fix than a crease in the body, because it is a distortion of the seam rather than of the pile. A long velvet piece with a lace hem wants the hem clear of the floor as well, because dust works into lace and does not brush out.

The exception is a heavy knit velvet long enough to drag, where a season on a hanger stretches the shoulders. For those, roll rather than fold, loosely, around a tube of acid free tissue, and store it flat with nothing on top of it.

What to store it in

A breathable cotton garment bag. Not the polythene bag a dry cleaner hands you, which traps moisture against the fabric and can yellow pale trims over a few years.

Never a vacuum bag. Compression is the single thing velvet does not recover from, and a vacuum bag is a machine for applying even compression for six months. It will come out looking like it was sat on by the whole family.

Give it air on both sides. A velvet dress wedged between two wool coats comes out with the pile pressed flat exactly where the coats touched it, in two vertical bands, which is a particularly annoying shape to steam out.

Dark, dry, and clean before it goes away

Black fades in light, and on a pile fabric it fades unevenly because the fibre tips weather first. Store it in a closed wardrobe rather than on an open rail near a window.

Clothes moths eat protein fibres, which means wool and silk, and they have no interest in polyester as food. They will still chew through a synthetic to reach something they do want, and what attracts them in the first place is body oil, sweat and food traces. Wash or at least air anything before it goes away for a season. A detachable collar comes off and gets washed separately, which is one of the quiet advantages of a dress with a removable collar.

Damp is the other half of the problem. A loft or a garage swings between temperatures, and a velvet backing that has taken up moisture dries slowly and can mark. Anywhere inside the house beats any outbuilding.

Why your garment arrived folded

Nearly everything shipped from a supplier warehouse travels folded flat in a polythene bag, because that is what fits the postage band the shipping price was calculated on. A garment crossing an ocean has been folded and underneath a stack for the entire journey, which is one to three weeks of steady, even pressure.

That is not damage, and it is not a reason to open a problem report. It is a reason to give the garment 24 to 48 hours on a hanger before you judge it. Gravity takes most of it out on its own, and the difference between hour one and hour thirty is dramatic.

The sleeves take the longest, because a gathered or built up sleeve has volume that was flattened rather than a flat surface that was creased. On something like a balloon sleeve gathered at the wrist, expect the body to recover first and the sleeves to need help.

Getting the fold line out

Hang it first, overnight at minimum. Then steam, from the inside of the garment where you can reach it, with the head 10cm to 15cm off the fabric and moving steadily. Never let the plate touch the pile.

While the area is still warm and slightly damp, brush the pile in one direction with a soft bristle clothes brush. The steam relaxes the fibres and the brush decides which way they end up pointing. Doing one without the other gets you about half the result.

Then let it dry hanging before you put it on. Dressing in damp velvet sets the pile flat again under your own weight, which is the most common way people undo a successful steaming.

When it will not come out

A polyester velvet that has been hard folded under compression for months can keep a faint line permanently, because the fibre softened in warehouse heat and set in the new shape. Repeated light steaming over a few days improves it. One aggressive session does not, and risks a water mark on the backing.

If a crease is still visible after three goes, it is set, and the honest answer is that it is set. Where it sits decides whether that matters. A line along a seam or close to a hem disappears in wear within an hour. A line straight across the front of a skirt panel does not, and never will.

Pressing from the reverse on a needle board is the last resort. It works, and the first garment you try it on should not be one you care about.

Questions people actually ask

Why did my velvet dress arrive folded?

Nearly everything shipped from a supplier warehouse travels folded in a polythene bag, because that is what fits the postage band. Hang it for 24 to 48 hours before judging it, as most of the creasing drops out under its own weight.

Can you vacuum pack velvet?

No. Compression is the one thing velvet does not recover from, and a vacuum bag applies it evenly for months on end. Use a breathable cotton garment bag on a broad hanger, with air on both sides of the garment.

How do you store velvet long term?

Hanging, on a broad or padded hanger, in a breathable cotton bag, in a dark dry wardrobe, cleaned first, with nothing pressed against it. Not in a polythene dry cleaner bag, not in a loft or garage, and not folded under other clothes.