NYC's Best Dry Cleaners
Meurice Garment Care
Meurice Garment Care has one of the most advanced cleaning plants in New York. Second-generation owner Wayne Edelman has run the 60-year-old downtown shop and its more recent expansions for about 20 years now. His team of cleaners works out of a 15,000-square-foot facility in the Bronx, where each act of stain removal is approached as if it’s a science experiment. The company’s success has earned it some seriously high-pedigree jobs—for instance, cleaning gowns owned by Princess Diana and works of art for Christie’s. In the past few years Meurice Garment Care has launched a mail-in tie cleaning service for its New York clientele. (Just create an account online, mail in your ties, and wait for the return package.) Services range from a $7 standard men’s dress-shirt cleaning to an $880 vintage bridal gown restoration.
Meurice Garment Care: 31 University Place, 212.475.2778; 245 East 57th Street, 212.759.9057
Peter Elliot
It turns out that Upper East Side retailer Peter Elliot does more than supply the neighborhood with well-curated luxury goods; he’s also tackled the cleaning and alterations markets. The service is kept very discreet (the phone number is available only to loyal confidantes and hotel managers), but it is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Elliot’s team can alter or clean a shirt, tie, sweater, or sport coat in as quickly as two to three hours—or lend you a garment if you need one. Elliot says he started the service for loyal clients in town on business whose luggage has been lost or who have last-minute events.
Direct inquiries to blue@peterelliot.com
Madame Paulette
The 53-year-old Madame Paulette cleaning company was founded by current president John Mahdessian’s great uncle to help his wife—a French courtier named Madame Paulette—find expert care for her couture gowns. Naturally, Madame Paulette is heralded for cleaning and restoring intricate wedding, runway, and other couture gowns, in addition to its extensive work in museum collectibles, including restoring Winston Churchill’s garments. The team will travel for big jobs, such as a recent trip to Alabama to salvage $750,000 worth of velvet drapery. At the end of the day, Mahdessian says, “people come to us because we are like having an insurance policy—it’s always consistent.”
Madame Paulette: 1255 2nd Avenue, 212.838.6827
Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park
Founded in 1956 and still operating at its original Third Avenue location, Cameo’s signature service is eco-friendly CO2 dry cleaning. When they’re not keeping the Metropolitan Opera’s wardrobe spotless, the Cameo team is washing and dry-cleaning by hand, tailoring, or restoring residential upholstery that’s been damaged in, say, a fire or a flood. Cameo will also clean and store your off-season wardrobe to prevent stains and moth damage when it’s not in use; delicate fabrics such as fur, leather, and suede can be placed in cold storage for greater protection. Free pickup and delivery in Manhattan.
Cameo Cleaners of Gramercy Park: 284 3rd Avenue, 212.677.3949
Jeeves
About a year after opening its first store, near Buckingham Palace in 1969, Jeeves received requests to open facilities in Hong Kong, Istanbul, Jakarta, and New York. All of the outlets continue to do quite well. Jeeves New York operates out of a pristine shop on the Upper East Side and is run by Jerry Pozniak, whose dry-cleaning portfolio reveals 26 years of experience. Under Pozniak’s leadership, Jeeves New York started using a liquid carbon-dioxide method that is gentler, nontoxic, and eco-friendly. (Past jobs have included two Balenciaga gowns for a retrospective at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.) Though every Jeeves employee undergoes extensive training before beginning work, Pozniak handles the most delicate jobs himself. But don’t worry if he doesn’t personally clean your suits, as every article goes through at least seven cleaning stages before they’re considered suitable for inspection.
Jeeves: 39 East 65th Street, 212.570.9130
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