What to Do with that Lemon in Your Closet!

Jonathan bought six new dress shirts from a reputable and established catalog and took them straight to his cleaners for laundering before ever wearing them. When he returned to pick them up, one of the shirts, a blue Oxford, had what looked like two big thumb imprints on the collar tips. He filed a claim for replacement costs for a new shirt.

Brenda gently washed the cotton cable knit sweater her sister had given her for her birthday. She was careful to follow the care label instructions, washing in a delicate cycle. While laying it on her counter to air dry, she was astounded to see some yarns unraveling and blamed it on her washing machine.

While it seems logical to blame the cleaning process in both cases, it is reasonable to consider another possibility: the defects in these garments were the result of improper construction by the manufacturer and are considered "closet lemons."

Modern day clothes manufacturers can clone tens of thousands of garments with near-perfect consistency in production runs, but the factories that produce clothes are not immune to the occasional production oversight or mistake that can cause a manufacturing defect that results in a "closet lemon." While not common, manufacturing duds are not unheard of either. They appear from time to time in the store racks and unbeknownst to the retailer or customer, make their way into our closets. But once we bring one home, how do we know for sure if it's a "closet lemon" and is there any redress?

Jonathan's shirt provides a "classic" example of a something called "glue seepage." Glue used to adhere layers of outer fabric to interfacing in the collars, cuffs, and button plackets of dress shirts can seep or leak if not properly applied or if untested to withstand routine cleaning. The glue in Jonathan's collar leaked or seeped into the collar tips. It was glue failure from an improperly constructed shirt that caused the purple marks on Jonathan's shirts and not from any mishandling in the cleaning process. The cleaners provided Jonathan with a letter explaining all this and Jonathan simply returned his "closet lemon" along with the letter to the catalog company for a no-questions-asked exchange.

The hole in Brenda's sweater was not from anything her washing machine did wrong, either. The problem started back in the factory while the sweater was being made. One yarn ended and a new yarn had to be tied to it to continue knitting the sweater. The yarn ends were not knotted tightly enough so the gentle agitation from the delicate cycle in Brenda's home machine was all it took to loosen the two ends of the yarn and pull them apart to unravel. The result? A "closet lemon" that needed to go back to the store for a simple credit or exchange.

Care labels are permanently affixed to all garments pursuant to the Federal Trade Commission's Care Label Rule and must offer directions for at least one safe cleaning method, such as "Machine wash delicate cycle air dry" or "Dry clean only." The care label must not only provide safe cleaning for the garment but must also extend to all components, including dyes, laminates (glues), and even decorative trims like buttons, beads and sequins. However, with more clothing manufactured offshore, foreign factories are not consistently held to the same standards as domestic factories. Garments are sometimes made in one location and then shipped to another location for the application of trims and embellishments. The result is that care labels affixed to garments in the first factory may not apply to trims attached in the next factory.

Melanie found this out when the batik blouse she bought on a cruise to Tahiti came back from the cleaners minus all the pretty sequins along with massive failure of the beads. The dry cleaner explained that they followed the care label directions and were equally surprised when the sequins melted and the beads chipped and cracked but the outcome was beyond their control. Melanie's "closet lemon" would have been a total loss because she was not planning another cruise to Tahiti again any time soon so returning the blouse to the place of purchase was out of the question. But her mother suggested they select new sequins and beads from a local fabric and notions shop to replace the original trims. The happy ending here is that the packages of sequins and beads stated "machine wash and dry clean safe" so Melanie was assured the replacement trim would service her blouse better than the original. As a bonus, Melanie was able to customize her batik blouse with the trim of her own choice.

Dyes as well as trims need to be tested at the manufacturing level for compatibility with care label directions. Many dresses and tropical shirts are constructed these days from contrasting panels sewn together. White and black or bright red and white make for bold fashion statements, to be true, but they also provide for some dicey challenges when it comes time for care. Anyone who has ever sorted laundry at home knows mixing darks and whites in the same load is a definite no-no! So what do you do when these contrasting colors are actually sewn together into a single garment?

Even the most skilled attempts at cleaning these "patriotic" items, so named for the contrasting stripes on the American flag, can result in a tie-dyed mess if the dyes were not made colorfast at a crucial step along the manufacturing chain. As with most manufacturing slip-ups, dye bleeding of unstable or fugitive dyes typically appears upon the first washing or cleaning. "Closet lemons" suffering from bleeding of non-colorfast dyes must be returned to the retailer.

You can be fairly assured you have a "closet lemon" if the damage to your clothing happened with the garment's first cleaning, as long as due diligence was observed in its care. Document how you washed it at home or ask your cleaners to provide a letter certifying their care method and take that with the garment back to the retailer for credit or exchange. And don't be shy! This information is valuable for the retailer to pass along to the manufacturers to help them identify the source of the problem and implement the necessary improvements to prevent future incidents.

If reaching the retailer is not an option because the garment was a gift or the retailer has gone out of business, you can always contact the manufacturer directly. Sewn into every garment is a permanent tag with a five-digit number following the letters "RN." The Federal Trade Commission's website has set up a directory to help consumers obtain contact information for clothing manufacturers and importers simply by entering the RN number in the designated space.

The bottom line is, you do not have to live with a "closet lemon."