You joke but my dad once fell face first into a bonfire and blistered most of his face. When the skin grew back his dermatologist told him that a lot of people would kill for a skin treatment as good as what he wound up with. He was almost entirely blemish and wrinkle free when he healed.
You could probably manage the same with enough hot steam from an iron but it may take a bit longer.
Fuck yes it is. I think I’ve ironed more this century than my Boomer mother. And none of it was out of necessity.
After working as a farm hand one summer, it was like a switch flipped in my head and I really started to like button-ups and the like. Probably something along the lines of “this clothing is completely different from my work clothing and doesn’t have animal shit on it”.
No-iron shirts and slacks are still the way to go but, getting those wrinkles that escape is just so satisfying.
Hopefully no weddings or funerals coming up. Then again, if you’re American, I’ve seen people show up to a wedding in shorts and a baseball cap. No ironing required.
The most recent funeral I attended, only the deceased’s brother wore a suit, the rest of the family wore basically everyday clothes, as did 99% of the attendants. I left my suit jacket in the car because I felt overdressed.
Just across (south) of the bay from you judging by your name: I was at a funeral recently, not many people wore suits. Of course, nobody wore shorts or anything, but not too many formal suits.
The deceased wasn’t the type that would want anyone to put on their Sunday best just for him, so it made sense. But when I mentioned it to my father, he commented that no one really wears suits to funerals anymore, or even weddings.
Casual clothes killed most ironing but ain’t nobody showing up in a wrinkled suit.
Unless you’re upper management or going to a wedding/funeral/formal event, why would you even wear a suit? In the last decade I’ve worn my suit 3 or 4 times in the last decade, and they were all weddings or funerals.
Yeah I should have put an edit in. I didn’t know this was going to blow up like this. I don’t wear a suit or formal clothes more than about once a year, for the events of friends and families. I’m not trying to say it’s an every day thing.
Give it a try. Hit up a thrift store and get some great tacky suits from the 70s and 80s, if you can find em. It’s a bit of fun to wear them when it’s not necessary or expected. I probably wouldn’t wear a really nice wedding/funeral suit in such cases because I spill fucking everything and would become destitute from the dry cleaning bills.
Now, if it were a social expectation/requirement, it would suck and not be fun. But, as a choice that one can make, it’s great sometimes.
I have a tailored suit in my closet, but there’s no way in fuck I’m showing up to work in that suit or any other suit.
For one, I work from home and I want to actually be comfortable. For two, if I was going into the office, I would ruin it at some point crawling under desks and behind racks and shit.
On the rare occasion I have to wear a dress shirt for work, I’m making sure it’s as wrinkled as possible. I wouldn’t want to be mistaken for one of the execs, it gives the impression that you don’t work hard. I think it’ll continue bubbling up in the same way not wearing a tie and not having curtails did.
I still have to put up with it a little bit but I made it my life’s mission to avoid it as much as possible whilst still being part of mainstream society. I’m so glad that this meme indicates that FINALLY other people are not only not doing it but also denouncing it as much as I have. I’ve had to hold back on bitching about how stupid and irritating it is because it was always something everyone else seemed to have viewed as a mundane, at worst neutral and at best good aspect of everyday life that wasn’t that hard and gave you nice looking clothes. You can’t complain at length about something that is considered in those terms because you just come off as a boring crank. But now finally, if only for a moment I can still feel normal whilst embracing my abiding hatred of the pointless and time wasting practice.
FUCK ironing, and especially fuck whatever dipshit came up with it. Before this was invented wrinkled clothes would have to have been but a fact of life. I’m near certain whoever did come up with this was someone who knew they personally would never have had to do it. For centuries it would have been palmed off on the usual people that had to carry out the shitwork and now, in modern times, we didn’t jettison the practice along with the sexism and classism that forced some to have to do it and not others, we just made it so that now we all have to do it. It delivers no benefit, it’s so fucking stupid aaagghh! Because of the conventions and expectations that formed around it, I’m unfortunately forced to participate in it despite my misgivings, even if only on the bare minimum of occasions. If I have a job interview, or I’m going to a fancy event I have play in to this ridiculous farce that is noticeable only from its absence and help perpetuate it. I sincerely hope this generation really has managed to abolish it and it’s only the remnants of my own upbringing and peers that mean I still have to occasionally do it because the world will be objectively better off if no one ever does this again.
But I do like ironing. I do it so infrequently, I associate it with getting all fancied up to go out to a special event.
And everything about it is so relaxing… The sound of the water in the iron, the hiss of steam. That clean smell, rising with the hot steam. You’re forced to slow down and pay attention, if you want to get it right.
Whether you’re alone or sharing the moment with company, it’s a recipe for encoding a core memory, deep in there, pinned in place by multiple senses.
I came here to say this. I go into zen mode when ironing my clothes because I only have to do it when I’m either celebrating or doing something very important to me.
All these other things to worry about, but right now, my only enemy is this wrinkle next to the collar.
I think what this meme misses is, largely, clothes in the west are now designed to look as if they have been ironed if hung up properly to dry
This is absolutely not a pet peeve of mine that we didn’t just stop ironing due to the lack of social convention (brought on by less time in working people’s lives and less domestic labour done in the home by women) but by new technology in the area of clothing
I like ironing my clothes though and if you show up to a formal family event with a shirt that looks like you rolled around in it, then I will offer to iron for you before the next time.
As a chubby middle aged sales guy who remembers when we used to wear suits, I miss them because a suit and tie is about the best thing you can wear as a chubby guy to look good.
Which is either a boomer talking about zoomers because they’re too young to own irons vs anything of higher priority or some random person confessed to not ironing and thinks everyone does
I don’t use the dryer except for towels, and I’m generally pretty good about taking them out when they’re done washing- can definitely tell when they’ve sat there a while!
Take your clothes out of the washer immediately, untangle them if necessary, and put them in the dryer. Don’t just dump all the clothes from washer to dryer. Remove the clothes from the dryer as soon as it’s done while they’re still warm. Hang shirts on hangers and put away the pants. Lastly, only buy new shirts and pants that are iron-free.
Honestly most the advice I’m seeing is basically an answer to “how to avoid clothes looking absurdly crinkled” but nothing gets clothes as crinkle-free as an iron. Most people are just content with some crinkles.
Ironing is really only required for “dress up” clothing, casual cotton clothing is generally presentable if you wash, machine dry and fold/hang while still warm. You will have a crease and it will resolve itself in a few hours. Polyester blends also come in several utility blends like the stain free, moisture dispersing and wrinkle resistant. I’m realizing reading this thread that some people iron all of their clothing, but in my home we typically only iron our formal occasion attire (rare).
Yeah… I’m pretty sure you need an iron for those. A decent iron can probably do everything that a hand steamer can so, might as well just go with a nice iron.
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