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Ironing Is Wrong
I've often been told I'm a master of the obvious, and in that role I'm here to tell you that the act of ironing clothing has got to be among the most pointless and just plain wrong activities available to modern humans. There is something very sick and wrong with a culture that requires clothes to be free of wrinkles, and places such a premium on this that it requires hours and hours of horrifyingly tedious work in order to ensure that no wrinkle sees the inside of any workplace with a "business casual" or "business" dress-code. What, praytell, is so awful about a few wrinkles? Ironing is so pointless it makes me want to scream!
Perhaps I will develop a very short but scathing explanation for why I think anyone who notices or cares about wrinkles is an asinine moron. Then, I will wear very wrinkled clothes—I will never lift an iron again. When anyone comments on how wrinkled or rumpled I look, I will lay into them with my short but scathing explanation of why I think they are an asinine moron. Don't you think this would be a great way to win friends and influence people?
Posted June 9, 2004 05:16 AM | 1L summer life generally
Absolutely! It will work especially well with senior partners and clients, I bet!
Posted by: Denise at June 9, 2004 05:20 AM
Some time ago a genius of sorts found that putting a hung shirt in a steam-filled room tended to iron out the wrinkles... not as perfectly, without a doubt, but will the public defender's office really care (or notice for that matter.) Get a batch process going.... if you start at 7pm and let the hot water pour and steam accumulate, by the end of the sopranos you are set to go for the rest of the week. Just IMHO
Posted by: Rshah at June 9, 2004 07:04 AM
I can't remember the last time I picked up an iron. The trick is to hang your clothes up in the closet immediately after they come out of the dryer. For the little wrinkles you can just hang them up while you are taking a shower.
Posted by: DG at June 9, 2004 07:47 AM
Ironing sucks. But LL Bean makes a shirt that comes out of the dryer looking perfectly pressed, creases and all. Well worth the money, those shirts.
Posted by: scm at June 9, 2004 08:24 AM
There are these funny little establishments all over the city that I like to call...dry cleaners. Most launder and press men's shirts for like $2 a pop. If you have five shirts, and wear each twice before you dry clean, it will cost you $10 every two weeks. That's like three lattes at Starbucks. Well worth the aggravation and time saved.
Posted by: M at June 9, 2004 09:03 AM
As far as pants go, synthetic fibers are your best friend. I have a pair of synthetic Dockers slacks that I've owned for over a year, and still come out of the drier looking perfectly creased and professionally ironed. Hah!
Posted by: falconred at June 9, 2004 10:42 AM
I'd invest in a cheap travel steamer. They usually work quite well, especially if you take a bit of time with it. That or take your shirts to a laundry - which, admittedly, is my habit. I haven't ironed in about two years.
Posted by: Schteino at June 9, 2004 05:52 PM
The wrinkle-less dress shirts are a tad more expensive than the alternative, but it's so damn much easier. They're a little hotter in the summer but slaving over a steaming iron is no picnic, either. If I had more than 5 work appropriate shirts I'd probably take them to the cleaners.
Posted by: Steve at June 9, 2004 09:44 PM
Jumpin' jehosephat! Who would've guessed there could be so many opinions on ironing (and steaming, dry cleaning, wrinkle-free shirts, etc.). I broke down and bought a few "wrinkle-free" shirts from a Brooks Brothers outlet a couple of weeks ago, and as some of you said, they sort of work -- definitely better than the normal type of shirt. As for the rest, I have only a tiny washer/dryer that tends to wad clothes up into tight little balls, meaning that even when I remove stuff from the dryer immediately, it's pretty badly wrinkled. So yeah, the dry cleaner is maybe going to be my friend this summer.
Yet the larger point remains: What kind of world is this where wrinkles matter? Despite Anthony's attempt to wax poetic on the zen joy of ironing and how "the clothes make the man," etc., I still maintain that offices or professions or people who care about wrinkles care far too much about things that matter far too little. How superficial must we be?
Posted by: ambimb at June 10, 2004 05:28 AM
If ironing is wrong, I don't want to be right. I just love it. Smoothing out all the wrinkly bits, bringing order to chaos. So satisfying. Allegorical, even. If this law thing doesn't work out, perhaps I shall open a laundry service.
Posted by: MattS at June 10, 2004 11:08 AM
