How to Make Clothes Look New Again

Before you replace a tired wardrobe, it is worth knowing that most of what makes clothes look old is fixable, and the fixes that work are not the ones that circulate online. Tailoring and proper washing do almost all of the work. Pantry hacks do very little, and a few of them cause damage.

The one that makes the biggest difference: tailoring

Nothing else on this page comes close. A garment that fits reads as expensive; a garment that does not reads as borrowed, regardless of what it cost.

Alterations typically run from about $10 to $100 depending on the work. The cheap, routine jobs are the ones worth doing: hemming trousers, shortening sleeves, taking in a waist or side seams, and replacing faded or mismatched buttons with new ones. Changing the line of a garment is also possible — narrowing straight-leg jeans, for instance — and costs more but transforms the piece.

What to avoid paying for: letting anything out when there is no seam allowance left, and narrowing the shoulders on a structured jacket. Shoulders are the measurement to get right at the point of purchase, because they are the one a tailor cannot fix cheaply.

Restyle before you replace

Clothes can usually be worn more ways than the original seams suggest. A dress that never gets worn can go over slim trousers with a belt and become something else entirely. A long dress can become a skirt. None of this costs anything, and it is the fastest way to find out whether you dislike a garment or just dislike one way of wearing it.

Dye, for colour that has genuinely gone

When a dark garment has faded past recovery, dye works, and it is the only thing on this list that truly restores colour. Use a proper fabric dye rated for the fibre — it works well on cotton and linen, poorly on polyester and most synthetics. Tie-dyeing is a reasonable option if you would rather add a pattern than match the original shade.

Washing and finishing

• Wash dark colours inside out, cold, on a shorter cycle. Most visible fading is surface abrasion from agitation and heat, not pigment loss.
• Use less detergent than you think. Detergent residue is a genuine cause of dull, stiff fabric, and the usual reason clothes look lackluster is too much soap rather than too little.
• Skip the dryer where you can. Heat is what destroys elastic, shrinks cotton and pills knits. Air drying extends the life of a garment more than any additive.
• Shave pilling off knits. A fabric shaver or a sweater comb takes minutes and makes an old jumper look years younger. This is the single most underrated fix here.
• Starch or press for structure. Starch binds fibres and restores crispness to shirts and cottons, and ironing alone accounts for much of what people mean by “looks new.”
• Absorb grease before you wash it. Cornstarch or talc on a fresh grease mark, left a few minutes and brushed off, lifts a surprising amount. Repeat before washing rather than after, because heat sets oil.

Care by fabric, which is where most damage happens

Washing everything the same way is the main reason clothes age badly.

• Wool and cashmere: cold, wool cycle or hand wash, never the dryer. Dry flat, not hung, or the weight of the water pulls it out of shape. A sweater comb takes off pilling.
• Cotton: durable but shrinks with heat. Cold wash, low or no dryer heat, and it will hold its size for years.
• Denim: wash rarely, cold, inside out. Most of what people call fading is abrasion from the drum.
• Linen: expects to crease; press damp. Fighting the texture is a losing battle.
• Silk: cool hand wash or dry clean, and keep it away from deodorant and perfume, which stain it permanently.
• Synthetics: low heat. Polyester and elastane are plastics, and heat is what kills the stretch in anything with elastane in it.

One rule covers most of it: heat is the enemy. Lower temperatures in the wash and the dryer will add years to almost everything you own.

Repair or replace

Worth fixing: a failed zip or lining in good outerwear, missing buttons, a dropped hem, a seam that has opened, pilling, and anything that only needs taking in. These are cheap relative to the garment.

Not worth fixing: fabric that has gone thin or pinholed, set-in underarm staining, a garment that has lost its shape through heat damage, and anything needing to be let out when the seam allowance is gone. At that point you are paying to postpone a decision.

The deciding question is whether the fabric is still sound. Hardware and stitching are replaceable; worn-out cloth is not.

Then there is where the clothes come from

Restoration is most worthwhile on garments that were well made to begin with, which is the argument for buying secondhand: older clothing is often built from better material than a comparable new item at the same price. Our guide to how to thrift shop for vintage clothes covers how to judge construction and date a garment before you buy it.

Once things are worth keeping, they need to be findable: see our tips on organizing your closet for all seasons.