What do Angelina Jolie, Anna Wintour, Barbara Walters, Vera Wang and The Metropolitan Museum of Art all have in common? They all trust Madame Paulette on Second Avenue in NYC to clean, tailor and restore their clothing. Now you can see firsthand why they as well as Beyoncé, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Melania Trump all walk through their elegant doors regularly. For every favorite item or purse that is in need of a “face lift” you need Madame Paulette. Madame Paulette has achieved the status of being the finest custom couture cleaner in the world.

Madame Paulette serves the highest profile couture designers, retail establishments,celebrities, and high-profile VIPS. Unparalleled dedication to service, expertise and attention to detail has allowed Madame Paulette to achieve unprecedented success. Hermes, Carolina Herrera, Bergdorf Goodman and Trump International Hotel and Tower all depend on Madame Paulette for superb care of their garments. Whether tailoring a Chanel creation straight off the runway, restoring a Louis XVI chair or Princess Diana’s AND Audrey Hepburn’s gowns, Madame Paulette’s team of experts use finely tuned techniques for amazing results.

When we feel we look “a bit run down” we tend to seek out anti-aging lotions, a new exercise regime, perhaps even a little nip and tuck, but where oh where does all the couture go?! Well, recently I brought a Fendi purse that was destroyed- their resident handbag doctor attended to it and within hours the bag was fixed and came back to me looking ten years younger.

For a fabulous & entirely worthwhile experience, register to attend this seminar at this world renown headquarters which was featured in Vogue’s “where do all the clothes go” article in October.

Event includes champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Our host is Mr. Mahdessian, owner, who provides tailoring, anti-snag, dye color-matching, professional spot removal demonstrations, plus luxury gift bags. Limited to the first 20 registrations, so please RSVP early.

Madame Paulette was featured on LX New York on NBC in their feature “Making it Last”. We are the experts in leather and suede care and we shared a few tricks of the trade with LX New York.

So, we have a proposition!

We have extended the challenge until the end of May so you still have time to email your photo. Select a garment that you believe cannot be restored, take a picture and submit it to the challenge. Simply email your photos, with the subject “MP Twitter Challenge”, to mpchallenge@madamepaulette.com. The winner will be announced on Friday May 28th, 2010.*

Enter now.

The winner will receive a gift certificate redeemable for the value of the restoration.

If you aren’t already following us on Twitter, please do so @madamepaulette to get the latest updates and cleaning tips from the world’s leading experts!

HOW TO WIN: Email a photo of your most unfixable item to mpchallenge@madamepaulette.com. Use the subject “MP Twitter Challenge”.

*Winner will be chosen according to the item that we receive that our technician deems most challenging to restore. The value of the restoration is up to $1,000. Winner will be selected on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010. Contest only open to U.S. residents. Winner will be contacted through their email and will have (7) days to claim their certificate. After (7) days, a new winner will be chosen.

Interior Cleaning Technician

• Minimum of 2 years experience in Interior Cleaning: Upholstery, Carpet Cleaning, Drapery Cleaning
• Must have knowledge of Interior Textiles
• Prefer Certified Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC)

Spotter

• Must have 5-10 years of experience as a Spotter
• Work with Bridal Gowns
• Prefer Certified Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC)

Customer Service Representative

• Communicate & Develop relationships with high-end/affluent clientele
• Excellent communication skills
• Ability to work in a fast paced environment
• Shows customer sensitivity
• Ability to follow directions
• Computer knowledge
• Able to problem solve
• Displays logic and common sense
• 5+ years Experience in Luxury Fashion/Retail/Hospitality Industry
• Flexibility on weekend schedule either Saturday or Sunday
• Working days Monday through Friday

Please email your resume to hr@madamepaulette.com.

Human Resources Department
Telephone: 347-689-7010 ext 721
Facsimile: 718-482-7136

The Human Resources Department’s hours are 9:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Monday through Friday

The Madame Paulette Organization is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate against qualified individuals on the basis of race, color, religion, age, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability.

By Dana Shuster | Fall 2009

It used to be easier to be flippant about stains. Red wine, oil, blood, grass, whatever. If your dry-cleaner couldn’t fix it—or further ruined it in the process, as is all too often sadly the case—you’d toss it out, donate it to charity, consider it part of an involuntary closet purge. No big deal. There was always a new blouse or cocktail dress around the corner.

Even for a woman’s most cherished items, the cycle of life and death is inevitable when it comes to clothing. Certainly, some ladies abide by the “it’s so beautiful, I don’t want to wear it” adage, but with pocket books all the more lean in today’s economic climate, most women are following a different mantra: if you’ve got it, wear it.

That means that instead of shelling out big bucks to replace a soiled jacket or a torn chiffon gown, women are spending their money on cleaning, restoring, and tailoring. “They’re not discarding these pieces like they used to…now women are taking care of these things more often…they’re being more conscious of the environment and the economics,” explained John Mahdessian, President of Madame Paulette, a famed New York City-based couture cleaner (shame on the sap who calls it a dry-cleaner) that caters to a worldwide clientele and has plans to eventually open in Los Angeles and Dubai, among other fashion-centric cities.

Madame Paulette was opened 50 years ago by Mahdessian’s great uncle after he emigrated from Cyprus. He named the shop after a French woman with whom he fell in love and later married. John Mahdessian eventually left his career in investment banking (a serendipitous move, perhaps?) to help his father who had taken over the business. The shop’s global beginnings remain intact today. “I would probably say that 20 to 25 percent of our clients ship from outside NYC,” explained Mahdessian, adding that his clients include everyone from Faith Hill and Norma Kamali to Vera Wang and Melania Trump (the latter of whom he assisted down to the last minute at her extravagant nuptials to Donald Trump as guest cum tailor). “I remember a long time ago, Norma Kamali was at a café on Madison Avenue and she called and said, ‘Oh my God, I just spilled an entire decanter of red wine!’ I showed up in the middle of the afternoon during lunch, I did my magic and removed the entire stain, got a standing ovation and left,” Mahdessian laughs with the chuckle of a fondly remembered, and often told, anecdote.

Although the economic climate has resulted in a dip in Madame Paulette’s “maintenance” servicing, Mahdessian says that business has actually gone up in other arenas, particularly with customers’ more expensive pieces.

Celebrity stylist, Rachel Zoe, isn’t surprised. “I think that people are revisiting things that they maybe were sick of a few seasons ago and probably closet-cleaning and pulling out pieces that they once loved but haven’t worn in a while and getting them tailored more closely to their bodies,” explained Zoe.

Certainly, tailoring and high-quality cleaning doesn’t come cheap. “I look at clothes…some of them are pieces of art. And how much do you spend to protect a piece of art? If you’re going to spend thousands on a clothing item or furniture or anything that is valuable, maintaining it is part of the process,” said television impresario/model Hofit Golan, an avid MP customer after Mahdessian himself saved Golan at Denise Rich’s Angel Ball a few years back when a reveler knocked over a four-foot centerpiece vase and its entire aquatic contents crashed all over her couture crimson gown that she was slated to wear for a photo shoot a mere three days later.

“My husband sees the bills and sometimes says, ‘Oh my gosh. I can’t believe it!” exclaimed Pamella DeVos, President and Owner of Pamella Roland, of her dry cleaning costs, though she’s noticed that he’s started to throw some of his higher-end items in with her “to clean” shipments from her home-base in Michigan.

The monthly bills might seem to defy recession-logics in the heat of the garment-pressing moment. But restoring or saving a favorite outfit is almost always a less expensive option than dashing to Bergdorf’s for a replacement.  That is, as long as you abide by Zoe’s mandate that, “alterations and dry cleaning should never be more than the actual item.”

Of course, keeping your clothes in tip-top condition before a tipsy colleague is able to splash you down with that night’s Bordeaux is key to an outfit’s longevity. Zoe likes to keep anything with embellishment or made of fragile material such as chiffon or silk jersey in a plastic garment bag to avoid dress-to-dress snagging. She also swears by thin, black velvet hangers and keeps her scarves stacked in big Hermes boxes. “It’s nice to look at rather than sweater piles,” she explained of her Hermes storage system.

Lisa Anastos, arts patron, keeps Madame Paulette’s on-the-go stain removal kit nearby. “I have one in my apartment and one is in my travel bag. It’s part of my toiletries,” Anastos said.

Melania Trump’s advice? “Always take care of your belongings, and store them in the right places. Keep shoes either in their boxes or on shelves and keep handbags stued with something to ensure that they keep their shape.”

And when fate isn’t on your side, it’s important to act quickly the next time your Salvatore gets soiled. “Time is a very critical factor in stain removal,” Mahdessian warned. “The longer you let a stain sit in a garment or on a textile, the harder it is to remove because it becomes oxidized.”

Ah, the science of salvaging! As if women needed another reason to chase the clock.

By Kenneth D. King | December 2009/January 2010

When you have a $70,000 couture gown to dry-clean, you don’t just drop it off at the corner cleaners. Take it to a place that satisfies customers like Barbara Walters, Martha Stewart, Anna Wintour, and Melania Trump. They put their textiles in the skilled hands of Madame Paulette, a custom couture cleaner who this year, celebrates 50 years of care and cleaning for their famous and discerning clients. Couture houses such as Chanel, Christian Dior, Fendi, Gucci, Hermes, and Vera Wang are included on their prestigious client list because they are known to maintain and preserve the integrity of the finest garments in the world.

In the fashion world, reputation is everything; Madame Paulette is known as the dry-cleaner of choice among designers, celebrities, museums, and auction houses, as well as the authority on fabric restoration. John Mahdessian, its third-generation owner, thinks nothing of responding to clients and garments in distress, be it around the corner or around the globe.

To discover how meticulously crafted garments are healed, I paid a visit to Madame Paulette on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. In these workrooms spots and snags disappear and lost beads miraculously reappear. Gowns in distress are returned to their owners in pristine condition.

Here, follow a canary yellow silk crepe Lanvin dress through the steps of its special care cleaning to learn how this fascinating process is done. Handling of this sort is given to exquisitely designed and executed couture garments, vintage ones with personal or sentimental value, or something associated with everlasting memories such as a christening gown or wedding dress.

We’ll also watch an Oscar de la Renta beaded cocktail dress get restored to its original elegance after stains and tarnished beads threaten to ruin it. Not every cleaner has the equipment, the experienced team, or the courage to take on items of this quality. When a local dry cleaner tells you to remove the feathers from your gown before they’ll clean it, you’ll know your options. You don’t have to live in New York City to take advantage of an establishment like Madame Paulette–they work with clients from around the world, so when the cherished garments you’ve made run into trouble the situation is not hopeless.

F.I.T. professor, and designer extraordinaire, Kenneth D. King knows all the best places.

Follow a special-care garment
Designer garments—both couture and vintage—deserve the care that keeps them beautiful for many decades. Every step in their care and cleaning is important; it starts with meticulous preparation and ends with perfectly executed finishing.

When a special-care garment arrives at Madame Paulette, it’s inspected for spots and stains. If any are found, each spot is marked with a color-coded arrow for pretreatment. A detailed inspection occurs after every step in the cleaning process.

The pretreatment process includes analyzing the stain on a spotting board, which resembles an ironing board that has a porous narrow end attached to a high-powered vacuum. The vacuum has a nozzle with different heads that emit either steam, water, or air, depending on the nature of a specific stain. A vacuum foot control enables the operator to keep his or her hands-on the garment from start to finish.

There was only one arrow found on our Lanvin beauty, located near the hem and next to a ruffle. The technician applies the appropriate spotting agent to the fabric with a cotton swab.

Then, using the nozzle, spotting board, and a combination of steam and air, the spot is removed without leaving a telltale ring.

Since our gown doesn’t have any fragile detailing, it’s put into a mesh bag to prevent abrasion and fabric bleeding. It then goes into a cleaning machine that resembles an oversize washer or dryer.

Spiros Pouhronakis, a Madame Paulette presser, refers to a photo of the gown and learns it has soft molded pleats. Natural fibers resist permanent pleating, so they get re-pleated every time the garment is cleaned. He starts slowly, building the soft pleats back into the gown with his fingers as he presses.

Spiros also demonstrates a pressing machine favored for tailored clothing that can press shoulders, sleeves, and assure a perfect finish across the back of a tailored jacket.

Spiros achieves a flawless finish. His lightweight iron operates on compressed steam and is easy to maneuver, so it rarely touches the garment.

The gown is finished and looks exactly as it did on the Paris runway.

Finally, the gown is packaged in special bagging so the work that went into its restoration is preserved.

Observe a restoration rescue
Here, a damaged Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress is restored. Every detail gets strict attention to return the dress to its original glamour.

The dress arrives for restoration. Perspiration has reacted with the coating on the beads and caused staining under the arms and on the neckline. The tailor’s shop firsts removes the damaged beads.

With water, steam, compressed air, and chemicals, technician, J.R. Riley gradually lightens the spot. With more than fifty years of experience, he knows how to identify stains and fabrics, and what chemicals will remove them safely.

Some muscle power is needed. This stain proves to be a stubborn one, so he decides to soak the dress overnight in a bath of water and chemicals.

The next day, the dress is removed from the bath and hung on a hanger. J.R. then spray-rinses it and allows it to drip dry, so the excess water runs out.

The dress then goes into a cabinet where warm air is blown at it from all directions, gently and safely drying it.

After the dress is dry, J.R. sprays on a fabric conditioner to give the silk back its original luster. Another trip to the drying cabinet follows.

Sadly, all of the silver bugle beads are tarnished and have darkened. So the gown was sent to the tailor’s shop, where the beads were painstakingly replaced by hand. This two-week-long process involves opening the dress lining and duplicating the pattern and look of the original beading without distorting the hang of the dress.

Back for a final pressing. Once the beading is completed, the master presser finishes the job with a combination of ironing and steaming. The gown is then placed on a padded hanger, steamed one more time, inspected, and then returned to its owner for another evening out!

Cleaning Chemistry
During the time I spent at Madame Paulette, I was told repeatedly that many garments are ruined by people trying to treat stains or mitigate damage before getting it to a cleaner. It’s best to get the garment to the cleaner promptly and tell them (if possible) what the stain is; you’ll stand the best chances of being able to reverse any damages.

That said, Madame Paulette does make a professional stain-removal kit for on-the-spot emergencies. Each kit contains blot cloths, rinse cloths, and special formula cloths for each of the following three specific stain groups. Some stains are a combination of these types and require multiple formulas with rinses between. The rinse cloths are made with distilled water to prevent water spotting–a good tip to remember.

Earth based stains:
Alcoholic beverage/liquor, fruit juices, black coffee and tea, jelly, jam, honey, syrup, soft drinks, soda, toothpaste, vegetable juices, and white wine.

Protein based stains:
Blood, dairy/milk products, perspiration, and vomit.

Oil based stains:
All cooking oils, bacon grease, lotions, creams, mayonnaise, mineral oil, motor oil, grease, salad dressings, skin and hair oils and gels.

September 2009

OPERATION: RESTORATION

IT’S RARE TO FIND a company that truly leads its industry, but Madame Paulette is one of those exceptional few. The first name in couture cleaning, altering and restoring (The Met, The Louvre and Sotheby’s are a few of its clients) is actually preserving fashion history, says president John Mahdessian. “It could be something vintage and sentimental or it could be a current Pucci dress that got red wine spilled on it,” he says of the range of requests they receive, which involve apparel, accessories, fur, bridal, interiors and furniture. “We even cleaned Donald Trump’s plane last week.”

After 50 years, three generations and countless repaired pieces everything from Princess Diana’s gowns and Joe DiMaggio’s original jersey to an Andy Warhol paper dress—Madame Paulette is doing a bit of housekeeping itself. The company recently unveiled a boutique-style concept, complete with 1,600 square feet of merchandising space, storefront windows rivaling Bergdorf and a lounge-like atmosphere where clients can relax in Frette robes and sip Taittinger Champagne while the staff analyzes their needs. Luxurious? Certainly. But the bottom line is that high fashion is an investment and should be treated with care. And when you have access to those trained to do just that, why take a risk on any old dry cleaner?

October 2009

Sweaters: It’s time to pull them out of hiding. What’s stopping you? Right - that musty smell. “Tumble sweaters in a dryer at a cool temperature for just a few minutes,” advises John Mahdessian, president of legendary New York City cleaners Madame Paulette. If they need a good cleaning, use a net bag and wool-safe detergent, and set your front-load washer to gentle, with a high level of water. Dry them flat. For pilling: “Use a plastic razor blade and carefully shave off the pills.”