Is ironing essential to look polished?

[IsIroningEssential]

Does anyone manage to pull off that styled, chic elevated look that I keep seeing on Instagram without ironing? Any tips to skip the ironing stage please? 🙈

Yabu - you need to iron everything
Yanbu - you don't need to iron

I'm screwed then as I need a new job.

Not that ironing would particularly help me look smart, I can't do polished looking at all. My hair won't behave and my skin won't cooperate with make up. I do clean my shoes but they're really old so look a bit scruffy anyway. I am generally clean though!

This may not be relevant for you, @EilonwyWithRedGoldHair - but it might be helpful for anyone struggling to afford new clothes and shoes for interviews:

https://www.smartworks.org.uk/

You're right. Can always tell.

I’m going to miss ironing school shirts.

I loathe ironing, but I love clothes and they always look better pressed.

Who doesn’t live the smell of ironing fresh from the line clothes.

Respect for other says you need to waste time and money doing something with no purpose other than virtue signalling?

Thank you, I am in work atm but redundancy is looming and I am intermittently stressing about it as it's going to cause a lot of difficulties unless I can find a unicorn of a job.

I'll keep them in mind for the future though, you never know - though I'll still look scruffy, I think my very presence induces scruffiness in smart clothes! From watching others, a lot seems to come down to hair. The most elegant, polished people I've seen all have tidy hair and I don't have the faintest idea how they achieve it.

You're missing the point, the ironer is ironing because they prefer to wear ironed clothes and think they look better in them

.Is anyone saying they think it makes yhem a better person?

You absolutely can tell and it does matter imo. Obviously not for all clothes (I don’t iron the DC pyjamas or jogging bottoms!) but for anything I might wear which is ‘smart-ish’ trajectory or the DC’s uniform, absolutely ironing makes them look better

Many of the people on Instagram will be wearing brand new clothes when posing for pictures. That white crisp shirt will be brand new, it won’t have been washed, tumble dried and ironed 20 times.

So you agree clothes that aren’t ironed aren’t rumpled then? Because that’s the accusation I responded to…
You also said they look dirty, which is just odd.

It may not look ironed, but how on earth can it look rumpled? That would need it to be rolled up in a ball on the line.
I still maintain that after being under a coat and a seatbelt for 10 mins you can’t tell.
Plus I don’t really care if you can. I’ve never noticed, or cared, whether anyone has ironed something. I’m more interested in who they are and wha5 they say and do than what they wear.

I said I don’t look rumpled. You agree. Good.
I stop listening when anyone uses ‘lazy’ as a judgement of perfectly normal behaviour.

Yes. People are saying if you don’t you are lazy, or look dirty, or don’t inspire confidence in your competence.

In answer to your question op. Crunch up a nice cotton top...then put it on. Then iron it...guess which looks better

The thing is, the fabrics that drape well and look polished eg linen, cotton will need ironing. There’s quiet luxury about good cloth that’s cut well, and pressing seams and pockets etc will contribute to how fabric sits and fits.

so yes. you need to iron, or get someone to do it.

But I don’t crunch up my clothes when drying them or storing them, so how is that relevant?

Natural fibres usually need ironing to look good

Why do people NOT iron?

It looks better, hangs in the wardrobe better, lays down in drawers more easily...

In my case because I disagree it makes any noticeable difference, I’m not focused on appearance anyway (mine or anyone else’s) and I hate ironing.

Is this just about aspirations for life and what makes people feel a sense of mastery and therefore fulfilled? For some people that's crisp creases and life organisation, for others it's time with friends and family or volunteering or sports and for others it's creative endeavours. If you have kids and work a lot it's unlikely you can have it all, so isn't this just about what is most personally valued? if you don't prioritise ironing you are unlikely to attach much significance to it and vice versa?

Yeah those who reckon you can’t tell
the difference, you absolutely can! It’s what people say who think they need a reason not to spend time doing it. (Newsflash: you don’t need a reason)

I’m in the only ironing for job interviews, weddings, funerals camp because I feel life is too short to make clothes flat… but I’d be kidding myself if I thought my clothes looked as tidy as someone wearing an identical outfit to me that was ironed.

I have a lot of nice clothes and I enjoy the feeling of taking care of them. I don’t particularly enjoy ironing per se but I like the result with an immaculately folded pile of clothes to wear. I don’t iron everything and it doesn’t prevent me from going to the gym, cooking a meal or any of the other things that posters are claiming ironers must be sacrificing.

I have spent years avoiding ironing but nobody cares what I look like! I do hate creased t shirts though so I only buy really good quality ones. John Smedley Sea Island cotton creases if you hang it to dry, but if you tumble dry it the creases disappear. Spirit of the Andes pima cotton t shirts are also good, although not as fine.
I do have an old fashioned ironing press gathering dust so once in a blue moon get that out and press a load of linen pillowcases, tea towels hankies etc. It is really satisfying but not essential!

I iron because I like the look of ironed clothes. I buy clothes in natural fabrics and spend quite a bit on them and expect them to last and I care for them. I wash/dry clean my clothes appropriately. When/if necessary I replace buttons/fix a hem, etc. I also iron my clothes. Not because it makes me fulfilled. I just like to be well groomed/presented. To me, it’s the same as wearing make-up or blow-drying my hair. A step.

I garden, volunteer, cook, work, relax on the sofa, spend time with family, friends, etc, etc the same as everyone else. Ironing doesn’t take up a lot of my time. I don’t iron my DH’s clothes, he sends his shirts out to be ironed and irons other clothes himself. I have a steam generator iron, ironing takes less time with than a standard steam iron. 15/20 a week minutes is the most I spend ironing. There may be a week where I don’t iron and I catch up the next week. There are weeks when DH irons our children’s clothes.

The OP’s original question was whether it’s essential to iron to look well polished and the answer definitely is, yes.

You only have to look at Vinted or anywhere that re-sells clothes, you can straight away spot what was ironed or what was not ironed.

I find some winter clothes you can get away without ironing - jumpers, some types of jeans, etc. But most clothes do need ironing if you want to look polished and put together . I rarely bother myself though!