Are Permanent Press Pants Really Wrinkle-Free? Tapping into Expertise Here

[jbachen]

OK, there is so much knowledge here on this site that I wanted to tap into it.

My husband has taken on a new commitment at work where he will be dealing with clients (he is in IT so in the past he has always stayed within the company). And yesterday one of his bosses sort of went off about his wardrobe. (And I am not even going there - they call him a manager but treat him like a small child, and it is completely annoying.) One of the things he mentioned was DH's pants. Boss man told him he needs to buy permanent press pants so he won't get creases at his hips from the time he spends sitting at his desk.

So I am just wondering how realistic this is... because I thought several of his pants ARE permanent press already, but I am still a bit curious about whether even permanent press pants can resist wrinkles when one is sitting at a desk all day. Also, I am certain that most of his pants are "wrinkle free", so I am wondering what the difference in between wrinkle free and permanent press.

Sorry this is so long - but there is nothing like a condescending boss to make you feel like you are 5 years old again. I am a SAHM, so this whole thing has me feeling like a bad housewife - like I am not doing my job well enough. Also, I have a Masters Degree in Textile Engineering, so I feel like I should be pretty good at laundry... but my degree covers the making of the fabrics, not what happens once you make the fabrics into clothes, so I am stumped by this...

Oh, and my first thought was to have DH tell boss man that we are doing the best we can with the budget we have, and if boss man wants DH to dress better, he needs to pay him more. But I am guessing that response would go over like a lead balloon...

TIA for any advice you all have!!

 

[quiverfull7]

I found some pants at JC Penney for my DH that are SO wonderful where wrinkles are concerned... I cannot get in that room right now because he's asleep and I want him to stay that way as long as he can but I'll post the brand as soon as I can. I love how they come out of the dryer looking good and he has even left them lay kind of .. .well.. okay... in a heap... and put them on and had them look good... and he's picky about how fabrics feel so I like these pants! Our dd locked her keys in her car and didn't discover it until late so we were trying to open her car and then gave up and called a locksmith at 11pm ... so we were up late, although he was here in 20 min.... we were up waiting for him and then she had a ton of paperwork to do ... she teachers Special Ed and has 6 IEP meetings today! SO... we're ALL on slow burn today but I'll get you that brand as soon as I can.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

[hijack]Diane, you need this: AAAOne call to the locksmith or tow truck costs more than an annual membership. AAA loses money every year on my family, between lockouts, cars not starting or someone (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) running out of gas on the freeway at least once a year.[/hijack]

 

[jbachen]

Thanks, Diane, I appreciate that! My DH also tends to let his pants lie in a heap, and he occasionally wears them two days in a row. :gasp: I have had this discussion with him SO many times, that if he wants to be treated like a manager he needs to look like one, and wearing the same pants two days in a row is not the way to do that... but he says they are more comfortable and broken in on the second day. This morning he was even getting ready to put on the same pants he wore yesterday, wrinkles and all... I did manage to talk him out of that, but I can only do so much, KWIM??

 

[quiverfull7]

Oh don't get me started! We had AAA ... I called them on two different occasions and the wait to get help was 4 - 5 HOURS each time before anyone could come and help me... so I ended up canceled it. For $1 a month we have "lock out" rider or whatever it's called so she will get her $ back from her car insurance... Maybe if we were in a more heavily populated area the AAA benefits would work better although the one time I needed them we were in a very touristy area at 10am. So great suggestion but not for us!

 

[quiverfull7]

Okay... back on topic... they are St. John's Bay Wrinkle Free ...

 

[jrstephens]

I am so glad my husband's employer does not say anything about his pants! I CANNOT iron to save my life! We buy those wrinkle resistant ones and I take them out of the dryer immediately and hang them up.

I have tried and tried to iron, but they look worse after I finished than when I started!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Too bad about AAA around there...they even came and bailed me out of a problem in a little, tiny, pizzant town in the hills of West Virginia.

Okay... back on topic... they are St. John's Bay Wrinkle Free ...

St. John's Bay is the private label at Jock Pennay's. I love the all cotton chinos from Lands' End but they are as far away from wrinkle free as you can get. However, Lands' End does have cotton/poly blend dress twills that come out of the wash pretty well, too. Sometimes they need some touch-up but not much.

I also have some gabardine slacks from Lands' End that come out of the suitcase and look great after hanging for a little while - sometimes I hang them in the bathroom when I shower, and that's about all they need.

 

[jbachen]

Yeah, I don't have much time for ironing (blame it on the little cuties in my icon!). And I am not completely sure it is going to solve the problem, as the pants are not wrinkled when he puts them on, just after he sits at his desk all day. I do always hang the pants right out of the dryer, just because of my ironing avoidance issues.

I guess I will send him to JC Penney's to try the St. John's Bay pants... Are they very expensive? KG, what about the Lands End pants - how pricey are they?

 

[jrstephens]

the pants are not wrinkled when he puts them on, just after he sits at his desk all day.

I don't see how this can be completely avoided. I think that is being a little too picky in my opinion of the people he works for!

 

[jbachen]

You have NO idea!! He is also not allowed to wear Tigger on his jacket, and he is only allowed to unbutton one button on top of his polo shirts. Oh, and his office is actually outside the main office in a trailer (it was at the point when they moved his office out to the trailer that he stopped wearing dress shirts and switched to polo shirts, since he was working out in a trailer, after all. Never mind the fact that occasionally his job has him crawling under and behind people's desks and stuff) so he sometimes throws a flannel on over his polo shirt for the trip into the building when it is chilly out, and he is not allowed to do that, either. A couple of years ago he was given the option to either take out his earrings or cut off his ponytail, too. (He kept the earrings, and snipped the ponytail, which was sad, because he has gorgeous curly hair!) I understand the need to look professional, especially when dealing with clients, but come on!! They are taking away all of his expressions of style! There are just a lot of other frustrations with his job right now, and I keep hoping he will find something else. But there is a lot of pressure on him - my PC hasn't really started making much of a profit yet, so he is our sole source of income, and our credit card debt is not looking good. So I think he is a little bit afraid of fighting back and losing his job, or of them finding out he is looking elsewhere. Plus, with the economy the way it is, job searching is tough, too, right now. Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. It has just been a long week, and this was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I was just about ready to cry when folding laundry this morning, wondering if I was doing a good enough job at it...

 

[jbachen]

Oh, and I keep thinking about that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry (IIRC) is walking around with no pants because once he puts them on and sits they get wrinkled. Maybe DH should just hang out in his trailer without pants. No one else ever goes out there, anyway.

 

[chefshawna]

[hijack]

Diane, you need this: AAA

One call to the locksmith or tow truck costs more than an annual membership. AAA loses money every year on my family, between lockouts, cars not starting or someone (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) running out of gas on the freeway at least once a year.

[/hijack]

I have had AAA since I was 15 and my parents put me under their policy and I am like you, use it all the time!! I have been towed more times than I'd like to mention, lockouts, flat tires, etc..... they have been great! I just don't think I could afford not to have them!!
And as far as the pizzant town in West Virginia.......yes, they too have good AAA service. West Virginia has mainly pizzant towns, but I love it!!

 

[jrstephens]

Goodness Jean!! That sounds horrible!! Sounds like boaderline harrassment to me! Especially, if when the hired him he dressed and wore his hair and all that way and they new it!!!

I will say a prayer for him to find a different and better job!

 

[Kitchen Diva]

My DH is a bit on the "Stocky" side. When I met him he had the body of a male olympic gymnist.... (drool) anyway- he's got a carbohydrates belly (he doesn't drink, so it's gotta be the snacks) Anyway, no matter how much money we spend on a pair of wrinkle free pants, no matter if they are dry cleaned and HEAVY startch is added to them, they always crease near his thighs when he sits. It has more to do with his legs than anything else- he's always had muscular thighs.

I am all for a dress code, but some of their demands do seem a bit extreme (like tigger) But maybe they want all their people to look super professional, who knows. I'm glad no one has ever told my DH to get different pants!

When he was in the Air Force- those nice almost 100% polyester pants NEVER creased or wrinkled! I sorta miss those blue pants... and my hubby's former gymnist body!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Yeah, I don't have much time for ironing (blame it on the little cuties in my icon!). And I am not completely sure it is going to solve the problem, as the pants are not wrinkled when he puts them on, just after he sits at his desk all day. I do always hang the pants right out of the dryer, just because of my ironing avoidance issues.

I guess I will send him to JC Penney's to try the St. John's Bay pants... Are they very expensive? KG, what about the Lands End pants - how pricey are they?

Lands' End tends to be pricey, but you're getting a very high quality product. In the past, I'd take my 100% cotton twills to the dry cleaner, and they would stay wrinkle free for several wearings before I took them back to the cleaners. (Oh, stop it. I'd change as soon as I got home, and I'm most certainly not one of those wear-'em-once-and-they-have-to-be-laundered freaks. I used to be married to one of those! )

 

[hperschnick]

The wrinkle free pants at Penny's are great - my DH has those... he does his own laundry and his idea of ironing it to throw his pants back into the dryer for 15 mins before he puts them on. He didn't like the way I hung his pants up when we got married so I told him to take care of it himself... I don't know how leaving them in a heap on the floor is worse than hanging up "wrong" but oh well... less laundry for me!!

And on the dress code thing... I have to agree on the Tigger part the rest is a little extreme... I don't think adults should wear cartoon caracters, but that's just me. I had this same conversation with my sister when we went shopping for clothes for her new job - she likes Tinkerbell... (actually I don't have cartoon clothes for my 2 year old either... and won't until he can ask for them - hopefully never!!)

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Just for the record:
KG & I have never been married I even wash the socks and underwear that come in sealed packages before wearing them. And if its been worn once it gets washed...
(I wash my kitchen towels separate from our bath towels too). My kids have this annoying habit of calling me OCD!!

 

[hperschnick]

(I wash my kitchen towels separate from our bath towels too). My kids have this annoying habit of calling me OCD!!

I wash my kitchen and bath towels separate also! Grosses me out to think of them all in there together! I know they are clean when they come out but... still!

 

[Teresa Lynn]

Exactly!!!

 

[jbachen]

Hm, Kasey, my husband is a bit overweight, and definitely has a belly, and he also has very muscular thighs, from lots of volleyball and fencing. And he often has trouble getting pants that fit, especially across that top of the thigh area. So I wonder if this problem will even be fixable at all... I wonder if it would help if he hiked his pants up before he sat... Hm... That would make the pants wrinkle while he was sitting, but would maybe not press them in where they are tight over his thighs.

And I do agree that Tigger may not have been the most appropriate thing to wear at work (although I think Tigger pants or a shirt would be worse than a jacket, which he only wears to and from the car!) but they did hire him with the ponytail and the earrings. And, like I mentioned, he does climb around behind and under peoples' desks installing computers and stuff, and he only downgraded from dress shirts to polo shirts when they decided they couldn't get him an office in the building anymore, and moved him to a trailer next to the building.

And Jennifer, thanks for the prayers! I am thinking of you all the time! You are having a baby sometime soon, aren't you??

Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions, too... and for letting me vent.

 

[JAE]

Just for the record:
KG & I have never been married I even wash the socks and underwear that come in sealed packages before wearing them. And if its been worn once it gets washed...
(I wash my kitchen towels separate from our bath towels too). My kids have this annoying habit of calling me OCD!!

I wash my kitchen towels separate from my bath towels because hair was transferring from bath towels to kitchen towels. That's not good for drying dishes.

What about black pants? Maybe the darker color will show the wrinkles less. Just get a blend that doesn't fade quickly. My dh wears jeans to work. I almost never iron.

 

[janetupnorth]

Grr...I'm in the IT area not in a tech area, but higher, but have been at that level between engineering functions.Anyway, I've worked at some major companies and that would just irk me. I understand professionalism and other things but that is ridiculous. Of course our work is on the opposite extreme...I can wear running pants and a T-shirt and tennis shoes to work without a reaction!I used to dress better but after ripping good clothes on conveyors, etc., I mainly wear jeans to work. Anyway, watch Penney's store ads, they have some some good sales every few weeks - don't pay full price. ...and good luck with the "requirements". I hope that's all they push him on and they aren't trying to set him up for failure...

 

[GeorgiaPeach]

I'd have your husband ask his boss what kind of pants HE wears. I'd toss this ball back in the bosses court. Say that he understands they are concerned about the wrinkles but that he is already wearing permanent press or wrinkle-free, ask the boss for suggestions. Switching to a darker pant might help "hide" the appearance of wrinkles. I realize that crawling under desks with dark pants will cover them with lint or dust so that might not be much help.

 

[JAE]

I'd have your husband ask his boss what kind of pants HE wears. I'd toss this ball back in the bosses court. Say that he understands they are concerned about the wrinkles but that he is already wearing permanent press or wrinkle-free, ask the boss for suggestions. Switching to a darker pant might help "hide" the appearance of wrinkles. I realize that crawling under desks with dark pants will cover them with lint or dust so that might not be much help.

I was thinking he should ask the boss what brand of pants he wears, too. Be as sweet as pie and say "Hey, I was wondering what brand of pants you wear. I'm having trouble deciding which pants to buy."

 

[jbachen]

LOL... yeah, we thought of that... but his pants are probably WAY out of our budget! Although maybe DH could turn the subject toward a raise then...

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Just for the record:
KG & I have never been married I even wash the socks and underwear that come in sealed packages before wearing them. And if its been worn once it gets washed...
(I wash my kitchen towels separate from our bath towels too). My kids have this annoying habit of calling me OCD!!

Yes, we have.

Just not to each other.

 

[quiverfull7]

Yes, we have.

Just not to each other.

As soon and I read that line I knew a reply was coming from KG!