Some wools and synthetics may show pilling, the appearance of tiny balls on the fabric surface. Cleaning may increase their number, but sometimes your cleaner can remove them. Although drycleaning does prolong their life, clothes, like people, eventually show their age, and some problems the cleaner can do nothing about. Fluorescent brighteners, used by garment makers to make colors brighter or whites whiter, may become dull or yellowed with exposure to sunlight. This may not be apparent until a good cleaning job removes surface soil that may have masked the condition.
Insects often finish their meal leaving the skeleton of the fabric intact.
The weakened fibers are flushed away in cleaning and the garment comes back full of holes. Chemical damage sustained in use may also not be obvious until after cleaning. If you feel that damage to your garments was caused through no fault of your own, read the Liability for Damaged Clothing section carefully. If clothing comes back damaged from the drycleaner, the drycleaner is often blamed as the last to handle the garment. As mentioned before, care information must be permanently attached to all garments.