How to get curry and cooking smells out of clothes

Why cooking smells cling to fabric

Frying onions, tempering spices and grilling meat all send tiny droplets of oil and smoke into the air. Those droplets carry the smell, and they settle on everything nearby, including your clothes. Because the smell is held in a thin film of oil, a quick airing removes the loose part but not what has soaked into the fibres.

Some fabrics hold on more than others. Thick and textured cloth such as khaddar, karandi and velvet traps more smoke between its fibres, and polyester attracts oily residues. Smooth, fine cotton and lawn usually clear fastest.

Clearing smells from washable clothes

Most cotton, lawn, linen and polyester suits respond to a normal wash with a few additions:

• Soak first if the smell is strong. A short soak in cool water with a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda dissolved in it loosens the residue on colourfast fabric.
• Use enough detergent for the load, and choose a bio liquid if the label allows; enzymes help break down food oils.
• Add white vinegar to the rinse for cotton, if your machine maker allows it. Never combine it with chlorine bleach, and do not use bicarbonate and vinegar in the same step, since they cancel each other out.
• Dry outside or by an open window. Fresh air finishes the job; drying indoors next to the kitchen undoes it.

Dry clean only, silk and embellished pieces

For an embroidered outfit, a silk dupatta or a velvet shawl, start with air and time. Hang it on a padded hanger outdoors in the shade or beside an open window, ideally overnight, then steam it from the reverse, keeping the steam away from glued stones and metallic work. A bowl of bicarbonate of soda placed near the hanging piece, not touching it, absorbs some odour in a closed room. If the smell lingers, a dry cleaner can deal with it at the next clean.

Avoid covering the smell with perfume or a fabric spray. Scent sprayed onto silk or chiffon can leave its own marks, as our article on perfume and attar marks explains, and steaming works better on most fabrics, as our guide to ironing and steaming kurtas shows.

Keeping your outfit out of the kitchen on a dawat day

If you are cooking for guests and wearing your good outfit to host them, the easiest fix is to keep the outfit and the cooking apart:

• Cook in older clothes and change shortly before guests arrive.
• Keep the outfit hanging in a bedroom with the door shut, never on a hook in the hallway or by the kitchen.
• Run the extractor fan and open a window while frying, so less smoke spreads through the house.
• If you must cook after changing, wear a large apron and take the dupatta off until you are done.
• At a barbecue, stand upwind of the grill; smoke drifts towards whatever is downwind.

Outfits that suit long evenings

Our ideas for dawat and dinner-party outfits and the weekend and gatherings page cover what to wear as a host or guest. A washable fabric is the most practical choice when food is involved; mention it in your notes and we confirm the fabric in your written quote. See how custom stitching works, or ask for a quote.