Kyle Matthews is the fifth-generation owner of Janet Davis Cleaners, the family garment-care company founded in Highland Park, Michigan in 1938 and based on Woodward Avenue in Berkley since 1950. He joined the business in 2006 as Director of Sales and Marketing and has been sole owner since January 1, 2023, when his father, Dave Matthews, retired. Kyle is President of the Association of Wedding Gown Specialists, the international trade association that sets standards for wedding gown cleaning, preservation and restoration, elected in 2024 and re-elected in 2025 and 2026. In 2023 he and his father received the association's Jack Barth Memorial Award of Excellence for contributions to industry standards in gown care. Under his ownership Janet Davis Cleaners became a certified affiliate of America's Best Cleaners in 2024, one of fewer than 50 cleaners in the United States to hold the certification. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the MI Cleaning Fund, a member-owned workers' compensation program for Michigan's cleaning industry, elected by the membership in 2025. He writes here about garment care, stain removal, wedding gown preservation and what to look for in a cleaner — the questions customers ask at the counter every week. Kyle is a Michigan State University graduate (with honors) and lives in Rochester Hills, MI.
96.3 WDVD hosted the Project Prom Princess prom dress drive last weekend at Somerset Collection South. Thanks to the generosity of their listeners, they collected over 1,300 new and gently used dresses for area girls in need. Janet Davis Cleaners cleaned and pressed the dresses requiring cleaning before they are given away. Here are dresses just before they were delivered back to the Project Prom… Read More »Project Prom Princess Dress Cleaning
Here at Janet Davis Cleaners we feel strongly about giving back to the community. We have volunteered our time, energy, and expertise to help out with Project Prom Princess. We are cleaning dresses collected this weekend free of charge. For more information, read the text below taken from the Project Prom Princess website: Prom is one of the most important events in a young lady’s… Read More »Project Prom Princess
Janet Davis Cleaners is offering to help out job seekers in the Metro-Detroit area by offering free cleaning of their suit for an interview! The offer is simple, if you are unemployed and are looking for a job, Janet Davis Cleaners will clean your suit for free. To receive the free suit cleaning, please visit one of our stores located in either Berkley or Bloomfield.… Read More »Free Dry Cleaning for Unemployed Job Seekers
Last night we hosted an advanced spotting seminar (spotting is the word we use for spot and stain removal within the dry cleaning industry) for local area dry cleaners led by Chris Patten from the A.L. Wilson Company. The theme of the class was to increase your ability as a dry cleaner to remove difficult spots and stains in order to deliver greater value to… Read More »Insurance policy for your clothes!
This wedding gown is a Vera Wang. As you can see, the body of the dress is stayed mostly clean during the wedding, but the hemline picked up a lot of dirt. Because of the delicate nature of silk extra caution was taken during the cleaning process. All of our gowns are pre-treated by hand and then individually cleaned in our unique two bath cleaning… Read More »Vera Wang Wedding Gown
Whether you are headed half way around the world or just to the next town, you want your gown to look fresh and unwrinkled for the ceremony. Here are some tips to help you and your gown travel safely! Traveling by CarSince most shops protect your gown with a garment bag and stuff it with a bust form plus lots of tissue to keep the… Read More »Traveling with Your Wedding Gown
This is a beautiful wedding gown from 1974. The gown was originally preserved (by another company) right after the wedding so there was only minimal yellowing present. Also, because it was preserved, there were no problem areas that developed over time as is the case with many gowns that are not properly cleaned before storage. Note that is is a cream gown with white lace… Read More »Mothers Wedding Gown
There is a lot of talk today about green alternatives and green marketing. What makes your dry cleaners green isn’t the solvent they clean in as much as their approach towards the environment. Let’s run down the major items in dry cleaning as far as the environment is concerned. Perc – the most common cleaning solvent, and also regarded as the best at cleaning your… Read More »What is green dry cleaning?
It’s hard to believe this is the same wedding gown. This particular wedding gown was purchased in 1953 at Hudsons and has been kept in an attic since the wedding. This vintage garment restoration was particularly difficult because of the deterioration of the material due to its storage. The armpits and seams were already threadbare and other areas were weak as well. This limited the… Read More »1950’s Wedding Dress Restoration
This is an Amelia Casablanca wedding gown that we cleaned. These pictures of the dress were taken just before it went home to its owner (in fact you can see the garment bag ready to be zipped around the dress). She was thrilled when she picked it up. Unfortunately, I don’t have any clear before shots available. This dress required a lot of individual attention.… Read More »Amelia Casablanca Dress
