I heart my dry-cleaner. When I moved to Sydney almost two years ago, the thought of finding (and trusting) a new dry-cleaner filled me with dread.

Until I happened upon one of the city’s best. At the end of my street. Purely by chance. My criteria were pretty simple: somewhere nearby that didn’t send clothes off-site (no way I wanted my Cacharel dress lost in transportation) and would hand them back looking as good as new. What I got was much, much more.

I’m something of a hoarder when it comes to collecting clothes for cleaning. I rarely drop one or two things off, preferring to do a whole batch at once. Which is how I came to find out my cleaners know their stuff. Personally.

“That looks like Lisa Ho,” the woman behind the counter smiled as I pulled out the first dress. “We do her cleaning.”

The routine followed with several other pieces. And I’ve since found out that when they say they do a designer’s dry-cleaning, they really mean it. Yes, they do any cleaning required by their namesake stores, but they also do many designers’ personal wardrobes too.

No wonder I’m so happy with their level of expertise when the best in the business have been taking their prized pieces there for years.

Like facialists and medical professionals, recommendations from someone you trust are priceless when it comes to looking after your wardrobe investments. Even if not everyone likes to brag.

I once had a cobbler in Brisbane who word of mouth had it did repairs for the likes of Louis Vuitton, Hunt Leather and David Jones. Naturally I had to ask. “Um, it might be true,” I was told, but they couldn’t talk about it. So what about the row of ledgers visible behind the counter listing such esteemed names? Well, they certainly weren’t there when I returned to pick up my freshly heeled Sergio Rossis.

The moral of the story? Ask around. And be prepared to snoop.