Have You Met Mrs. Roles?

I love using table linens. I like the way they look, I like the way they feel, and I like the way they soften the experience of sitting at a table, eating a meal. A table that is dressed and covered with a white cloth, be it plain cotton or damask linen, is one of the pleasures of civilized living. Using handsome table linens, be they tablecloths, placemats or napkins, transforms what can be a mundane experience--eating a meal--into something special, an event.

Boy and I have assembled a fairly sizeable collection of table linens over the years. We've bought new ones from places like Williams Sonoma, and we've bought antique and vintage ones from dealers and at antiques shows. And we use our table linens. Not just when we entertain, but also when we don't, when it is just the two of us. We have "every day" table linens, which can stand up to repeated and regular launderings, and we have "occasion" linens, usually vintage, which are more delicate and usually reserved for when we entertain.

There's one thing about table linens that I don't particularly care for, though, and that is laundering them. While our housekeeper does a passable job of washing and ironing clothes and linens, she isn't all that adept at the more nuanced requirements of stain removal, starching, or meticulous folding that maintaining linens well involves. Her level of care is fine for the cotton napkins we use during meals at home (no paper napkins allowed in our house) but falls short when it comes to laundering and finishing table cloths or sets of linen napkins. For one thing, our laundry room isn't really all that well-equipped (that's waiting for the next round of renovations), and the other thing is--she's just not that in to it.

But there is someone out there who is in to it, and I'd like to introduce her to you. Her name is Mrs. Roles, and she is a privately-owned business based in New York that specializes in French hand laundering and finishing of linens and garments. Her full name is Mrs. Roles Private Hand Launderers and she can be found at http://www.mrs-roles.com/.  There really was a Mrs. Roles at one point, but that was over 100 years ago and today the firm is owned by the Lutzky family, which has operated the business since 1949. Mrs. Roles is what was once referred to as a "carriage trade" business, and caters to the needs of customers whose laundering requirements aren't sufficiently met by their household help or local dry cleaners. Mrs. Roles picks up and delivers in New York City, and also does a brisk shipping business for customers beyond her delivery area. She provides charming cherry-red nylon bags emblazoned with her company's logo to her regular customers for pickup, and then delivers the beautifully-finished goods in cardboard cartons with acid-free tissue paper separating the layers of perfectly ironed and finished linens. It's a treat to open a box from Mrs. Roles, almost like a present.

I send all of our tablecloths and better linens to Mrs. Roles for laundering, and have been doing so for years. The personnel are a pleasure to deal with, and the level of service and quality of finishing is exceptional. While not inexpensive (this is, after all hand-finished work), you truly "get what you pay for" from Mrs. Roles, and I whole-heartedly recommend her to you for the laundering and finishing of your table linens. She also does a superb job with bedding linens as well.

Please note, this recommendation is being made solely as a courtesy to my readers. I have not received anything from Mrs. Roles in return, nor do I expect to.

Photos by Boy Fenwick