How to live with the pieces so they last longer than the season.

The minimum toolkit

Most of the pieces on our floor ask for a small, shared toolkit — the same handful of tools work across textile, leather, and wood care. If you are new to caring for pieces of this kind, assemble these before you assemble a closet:

• A firm natural-bristle brush. Stiff enough to lift lint from felted wool, soft enough to sweep dust from wool crepe. Do not use a synthetic bristle brush on any of our textiles.
• A neutral wool soap. A small bottle lasts a year. We like the ones that do not scent; fragrance in soap lingers in wool for months.
• A tin of neutral boot wax. Neutral means the wax has no pigment; pigmented waxes will warm the color of the leather unevenly.
• A cotton dust cloth, lint-free. Any sturdy cotton cloth, washed twice to remove the sizing, will do.
• Beeswax, in a small tin, for wood care. Once a year is enough for most of our wood objects.

That is the kit. You do not need a different product per piece; you need a disciplined rhythm with a small number of products.

Cadences by piece

The felted cloak (BI-04-017)

Brush once a week for the first month of ownership (to lift construction dust and lint), then once a month indefinitely. Spot-clean with a slightly damp cloth and a drop of wool soap. Store hanging on a wide, shaped wooden hanger; a narrow wire hanger distorts the shoulder. The cloak does not need a garment bag in a cedar closet; it needs one in a closet that sees a lot of lint from other garments.

The oiled calf boot (BI-04-011)

Wipe with a dry cloth after each wear to remove surface dust. Apply a thin layer of neutral wax every six weeks during the first six months of ownership; after that, every three months, or more often if the leather looks dry. Use shoe trees when not wearing — inexpensive unfinished cedar trees are fine; the trees exist to maintain the shape, not the scent.

If the boot gets caught in heavy rain, remove any surface mud with a cloth, stuff the interior with newspaper, and let it dry in an unheated room for 24 hours. Do not speed-dry; a boot dried on a heater cracks along the crease line inside six months.

The heavy linen shirt (BI-04-024)

Wash on a delicate cold cycle with a small amount of a dye-safe detergent (not a color-brightening detergent; the dye loss is the point, but accelerating it with optical brighteners will turn the shirt lifeless). Wash inside out to reduce surface abrasion during agitation. Line-dry in shade. Iron on medium heat if a pressed finish is wanted; an un-ironed finish is also correct.

The charred ash stool (BI-04-006)

Wipe with a dust cloth monthly. Re-wax with a thin layer of neutral beeswax twice a year; a small dab, rubbed along the grain with a cotton cloth, is enough for a whole stool. Do not use furniture polish, which will deposit a sheen the wax finish is specifically trying to avoid.

The folded-paper vase (BI-04-031)

Water-only use; no stem food in the water. Dry the inside after each arrangement with a paper towel. Accept that the piece has a life — two weeks of cut stems per fill, maybe ten to fifteen fills before the fold remembers too much to hold its shape. When it reaches the end of its life, we can replace the fold at cost through Studio Basalt.

The tailored trouser (BI-04-038)

Dry clean once a year if at all; more often than that is harder on the cloth than it needs to be. Spot-clean with a soft brush and a very slightly damp cotton cloth between cleanings. Hang on a thick wooden clamp hanger by the cuff — never folded over a bar, which creates a crease the cloth takes a long time to release.

Storage and seasonality

The pieces on our floor are not seasonal in the weather sense, but they are seasonal in the wardrobe sense — a cloak gets worn more in winter, a linen shirt more in summer. Off-season storage matters less than people think and more than people do. A short list:

• Textiles: store clean. Lint and skin oils attract moths; a freshly worn sweater stored uncleaned is an invitation.
• Leather: store shaped. Shoe trees in boots; a folded cloth filling the toe of a loafer works in a pinch.
• Wood: store in a stable humidity. A wood piece that lives in a room that swings from 20% to 60% humidity across seasons will crack faster than one that lives in a steady room.
• Paper: store out of direct light. Archival paper resists UV better than non-archival paper, but no paper is immune.

When to ask for help

We keep a care line. If a piece has picked up a stain, a scuff, or a damage that the home toolkit cannot resolve, write us. We will either point you to a specialist in your city, or — for pieces where the maker has offered it — arrange a repair through the atelier. Repair is part of the purchase; we do not want the fear of damage to keep a piece from being lived in.

What not to worry about

Small creases in leather. Lint in wool. A shade change in overdyed linen after the third wash. A scuff in waxed boots. Dust on charred ash. These are the marks of use, and use is the point. The pieces are better the year after you bought them than the day they arrived; care is what keeps them improving rather than degrading.

A piece that has been cared for looks like a piece that has been cared for. A piece that has not looks like a piece that has not. There is no third option.