Without A Trace

I took in a pair of pants that had a hole in a very inappropriate location. Oh my, did these folks do an absolutely incredible job. Okay, so it was by no means cheap. But the investment meant that I got a great suit back. Now compare the cost for reweaving with the cost of a replacement suit and you clearly see the perspective. So I’ve now taken in a sportcoat to get a little moth hole repaired, and I’m anticipating another great job.

I took my prada bag here to have stains removed from the leather because I thought I got a reputable referral from prada on oak street. When I showed them the bag there stated the stains should be «no problem» and that they would go over the whole bag. I called 1 week after my bag was supposed to be ready and it hadn’t even been done yet and wasn’t even on site. They said they would call me back later that day to give me a status report. Three hours later still no call back so I had to call them back again. When they finally called and said it was done and i went to pick it up because I’m from out of state I was very disappointed as the bag looked exactly the same and there was no change in the stains but they wanted to charge me 65 $/​full price for no improvement. Then I had to talk to the manager at another site about this and he insisted it looked better. Ummmm, I think I know my bag. Don’t go there this is a waste of time and money with no results

I sent a cashmere sweater to have a moth hole repaired. I received the sweater back about 2 weeks later and the repair was perfect… no trace of the hole and the repair so seamless. I have a couple more items I will be sending in.

This place is absolutely amazing! I had the most beautiful designer full length shearling that I didn’t really take care of as I should have. I’ve had it at least 10 or more years; first couple of years, I had it in cold storage through Marshall Field’s, then got lax. The hides started to split all over; pockets were just about hanging on by a thread (seriously). My friend told me about this place. Took it in, got a call from the owner the next day who said it could be repaired. They cleaned and repaired it for $ 340. The original cost of the coat all those years ago was around $ 6000. I was thrilled to even be able to get one more year out of it. Came back like a new coat; they did the most beautiful job. So glad my friend recommended this place; worth every single dollar I spent!

Last year, Without a Trace did a simple repair on the pocket of a shearling coat. It maybe was two stitches, certainly no more than three, and in a seam – not something that had to be reworked. They charged $ 28, which seemed high. On picking it up and being told the cost I asked why it was priced as it was. She simply stared at me and didn’t answer. Okay, fine, it was done well enough and I was glad the coat was in good order. This year, I brought in a suit jacket with a tiny little opening in an underarm seam. She looked at it and quoted $ 96.00, adding that, when complete, there would be a small patch of fabric covering the area. I asked why the seam couldn’t simply be mended. She replied that they don’t do simple tailoring. Wait. Isn’t sewing a patch «simple tailoring?» And what exactly was it they had done on my coat last year if not simple tailoring? Such nonsense! I took the suit jacket across the street to Davis Imperial. They fixed it flawlessly, packed it up like it was part of the queen’s wardrobe and charged me $ 5.00.
I guess if I had something leather that needed to be repaired I would get an estimate here but overall the vibe at the counter is just plain wrong. Seriously, do I really need a side of snide with the overpriced service? Nah!

The service here is amazing. Prior to moving to the city I would mail clothing requiring repairs I needed and they would do it without exception. All the work has been excellent. I highly recommend them.

Without a Trace did a spectacular job on ‘refinishing’ my husbands many-​years-​old leather jacket. I didn’t even know it could be done, but after a few days at this shop, his worn, green-​ing, cracked, cruddy looking leather coat is as good as new and looks great. It’s not cheap ($ 80 to refinish, and $ 60 for new pockets because they needed to take out the lining to get to them) but I can’t find any faults in the work done.
Still a lot less expensive then buying a new jacket. :)

They took a $ 5 thrift store sweater and turned it back into the $ 700 cashmere sweater it was meant to be. Including shipping and original cost I spent around $ 80 for a stunning, name brand cashmere sweater thanks to Without a Trace. There is no trace of the holes (three!) and the sweater looks nearly perfect. The two smaller holes you would never find-​ever! The largest hole shows a tiny bump where the repair was made but I think that with wear the tiny raised area will go down. Even if it doesn’t it looks like maybe a wrinkle, certainly not damage. I will use them again. I was a bit unsure if it was a good idea to use a mail order service when I could not touch the work and see it first hand, but this is a dying art and there are few who do it well. If I had asked my local dry cleaner to give it a try it never would have looked so good.

Wow, the reviews here make this sound like a tale of two businesses, and I have to add my voice to the positive end of things. Perhaps it was because of my specific need, which was a patch and restitch in some pretty nice suit pants. The work these people did was absolutely amazing. It had looked like another dry cleaner (who, admittedly, I probably shouldn’t have trusted with this kind of task) had totally botched a patch job and ruined my pants. I took the pants here and while it was a fair amount of money to get the patching done that they did, the results were 110% worth it. The patching was so seamless (pun intended) that you’d have to be poring over that spot to notice any work was done. It totally saved these pants, and given that they were from my wedding suit, it meant a ton to me that they were saved. The service was great and I had a pleasant experience with the front desk clerk. I’m not much of a haggler, so I don’t know if things would have been more difficult had I tried that route, and I have no frame of reference for this kind of job. All I know is I paid a fair amount for a job that was done extremely well with no hassle. Thumbs up in my book.

GREAT GREAT GREAT WORK ON A SHEARLING COAT.
My shearling jacket was destined for the permanent closet or the garbage can, when I found and I sent it to WITHOUT A TRACE and received a very reasonable quote to fix it.
It was returned FAST and as as GOOD AS NEW and WITHOUT A TRACE of the condition it was sent.

My cashmere turtleneck sweater had a moth hole, and I thought I had to just throw it away. I did a search on the internet and found Without A Trace. I sent the sweater to them, and they did a fantastic job reweaving it. It came out just great, and they were very nice to deal with. Reasonable price too!

The customer service at Without a Trace is only shadowed by the unbelievably good job they did on my suit pants. I had a substantial hole and tear in the back pocket of my suit pants. They fixed it within 24 hours of me dropping it off since I needed the pants rushed for a wedding that weekend. Their tailor was out for the week, and when the pants got to my tailor, he said it was the best work he had seen.
Talk to Linda and Michael — these people will take excellent care of you.

Ok, so I am not sure where these horrible reviews are coming from. I had a very pleasant experience. I had 2 tears in 2 different suit and had some interviews coming up. I needed a rush job and typically their turnaround is 2 – 3 weeks. They were more than willing to accomodate the request. I drove up there and spoke with the guy who explained the procedure, what results I could expect and showed an example. Now this place is ULTRA specialized. Don’t come here for a hem job. They reweave fabric so it looks as though the tear was never there. And you do pay for this type of service as there are only a few in the country who do this specialized of a job. However the results were absolutely stunning. On the one suit jacket, I don’t even see ANY evidence of a previous tear. On the other tear I see a faint outline but they did admit that up front and only I see that outline because I know where to look, anyone else looking at it would have to look up close to even notice it. This is HIGH QUALITY repair that even the best tailors in the city cannot do.

Solid service! I had about a 3 inch tear in a jacket I had custom made in the UK. The tear had originated out of a seam but then continued into a non-​seam area for a good inch and a half (which was the part I was most worried about).
I filled out the form on the website and mailed it out to their place. Because I had initially had the length of the sleeves made slightly to long I also requested that they shorten the sleeves by an inch on each side. They quoted me under $ 100 for the entire repair + alteration. It was important to me that it stay around $ 100 because the entire investment in the custom altered original jacket was about $ 350 so it wouldn’t make sense to invest any more than that.
Before they even started the work they gave me a call to ensure that they interpreted my request for the sleeve shortening correctly and also gave me a realistic idea of what to expect based on the type of leather jacket I had sent in and the tear it had.
They waited to charge my card until they started doing the work and the fee came out to about $ 112 (slightly more than the $ 100 quoted but obviously that was an additional shipping fee, when the jacket arrived the invoice for the actual work itself showed $ 96). I’m sure a lot of their customers will complain about the turn around time but given the sheer load of jobs they have to go through, I would consider 2 — 3 weeks a very respectable turn around time.
The quality of the repair was great. You have to specifically be looking for the exact area of where the repair was done to be able to see anything and even then your face has to be about a foot away before you’ll see anything. One of the areas in which these guys truly succeeded were managing expectations — with some materials they can almost guarantee that you won’t be able to see the repair at all and it will be flawless (such as with certain types of reweaving), but with leather the results can vary depending on the type of tear and material. Because they gave me a realistic expectation I knew there would be a very small visible repair area I could live with.
As far as the sleeve alteration — perfect job, they shortened the sleeves while maintaining the excess material inside so if I ever need to let them back out again for any reason I can.
Bottom line — I went from having an unwearable $ 350 customized leather jacket hanging in my closet to a wearable/​repaired/​altered jacket for $ 116 total out of pocket, much cheaper than having to purchase a new one entirely!

I had my leather jacket cleaned, and a pocket tear. I have recently picked up my jacket after about 2 weeks, and I am very pleased. I was a bit worried because of the reviews, but when I turned to my family, and friends of family they all recommended this place. I would highly recommend this business.

AVOID THIS BAD UNETHICAL EVIL BUSINESS.
I have come here on a few occasions over the years. Always very disappointed in the price and moderately satisfied with the work.
Nice blond lady — tan w/​bright smile — normally works in the front.
She usually just spits a price out at you.
Once I asked her, «how do you determine the price?» and she replied, «uuuummmmmm, I’ve just worked here so long I know what the price is»
OK — whatever.
She’s nice, she’s just stuck working for a BIG ASSHOLE — PERIOD.
2 weeks ago I brought in a sweater and the blonde lady was there alone as she normally is — she quoted me $ 46.00 for what I needed done.
I asked if she could go down to $ 40.00 and she said «No»
She then very nicely suggested that I take the sweater to my tailor and he might be able to do it for less.
After trying with my tailor (he could not repair the sweater) and much renumeration, today I took the sweater back into the store.
The nice blonde lady was there, but so was the owner. A big, ugly, unprofessional, scruffy, oafy type of asshole.
As he was writing my ticket he asked if I had a fur coat.
I replied, «Yes»
He asked, «do you have it stored?»
I replied «Yes»
He asked «where?‘
I explained, „Somewhere on Dempster I can’t recall the name right now“
Then he said, „Wherever you have it bring it here we are better then them“
I thought to myself…“how unprofessional, this guy seems desperate to say he is better than some business he doesn’t even know the name of»
Then for the same sweater that was going to be $ 46.00 he said «86.00»!!!
I said, «Wait a minute, (pointing at the blonde lady whos mouth was hanging open) „wait a minute, I brought this in before and we agreed $ 46.00″
He said ‚“ no you’re lying»
I replied «you’ll be seeing this on Unilocal»
He had the immaturity and uprofessionalism to FLIP ME OFF THROUGH THE WINDOW.
Ask yourself… Do YOU WANT TO BRING YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY AND BUSINESS TO A MONSTER THAT WOULD ACTUALLY CALL A CUSTOMER A LIAR AND BE DESPERATE ENOUGH TO FLIP OFF A CUSTOMER???
— — — — — -AND — — — — — ON A HOLIDAY??? *************Today is Good Friday.
THIS MAN IS BAD BAD BAD BAD NEWS, HE IS UNPROFESSIONAL AND HAS NO RESPECT FOR HIS CUSTOMERS. HE IS DESPERATE AND EVERYONE WHO IS WORKING FOR HIM IS SHAKY AND UNHAPPY.
STAY AWAY
THANK GOD FOR Unilocal

since my last review the owner has started calling me again, AND they posted my personal information to Unilocal in a clear violation of Unilocal TOS. Ask yourself, is this the person you want to do business with?

My review can’t speak for the quality of their work, as I actually did not have «Without A Trace» do any work on the hole in the pocket of my dress pants. However, the woman who I spoke with when I walked into their shop was incredibly nice and willing to explain everything for me. I didn’t expect this at all after reading some of the reviews on this site.
Anyways, I brought my pants in to see if 1) they could fix them and 2) how much it would cost. I was very kindly greeted when I entered and showed the woman my issue with the pants. She asked me if they were suit pants or dress pants and asked me how much I paid for them. (I can’t remember exactly, but the pants were somewhere in the neighborhood of $ 100 from Jos. A Banks.) She said that their service costs $ 92, so it really wouldn’t be worth it unless I loved the pants. I agreed. She was still willing to show me what they would have been able to do to fix them, which was at least good information to know for the future.
All in all, I experienced quick and excellent customer service, and I would definitely go back for any other issues with a more expensive item of clothing.

Back in September I tore a peanut-​sized hole in the thigh of my second-​favorite suit. I hoped that I would be able to get it repaired, but since I am a Procrastinator First Class, it was November until I took them into Bloomingdale’s where I had bought the suit two years ago. The tailor took one look at the tear and declared it beyond his powers. However – «There’s a place on Bryn Mawr that I recommend…»
I was apprehensive because the tear was pretty ugly and I am very fond of this suit, plus it is a quality suit and had not been cheap. The storefront is far from fancy, and to call the shop itself «cluttered» and «no-​frills» would be a kindness. But the space extended back a fair ways, and it seems that they do a lot of mail-​order business. Don’t you feel better when a place seems to be thriving? All those other customers must know something, right?
The clerk who took my pants was very knowledgeable about the procedure, so maybe he was more than a clerk. Either way, he swept away my last doubts about my choice. Both he and the woman who called later to give me the estimate were very up-​front about the fact that the pants would not be «good as new» but would have a faint outline of the reweave. Also, they each explained exactly what they would be doing as if we were discussing surgery for my child (perhaps they sensed my love for this suit).
I dropped off Saturday, received the estimate Tuesday, and got a call three weeks later, exactly as promised. My faith was rewarded: while not perfect, the pants look better than I had hoped and far, far improved over the appearance of the tear. They lined up the pinstripes and the surface is very smooth. In the dim light of a wedding reception, cocktail party, fundraiser, awards banquet, Irish wake after all the uncles are drunk etc, noone will be able to see the bad spot even if they are looking directly at it. (My eyes are up here, ladies. Sheesh.) So I can go back to wearing this suit on almost any occasion that I would have before the accident.
What’s more, they had cleaned and pressed the pants as an unexpected bonus and gave them to me on a hangar inside a dry-​cleaning bag. It had not occurred to me that they might do this – I had brought my own hangar! I was happy to pay good money for the expert craftsmanship; the pleasant, professional service and the little extras were merely welcome icing. This was a good lesson that appearances can be deceiving. I will recommend this place to anyone who needs any kind of clothing repair.

I have found each interaction with ‘Without a Trace’ to lack any trace of professionalism or service. The staff I encountered not only refused to provide me any information, but comported themselves in an appallingly crude manner and verbally insulted me.
They claim excellence in their skill and it seems another Unilocaler managed to have a good experience, but there are plenty of professional (non-​dry cleaner) re-​weavers that will treat you like a customer, won’t overcharge you, and will leave you satisfied with your garment and your service. Negative stars for these second-​rate rascals!