The product: Steamery’s Pilo Fabric Shaver
The price: $50
The reason: Last May I bought this fancy cashmere sweater by The Row from Bergdorf Goodman during what I guess was an end of season sale even though, again, it was May. I wore it home from the store because I’d been wearing only a white tank top that day even though it was like, 65 degrees. My nipples were showing and I was freezing and I’m pretty sure I was also hungover, so, really, I didn’t have a choice. I put it on and thought to myself: LUXURY. Then on my merry way I went with a straw bag on my arm, down a flight of stairs to the downtown-bound 6-train. When I got home, I put my bag down and noticed that a huge block of the side of my sweater had pilled like a poodle’s mane post-shower. It was curly and limp-looking and I wanted to punch myself for not knowing better than to let a straw bag rub up against a new cashmere sweater.
But there was nothing I could do, you know, save for pick at the pills (or balls, whatever you prefer to call them) with my finger nails, so that’s what I did and from that day on, whenever I wore it, people would ask what happened to the side of my sweater as if they had never seen knitwear pill before. It was pretty fucking annoying if I’m being really honest. But then! One fateful evening during the purgatory period between Christmas and New Years, I was on my couch, head lodged between two pillows, brain turning to mush as I tapped voraciously through the platter of Instagram stories roping me in further when zing! a public service announcement appeared in the form of a series of before and after, 15-second videos, to tell of a pill remover less analog than my fingers.
It was Steamery’s pilo fabric shaver, and my friend Rachel was chanting its praise.
All you have to do is press a button and run it over the impacted areas on your sweater, your boyfriend’s sweater, your boucle coat–whatever. It’s like magic, but not, because it’s also real.
Influenced and on impulse, I ordered one immediately and you know what I did? I saved my sweater. Delivered it from criticism, removed the pills and did not look back.
Only forward, in fact, which led me to a pile of sweaters I love, but rarely wear because I’m trying to preserve them before the pills get too bad. So I doctored those, too–straight up made them new and did not look back.
Only forward, in fact, to the future me, who might never need to buy another new sweater again.
This is all to say that if you love your sweaters but they pill too much, don’t pick at them manually or restrict yourself by wearing them less. Don’t buy replacements, don’t drive yourself crazy. Just get this electric fabric shaver. It really, really works.
You can trust me when I say that you should definitely try it.
Photos by Alexis Jesup of Colors Collective. Prop Styling by Rose Kennedy.
