If you want to measure how American culture has shifted in the past two decades, you could do worse than standing inside a neighborhood dry cleaner and looking at what\u2019s on the rack.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely less suits,\u201d said Enoch Ku, who now runs Vogue Cleaners. \u201cOffices became more relaxed \u2014 less formal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Twenty years ago, his father\u2019s shop would process 100 to 200 dress shirts on a busy day. Today, Ku estimates that number has dropped by roughly half. Fewer ties. Fewer jackets. More chinos. More polyester. More fabrics that can be washed at home.<\/p>\n
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The death of the suit didn\u2019t happen overnight. Workplace dress codes softened gradually, then remote work accelerated the trend. If you wear a suit once a week, you clean it often. If you wear it once a month, you clean it far less.<\/p>\n
But inside this modest storefront in Sacramento County, another story is unfolding \u2014 one that runs deeper than changing hemlines.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a story about immigration, sacrifice, reinvention and the way small businesses adapt while still holding on to what matters.<\/p>\n
![\"Ha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05855-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ha Wan Ku works on a dress shirt at Vogue Cleaners on March 18, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n
Starting over<\/p>\n
In the summer of 1986, Ku\u2019s father, Ha Wan Ku, bought Vogue Cleaners.<\/p>\n
At the time, he was working in the San Jose area for Texas Instruments. When the company announced it was moving manufacturing to Texas, employees had a choice: relocate or take severance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe either moved or he started over,\u201d Ku said. \u201cAnd he chose to start over.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like many Korean immigrants in the 1980s<\/a>, Ku\u2019s father saw dry cleaning as stable. It required licensing and technical training, but it offered something more important: the ability to support a family.<\/p>\n \u201cHe took classes, got licensed and then went looking to buy a store,\u201d Ku said.<\/p>\n Sacramento did not yet have a large Korean community<\/a>. Before there was even a Korean market in town, Ku remembers his mother driving to San Jose to buy groceries and cultural staples, then hauling them back up Interstate 80.<\/p>\n Dry cleaning became more than a livelihood. It became the family\u2019s foundation.<\/p>\n The cost of stability<\/p>\n The store demanded long hours \u2014 six days a week, often from early morning until evening. \u201cMy dad never got to see me play soccer or baseball,\u201d Ku said. \u201cHe had no time.\u201d<\/p>\n As a child, Ku spent afternoons in the shop. He remembers the roar of the air compressor, the heat of the steam press, the towering racks of clothes.<\/p>\n He had a small nap area in the back. By age 11 or 12 he was already helping customers, running credit cards through the old carbon-slide machines.<\/p>\n At the time, he didn\u2019t imagine he would take over. \u201cOh no,\u201d he said, laughing. \u201cThere was never anything said like, \u2018You\u2019re going to take over the business.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Education was the priority. His sisters pursued professional careers. Ku double-majored in history and religion at UCLA, later teaching English in Korea. He explored photography and acting, eventually joining the Screen Actors Guild.<\/p>\n The life he built seemed far removed from the steady rhythm of pressing shirts.<\/p>\n Then came April 2024.<\/p>\n The phone call<\/p>\n Ku received a call from his mother. His father was in the hospital with bleeding in his brain caused by a reaction to new medication.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I\u2019d come up for a month,\u201d he recalled. \u201cHelp out. Then go back.\u201d<\/p>\n But recovery was slow. Retirement became unavoidable. At one point his father even placed the business on the market.<\/p>\n \u201cI worried, if he sold it, he\u2019d have nothing. And I was worried he would decline,\u201d Ku said. The store, he realized, was more than a job. It was structure. Purpose. Community.<\/p>\n Ku made a decision. He and his wife moved back to Sacramento. Enoch Ku would take over the shop his father had built.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t expecting anything from him,\u201d Ha Wan Ku said. \u201cBut when my son came to help, I was simply grateful and it warmed my heart. When a son does that, a father feels very thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n Reinvention begins<\/p>\n If the first generation builds stability, the second is building through clever adaptation and reinvention.<\/p>\n Dry cleaning, Enoch Ku said, is really an \u201cumbrella term.\u201d Something dirty comes in, something clean goes out \u2014 but the garments themselves keep evolving, as do the processes.<\/p>\n California began phasing out the solvent perchloroethylene<\/a>, known as \u201cperc,\u201d in 2007, with a final deadline in 2023. Long before that, Ku\u2019s father had already switched to a hydrocarbon system, anticipating environmental changes before many.<\/p>\n Fashion trends have been just as transformative, including the diminishing work suit and dress shirt. <\/p>\n \u201cDress shirts \u2014 that business is down,\u201d said Toran Brown, owner of Rytina<\/a> dry cleaners and president of the board of the national Dry Cleaning and Laundry Institute<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brown\u2019s family business stretches back to 1958, when his grandparents opened their shop after immigrating to the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cIt used to be almost two-thirds of the number of pieces for a traditional dry cleaner,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople would come in once a week with five or six shirts.\u201d<\/p>\n That rhythm has largely disappeared. \u201cPeople just don\u2019t wear that anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the shift dramatically. From 2020 through the following few years, Brown estimated the industry lost roughly a quarter of its businesses nationwide.<\/p>\n \u201cThat has not come back,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n What customers bring in now<\/p>\n The racks inside Vogue Cleaners still fill up \u2014 just with different garments.<\/p>\n Instead of daily office attire, customers increasingly bring items tied to specific occasions \u2014wedding dresses, vintage jackets, expensive casual wear.<\/p>\n \u201cYounger people are investing in their wardrobe,\u201d Ku said. \u201cIf they spent something expensive on it, they want to take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n And there\u2019s another reason customers still walk through the door. Ironing.<\/p>\n \u201cSure, I can throw it in the washing machine,\u201d Brown said. \u201cSure, I can throw it in the dryer. But I\u2019m not sure I want to iron it.\u201d<\/p>\n Professional garment care remains partly about chemistry and machinery \u2014 but also about craft. Knowing how to treat delicate fabrics. How to remove stains without damaging dyes. How to press a garment so it hangs just right.<\/p>\n Digital shift drives business<\/p>\n When Enoch Ku took over Vogue Cleaners, modernization came quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cWe switched to a new POS (point of sale) system,\u201d he said. \u201cNow customers get a text when their order is ready.\u201d<\/p>\n His father had already embraced Yelp early, encouraging satisfied customers to leave reviews. The shop built a strong online reputation.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I ran the store, we only did a little advertising,\u201d he said. \u201cBut now my son is running it and using social media to bring in many customers and more people come to the store.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe times have changed a lot, and it feels like things are gradually getting better compared to the past.\u201d He attributes the change to having a younger person running the business.<\/p>\n Ku has expanded that digital presence while also introducing pickup-and-delivery service and wash-and-fold laundry.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re really giving customers is time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Vogue has also expanded commercial accounts, which provide steady work that helps balance the decline in everyday dress shirts.<\/p>\n Family connection remains an advantage<\/p>\n For all the changes in fashion, chemistry and technology, one thing inside the shop remains constant: connection.<\/p>\n \u201cOurs is a very relationship-driven business,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n Customers don\u2019t come because they\u2019re obligated. They come because they trust the people behind the counter.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t trust companies,\u201d he said. \u201cYou trust people.\u201d<\/p>\n At Vogue Cleaners, that trust shows up in small moments.<\/p>\n Customers ask about Ha Wan Ku\u2019s health. Retirees who no longer need dry cleaning still stop by to chat. When Enoch Ku remembers details from past conversations \u2014 a job interview, a sick parent, a child heading off to college \u2014 customers are often surprised.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re like, \u2018Whoa, you remember that?\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cStanding behind the counter year after year, you begin to see people differently. Their worries. Their celebrations. Their routines.\u201d A dry cleaner becomes an accidental witness to the weekly rhythms of other people\u2019s lives.<\/p>\n A different kind of inheritance<\/p>\n Growing up, Enoch Ku mostly saw the sacrifice \u2014 the long hours and missed soccer games.<\/p>\n Now he sees something else. \u201cI\u2019m beginning to see how many lives he\u2019s touched,\u201d he said. \u201cJust by being a positive presence.\u201d<\/p>\n Customers who found comfort after losing spouses. Regulars greeted by name for decades. A web of relationships built slowly, one pressed shirt at a time.<\/p>\n Dry cleaning may evolve technologically. Solvents change. Software tracks garments digitally. Fashion cycles rise and fall.<\/p>\n But the core of the work remains stubbornly physical.<\/p>\n Steam still rises from the presses. Stains still need patient hands. Fabric still needs care. And customers still walk through the door with something that matters to them.<\/p>\n Every morning at Vogue Cleaners, the compressor hums to life. Steam fills the room. Shirts move down the rack. For a few hours, a father and son still stand behind the same counter.<\/p>\n The suits may be fewer now. But the work \u2014 and the human connections it creates \u2014 remain.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing to continue it with joy and add even more to what your dad built,\u201d Ha Wan Ku said to his son. \u201cSeeing that makes me proud and very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n Smiling, he added, \u201cYou talk well with customers and build good relationships, so the customers are happy and that makes me happy too. I\u2019m very proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n Daryl V. Rowland\u00a0is a freelance writer in Sacramento.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Abridged version: A small family business in Arden Arcade has emerged from a series of business and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[5592,121,123,122],"class_list":["post-232539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-feature","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05789-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ha Wan Ku at Vogue Cleaners on March 18, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Enoch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05834-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Enoch Ku working at Vogue Cleaners, his family business. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Ha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05826-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ha Wan Ku, Vogue Cleaners owner, on March 18, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Enoch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05876-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Enoch Ku and his father, Ha Wan Ku, working together at Vogue Cleaners, their family business. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Ha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05828-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ha Wan Ku at Vogue Cleaners on March 18, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Enoch](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05897-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Enoch Ku working at Vogue Cleaners, his family business. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Ha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05843-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ha Wan Ku at Vogue Cleaners on March 18, 2026. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Ha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05896-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ha Wan Ku and his son Enoch Ku working together at Vogue Cleaners, their family business. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Ha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05799-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Ha Wan Ku at Vogue Cleaners. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n![\"Vogue](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/DSC05810-1024x576.jpg.webp.webp\")
Vogue Cleaners in the Arden Arcade neighborhood of Sacramento. (Denis Akbari)<\/p>\n