Okay, so the British greatcoat and Sweedish greatcoat came in. They've had two good spritzs with Febreze each and the "special odor" has been well reduced.
I've also turned loose the Gizmo steamer on them to both kill odor and steam out creases from shipping and years of storage.

But, they have been somewhere for a VERY long time and the wool is nowhere as near as soft and flexible as my other greatcoats that were created new for me a few years back.

I'm wondering if the softness will return if I just wear them around a while...

Or, what I'm thinking of trying is to soak them in the bathtub with Woolite for a while.

Now one says "Dry Clean Only" but hey, that's just another form of power and control sign....

If one can soak a kilt in the tub in Woolite...and wool blankets....why not a wool greatcoat or two??

Just wanna double check with any experts on the board in case that would screw things up rather than help out.

Thanks for any feedback or suggestions I've missed.

Not sure I wanna take them to the dry cleaners because of "that smell" that comes back....would rather deal with musty smells than chemical smells...

Ron