Denim industry experts came together at Kingpins Amsterdam last week to discuss the importance of repair, and the various ways to achieve the same goal: to extend the life of jeans for as long as possible. The talk was moderated by David Tring, the founder of The Magic of Denim consultancy.

LaundRe is navigating repair on a commercial scale, though not through sewing and patchwork. Rather, the one-year-old laundry in London’s Docklands is reimagining small units of product with new washes and finishes.

LaundRe founder Salli Deighton shared her perspective on establishing a laundry in London from the ground up. “We’re good at the moment,” she said. “It was hard at first—not going to lie. But the reason we built it is because people were asking us where they could do small volume, where they can prepare things, where they can make things happen.”

However, it wasn’t love at first sight for most potential clients. While brands sent their teams “for a look,” Deighton said no one knew how to utilize the laundry for their production. Then LaundRe began to host classes and started to see traction. Business began to pick up in March and now every week she said there’s a new brand and retailer with garments to clean and update. LaundRe is planning to add a second laser machine, and it could be at capacity by early next year.

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