Gwen & Lindsey on Fox News!

Check out Gwen & Lindsey featured on the Fox News story "Dry Cleaning on the Cheap."

Get your sweaters ready for fall with our Sweater Service...

WHAT IT IS:

The Sweater Service is a convenient national hand washing service offered by the experts in laundering. The Sweater Service enables you to care for your items and the environment at The Laundress instead of the dry-cleaner. No other service will treat stains, hand wash, de-pill, steam and wrap your winter wools or summer cashmeres in such a way.

HOW IT WORKS:

Simply send in your items to The Laundress’ “laundry room” via UPS, DHL or FedEx. We will then go to work on getting your pieces looking and feeling just like the day you bought them, using our skills and products to clean and preserve the natural fibers of even the most delicate of yarns. We will then ship your items back to you in our cotton hotel laundry bag, free of charge.

Click here for more information...

NEW FROM THE LAUNDRESS & J.CREW!

We love cashmere and want the best for it. This sublimely scented, ultra-gentle spray (developed specially for J.CREW by The Laundress New York) harnesses the antibacterial properties and refreshing scent of ylang ylang, citrus and other essential oils to repel moths and keep your cashmere fresh and clean in between washings. Nontoxic. Biodegradable. Allergen free. USA. 4 fl oz/125 ml. Catalog/jcrew.com only.

Click here for more...

Get your new fall scent at Bergdorf Goodman...


Lindsey loves Kilian's Prelude to Love...

Recycle your Unwanted Clothes in NYC...

Think twice before tossing your clothes in the garbage. Each year two quadrillion pounds (that's a two with fifteen zeroes!) of used clothing end up in landfills and that’s only in the United States!
Did you know how long it can take textiles to degrade if they are thrown away?

Luckily, there are better solutions than just tossing out your old clothes...

Gwen went to the Green Market at Union Square and discovered the company Wearable Collections that recycles your unwanted clothing in the NYC area and donates to charity:

IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW:

For where and when to recycle your textiles, click here.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Q: Why a textile recycling program?

A: 5.7% of NYCs residential waste stream consists of textiles like clothing and towels. All told, New Yorkers discard 193,000 tons of textiles every year in NYC, at a cost to taxpayers and our environment.

Q: What items are accepted?
A: Our collections accept clean clothing, shoes, bedding, linens, hats, handbags, belts and other textiles.

Q: What happens to materials donated?

A: Materials are sorted into different grades including usable/non-usable, cotton scrap, cotton blend scrap and synthetics. These commodities are then sold for reuse or to recycling markets that turn materials into wiping rags, fiber for car seats and insulation.

Q: Is my donation tax deductible?
A: Yes! Your contribution to the program directly benefits Council on the Environment, Inc.

Q: What if I can't make it to these collections?

A: If you are unable to attend our weekly collections, contact Wearable Collections at 646-515-4387 or info (at) wearablecollections.com to see if you are eligible for a home pick up. Better yet, visit http://www.wearablecollections.com/ to find out how to set up a textile recycling program in your apartment building!

Q: Can my business bring items to the drop-off sites?

A: NYC law requires businesses to recycle textiles if they comprise more than 10% of the company's total waste stream. Visit NYCWasteLess to find a vendor.

The Laundress in Paris

Lindsey at the Maison et Objet Show in Paris...

Our clothespin chandelier by Chandi Design...

Introducing The Laundress Stain Brush!

We wanted to make removing stains even easier with our natural horse hair stain brush. Just add The Laundress Stain Solution to the brush and rub into the stain. Gentle and effective. Made in USA. Click here to order!

Visit the Madeleine Vionnet exhibit at the Arts Décoratifs Museum

When: June 24th, 2009 - January 31st, 2010
Where: Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris
Opening Hours:
Tue-Fri 11 am - 6 pm (until 9 pm Thu)
Sat & Sun 10 am - 6 pm



Lindsey went last week and loved it...


"She is considered an artist of the fashion industry. The best dressmaker of her time, using only wooden mannequins and drapping the fabric - no buttons, zippers or corsets. Madeline is to dressmaking as Picasso is to art. The styles are so feminine and stylish still today."

Online reviews for Signature Detergent

The Laundress Signature Detergent, Classic, 33.3 Ounce Bottle Reviews...

The Laundress products are great. The scents are amazing, especially Classic and Cedar. I have allergies and don’t like overly strong scents, so these scents are perfect because they are light and fresh smelling. It’s just the right touch of fragrance to my laundry and is SOO much better than Tide smell and gets the job done. I recommend everyone try this product!!!
…..
The Laundress signature detergent makes doing the chore of laundry more fun. The scent is incredible and my fiance also noticed the new scent in my clothes. I can’t wait to wash my clothes again!
…..
Great product and a good scent. If someone doesn’t like the scent, that is certainly his or her opinion, but smelling like Tide or a dryer sheet doesn’t really do it for me. Above and beyond that however, the product really works well. This product is now a staple in my laundry room.
…..
Outstanding product. No residue with a clean fresh scent. I recommend this product above all laundry detergents. I will use no other!
…..
I absolutely love the smell of this product. The only reason I’m not giving it five stars is because of the price. For a large load, you have to use more than they say in the directions (1/3-1/2 a cup, rather than 1/4 cup), so the bottle really does not go very far. But if you can afford this, it is a fantastic luxury
.…..
This detergent has changed my life. My clothes smell amazing and actually look clean. I can’t believe I’ve ever done laundry before The Laundress. I’ve never written a review before, but I just had to for this product. The Laundress is a must buy
.…..
Mmm- It’s fresh, clean, and delightful. The other upscale laundry brands can’t even compare; I’ve tried every one! Laundry is a chore, but The Laundress makes my clothes clean and sweet. I’m hooked!

via toplaundrydetergent.com

Before:




















After:
using The Laundress Crease Release

Keep your shirts white, crisp and green

Atlanta Men's Style Examiner
By: A. Thomas Ward II
August 24th, 2009

We’ve all been there at one time or another, scouring the laundry aisle for the latest and greatest product to keep our shirts from getting dingy. But which product has ever looked past the washing machine and ironing board to glance at the environment? Enter, The Laundress.

Founded in 2004 by two Cornell University grads, The Laundress touts an Eco-Friendly line of products that can get the job done, from brightening your whites, to adding a starch alternative to keeping your collars crisp. I know what you’re thinking, you’ve heard it all before, but here’s the lowdown on what sets them apart:

• 100% biodegradable
• Concentrated product requires less packaging, less water and less energy
• Recyclable plastic is used for all products and we recycle all packaging/shipping components
• Scents contain essential oil blends, not artificial fragrances
• No artificial colors, dye or unnecessary additives
• Allergen, phthalate, phosphate and paraben free

So, that takes care of the environment, now let’s get to what’s in it for you.

Their Whites Detergent is poised to “illuminate your whites by combining a natural bleach alternative and stain fighting agents.”

As with all of their products, this pupt is biodegradable, non-allergen and non-toxic.

Another stand out is their Stiffen Up product, to handle all your starching needs. This sucker is made of natural corn starch, won’t flake like those aerosol brands and is scented with essential oils instead of artificial fragrance.

You can buy these and all of the other products at www.thelaundress.com, and locally at:
Belle Chambre
318 Pharr Road
404-816-5333,
www.bellechambre.com

Gramercy Atelier
2351 A Peachtree Rd. NE
404-846-9244

For more info: email Tom with any and all style questions at atward357@yahoo.com. And don't forget to subscribe to get up to date information on Men's Style in Atlanta

From this September's UK Vogue...

Are you too clean?

Lathering up might not be the guilt-free indulgence you thought it was, says Debra Daley.

My delicate shoes, spindly heel and innocent of public pavement, were the cosseted kind you keep for eveningwear. Their exposure to the gritty outdoors had been limited to the brief journey from taxi to entrance hall. And yet, when I arrived at the home of a business acquaintance for a dinner recently, I was instructed by my hostess to remove them “for reasons of hygiene”. Feeling chastised for introducing these vehicles of vileness into the house, I slunk into the drawing room in my stockinged feet and felt somehow grubby. Has our obsession with cleanliness come to this?

The developed world has never been so squeaky clean – to have only one bath or shower a day is now considered the bare minimum of personal hygiene. We wash our faces twice a day. We take sanitizer with us everywhere. We buy 60 percent more household cleaning products than we did 10 years ago. We have accepted the notion that our bodies, as well as our homes, are subject to an indeterminate toxic build-up, and so we embark on detoxes with increasing regularity to the extent that detoxifying has become an entire industry on its own. We are cleaner than we’ve ever been, and we love it.

But whether we’re trying to turn back the tide of contamination with an arsenal of sanitisers, or power-showering our cares away, we can’t ignore the fact that our craving for cleanliness has repercussions. Water supplies are at an all-time low. Our individual water use has increased by 30 percent since 1970, and the Thames region in particular has the lowest amount of water available per person of anywhere in Britain. Globally, climate change is expected to reduce the amount of water available by five percent over the next 25 years. Water boards are launching initiatives imploring us to shower for one minute less a day, and to embrace the concept of the “four-minute shower”.

Plus, over-zealous cleansing isn’t actually that good for us. It’s well known that our super-clean state is making us more susceptible to allergic tendencies and auto-immune diseases. Public-health experts call this the “hygiene hypothesis” and the statistics bear it out – in the past 25 years, for example, incidences of asthma have increased four-fold in adults, and six-fold among children. Ironically, there are also beauty implications in over-cleansing: stripping hair of its natural oils or skin of its protective acid mantle can lead to dull hair , dry skin, and maybe some dermatitis here and there. Too much self-laundering is counter-productive, not to mention the exposure to too many cheap chemicals.

But it’s hard to resist soaping up, because there’s a powerful psychological dimension to cleansing ourselves. The act of personal body care is therapeutic as well as hygienic, and the bathroom is our own private temple of luxe. The ubiquity and variety of fragrant, frothy toiletries now available have encouraged us to use them profusely – and not only for the reasons of hygiene. We have learnt to revel in the experience of sensuous, beautiful cleanliness. All that foam and lather feels so generous, so abundant. No matter what scarcities attend your life – lack of love, perhaps, or insufficient funds – at this moment in your temple-bathroom, balancing on the palm of your hand a decadent outpouring of foam, you have plenty – and you are going to lavish it on yourself.

But what’s making all that lather? And was it made to be layered on so quite excessively? Surfactants, the chemical compounds that make all that luscious foam possible, are traditionally derived from petrochemicals, and although they are biodegradable, they are tough to break down. The concentrations of these foaming agents in sewage plants and ground water may be tiny, but their long-term consequences are not yet known. Environmental groups say we cannot ignore the impact of our zealous cleansing actions on the environment, whether it is the pressure on the water supply or concern about the chemicals we wash down our drains. But do big companies and mass-market consumers really care about the environmental impact of surfactants? Current market research says that they do. The Kline Group’s 2007 industry report on raw materials for cosmetics and toiletries is clear about that. Consumers want to use more natural products. Publicity about questionable ingredients has already motivated companies to reassess the raw materials they use, and to consider ethical actions such as limiting emissions, reducing water use and minimizing the consumption of non-renewable fuels.

Additionally, it is now possible to create 100 per cent natural surfactants – indeed, Steve Shiel, associate director at Procter & Gamble Beauty, says that it’s entirely feasible to create a shampoo that doesn’t lather at all. The problem is, consumers simply would not think it cleaned effectively. “Lather is a signal to the brain that says ‘cleansing’, just like the bitter taste of cough medicine implies you’ll get better, and the ammonia smell of blonde hair colour tells you it’s working. None of those ingredients need to be in the products any more, but they represent important psychological cues.” Imagine it: a shampoo without that abundance of sudsy soapiness seems scarcely worth using. (So complex is our relationship with lather that Shiel notes how even the type of suds can be skewed to different consumers. “We tailor the lather to match what different consumer groups are looking for – for example, a Pantene consumer might not want the lather to feel and look the same as a Herbal Essences girl would.”)

Companies have also been happy to sell us bumper-sized bottles of cleansing products so that we’ve adopted a “more is cleaner” attitude. Commercially savvy, certainly, but environmentally? Hardly. So given our love of suds, could we get used to washing our hair with a non-lathering shampoo, or using a single drop instead of a big glug of bath foam?

“Yes, we can” says Bryan Meehan, founder of Nude skincare. “We formulated our products so that they would be effective using only one or two squirts or a couple of drops. People are really starting to take this on board.” There’s a recent precedent in household washing detergents, too: we’ve gone from huge boxes of energy-guzzling powders to small tablets that use fewer resources and less water, and accepted these new products with enthusiasm. A similar evolution may happen in the personal-care area – all it takes is for us to alter our notion of what being “clean” really means.

It’s certainly true that everyone has their own definition of being clean. One acquaintance will happily go a week without washing the hair, but insists on washing her hands every time she’s been outside. Another has a thing about washing her feet before she gets to bed. Yet another only feels “clean” if she has washed with Cussons Imperial Leather; she has to take it on holiday with her as nondescript hotel soap simply won’t do. (Marcia Kilgore, founder of “joy of cleansing” brands Bliss and Soap & Glory, says that you can gauge your own propensity for cleanliness by your attitude to camping: “If the thought of it sends shudders down your spine, you’re probably fairly dependent on suds.”) But where do all these quirks come from? According to Katherine Ashenburg, author of The Dirt on Clean, ultimately it’s about control: “As more of the world spins out of control, it seems there is a greater drive to manage what we can, however pointless it may be.”

Yet, of course, some point to what already amounts to a backlash. Witness the trend for using dry shampoo to eke out a blow-dry, or the increasing number of women who, are opting out of hair-washing at home, preferring to make a weekly visit to a salon, to have their hair washed and blow-dried. There are even some fringier groups with online forums who discuss the fact that they no longer even use shampoo. And incredibly, a recent UK survey by Mira Showers has revealed that 43 per cent of women polled admitted to not washing for more than three days. For the record, most experts, like immunologist Dr Mary Ruebush (author of Why Dirt Is Good) say that aside from a daily bath or shower, washing your hands often – with plain old soap and water – is as excessive as anyone’s cleansing regime needs to be.

The time seems right – as we rebound from a period of excess – for a different point of view. Our innate desire for self-improvement is entering a less profligate cycle. Being overly fastidious about our houses and our bodies is looking irrelevant now that we have bigger problems on our minds, such as the economy and the environment. Ashenburg adds that in the future, perhaps, the choice to be clean may not even be totally ours: “Nothing would change our bathing habits more quickly and thoroughly than a serious water shortage.”

But how hard on ourselves can we really be? Excess may have lost its luster, but we still need delight in our lives – and personal body care can deliver it. Its sensual nature has a deep connection with our animal selves. The caressing action of massaging creams into our hair, stimulates production of endorphins that give us a sense of wellbeing and signals a momentary break from domestic and work demands. Surely – environmental concerns notwithstanding – of all the things we might berate ourselves for, being clean should scarcely be one of them.

By Debra Daley Vogue UK September 2009

Spotted...

The Laundress & Le Labo Signature Detergent at Colette in Paris...