Inside the UK's First LaundRe

In a quiet industrial pocket of East London, inside what was once a makeshift church, a denim revolution is unfolding. This isn’t your average factory. There’s an ambitious team, state-of-the-art machines, and a vision for fashion’s greener future. Welcome to LaundRe, the UK’s first and only industrial-scale denim laundry using sustainable finishing technologies. This circular fashion hub, combines high-tech reprocessing with deep design expertise. It is a full-scale rethink of how our clothes are made, re-made, and reevaluated in a time of climate crisis, mounting textile waste, and growing consumer scrutiny.

A welcome is exactly what anyone who goes to see the facility will receive. I am warmly greeted by Salli Deighton, founder and CEO of LaundRe, and Rowan Hunt Chief Technology Officer, both of whom have extensive experience in the textile industry. We begin by going upstairs where LaundRe have put together a denim showroom, a thoughtfully curated journey through denim’s lifecycle, crafted to engage visitors ranging from fashion insiders to curious newcomers like myself. It has only been a few months since they have had the site but the team have worked hard to transform it. 

“We walked into a filthy old church with a leaky roof and turned it into a world-class denim facility. We scrubbed the kitchen ourselves. We reused carpet tiles from an office refit. Everything here has been reclaimed… including the garments.” Salli Deighton, LaundRe Co-founder, tells me. 

With decades of experience at brands like Wrangler, Lee, and FatFace, both Salli and Rowan bring an informed, if at times critical, passion to an industry they know intimately. Salli speaks with zeal about her enduring love of denim. Over the years, she’s built a deep well of knowledge, not only through professional experience but through first-hand exposure including visits to factories in Bangladesh, where she saw up close how jeans were made and the conditions under which they were produced.

Every year, millions of pairs of jeans are produced, shipped, and sold yet a staggering number are never worn, estimates range from 10%-40%. Unsold stock is often incinerated, landfilled, or destroyed overseas. As pressure mounts on brands to act responsibly, especially under looming regulations like extended producer responsibility (EPR), LaundRe offers a much needed alternative for buyers. Salli tells me, “Big brands are writing off stock left, right and centre. They think the value’s gone but it hasn’t. If they sent it to us, we could bring it back to life at a lower cost than producing something new in Turkey.”

First of a kind Technology 

At the heart of what LaundRe is doing is a rethinking of the laundry process, where it is happening, how we use the technology today, and how at every point a more sustainable pathway can be taken. The Laundry’s machines combine chemistry, physics, and design precision in ways that feel more like a research lab than a clothing plant. They are the first of their kind to be in the UK. 

The “Rainforest” Washer

This machine uses a concave drum and internal scoops to continuously rain water onto garments, dramatically reducing water consumption compared to traditional methods. Instead of fully submerging jeans, it creates a light, constant cycle enough to achieve a clean finish with a fraction of the waste.

Nebulising Systems

Replacing the need for soaking or harsh chemical baths, the nebuliser system turns water and treatment agents into a fine mist that clings to the garment. This allows for ultra-targeted finishes with as little as three litres of water per load.

Laser Finishing

Inside a sealed chamber, high-powered lasers etch whiskers, fades, and other decorative details onto jeans, a process that once involved sandblasting, manual scraping, or toxic sprays. Brands can send digital designs, which are burned directly into the fabric.

The Ozone Room

Perhaps most impressive is the Laundry’s ozone chamber. Oxygen is charged into ozone (O₃) using a controlled “thunderstorm” process and used to bleach, sterilise, and refresh denim without water or chemicals. It’s the same technology used in medical-grade disinfection and it's now helping brands rescue otherwise wasted garments.

Their energy system is no less ambitious. A custom boiler, one of only a few like it in the UK, operates at emissions levels at a fraction of most London factories. Reclaimed heat and water systems ensure a minimal carbon footprint throughout the process.

Reworking, Refinishing, Reborn

Beyond the machinery lies a bigger vision: to rewrite the lifecycle of denim.

In the current model, brands must predict styles and finishes months, sometimes years, in advance, often producing more than they need to secure low prices from overseas factories. When styles don’t sell, they’re written off. What LaundRe offers is a nimble, local solution. Brands can ship raw or unsold denim and request new finishes, colourways, or distressing treatments on demand.

This flexibility allows:

• Upcycled collections made from unsold or returned jeans.

• Micro-drops for trend-led fashion, with finishes developed in days instead of months.

• Localised sampling that reduces shipping, carbon emissions, and guesswork.

• 
  

“We call it recycling through laundry,” Salli explains. “We sterilise, we laser, we wash — and we give garments a new life in a matter of hours.”

Lost Education

Education is a core aspect of the LaundRe’s mission. Buyers, designers, and students are invited into the facility to learn how fibre, dye, and wash choices impact sustainability. “Most UK buyers don’t know how jeans are made. They’ve never seen a laser or ozone machine. But the decisions they make every day shape the industry. The knowledge that built the denim industry in the UK has been lost. We’re bringing it back - and modernising it” Salli says. 

The team runs regular training days, teaching participants how to engineer a sustainable jean, from fibre content to wash technique, and how to avoid costly or wasteful design decisions. It’s a rare peek behind the curtain of production that most of the industry never sees.“This shouldn’t be a secret. We’re bringing students, designers, buyers. Anyone who’ll listen. We want this to become standard knowledge in fashion,” Rowan adds.

Next door, collaborators like Reskinned  are building out complementary operations: sorting customer returns, reselling repaired garments, and co-creating new circular systems. They often work together, with Reskinned passing on old stock which can’t be sold for trial runs. It appears a circular fashion community is taking root. 

A Scalable Vision for British Fashion

Currently, LaundRe processes just a sliver of the UK’s denim volume around 0.3%. But demand is growing. With over £1.5 million in letters of intent already signed, they expect to double their operation within a year. “What we’ve built here is a blueprint,” says Salli. “If brands want UK-based solutions that reduce waste, emissions and cost, we’re ready.”

And they’re not waiting for the industry to catch up.

“We have the machines, the knowledge, and the proof. Now we’re building the future.”

The demand is already global. “We’re getting calls from Australia, Europe, the US everyone’s looking for answers to fashion waste,” she adds. “We believe this is it.”