The repair game has gone beyond the satisfying videos you binge on the internet featuring luxury bags and shoes being restored. Today, several brands, locally and globally are being compelled to offer repair and care services to their customers, in a bid to be slightly more environmentally conscious.
The Need For After-Care
For decades only high-end luxury brands across the world of the likes of Chanel, Hermes, Dior have been known for their after-sales repair and restoring services. With the conversation around sustainability in fashion becoming increasing common and urgent, fashion has been coping and evolving in different ways, one of them being the raging wave of after-care services and products for clothing and footwear.
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In July last year, British-based multi-brand boutique Browns Fashion partnered with an on-demand repair services app called The Restory to provide restore and repairing services to Browns Fashion customers. The Restory has been offering a range of restoring services, including resoling and reheeling of shoes, specialist bag cleaning, as well as invisible mending. Brown Fashion’s parent company, Farfetch and Selfridges have also already partnered with The Restory to offer similar services.
Along with the rise in repair/restore offerings, brands have also seen the after-care space as an opportunity to launch laundry-related products. While retailers like Asos have gone on to stock niche detergent brands, fast fashion brands like Zara has launched their line of laundry products.
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The Indian Scene
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While clothing repair services are not farfetched in India- after all, all you need is to give your tailor a call, there are many ways brands have tried to make it even easier for customers to repair clothing, accessories and even jewellery.
Leather Laundry
Based out of New Delhi, the Leather Laundry offers a range of repair and restoration services for leather and luxury goods for everything from cleaning to repairing tears or damages. With a number of testimonials under their umbrella, their services are available in Delhi, Mumbai as well as Bangalore.
Pure Cult
Launched during the pandemic, Pure Cult offers a range of green cleaning products including its range of plant-based detergents and fabric softeners, making laundry more environmentally friendly. The range is infused with bio-based Antimicrobial agents as well as Geranium and Lavender essential oils, leaving out toxic and harmful ingredients which in turn give clothes a longer life as it’s less harsh as opposed to conventional detergents and cleaning agents. Pure Cult also offers a range of handwashes, dishwasher tablets, bathroom cleaners and more.
Image Source: Instagram/joinpurecult
Punah.co
While the brand already offers a range of upcycled, handmade pieces as well as customised DIY upcycling kits, they also offer customised upcycling services for old or damaged clothing. Do look out for the brand’s one-of-a-kind upcycled denim pieces to add to your wardrobe.
Image Source: Instagram/punah.co
Lune
Fashion and fine jewellery label Lune offers a wide range of gold-plated brass and silver jewellery along with a range of fine gold jewellery as well. Apart from customisation services, the brand offers repair services starting from as low as ₹500, as well as replating services at nominal fees given that a majority of their products are gold plated.
Image Source: Instagram/shoplune
Mr. Pronto
This shoe and bag repair service offers a really wide range of repair and restoration services even for non-leather products. They also offer “Sneaker Spa” services to clean and waterproof casual shoes and sneakers, giving them a new life.
Green Detergent Options
Cleaning supply brands Ariel, Tide and Surf Excel launched their single-use detergent capsule, pods/shots designed for stain removal, cleaning and fabric care meant specifically for washing machine cycles. Being a highly compact laundry product, they’re meant to have a lower carbon footprint and are also a lot more convenient to use.
Silai Mitr
Through the Delhi government’s Business Blasters programme for school students, a group of four students of Sarvodaya Co-Ed Senior Secondary School in Delhi presented ‘Silai Mitr’ an app-based stitching service that allows customers to avail themselves a range of stitching-related services from tailors nearby. While the app is yet to launch, this would help a plethora of customers looking to repair or refurbish any old clothes easily.