A day out at the dry cleaning show

On Sunday I went up to CleanEx in Ascott with Vicki, Roni and Pierre.

If you’ve never heard of it, CleanEx is the UK show for laundry, dry cleaning and textile care.

It’s where you see equipment running, talk to suppliers face-to-face, and pick up on the small changes happening behind the scenes. The ones that end up affecting how garments look and feel when they come back to you.

It’s not a “big reveal” sort of day. It’s more like a good service MOT. You go, you look closely, you ask questions, and you come home sharper.

And it was genuinely nice just spending the day together as a team, chatting, catching up, and learning about the sort of things we’re all passionate about. You don’t always get that time in the middle of a busy week.

One of the nicest stops for us was the Empty Box Company stand. They make the wedding dress boxes we use, and they’d brought newer designs along, different finishes, small improvements that make the whole thing feel more considered. It sounds like a detail, but wedding dress work is detail. When someone brings a dress in, it’s rarely “just a dress”. It’s a memory, and often a family piece in the making. Presentation and long-term storage matter.

Roni, unsurprisingly, headed straight for anything that involved spotting and precision. She had a go on the spotting kit machine while we were there — the hands-on bit that tells you far more than a brochure ever will. It’s one thing hearing someone explain a system, and another seeing how it behaves in real time, with proper control. Roni’s very good at noticing the small things that decide whether a finish looks beautiful or just “done”.

Vicki got properly stuck in as well. She also had a go on the spotting machine. She came away really pleased with what she learned about GreenEarth cleaning and said it gave her a much better understanding of what it actually is, and when it’s the right choice. She also loved going through the different cleaning products and talking about what suits particular garments best, because it’s rarely one-size-fits-all.

And Pierre and I… We ended up spending a lot of time looking at new software.

That probably sounds boring, but it matters more than it should. Good software is one of the quiet things that makes a service feel smooth: clearer tracking, fewer errors, better notes on special handling and a better experience at the counter. When it works, you don’t notice it. You just feel like everything is in hand.

A big theme across the day was change, not dramatic change, but steady change. Fabrics keep evolving. Finishes keep evolving. Products keep evolving. So our job is to keep our standards steady while the world moves around them. That means staying curious, testing first, and never rushing a garment just to get it out of the door.

We didn’t come home with a “new trick”. That’s not really the point.

We came home with a few good ideas, a few useful supplier conversations, and a clearer sense of what’s improving in the industry, especially around wedding dress preservation, spotting control and the products we trust.

If you ever want to talk something through a silk piece you’re nervous about, a pale linen item that’s been worn a few times, or a wedding dress you’d like cleaned and stored properly after the day — bring it in. We’ll check the fabric and any detailing first, and we’ll be honest about what’s realistic before we do anything.

----------------------------------------------

📍 Farthings Dry Cleaners Cambridge

143 Milton Road, Cambridge, CB4 1XE

📞 Call us: 01223 755180

🕒 Opening Hours: Mon–Fri 8:30 am–4 pm | Sat 8:30 am–3 pm

🗺️ Get directions to our Cambridge Branch

📍  Farthings Dry Cleaners Trumpington

 1 Anstey Way, Trumpington, Cambridge, CB2 9JE

📞 Call us: 01223 625310

🕒 Opening Hours:  Mon–Fri 8:30 am–4 pm | Sat 8:30 am–3 pm

🗺️ Get directions to our Trumpington Branch

----------------------------------------------

✨ Who is Farthings Dry Cleaners? Farthings Dry Cleaners is known as Cambridge and Trumpington's most sought-after dry cleaners. It's the ideal home for your high-end garments preservation and alteration to be cared for, helping them last as long as possible and always making you look stunning. Trust Farthings — where your garments are cared for like couture.