I don’t often get excited by laundry products, but when I learnt that in the USA a former designer for Ralph Lauren Home (Gwen Whiting) and a sales manager for Chanel Ready-to-Wear (Lindsey Weiber) had left their glamorous worlds to immerse themselves in laundry products, I realised that perhaps Marigolds really are the new Blahniks.

My view is that since some degree of domesticity is unavoidable, and since keeping woollens in good nick makes economic sense, we should make it as enjoyable as possible. If you’ve spent nearly £2,000 on, say, a woollen Missoni coat (as I once did — worth every penny, too), you don’t want it mangled in some manky dry-cleaner. So when globalandgorgeous.com introduced me to laundry lotions and shampoos, developed by The Laundress, that not only cleaned clothes but were infused with fragrances from a proper perfumery, I couldn’t wait to try them.

Like so many successful ideas, this one was born out of hard-won personal experience. Gwen and Lindsey had loads of gorgeous clothes (perks of the jobs) but couldn’t afford the dry-cleaning. Anyway, some of their most precious garments needed to be cleaned delicately at home. But the girls couldn’t find the right sort of detergents or shampoos. Naturally, they took themselves off for a weekend crash course in chemistry and, after three years’ development, came up with about 30 heavenly-sounding, properly functioning products.

They have four basic scents for all their products: Classic (citrus, sandalwood, ylang-ylang); Baby (vanilla musk, bergamot, lavender); Cedar (cedarwood oil, frankincense, spices, citrus zest) and Lady (amber, citrus, green herbs). Then there are cleaning products for whites, darks, baby clothes, linens and cashmeres, as well as conditioners, stain solutions and two amazing products called Crease Release (spray it on your linens and the creases fall out) and Stiffen Up (as effective as starch but smells nicer). The Wool and Cashmere Shampoo is what they call the “hero” product — the one that, once tried, earns a permanent place in the laundry cupboard. Prices are mostly between £4.95 and £5.95, while the Wool and Cashmere shampoo is £11.95 and the Signature Detergent (for general laundering) is £14.95.

You can buy them through www.globalandgorgeous.com, but do check the website of The Laundress at www.thelaundress.com. Apart from a riveting animated lesson in how to wash your cashmeres, there is a chance to pose your own laundry-related dilemmas to the girls. At about 4pm I posted mine, asking for help in getting red-wine stains out of my white tablecloths, a challenge that our local laundry can’t meet — though it is highly skilled at folding the cloths so that you don’t notice the stain until you get back home. I had their reply by 9pm, as follows:

“Hello Lucia, Ah, the downfall of fabulous red wine. This is my method. Pour The Laundress Stain Solution directly on to the wine stain and rinse with HOT water.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. The wine first turns grey, then yellowish. When I get to the yellowish state I launder (with hot water) with our Whites Detergent, and pour extra detergent on the remaining spot.

Do not put in the dryer if the spot is still visible. Re-wash, as the dryer will set the stain.

Successful on my white linen slip covers . . . more times than I’d like.

Happy Laundering!”

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