After the pressure and chaos of holiday shopping, January is a chance for most retailers to take a breath…and possibly even a day off. Not so for Patric Richardson, owner of Mona Williams in Northeast Minneapolis and walking encyclopedia of fashion design. He’s kicking off 2016 with a new blog that speaks to his other passion, laundry.
Richardson loves to do laundry. Looooooves it. His eyes light up, just thinking about lifting grease out of silk. Mention red wine on a vintage tablecloth and he is at once endearingly sympathetic and cunningly heroic, with a foolproof plan of action. It started in college, when Richardson’s refined sense of fashion outpaced his bank account, and so he saved by figuring out how to hand wash fine garments. Today, Richardson dry cleans nothing. He washes everything. Suits? Basic. Cashmere? Totally. It makes sense: Richardson has a degree in textiles and merchandising. He understands fabric, loves clothes, and gets satisfaction from caring for them properly.
That’s why he sells the full line of cleaning products from The Laundress at his women’s boutique, Mona Williams. He swears by the line, but it's Richardson's advice on how to mix the products that really makes the difference. Richardson hosts Laundry Camp at his store twice a month—dirty martinis, clean clothes—and it can be a tough ticket to score. Now, we’ll all be able to benefit from his uncanny knowledge of spot removal and detergents in between camps. Richardson’s blog, The Laundry Evangelist is a place to connect, ask for advice, and collect his latest tips and tricks. Richardson kicked it off with holiday cleanup—removing everything from chocolate to pine sap from your clothes and linens.
The future looks very, very clean.
