‘Disruptor’ brand RWRK teams up with Regenex and Super Laundry to give landfill-headed towels brand new life as in-demand streetwear

An innovative upcycling start-up is repurposing overdyed hospitality towels for street style fashion that is catching attention around the globe.

London-based RWRK Studio has partnered with linen recovery specialist Regenex and Super Laundry to take discarded luxury towels from gyms and hotels and turn them into unique hoodies, jackets, shorts, trousers, tote bags and other must-haves.

Now orders are flying in from the UK, United States, Europe and further afield as demand is growing and the partnership works to upscale production.

Fast-growing Super Laundry, which services high-end health club and hospitality customers in the South East of England, routinely sends marked and discoloured white linens to Regenex in West Yorkshire for revival.

Recently, Regenex has been sustainably overdyeing high-quality Super Laundry towels – rejected when they cannot be restored to pristine white – for use by RWRK, with two custom colours, Crown Blue and Turf Green, leading the range.

RWRK, pronounced ‘rework’, was founded by young Nigerian-born entrepreneur Farouk Braimoh in 2022. At first the studio re-made branded jeans and other items before being drawn to the possibilities of towels as a cosy, tactile and tough material to create clothing from.

Braimoh, who studied business and economics, and has worked for Deloitte, DePop and Burberry, said: “We are a disruptor in our sector and so are Regenex and Super Laundry.

“We all care deeply about sustainability and getting the most out of any and all resources – and we all want to change things and shake things up. That’s why we are working so well together.”

Braimoh continued: “I grew up in Nigera and moved to the UK at the age of 12. As children we would recycle and reuse everything, playing chequers with two colours of drinks bottle tops and making funnels from cut-in-half bottles. This ethos has stayed with me. I love that we are saving great-quality towels from landfill or rag.”

RWRK’s reputation has spread via social media – the brand has many thousands of followers on Instagram – and is selling ‘1 of 1’ high end items online, with shorts from £54 and hoodies £133. Retail deals and an expanding range of products are set to follow as the brand becomes more established.

Paul Hamilton, Regenex’s Technical Director, said: “We are delighted to be collaborating with RWRK and Super Laundry on this project that’s genuinely exciting and inventive. We are all on the same page when it comes to circularity and thinking differently, trying things out.

“We are impressed by Farouk and his team’s energy and spirit of reinvention – we feel like we’re at the start of an interesting and productive journey together with our friends at Super Laundry.”

William Ray, Founder of Super Laundry commented: “Sustainability is a core priority for us and we hate to see waste of any kind, while maintaining the high standards that our customers require. We deal in huge volumes of linen every day and work hard with Regenex to keep as much of it in circulation for as long as possible.

“Where whites fall short, we are delighted to have found, through RWRK, a route to new leases of life for those luxury towels – the best on the market – which have so much potential as attractive streetwear.”