Fashion disruptor: Gwen Whiting of The Laundress

In 2002, when Gwen Whiting and Lindsey Boyd first conceived of The Laundress, a company devoted to laundry products, neither of them had a washing machine. But the two, who met while studying fiber science and apparel design at Cornell, knew they needed to disrupt the marketplace. At the time, Whiting was working in design at Ralph Lauren Home and Boyd was in sales at Chanel. "The company was born from the fact that all of our clothes said 'dry clean only,' but we knew they were washable thanks to our textile background," explains Whiting. "There was nothing available besides Woolite, Tide, and the dry cleaner, so we decided to do something about it and make some products." In 2004, they officially launched. Furthermore spoke with Whiting about the state of entrepreneurship then and now, the company's eco-friendly goals, and best practices for washing workout apparel.