Damage | The laundry ruined Rita Jokinen’s “world’s most valuable garment” and refused to compensate for the damage

From Tampere Rita Jokinen was shocked when the laundromat destroyed her “most valuable garment in the world”: a custom-made silk wedding dress.

Jokine vents his frustration on Tiktok, where he has more than 36,000 followers. The video of the ruined wedding dress has already been viewed almost half a million times.

“I don’t know how to film this video, because I’m already crying,” Jokinen says in the video.

In the video, Jokinen says that during the past year, she has spent “a lot of time and money” designing the wedding dress of her dreams.

Someone makes beauty related content on Tiktok and Instagram. During the last year, she has also shared on her social media accounts about her hunt for the perfect wedding dress.

Jokisen’s suit was designed Anni Ruuthwhose handwriting has also been, for example, Sanna Marini wedding dress.

The starting point for the design of Joki’s suit was that the suit would be useful even after the wedding.

Jokinen got married at the end of August. After the wedding, she went on a honeymoon with her husband, but before that she took her wedding dress to the SOL laundromat in Tampere.

“A couple of days ago, I took the body home,” Jokinen says in his video.

Valuable the suit had shrunk in the wash, according to Jokinen, the corset “went in five hundred different directions”, the surface of the silk fabric was pilled and loose threads were hanging from it.

In the video, Jokinen says that he had given the washing instructions for the suit to the laundromat. The laundry was assured that they know what they are doing.

The laundry refused to compensate for the damage.

Washing the suit cost 180 euros. The suit itself “thousands”, Jokinen says in the video.

In his video, Jokinen presents both the damage to the suit and the laundry’s response. According to the laundromat, the suit was washed in a gentle chemical wash according to the instructions and the typical washing method for silk. According to Pesula, nothing abnormal from wear and tear was noticed in the surface material of the suit in the store. In addition, the answer stated that the suit was carefully finished by hand.

Someone no longer wanted to give HS an interview on the subject. However, the video can still be seen on Tiktok.

In his video, Jokinen states that nothing can bring the suit back. He says that he made the video mainly to remind others that you should be careful about where you put your most valuable clothes to be washed.

Soon Jokinen video also commented on who designed the suit Anni Ruuth on his Instagram account. Ruuth updated her Instagram stories that this was not the first time that “the laundry service in question” has destroyed a suit made by Ruuth.

“If you don’t have the skills to handle sensitive materials, then don’t do it. Many months of work was destroyed here. It’s not about a garment, but a piece of art,” Ruuth wrote.

Ruuth’s update is no longer visible, as the stories are removed from Instagram after 24 hours.

Ruuth clarifies to HS on the phone that over the years, “some” suits have come across that have been damaged in the laundry’s handling.

“No wonder, it’s always been this same laundry chain,” says Ruuth.

Ruuthi’s suits are instructed to be dry cleaned, which means dry cleaning.

Ruuth does not want to comment on the fate of Jokinen’s suit, because she does not know what has happened in the laundry.

However, Ruuth says that silk can also be ruined in dry cleaning if the chemicals used are too strong. According to Ruuthi, a gentle, hydrocarbon-based wash should be chosen for washing silk, which is gentler than other chemicals used in dry cleaning.

“Until now, I have not given such detailed instructions, but I have trusted that a professional laundromat knows how to dry-clean silk. This was a good lesson for myself too, that maybe in the future we need to give more detailed instructions.”

Ruuth says she doesn’t want to attack the laundry chain and she understands that human mistakes happen.

“However, you have to take responsibility for mistakes, especially when even a layman can see that the suit is ruined. Pesula’s response became an indifferent feeling. It’s really upsetting for the customer.”

Sol Laundry services managing director Maria Rantala apologizes for the upset caused to Joki and that the washing result was not as expected.

“This is a really sad case and it’s quite clear that when it comes to the wedding dress, the end result feels really bad.”

According to Rantala, the laundry has followed the written washing instructions given to the customer by the manufacturer of the suit. The chemicals used by the laundry are gentle and intended for silk.

“We successfully wash thousands of party dresses every year.”

Rantala says that the company has taken the case seriously and it is being investigated.

SOL has asked the social media influencer to investigate the suit in more detail, so that they could find out what went wrong. The laundry is ready to refund the customer the washing fee, says Rantala.

“Once we have received the suit for investigation, we will be happy to continue the discussion on possible further measures as well. So far, however, we have only seen pictures, so no progress has been made in the matter.”

Why did SOL initially announce that no damage has occurred and there is no reason for compensation?

“It was because the suit had been washed completely according to the instructions. But there has certainly been improvement in customer service here.”

Correction 15.9. at 0.13: Changed the seamstress to the manufacturer, because the washing instructions for the suit were given by the manufacturer.