The Lab, the biotech fashion care brand, is launching its new campaign, Take Care of the Things You Love on 13 April. More than a brand statement, it’s a provocation built on the idea that the future of fashion can’t only be about what we buy. It also needs to be about how we care for what we already own.
For years, the sustainability conversation in fashion has fixated on sourcing, production, resale, and waste. But there’s been a blind spot sitting in plain sight: what happens after something enters your wardrobe.
“We’ve normalised replacing things before they’ve even had a chance to last. That’s the part of fashion no one really wants to talk about,” says The Lab founder, Jo Farah. “We’ve built an entire system around buying better, but we don’t ask whether we’re caring better. Our ‘Take Care of the Things You Love’ campaign is about correcting that and shifting the focus from replacement to responsibility.”
The Blind Spot in Sustainability
‘Take Care of the Things You Love’ arrives at a moment when consumers are already moving toward more intentional purchases. The problem, as The Lab sees it, is that longevity isn’t just built into a product. It’s also built into our behaviour.
Without care, even the best-made pieces are put on a fast path to waste. When colours fade and fabrics lose their structure prematurely, garments still end up discarded sooner than they should. And just like that, something that could have lasted years is reduced to fast-fashion with a longer receipt.
Beyond a philosophical gap, it’s also a practical one. Most people simply don’t know how to care for what they own in a way that doesn’t rely on aggressive cleaning or over-washing. The Lab’s care range, spanning footwear, apparel, headwear, denim, and accessories, is built around a different approach.
It uses beneficial bacteria to break down dirt and odour at a microscopic level, continuing to work for up to 72 hours after application. Instead of stripping materials, the process supports the integrity of the fabric itself, allowing garments to be cleaned less aggressively, less frequently, and with less long-term damage.
What We Keep, Keeps Us
At the centre of the ‘Take Care of the Things You Love’ campaign is a look at the emotional and cultural attachment people form with the garments that stay with them.
A jacket can carry someone’s past so completely that wearing it feels like stepping into a conversation already in progress, and denim can outlive entire phases and come out the other side looking better for it. Sneakers can represent personal milestones: the pair you saved for, checked restocks for, or told yourself you didn’t need until you absolutely did. Caps carry memories of trips, first games, or someone else’s taste before it became yours
And then there’s everything in between. The tee that could’ve been replaced three times already but hasn’t or the dress you only wear when you need to feel like yourself again. More than clothes, they’re evidence of time spent, habits repeated, and of things that stayed when everything else changed.
There’s a tension that sits between what something is worth when you buy it, and what it becomes if you keep it long enough. The value builds slowly, through memory and attachment, until the idea of replacing it starts to feel less like an upgrade and more like a loss.
Led by Science, Committed to Care
Care isn’t admin, and it definitely isn’t something you squeeze in once an item is already worn down and you’re trying to recover what’s left. It’s a decision you make in the way you treat something while it still feels new.
Care asks you to slow down in a world that rewards speed. It introduces a different pace, one where ownership means more over time. “There’s a disconnect between how much meaning people attach to their clothes and how they actually treat them day to day,” says Farah. “You see it all the time in pieces that people say they love, but don’t really look after. Care forces you to confront whether something really matters to you, or whether you just like the idea of it. Because if it truly matters, you care for it.”