Professional Services in Matthews

Like many good ideas, the one for this business came from Dan Rather. A group of friends interested in starting a business venture together were watching CBS Evening News one night when a report on the high costs of dry cleaning drew their attention to the profession. With an entrepreneurial spirit, the founders scoped out local dry cleaners and developed a business model that allowed them to clean all garments for a fee that’s as flat as the planet we walk on. Today they clean more than 1,200 items each day and continue to grow, thanks to their onsite, environmentally friendly equipment that cleans consciences as well as garments.

Justin Kates, portraitist and staff photographer for Stiff Magazine, captures fashion shots and glamour images with a honed aesthetic that edges toward the dark and gritty. Before each shoot, his makeup artist highlights features with a professional hand, either lightly accenting faces or artfully transforming them with heavy shadow or bright clown noses for fantasy-style shoots. Throughout photography sessions, Justin creates provocative images that simultaneously highlight beauty while deconstructing it to reveal the depths beneath. After shoots, he helps clients select images that he professionally retouches. With a masterful hand he beefs up colors, blends out imperfections, and ensures all neck tattoos are grammatically correct.

Easter Seals UCP North Carolina & Virginia, Inc. runs nine children’s care centers across the region that serve infants and children with disabilities. The care centers offer special services including speech, occupational, and physical therapy to those with disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy, and Down syndrome, in addition to classes for children with and without disabilities. Its curriculum is designed to appeal to each age group, with developmental programming for toddlers and exploratory play with toys for children up to age 8. Because the classes are inclusive, differently abled children learn together in groups, breaking down social barriers and encouraging them to help each other learn.

Mills Cleaners' garment gurus spruce up casual clothes and formalwear with services that range from dry cleaning to wash-and-fold laundering. They use in-house dry-cleaning equipment to purify clothing of all shapes and sizes, from petite women’s dresses to the Statue of Liberty’s Hawaiian shirt collection. They ensure down comforters and sleeping bags emerge soft and fluffy, and that bomber jackets look like new after a leather-cleaning service. The team also preserves wedding gowns for future generations.

Whereas most cave dwellers hide out in dark places, those at Cave Dwellers Dry Cleaners pull people into the public eye with clean, fresh clothing. Dry-cleaning services remove stains and odors without water, restoring aquaphobic textiles and clowders to cleanliness. Laundry services cleanse fabrics in precise temperatures using computer-controlled washing machines. Expert fitters at each location properly hem pants, fit shirts, and alter garments so that each hugs appendages at just the right place. Cleaners also tend to leather and suede, clean comforters and drapery, and repair shoes.

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