National Clothesline

After serving on the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute’s staff for 16 years, Chris Allsbrooks recently bid farewell with thoughts of tackling new challenges.

During her career, she has analyzed well over ten thousand garments and has delivered dozens of informative and interesting seminars — all punctuated with her trademark infectious smile.

The departure has been a long time coming as Allsbrooks informed DLI of her plans during the summer of 2008.

During an interview with National Clothesline at the California Cleaners Association’s August convention in Long Beach, she said it was time for a change.

“I’m going through a little mini mid-life crisis and I really just want to try something new, a new challenge,” she explained.

“I don’t want to look back ten years from now and say, ‘I would have, should have, could have...’“ she said. “Now is the time to do it.”

“I’ve had a very long run and I’m sure there are other people who would love the opportunity to do some of the things I do,” she added. “The industry needs new blood.”

Allsbrooks will remain in the industry. After all, she has always had a deep love of anything involving fashion.

After graduating from Gaithersburg High School, she earned a degree in Fashion Merchandising/Textile Marketing at the University of Maryland.

During her final summer there, she worked for Fashion Floor Cleaners where she witnessed plant owner Darryl Trupp periodically sending garments to DLI (then known as IFI) in order to be analyzed.

At that point, there was no doubt in her mind that she would one day work for the association. That ambition was realized about three years later, after Allsbrooks spent time working as a retail manager for the clothier Lerner, a division of Limited.

Even with her extensive textile background, Allsbrooks had to undergo quite a bit of training to be ready for analytical work in the lab. Fortunately, she was more than up to the task.

“I love my job because I never do the same thing every day,” she told National Clothesline in 2000. “I’m always learning.”

That sentiment remained true for the remainder of Allsbrook’s career with DLI. She has always considered education of any form to be of paramount importance.

“Anybody who has ever spoken to me at length, I will always tell them they need to get an education somewhere,” she said. “There is always something new to be learned.

Now, she is hoping to continue learning and to encounter new challenges.

Allsbrooks is departing from DLI on positive terms and emphasized that she has been quite fond of the experience. In fact, she will be open “to assisting DLI in the future if they need any help.”

“I’ve had wonderful opportunities at DLI. They allowed me to hone in on some skills that I didn’t even know I had,” she said. “I love this industry. I met a lot of wonderful people.”