Eileen Fisher is known in part for being a leader in the sustainable fashion sphere. But the latest question Fisher is tackling is: What can you do with clothes you don’t wear anymore? One option is to turn them into art.
At the newly redesigned Eileen Fisher store in Brooklyn, the brand celebrated its Waste No More campaign with an intimate dinner on Tuesday, attended by designer Rachel Comey, zero-waste influencer Lauren Singer, and Anti_Fashion Manifesto writer and trend forecaster Li Edelkoort, who curated the exhibit. All over the store were textiles with the ghost of old garments woven into them, by Waste No More creative director Sigi Ahl. The art was fashioned into daybed coverings, pillows, and jackets.
All of the textiles come from Eileen Fisher’s buyback program, which has collected over one million pieces of clothing over the last decade. A lot of the clothes bought back aren’t in shape to be resold, but the fabrics are still high quality, which presented a problem to Ahl. An artist and the first employee of Eileen Fisher, she convinced Fisher to get the machine that would allow her to make new textiles out of old ones without using thread or creating any waste, a gamble that paid off. The all-white textiles she’s made present a new way to view trash and a way to upcycle without wasting much.
Some of the pieces are on view at the Eileen Fisher store on Bergen Avenue. Stop by to be surprised at how pretty trash can be.
