This month, Eileen Fisher Social Innovator Award recipients Teslin Doud, Carmen Gama and Lucy Jones joined the company’s wholesale sales and social media and public relations teams. The trio also helped at the Green Eileen warehouse sale in Irvington, attended the Leadership Forum and toured the Eileen Fisher warehouse. CFDA.com asked each about the one key thing they learned and how it relates to sustainability and social innovation.  Here are their responses:

Carmen Gama: “One of the greatest things this month was our visit to the Eileen Fisher Warehouse in Secaucus, NJ. The warehouse is amazing. I would have never guessed it was so organized, super clean and it is a green building that is powered by solar panels with motion detector lighting to conserve energy. After our tour, we were part of the Leadership Forum meeting. We got to present our thesis collections to them, and it was so amazing to see how all these great leaders were very interested in our collections and loved them. And just to finish up with this amazing day, we were invited to be part of the EFW Thanksgiving feast. I cannot even recall the amount of different dishes from all over the world that employees brought for everyone to share.”

Teslin Doud: “We dove into the nitty gritty of the company with the Sales team. We moved to the 11^th floor for two weeks where we started to develop the business side of our brains with the Planning, Product Education, and Wholesale Sales teams. In our previous department rotations with Design and Merchandising, we were introduced to the role that Sales plays in the creation of the line, including purchase projections and feedback on styles that did and did not work. This month, we experienced their role with a new perspective. We learned about the numbers and technicalities that balance the creative work happening simultaneously on the floor below. This rotation was extremely important for us moving forward in the creation of a solution for damaged Green Eileen.”

Lucy Jones: “Carmen, Teslin and myself had the privilege of working with the Green Eileen Team for the Warehouse Sale in Irvington, NY. Green Eileen is an initiative which promises to take back used Eileen Fisher garments brought to stores by customers and will credit each garment with $5. Green Eileen will sell the garments that are in great to nearly perfect condition as second-life product. As a designer it is very easy to slip into a ‘design bubble’ and forget about the outside world. Instead, working so closely with the customers and hearing their feedback is a great way to generate more design ideas.

Overall the sale was a huge success. It proves that due to the exceptional quality of Eileen Fisher garments people really do not care that they are second-life and care more about how the garment fits and feels. We thoroughly enjoyed the passion and excitement of the customers, and of course bagging a few bargains ourselves.”