As they neared the end of their experimental phase, Eileen Fisher’s three Social Innovators Teslin Doud, Carmen Gama and Lucy Jones reflect on their experiences to date.

Lucy Jones: “This month, we continued our experimentation phase with the damaged Eileen Fisher garments. Luckily for us, Eileen Fisher uses high quality fabric with simplistic styling that is tried and true. This means we can rely on the fact that there is an expectation of similarity in the inventory input which flows through the Green Eileen Recycling Center. Part of our project has entailed creating what we have termed an ‘untraditional production method’ whereby we identify repetition in styles, fabrics, cut and seaming in order to create a truly repeatable production system using the third-life garments. Looking at these styles in a mathematical and systematic way as high-quality product as opposed to ‘damaged’ product means that we can really cut down the waste and expedite truly innovative production. We are so excited to move into our development phase in April and put our experiments to test.”

Teslin Doud: “As we have progressed through this upcycling challenge, we have always tried to keep in mind the importance of storytelling and systems. As our two months of uninhibited experimentation and play have come to a close, we have had some clarifying realizations that stemmed from various points of feeling inspired and overwhelmed. We started to sort out our ideas around a system of untraditional production and simultaneously pinned down the importance of one-of-a-kind garments living alongside our repeatable styles. Although a lot of what comes back is predictable, there are still many third-life garments that are random. Many of the garments that come back through Green Eileen need time spent with them. They need creative eyes on them envisioning what future that individual garment could have; what craft is appropriate for that style/color/damage. Handcraft is labor intensive, but it is the storytelling vehicle for us. A big part of sustainability in fashion is revitalizing the craft of creating clothes. One-of-a-kind garments will always need to live harmoniously with our production system.”

Carmen Gama: “As we came to the end of our experimental phase, ‘collaboration’ was the focus of the month. We opened our studio doors to Eileen Fisher’s designers, technical designers and the product development team looking for their constructive feedback and advice on our proposal for our Green Eileen project. The product development team and the technical designers gave us great ideas on how to expedite some of our techniques with efficient cutting, manipulating patterns and construction solutions. They assisted us with making some samples and even provided us with some of the post-production leftover trims to finish our garments properly. The fashion and textile designers also visited and provided us with feedback on the aesthetics of our samples and materiality. They were so excited with our samples that they were even inspired to put some of them on the Eileen Fisher main line. It was great to get fresh eyes on our project this month.”