In honor of the facility of conscious ladies leaders, a glance again at our 2013 cowl story on clothes designer Eileen Fisher.
I’ve recognized for a while that Eileen Fisher is an individual who brings robust values to her enterprise ventures, however she actually caught our consideration in 2012 throughout Hurricane Sandy, when her firm’s headquarters in Irvington, New York, have been flooded, placing a critical crimp of their year-end enterprise shipments.
Regardless of having to haul a dozen dumpster-loads of broken items out of the places of work and the close by Lab Retailer, to the tune of $1.5 million, Eileen mentioned on the time, “It was simply stuff.”
You possibly can solely think about the feelings which may come up in a chief government in the event that they noticed their sewage-soaked merchandise floating by. Eileen and her workers didn’t linger there. They mobilized rapidly—organizing carpools, impromptu assembly areas, and arranging interest-free loans for employees needing money in the course of the disaster. That form of resilience and caring advised us this was an organization with a human face.
Aware Management Issues
A yr after Sandy, I used to be on the (partially) restored Eileen Fisher HQ, studying in regards to the form of care the corporate takes with its clothes: from serving to a Chinese language silk dyer use fewer chemical compounds and fewer water, to launching a recycled clothes program, the place prospects return clothes they not use, with the proceeds going to an initiative that helps enhance the lives of girl and women. There’s a yoga/meditation room. In one other room, younger ladies are reducing photos out of magazines and studying in regards to the tales they’re advised about themselves by the media—an train within the Eileen Fisher Management Institute.
In an business the place fleeting tendencies and closely marked-up merchandise manufactured in abroad sweatshops are the norm, Eileen Fisher is being attentive to the life cycle of a garment, from cradle to grave, in addition to the way forward for the individuals who put on them and the individuals who create them.
