Eileen Fisher: Embracing imperfect newness

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In his book</span> <em><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Laws of Simplicity,</span></em> <span style="font-weight: 400;">John Maeda says that “simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.” Our final guest this season, Eileen Fisher, is a master at making the simple, meaningful.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Eileen is the founder of her eponymous and iconic fashion brand Eileen Fisher, Inc., which is known for its ethical & sustainable practices, and elegant yet simple clothing. She started the company in 1984, and grew it from her first sale of $3000, to annual revenue of over $300 million.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We speak with Eileen about her design principles, how she thinks about form, function, and sustainability, and how systems thinking has helped her develop a brand that stands the test of time.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’re so glad you joined us for the sixth season of our show, and hope you were inspired along the way. Stay tuned for the next season, and in the meantime, we’ll be sharing some of our best episodes from past seasons, in case you missed them. Thanks for listening.</span></p> <p><strong>Bio</strong></p> <p>Eileen Fisher founded her women's fashion brand in 1984, with $350 of startup money. It's since grown into a company with over 1200 employees and hundreds of millions of dollars a year in revenue.</p> <p>The company focuses on producing simple, timeless clothing, with sustainability initiatives including selling used pieces in excellent condition, resold through their <em>Renew</em> take-back program, as well as a <span class="ef-700"><em>Waste No Mor</em>e</span> program which transforms damaged clothes into a new felted fabric, used to create wall hangings, pillows, and other accessories.</p>