Clothing designer Eileen Fisher models mindfulness

Honoring the power of conscious female leaders, we’re taking a look at a 2013 cover story about clothing designer Eileen Fisher.

We’ve known for some time that Eileen Fisher is someone who brings strong values ​​to her business ventures, but she really caught our attention in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy, when her company’s headquarters in Irvington, New York, was flooded, seriously disrupting its year-end business shipments.

Despite having to move dozens of loads of damaged goods from offices and a nearby lab store, amounting to $1.5 million, Ellen He said At the time, “it was just stuff.”

You can only imagine the feelings a CEO would have if he saw his products soaked in sewage floating next to him. Elaine and her staff did not stay there. They mobilized quickly — organizing carpools, impromptu meeting spaces, and arranging interest-free loans for employees who needed cash during the crisis. This kind of flexibility and caring told us that this was a company with a human face.

Conscious leadership is important

A year after Sandy, I was at Eileen Fisher’s (partially) restored headquarters, to see what kind of care the company takes in its clothes: from helping Chinese silk dyers use fewer chemicals and less water, to launching a recycled clothing program, where customers return clothes they no longer use, with proceeds going to an initiative that helps improve the lives of women and girls. There is a yoga and meditation room. In another room, young women cut pictures out of magazines and learn about the stories they are told about themselves through the media — an exercise at the Eileen Fisher Leadership Institute.

In an industry where fleeting trends and highly distinctive products manufactured in overseas sweatshops are the norm, Eileen Fisher pays attention to the life cycle of clothing, from cradle to grave, as well as the future of the people who wear it and the people who make it.