Clothing designer Eileen Fisher models mindfulness

In honor of the power of thoughtful female leaders, take a look back at our 2013 cover story on fashion designer Eileen Fisher.

I’ve known Eileen Fisher for some time to be someone who brings strong values ​​to her business ventures, but she really came to our attention in 2012 during Hurricane Sandy when her company headquarters in Irvington, New York was flooded, causing a major disruption to their business supplies at the end of the year.

Although Eileen had to remove dozens of dumpster loads of $1.5 million worth of damaged goods from her offices and a nearby lab shop, said at the time, “It was just stuff.”

You can only imagine the emotions of a CEO when they see their sewage-soaked products floating by. Eileen and her staff didn’t stay there. They mobilized quickly, setting up bus depots, makeshift meeting places and arranging interest-free loans for employees who needed money during the crisis. Such resilience and care told us that this is a company with a human face.

Careful guidance makes all the difference

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

In an industry where fleeting trends and high-end products made in foreign sweatshops are the norm, Eileen Fisher looks at the life cycle of clothing, from cradle to grave, and the future of the people who wear it and the people who make it.