Hosing down the fashion industry
In the wake of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, ethical fashionistas are contending with the ‘make it fast, sell it cheap’ culture of the mainstream outlets and doing fashion differently, from tackling issues of exploitation and fair trade to waste and the environment. Kresse Wesling explains her determination to grow her business, which repurposes former London Fire Brigade hoses to create luxury fashion items. Her ambition: a global consortium of ethical brands to challenge the world’s biggest fashion houses.
Where did you get the idea to start a fashion range from fire hose?
I’ve always been interested in the issue of waste. It was when I started an Environmental Management course that I met some firemen from the London fire brigade who were struggling to dispose of their old fire hoses. They end up in landfill because they are not recyclable by traditional means; they are a niche waste, which you can’t melt down to start again, not like glass or metal.
I went to see the hose in question and ended up taking it home. I filled the house with fire hose. We had it all over the house, in the garden, in the living room; it was everywhere and I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to do with it, but it had to find a new life as a product.
Elvis had a belt, which had started to perish and wouldn’t fasten. He cut some rubber from the hose and re-fashioned a new one and it looked great. We started making belts and days after starting the business, we were asked by the team behind the 2007 Live Earth concert to make 500 belts in three weeks. They sold out!
What was your biggest challenge?
Finding manufacturing partners prepared to take on the hose was very difficult. But, cleaning it was an absolute nightmare! You could chemically dip it, but we couldn’t do that. I couldn’t list the challenges we had in terms of cleaning and transforming the textile in a way that didn’t absolutely kill the business or compromise our environmental goals. We ended up scrubbing the hose by hand. It was serious agony! Then we cut it with scissors. We totally committed ourselves to the raw material.
Officially, you and Elvis are an unmarried partnership. Was it a challenge being a partnership in life and in business?
I don’t think everyone can be partners in business and life. But, if I had to define the ideal business partner it would be someone talented, committed and passionate and that I can trust wholeheartedly and want to spend a lot of time with. That wouldn’t be anyone else apart from Elvis. We can work together because we a have a unique relationship. I have too many dreams and Elvis is able to channel them in a rational way. He is the creative brain, if I say we want to achieve this he will make it real and tangible, he is able to sketch it out in real form. We’ve collaborated with some big designers and they see eye to eye with him. He’s a natural born designer. So, he does design and logistics and manages the people we work with I manage the big relationships, press and environmental side.
Where do you see yourselves in 10 years time?
Right now we are the annoying little brand that the big brands just don’t get. They can’t work out what our special secret is and why people buy our stuff. I think we’ve got three options. Either we’ll grow to become a big brand ourselves, one of the bigger brands will buy us out, or they will all gradually change the way they do things, as a result of what we and other rival brands are doing. I don’t have a preference on which one plays out. Elvis and I were never in this for recognition or ego. We care about whether or not people learn to respect the raw materials we have around us. In business you think about creating share-holder value and money as desired outcomes. For us money is crucial because it keeps doors open and allows us to do wonderful things, but the outcome we’re looking for is to have an impact. We haven’t achieved enough and I don’t think we’ll ever be finished. We’ve made use of 200 tons, there is still 100 million tons of waste going to landfill every year.
What are your wildest dreams for Elvis and Kresse?
You could say, provocatively, that there are big fashion houses out there who own twenty to thirty luxury brands each. It would be my dream to get backing from the city and buy one of them out or create a genuine global competitor. If you could compete with the likes of LVMH (Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton) with only ethical and environmental brands then the world would definitely have shifted, that would be the dream. I know we’re not the only brand doing something exciting, there are lots of little brands doing something great. We’ve a lot greater potential to achieve our impacts if we band together. There are partnerships out there for sure.