About
In 2018, clothing designer Eileen Fisher debuted Waste No More, a design studio dedicated to making artisanal textiles from post-consumer clothing.
Waste No More was born out of R&D that began when EILEEN FISHER launched its clothing take-back program in 2009. The brand was faced with finding a scalable way to repurpose unusable apparel in order to realize its vision for a circular model of design with zero waste. Through years of experimentation, Fisher’s collaborators developed a new technique based on the age-old practice of felting.
Waste No More is proof that circular consumption can yield ever more expressive and treasured outcomes. In rethinking the traditional roles of textiles, Waste No More effectively diverts thousands of pounds of premium-quality wool, cotton, linen, and silk into new systems and use streams. The resulting compositions serve renewed purpose and deliver untold delight in homes, hospitality venues, and public spaces. Each one-of-a-kind piece tells a story of process and invention that reflects the owner’s shared vision of a zero-waste, high-design future.
Photography by Jay Romero, Ruy Teixera, and Christa Myers
Process
Waste No More’s collective of artists, designers, and seamstresses have transformed industrial felting technology—previously used for large-scale textile production, such as insulation—into a design instrument. The textile artist, using the damaged garments as a palette, curates materials, intuitively layering and manipulating shapes to create one-of-a-kind fabric paintings, acoustic panels, pillows, and other works.
The very nature of garment waste as a source material demands a different approach to design. There is no cutting room floor—all elements of the clothes are used, or saved until a future use can be discovered. Textiles that degrade in the felting process are celebrated, their destruction incorporated into the aesthetic. The randomness of the medium—rising and falling tides of colors, fibers, and construction—demands that the architects, designers, and collectors who source felted works allow for a degree of chance and see the allure of every unique outcome.
1 / Garments are collected and sorted according to material content at our Tiny Factory, in Irvington, NY.
2 / Some damaged garments are used whole in the felting process, clearly revealing the story of their past. Many are deconstructed, and the materials used for more abstract compositions.
3 / We strive to save everything—either to be used in another project or held for a yet-to-be-discovered purpose.
4 / The materials are intuitively arranged and layered by the designer who operates the felting machine.
5 / Felting is done using an industrial felting machine—a process that uses no water, little energy, and has virtually no environmental impact.
6 / The work that emerges—made only from waste material—blends the colors and fibers into something wholly new and intriguing.
Exhibitions
Sustainable Thinking
Museo Salvatore Ferragamo
Florence, Italy
April 2019 – March 2020
Vienna Biennale for Change
MAK, Museum of Applied Arts
Vienna, Austria
May – October 2019
Circular Materialists
Kazerne Gallery
Eindhoven, Netherlands
Autumn 2019 – Spring 2020
Galleria Rossana Orlandi Porto Cervo
Sardinia, Italy
July – September 2019
Waste No More Launch
Brooklyn, NY USA
April 2019
Salone Del Mobile 2019
Galleria Rossana Orlandi
Milan, Italy
April 2019
Salon Art + Design
The Park Avenue Armory
New York, NY USA
November 2018
Mint
London, UK
September 2018
AIA Architecture Expo
Javits Center
New York, NY USA
June 2018
Edelkoort Gallery
Paris, France
June 2018
WantedDesign for NYCXDesign
Terminal Stores
New York, NY USA
May 2018
Salone Del Mobile 2018
Ventura Centrale
Milan, Italy
April 2018
Earth Matters
TextielMuseum
Tilberg, Netherlands
June – November 2017
Circular by Design
The Invisible Dog Gallery
Brooklyn, NY USA
September 2017
EILEEN FISHER / Designwork
New York, NY USA
September 2017