Earlier this year I had the privilege of being invited to attend retail week live at the Intercontinental O2 in London. I was there to attend the Panel on Sustainability and interview the one and only Kresse Wesling, MBE.
Kresse Wesling, MBE, is a multi-award winning environmental entrepreneur and Young Global Leader. After first meeting with the London Fire Brigade in 2005, Kresse launched Elvis & Kresse, which turns industrial waste into innovative lifestyle products. They then return 50% of profits to charities related to the waste.
Elvis & Kresse’s first line is made from decommissioned fire hose, 50% of the profits from this line are donated to the Fire Fighters Charity. The company now collects 12 different waste streams, has several charitable partnerships and is involved with collaborations across industries.
Sustainability panel at Retail Week Live 2019How did you get interested in Ethical and sustainable fashion?
I was very interested in waste. Then I was interested in-particular in fire hose. When I was trying to analyse and understand the fire hose problem and really get to grips with it, I discovered that the best outlet for that or the best solution for it was to make luxury accessories. So, my interest in fashion is a result of wanting to save the fire hose.
What made you go towards fire hose in particular?
When I first came to the UK, (this was before you could go onto Google and discover the O.N.S data on waste) I went to the British library and I discovered that 100 million tones of waste went to landfill in that year and I was really annoyed by that. But I couldn’t even imagine what 100 million tones would look like.
So, I started to go to landfill sites to get a visual. And of course at landfill sites you see construction waste and household waste, ect and I knew that at the time ( I was in my early 20’s) it was unlikely that I was going to be able to raise hundreds of millions of pounds to set up some sort of industrial process to rescue construction waste. I was looking for a niche problem to solve and fire hoses is that kind of problem. There’s only 3 – 12 tones of fire hose waste a year. So it was the perfect problem for a small team to tackle.
So, What is/ Who are Elvis and Kresse?
Elvis and Kresse is a company that exists to solve small waste problems. To rescue materials and transform them into beautiful things, and then give 50% of its profits away. So we are not just challenging the notion that raw materials have to be new. We are challenging the way the industry is structured. We are challenging the whole capitalists structure of exploitation and extraction and saying that actually, if you don’t put people and the planet first before your shareholders and before money, there is not going to be a world for any of us. And I guess that means that we’re a little bit like a live grenade in a very conditional space.
You set the goal to eliminate fire hose waste in the UK, and have successfully completed this mission. What’s the next challenge?
Each year, 800,000 tonnes of beautiful leather ends up on the cutting room floor. Our leather partners, the best of British luxury, cherish their hides and the waste they produce is in small seemingly unusable pieces. In order to rescue these fragments, we developed a modular approach. We created three shapes that interlock to create whole new hides. Each shape is individually cut before we lovingly hand weave them together, piece by piece, creating a strong, beautiful and tactile new material.
What are some of your favorite products that you have come up with?
Well, we have been working on a backpack for years! You can see I am wearing one today, this is my absolute favorite now, in particular because when you’re running with a handbag over your shoulder, you’re trying to catch a train and you have only 1 minuet. It’s very hard to run at maximum speed
Me: and not knock anyone out!
Kresse: Yeah! Because you’re tipping sideways! But with a backpack, you can go crazy! So this backpack is already helped me to catch a train to Exeter and not have to wait an hour at Paddington. So I do think its a brilliant product! But a lot its made from so many wonderful rescued materials. Rescued leather from Burberry, fire hoses, all of the packaging is rescued, all the lining is rescued. It’s a great product and its been years and years of work and we are very happy with it!
It was such an honor to be able to Interview Kresse. And find out a little bit behind the fantastic Elvis and Kresse. Check out their website to see some of the amazing things they have created!
