KRESSE WESLING

Kresse Wesling, CBE, is a multi-award winning environmental entrepreneur and Young Global Leader with a background in venture capital and significant start-up experience. After first meeting with the London Fire Brigade in 2005, Kresse launched Elvis & Kresse, which turns industrial waste into innovative lifestyle products and returns 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, from fashion houses to FTSE 100 companies etc.

Kresse Wesling was selected as the Cartier Awards 2011 laureate for Europe. You can find her finalist web profile here.

About Elvis & Kresse

Following a chance meeting with the London fire brigade in 2005, Elvis & Kresse discovered fire-hose. After a distinguished career of 25 years, fighting fires and saving lives, the damaged hose, that was deemed no longer able to fulfil its role, was simply sent to landfill.

Elvis & Kresse fell in love with those brave old hoses and mounted a rescue. The hose was too beautiful; it had too much left to give. Like so many things in this world it had been given one life, one purpose - this is contrary to the ethos of Elvis & Kresse. Honouring the hose means designing beyond a single season, ensuring lasting, classic design and a functional, wearable aesthetic that stands the test of time. We work with highly skilled craftspeople that build as much value as they can into every single piece they create. Elvis & Kresse donate 50% of the profits from the fire-hose range to the Fire Fighters Charity.

Elvis & Kresse's most ambitious material challenge to date is the world’s leather waste. Each year, 800,000 tonnes of beautiful leather ends up on the cutting room floor. Our leather partners 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. Fire hose was just the beginning.