"Its incredible what you can do with materials that would otherwise languish in landfill."

Kresse Wessling, founder, Elvis and Kresse

Since 2005 Elvis & Kresse have been rescuing raw materials, transforming them into luxury lifestyle accessories and donating 50% of profits back to charities. The brands process emulates kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. The refurbished pieces are worth significantly more than their new, undamaged counterparts. The materials are shown this same level of care, they are cherished and extra value is created through the process.

After learning that London's damaged decommissioned hoses were headed to landfill the brand recognised an opportunity and put a stop to this. For over a decade now none of London's firehoses have gone to landfill, allowing over 170 tons of material to be reclaimed.

For Elvis & Kresse their design process begins with a problem. It is the material and the scale of the problem which dictate what the brand will make. In the case of the hose, the soot and grease that builds up after 25 years of active duty is scrubbed away, and a new item is crafted with a focus on quality craftsmanship and classic, timeless design. Styles range from wallets to totes, clutches, belts and coin purses, come with a reclaimed military-grade parachute silk dust bag and feature reclaimed materials such as auction banners for linings.

In 2017 the Burberry Foundation partnered with Elvis & Kresse to tackle the even greater global problem of leather waste. It is estimated that each year, at least 800,000 tonnes of leather waste are produced by the global leather industry. In the creation of leather goods, even when patterns are carefully planned to maximise the hide, the process inevitably creates small off cuts. These are high quality, unused, freshly tanned and dyed leather, but fall to the workshop floor as seemingly unusable pieces. Elvis & Kresse has designed a system that transforms these fragments into components, which are then hand woven into a new kind of hide that is unrestricted by size or shape.This Five-year partnership will see at least 120 tonnes of leather off-cuts from Burberry recrafted into new luxury items, designed and sold by Elvis & Kresse.

Elvis & Kresse | Making Bags