Elvis & Kresse

In 2005 Kresse Wesling had a chance meeting with the London Fire Brigade and a very emotional response to their damaged, decommissioned fire hose. It was too heroic and too beautiful for landfill. Somebody had to do something, and those somebodies were Elvis & Kresse (Kresse and her partner James ‘aka Elvis’ Henrit).

They mounted a rescue, and over the last 15 years have saved all of London’s hoses, transforming them into a range of luxury accessories and donating 50% of the profits to the Fire Fighters Charity. From the first day Elvis & Kresse had a unique DNA: rescue, transform, donate.

They are now tackling their greatest ever challenge, the 800,000 tonnes of leather off-cuts generated each year by the global leather industry1. Even when the patterns for leather goods are carefully planned to maximise the hides, 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.

50% of the profits from the leather rescue project will be donated to Barefoot College in the form of scholarships to train women as solar engineers, with Barefoot we can simultaneously help to empower women and generate renewable power… and all by rescuing and transforming scrap leather.

Elvis & Kresse produce the covers for the Beam Bench which can be purchased from them alongside their many other beautiful products.