@TheEthicalStitch Season 2 Ep 15: Circular Fashion at EILEEN FISHER with Carmen Gama

What if the future of fashion isn’t about making more, but creating greater value from what already exists? In this thought-provoking episode of @TheEthicalStitch Michelle Alleyne sits down with Carmen Gama, Circular Design Lead at EILEEN FISHER, for a conversation about circularity, design, systems thinking, and what it actually takes to move sustainable fashion from intention into action. From her early creative life in Mexico to studying at Parsons and eventually joining EILEEN FISHER through the CFDA Social Innovator Fellowship, Carmen shares how resourcefulness, curiosity, and a desire to rethink waste helped shape her path as a designer. Together, Michelle and Carmen explore what circular fashion looks like beyond the buzzwords, from designing with a garment’s next life in mind to the infrastructure, leadership, collaboration, and investment required to make circular systems work at scale. In this episode, we explore: ✨ What circular design really means when put into practice ✨ How Carmen’s upbringing and design journey shaped her approach to waste and value ✨ Why innovation alone cannot transform the fashion system ✨ The role leadership and collaboration play in scaling circularity ✨ How EILEEN FISHER is rethinking the life of garments through take-back, resale, remanufacturing, and recycling ✨ Why the relationship between brands, designers, and consumers matters ✨ What it could mean for fashion to move beyond sustainability toward regenerative design Carmen reminds us that changing fashion requires more than good intentions. It requires designing differently, understanding the systems around the product, and thinking about value long before something is considered waste. Sometimes the next chapter of a garment has to be imagined before the first one is even finished. Follow Carmen and her work: 📱 Instagram: @gamma.carmen 💼 LinkedIn: Carmen Gama 🌿 Follow EILEEN FISHER on Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn for more on its circularity and design