Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Crispina ffrench. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Crispina , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

In 1986, I was an art student working my way through school which meant three very part time jobs and a full-time class schedule. There was not a lot of time for hanging out, or seeing music… One day, after clocking out at my sandwich shop job, I saw a flier posted in the entryway looking for vendors to join a craft store coop in Harvard Square…. so I applied.

Much to my surprise I was accepted and suddenly had a bonified outlet for the stuffed toys called Ragamuffins I was crafting by hand from thrift store sweaters. Better than from a backpack at music festivals…

Let me back up a minute. At school a visiting felt making artist came to teach a workshop to us fiber majors at Mass Art. I loved the texture of the fabric we were taught to make but MAN the process kinda sucked. Cold, wet, soapy, shriveled fingers, shivering dampness in the already chilly fiber studio was not my favorite. A conflict evolved because I was selling the stuffed animals created from the felt and the money was super inspiring, allowing me to quit one of my three jobs.

When visiting my art-teacher parents one weekend, my dad suggested that I could get a similar texture to the felt from shrunk wool thrift store sweaters…… GENIUS!

We went trundling off to the local Goodwill returning with an armload of sweaters in assorted sizes, colorful and patterned. Not only did the material lend itself perfectly to my process, it allowed me the treasure hunt of thrifting as part of my job, and spoke directly to my environmental protection passion inspired by the Massachusetts bottle bill of 1983.

Crispina , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In 1985, While studying full time at Mass Art in Boston and working three jobs I experienced a textile upcycling epiphany and have been living it ever since. Realizing I could turn $20 worth of thrifted sweaters into a couple hundred bucks worth of Ragamuffins was thrilling.

Robust Ragamuffin sales and resulting cold hard cash was intoxicating! An affordable, creative method to curtail the landfilling of valuable resources was being born. PLUS I was earning college credit and then selling my schoolwork to pay my tuition… Talk about a win-win!

So like any college kid would do, I set out to change the world. To teach people to see value in our ‘trash’, encourage rethinking of our waste stream and make a living doing it. My work did the teaching for me, inspiring adoration and fresh thinking when the materials used for construction were realized.

I graduated art school by the skin of my teeth and debt-free with a pocket full of money, a business and a conviction to change the world. Two years later I was selling 100% recycled wares, employing 40 people in creative production jobs and servicing 350 international retail accounts from Espirit and Garnet Hill to small upscale boutiques.

No one had ever seen anything like my Ragamuffins or the 100% recycled Blankets, Potholder Rugs, and gender-neutral clothing and accessories made for kids and adults that we were manufacturing, mostly by hand in Millerton NY. My business was blowing up!

In 1995 Crispina Designs Inc caught the eye of the Social Venture Network and I presented my zero-waste manufacturing company at their annual conference. Ben and Jerry, Wangari Maathai, Tom Chapman of Toothpaste fame, Eileen Fisher, Yvon Chouinard and Ram Dass were connections made there.

I was doing it! I was making a living, changing the world and hanging with the rockstars in the newly evolving socially-minded business arena. Teaching by example, turning discarded clothing into artful and utilitarian treasure – working toward a new paradigm of balanced human consumption.

All sorts of magic followed… Later that year Patagonia hired me to work with their design team to develop a collection using their polar fleece scraps. That was the first Patagonia manufacturers’ waste recovery project – turning the cost of disposal into a new revenue stream… and, more importantly, being an example in the garment manufacturing world.

In 1996 I was awarded the young entrepreneur of the year award from the Small Business Administration. Sales were doubling annually. Features in Elle Decor, Country Living Magazine, The New York Times, and LA Times brought more exposure and new accounts with Fiourucci, Crate and Barrel, Designers Guild, J.Peterman and the list goes on.

For 22 years my business grew and morphed with high-highs and low lows that all rolled into a magical path of creative gentle living, landing me in a position of staff and sales management rather than flexing my creative ingenuity to reduce textile consumption. 2008 was stagnant and my path required a pivot.

So, I wrote a teaching book called the Sweater ChopShop published by Storey Publishing. The simple step-by-step instruction enabled creatives in my audience to join me in turning textile trash into artful wares for living.

The success of The Sweater ChopShop led to a pivot away from production and toward teaching both my craft and business intricacies of running a successful textile upcycling business. AND I got to hop back into my creative process, designing for large volume textile waste generators turning their waste into marketable product..

The CRAZY thing is that here I am, 37 years after setting out on this path, and I haven’t given up. Not at all. I love being an impetus for change while making money to support my ideal life. This is what drives me forward teaching by example, inspiring creative textile reuse and showing other entrepreneurs that this is not only possible but life affirming
(Me today wearing my work)

Textile waste on planet Earth has increased 7 fold since I started – ⅔ of the new fabric made today is polyester. The garment industry is second only to oil and gas as most polluting industries on Earth. While all of this is true, focus here for too long and despair sets in. It is also true that as humans we have great and untapped power to do good. Building community and working together is why we are here, so friends, I choose to focus here – on you.

Three questions to ask yourself as we revolutionize our wardrobes, for customers, makers, manufacturers or participants.
Does what you are doing, wearing, purchasing or discarding reduce textile consumption?
Does it create, or contribute to a viable business that is truly sustainable?
It is fun, nurturing, connecting and joyful cause life is too short for the alternative

Today my focus is three fold. Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast shines light of environmental optimism on creative response to our textile waste conundrum. Interviews, textile upcycling business savvy, and workshopping sessions are designed to inspire engage and encourage new thinking.

Stitcherhood Recycling Society is an online membership community for textile upcycling entrepreneurs, activists, hobbyists and industry professionals. We host creative making workshops, business building masterminds, and a burgeoning directory for textile upcyclers. I invite you to join us.

Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling virtual Summit coming up April 12-14 2023 brings together innovative leaders. Inspiration from authors, thinkers, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders in an accessible setting is designed to nudge our textile upcycling movement toward center expanding our audience.

Reducing textile consumption, and therefore textile waste, having fun, and supporting my ideal gentle-living lifestyle in a truly sustainable manner (meaning generating an income from my textile upcycling business that allows for retirement savings AND health insurance) is my life’s work. Today there is celebration, honor and respect of this important environmentally focused work.
When I think we are moving too slowly, I remember back to when most people really thought I was crazy, when people wondered why. Why on Earth would anyone make a garment from garbage.
Then I compare that to Today…. Today, here with you, we know just exactly why.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

In 1995 my 2 year old son was diagnosed with Cardio Myopathy and given 18 months to live. We didn’t have health insurance and the bank called my loans because they thought I would use my line of credit to pay our medical bills.

The same bank did not call my son’s father’s loans.

This meant that not only was I dealing with the mortality of my only child as a single mother, my business came to an abrupt halt. My entire staff of 40 people were laid off with no notice.

I called a new friend who I had met just a month earlier at the Social Venture Network annual conference. He is a financial advisor who had been impressed with my business and offered to help in any way I might need. Well, I needed help, so he offered to meet with my bank with me. As a result of that 10 minute meeting my loans and line of credit were re-instated.

I think it was the blue blazer with brass buttons and Range Rover…

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

In the last 18 months I have found a whole bunch of joy in bringing textile upcycling entrepreneurs together with an online community which grew into hosting an online summit in April, which inspired the Rags to Riches Textile Upcycling Podcast.

All of this new and super inspiring activity has kept me pretty busy, shifting my focus from making to empowering, encouraging and teaching other entrepreneurs how to make a good living in their textile upcycling endeavors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.crispina.eco
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/crispinaffrench
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/crispinaffrench
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/crispinaffrench
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/Crispinaffrench

Image Credits
First image of me in my studio – Jane Feldman