image description — Eileen Fisher's Vice President of Design Julie Rubiner feels the sustainable and community-minded brand is a good fit in her hometown of Great Barrington.

Clothing Brand Eileen Fisher Opens in Great Barrington

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:34PM / Sunday, July 06, 2025Print Story | Email Story

The Great Barrington store is the second in the country to offer a 'Renew' section with refurbished Eileen Fisher clothing.

GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — With the snip of ribbon, Main Street's newest clothing store opened on Thursday.

Eileen Fisher established her eponymous brand 40 years ago with an eye on easy, timeless, and sustainable clothing for women. The brand now has more than 50 storefronts and is carried in more than 300 department stores.

The Great Barrington store is the sixth opened in Massachusetts.

"Speaking for all of us at Eileen Fisher, we are really excited to be a part of this community," marketing strategist Jaimie Lafrano said at the ribbon cutting.

Lafrano said Eileen Fisher doesn't want to just be a clothing store but a place for the community and to learn from the community.

"It's really meant to be also a place where we want to build community, hold workshops here and do things not just selling. We want to be part of this community and learn from each other, so we're calling it 'Lab.' It's only the second one in the whole country," she said.

The store features a "Renew" section, where garments that have been returned for store credit and are ready to be sold again, part of the company's zero-waste initiative.

"These are garments that have been worn by people, and they're brought back. They get credit for it, and then we refurbish them, we clean them, and they're from previous collections of ours, and they're very efficiently priced," Lafrano said.

"So it's really a place for everyone to shop at different price points and for us to learn from our consumers that come in here because they say, 'Oh, I remember this. Are we ever going to bring this back on the line?'"

Lafrano said a line made of recycled fabrics will be released in the fall. The garments will be brought in, taken apart and remade into new clothes.

The garments are largely made from organic cottons and linens, with some jersey, silks, crepes, wools and velvets. Sizes run from extra small to 3X.

Vice President of Design Julie Rubiner, who works closely with Fisher, said they have joked about opening a store in Great Barrington as that's where Rubiner lives.

"I'm just delighted that my two worlds have come together. I can kind of be with the customer more and see how the product is in real life, I'm usually behind the scenes and not at the customer facing," Rubiner said.

She has been with Eileen Fisher for 17 years and also owns Rubiner's Cheesemongers with her husband. She said she is excited to be able to have another store that matches with Great Barrington.

"I'm just excited for our town to have another new, really thoughtful store that kind of fits into the culture and vibe of this area. I think it's just going to be a fun new addition we always, as a merchant already, I just love when new stores open and bring new energy into this awesome town that I live in," she said.

The store is located at 316 Main St. and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday noon to 5 p.m.

Tags: new business, clothing,

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Pryor & Peacock's Whimsical Furniture Environmentally Friendly

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
05:17AM / Friday, August 21, 2026

The company uses digital printing to create the upholstery fabric, saving water and saving vintage furniture from ending up in landfills.

STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. — A unique furniture store has popped up on Elm Street this month.

Mom-and-daughter store Pryor & Peacock is hosting the pop-up storefront from Aug. 13 to Aug. 25 at 6 Elm. The New Marlborough business is co-founded by Rosalina Wright and Luca Shapiro, who is also the creative director.

Their online shop was created in 2024 but they wanted people to see the pieces in person, so they're renting the space for a limited time before a long-term tenant moves in.

The store sources prints to create unique fabrics and reimagines vintage and antique furniture acquired at auctions, local shops, and online.

"We source prints from all over the world that date from the late 1600s up through mid-20th century, and Luca turns those prints into fabric by manipulating them, scanning them, oftentimes has to add or subtract things, and then we manufacture the fabric using only digital printing, which is very environmentally friendly, unlike traditional textile printing," Wright said.

Upholstering the furniture can take weeks of work. Shapiro looks for the perfect design for each piece and, if need be, uses Adobe Photoshop to extend the art work to fit or enhance the print.

"One of the most difficult parts comes in marrying the fabric to a piece of furniture because we only use antique and vintage frames also to be earth friendly, and they're also more beautiful and durable than new furniture," Wright said. "So the image has to go with the furniture, so that takes a lot of work."

One of Pryor & Peacock's missions is to be environmentally friendly. Digital printing doesn't use the same amount of water as traditional textile productions do nor does it contaminate water with ink according to their website.

Not only are they saving water, but they are saving furniture from going into the landfill while also using more durable furniture that doesn't break as easily as current pieces. They started their business to create something unique and to help the environment together.

"It's creating something nobody else is doing. People can't continue to buy throwaway furniture. Six percent of American landfills is furniture, and digital printing not only opens up the possibility of being able to put unique images on a piece of furniture, but it also is, as I said, environmentally friendly. So, for us, the excitement is to take an old East Lake settee that somebody's going to store in their barn and forget about, and make it something completely new and surprising," Wright said.

They hope their furniture helps bring a pop of fun to someone's home.

"We think our furniture is very whimsical and surprising, and most furniture today is oatmeal colored couches and gray neutral chairs, and it's boring," she said.

The two named their business after their mothers' maiden names to honor them and believe the name reflects their pieces.

Shapiro works in interior design outside of the business and the two liked working together and thought it would be great to start a business together. Shapiro says they can work well together and that her and her mother, Wright, has flipped houses before and have the same eye for design.

"So it's very easy for us to work together. When we see something, generally we agree on whether it works or doesn't work on a piece. We agree on the color schemes and that sort of thing. So it's very fun and fulfilling to work together," Shapiro said.

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