Genie in a bottle: BENU by Fischbacher 1819

It all began with an unimpressive scrap of cloth that fell into Camilla Fischbacher’s hands in 2009. It was stiff but made entirely out of recycled PET bottles and Ms Fischbacher – Fischbacher 1819's Art Director – immediately had a sense of its potential and developed it into a marketable product. The market, however, wasn’t quite ready for the fabric.

Taking on the challenge

As of 2019, the BENU collection has been in the Fischbacher 1819 product range for ten years and is more successful than ever. After all, the world has recognised that this is the only way to combine beauty with responsibility. Named after a bird from Egyptian mythology which is reborn, like the phoenix rising from the ashes, BENU also means ‘be new’.

The line was launched with BENU PET, a collection of polyester fabrics manufactured in a special process. The energy and water-saving method used to derive continuous polyester thread from PET bottles helped to earn the product its MBDC Silver Cradle to Cradle certification. Parallel to this, Fischbacher 1819 developed a second technique with which new cotton and wool thread is produced from used and surplus fabric. For the BENU® fabrics, only the best textile fibres are newly spun into high-quality threads.

Where the threads converge

BENU not only gives the Fischbacher 1819 portfolio a diverse, truly timely collection but also unites tradition and innovation in a single product. Already singled out for numerous awards, BENU has given rise to an extraordinary, richly colourful spectrum of unique furniture and curtain fabrics that have become an indispensable part of the Fischbacher 1819 product range. The conviction and confidence that have guided this pioneering achievement have also brought about a fundamental change of thinking in the textile industry.

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