Eileen Mieko Willett

Cucumber Clothing Limited/East Asian Girl Gang

Co-founder/Founder, United Kingdom

Born in Vancouver to Japanese parents, she trained in Paris and started work as a fashion illustrator in San Francisco. Fast-forward via Japan, she settled in London, where she joined the then fledgling Nicole Farhi Menswear brand and helped grow it to be one of the premium men’s brands of the 90’s. After a career break to have her three children, she launched her own womenswear accessory brand into the new luxury designer/maker space of the 2000’s, growing her bespoke customer list into the high hundreds. She launched Cucumber Clothing with her Co-founder Nancy Zeffman in 2017. The company set out ‘to make luxury comfortable’, using ultra-soft technical fabrics made in beautiful leisurewear designs. Cucumber’s modern take on multifunctional, sustainable, high-performance wardrobe staples for the busy woman resonated immediately with the fashion press. Cucumber has been seen everywhere from the Sunday Times Style to Vogue Italia. Eileen has been shortlisted for the 2020 Asian Woman of Achievement Awards, is the founder of the East Asian Girl Gang creating a community and network for those sharing an East Asian heritage, a speaker on female entrepreneurship/slow fashion, and co-hosted i:Entrepreneur’s Wednesday Lives series of interviews with entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds.