This season, we had the honour to be commissioned by contemporary British fashion brand Whistles for an exciting project with sustainability at its heart. We created 610 bespoke wooden Christmas trees for their festive window displays, which were installed in all their standalone stores across the UK, Hong Kong, New York and Zurich this November.

The trees were made from FSC certified plywood, harvested from responsibly managed, environmentally conscious forests. They are also an extremely durable product that will last for years, making them a more sustainable alternative to the classic Christmas tree.

“Whistles has been so innovative in creating sustainable Christmas windows because they’re selling them on to their customers afterwards. What a bold and important move to encourage a sustainable Christmas.”

- Marie Cudennec, CEO and Co-Founder, Goldfinger Factory

The Christmas trees were handcrafted by our dedicated team of makers, trainees and volunteers, in our workshop underneath the iconic Trellick Tower, with the help of a wonderful team of local artists who came on board to help paint the trees in an eye-catching minimalist design.

Raising awareness of the circular economy and reducing waste, the trees can be purchased throughout November and December from any participating Whistles stores, in exchange for a donation to our social enterprise. Donations will go directly towards supporting our teaching academy, which runs subsidised craft and woodworking workshops for the local community, and apprenticeship programmes for young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET). A limited number of trees are also available to purchase from our showroom, underneath the Trellick Tower, or on our website.

Around 8 million Christmas trees are bought every year in the UK, most of which, sadly, end up in landfill. Not only is this costing taxpayers nearly £100 for every 40 trees, but the carbon footprint of the discarded trees is equivalent to around 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases.

Would you like a more sustainable (and beautiful, if we say so ourselves) Christmas tree this year, while helping us continue our community work? Check them out on our website, or head over to your nearest standalone Whistles store or the Goldfinger showroom to take home one of our bespoke Whistles x Goldfinger trees today, before they run out.

Our goal is to find a home for all 610 of our sustainable Christmas trees, so no waste is created from these windows. We hope this will be the start of a global movement towards more sustainable window displays, considering the whole lifecycle of the object.

Watch the film Whistles made about the collaboration here!