Doing the Erlang way, extracted item into separate file as include.

lfe/include/gilded-rose-item.lfe

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+;;; Item
+
+(defrecord item
+  name sellin quality)

lfe/src/gilded-rose.lfe

@@ -46,16 +46,7 @@
 (defmodule gilded-rose
   (export all))
 
-;;; Item
-
-(defrecord item
-  name sellin quality)
-
-;; for external use by 'import'
-(defun make-item (name sellin quality)
-  (make-item name name sellin sellin quality quality))
-(defun item-name (item)
-  (item-name item))
+(include-lib "include/gilded-rose-item.lfe")
 
 ;; update-quality
 

lfe/test/gilded-rose-test.lfe

@@ -2,12 +2,12 @@
   (behaviour ltest-unit)
   (export all)
   (import (from gilded-rose
-                (update-quality 1)
-                (make-item 3)
-                (item-name 1))))
+                (update-quality 1))))
 
 (include-lib "ltest/include/ltest-macros.lfe")
 
+(include-lib "include/gilded-rose-item.lfe")
+
 (deftest update-quality-test
   (is-equal "foo" (item-name (car (update-quality
-                                   (list (make-item "foo" 0 0)))))))
+                                   (list (make-item name "foo" sellin 0 quality 0)))))))