PC: Everlane
It’s time for brand highlight number two! Today I’m focusing on the always chic and always ethical Everlane. First, let’s take a look at their powerful mission statement:
“At Everlane, we want the right choice to be as easy as putting on a great T-shirt. That’s why we partner with the best, ethical factories around the world. Source only the finest materials. And share those stories with you—down to the true cost of every product we make. It’s a new way of doing things. We call it Radical Transparency.”
How awesome is that??? As they stated in this mission statement, Everlane seeks out and partners with the best and most ethical factories around the world. The intentionality that goes into this process is top tier in the fashion industry. And their list of factories is almost just as impressive. They now have functioning, sustainable factories in Los Angeles, Spain, southern China, northeast China, Italy, southern Vietnam, Romeoville, Peru, Nan’an, eastern China, northern Vietnam, Pisa and Tuscany.
The fascinating thing about Everlane’s business model is that each factory has a distinct purpose. For example, Mola Inc. in L.A. is specifically the garment-dyed tee factory. This factory focuses on making Everlane’s luxury T-shirts from jersey cotton. Another example is the San Miniato factory in Tuscany. This factory focuses solely on making Everlane’s suede heeled boots. Through this business model, Everlane ensures only the highest quality products because they employ experts in various fields across the world.
Everlane is built on honesty, or as they say it, “Radical Transparency.” They are the only company I have ever seen to break down all of their costs per product on their website. They even show you their margins. Radical to say the least. For example, their website states that their “Modern Loafer” costs $54 to make including $18.25 for materials, $29.16 for labor, $1.47 for transportation and $4.75 for duties. Everlane sells the product for $168, which is 2-3 times less than the price of an average retailer. They can sell their products at such affordable prices because they distribute directly to consumers.
Besides from their transparency, partnerships with ethical factories and strides to make the fashion industry a better place, Everlane also works to improve the environmental impact of their factories and products. Just last month the brand began its pursuit for an affordable and eco-friendly jean. Most of the time, jean manufacturers are notorious for using toxic chemicals and recklessly disposing of them in an unsafe and wasteful manner. However, Everlane wants to change that by partnering with Saitex International Dong Nai Co. Ltd.
This southern Vietnamese manufacturer has high eco-friendly standards for their production process. In an interview with Bloomberg, Everlane CEO, Michael Preysman, said about the factory, “They set incredibly high standards by recycling 98 percent of their water to a drinkable state, air-drying the denim, and turning the excess denim waste into bricks made for affordable housing.”
It’s factories like this that could change the world. And, it’s brands like Everlane that support them that are revolutionizing the fashion industry. Everlane and its partnered factories prove to the fashion industry and to the world that being ethical and sustainable can also be profitable. They prove to consumers that brands can be honest, and they prove to unethical and environmentally harmful brands that there is a better way.
To learn more about Everlane or to shop their gorgeous collection, visit www.everlane.com.
-Kate Hornberger
Sources
thehappyhemline.wordpress.com 
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