Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable
well. About 20 %of commercial water pollution internationally can be traced to the dyeing and treatment of fabrics– and microplastics from polyester, acrylic and nylon are polluting the world’s oceans. Meanwhile, the rise of quick fashion has actually encouraged customers to speed up waste. Approximately one garbage truck full of clothes is landfilled all over the world every second, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That indicates consumers are discarding around $400 billion worth of important products every year as low prices and more “seasons” produce an illusion of disposability.
Since that revelation, Chou dove into the world of sustainable manufacturing head-first. Through her family’s financial investment vehicles she has actually dealt with companies like Modern Meadow, which utilizes bio-engineering to make leather products in a laboratory. Chou has likewise led financial investments in Thousand Fell, a soon-to-launch manufacturer of completely recyclable shoes; Dirty Labs, which is establishing more sustainable laundry cleansing products; and Carbon Engineering, which is establishing a direct air capture technology for carbon dioxide.
For Chou, an understanding of the ecological toll that the household company was taking on the world started six years back– a couple of years before Iconix Brand Group obtained the China subsidiary she had actually co-founded with her dad in a transaction reportedly worth $56 million.
The business’s attention to its ecological impact also extends to its supply chain. “Most of our materials are knit near where our garments are made. That is absolutely reducing our carbon footprint,” states Chou. “I put a focus on having factories in America … our denim is produced in America and in the future we’re taking a look at sports and tee shirts to be manufactured in America.”
Veronica Chou’s household has actually made its fortune at the forefront of the fast style company through investments in business like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. Now, the heiress toan approximated $2.1 billion fortune is releasing her own company, Everybody & Everyone, to show that the fashion industry can be both ecologically sustainable and profitable. There’s no argument about the unfavorable impacts
And her father, Silas Chou, made millions as a financier in Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. As an executive at Iconix Brand Group China, Veronica Chou contributed in the acceleration of the market– bringing American brand names to Chinese customers. Chou likewise worked as the co-founder of the Beijing-based personal equity fund China Consumer Capital and as a director of Karl Lagerfeld Greater China.
of the fashion business on the environment. The fabrics market mostly uses non-renewable
resources– on the order of 98 million loads per year. That includes the oil to make synthetic fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton and hazardous chemicals to color, deal with and produce the fabrics utilized to make clothes. The greenhouse gas footprint from fabrics production was roughly 1.2 billion lots of CO2 equivalent in 2015– more than all international flights and maritime shipments combined(and a great deal of those maritime shipments and international flights were transporting clothes). The list of catastrophes that can be credited to the clothing industry extends to pollution, as
The new brand, which sells women’s clothing for every size from 00 to 24 and at rates ranging from $18 to $288 (most fall in the $50 to $150 range, provided a fast scroll through the company’s new site) partners with business like Naadam and Ecoalf for sustainable cashmere and recycled fabrics made from plastic.
Image thanks to World Resources Institute
As the fashion company has actually expanded, so has the wealth of the Chou family. South Ocean Knitters, the knitwear manufacturer begun by Chou’s grandpa, was responsible for among the first foreign investments into mainland China in 1974. It is now among the largest suppliers of knitwear worldwide, and, together with the Hong Kong producer Li & & Fung, is behind the Cobalt Fashion Holding conglomerate.
“I began building Everybody & & Everyone from the ground-up, first by getting the best team in place then by finding the ideal vendors, makers and partners who were currently making strides in the sustainability area,” Chou said in a statement. “I wanted this brand name to be for each lady, so body sustainability, positivity and inclusivity were going to be the backbone of whatever we did. We then constructed the brands sustainable & & technical pillars, which include activation, recycled, coloring & & printing, naturals done much better, bio-based fibers and end use to guarantee our products would minimize negative effects. We are sustainable to the labels stitched into each garment.”
“For our brand, recycled is a big story for us,” states Chou. “Our t-shirts, our socks, our packaging, our mailers, our labels, our sticker labels are all made from recycled products that can be recycled once again.”
Some clothing are also made with fabrics that have actually recycled silver in them– so that the clothes can be used multiple times without smelling or the requirement for a wash.
“It was 6 years ago I started discovering sustainability and 5 years ago that I stated that I needed to have a sustainable brand name,” states Chou.
Everybody & & Everyone has likewise partnered with the organization One Tree Planted to plant a tree for each purchase that’s made with the business. In addition, the business has calculated its carbon footprint from all of its pre-launch activities and has bought and retired offsets to balance its emissions, Chou says.
It was around the time that Chou had her kids, she says, that she understood the importance of making a brand that was both inclusive and ecologically sustainable.
Digital printing is used in place of screens to avoid heaps of water waste, the company said, and numerous of the company’s materials are not colored at all. instead, the business depends on an upcycling process by separating recycled fibers mechanically by color.
Everyone & & Everyone applies the lessons that Chou has actually found out about sustainability to a new style brand that she hopes can function as a design for how to weave sustainability into every aspect of the market.
Veronica Chou’s family has made household has actually at the forefront of the leading edge fashion business through investments in companies like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. And her father, Silas Chou, made millions as a financier in Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. As an executive at Iconix Brand Group China, Veronica Chou played a function in the velocity of the market– bringing American brands to Chinese customers. Because that revelation, Chou dove into the world of sustainable production head-first.”For our brand name, recycled is a huge story for us,” says Chou.