Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable
It was around the time that Chou had her children, she states, that she realized the importance of making a brand that was both inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
Everyone & & Everyone has actually also partnered with the company One Tree Planted to plant a tree for each purchase that’s made with the business. In addition, the company has calculated its carbon footprint from all of its pre-launch activities and has bought and retired offsets to balance its emissions, Chou says.
And her dad, Silas Chou, made millions as an investor in Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. As an executive at Iconix Brand Group China, Veronica Chou played a role in the acceleration of the market– bringing American brands to Chinese customers. Chou likewise worked as the co-founder of the Beijing-based private equity fund China Consumer Capital and as a director of Karl Lagerfeld Greater China.
“For our brand, recycled is a huge story for us,” says Chou. “Our tee shirts, our socks, our product packaging, our mailers, our labels, our stickers are all made from recycled materials that can be recycled again.”
For Chou, an understanding of the environmental toll that the family business was handling the world began 6 years ago– a couple of years before Iconix Brand Group got the China subsidiary she had actually co-founded with her daddy in a deal supposedly worth $56 million.
As the fashion industry has actually broadened, so has the wealth of the Chou household. South Ocean Knitters, the knitwear manufacturer started by Chou’s grandfather, was responsible for among the first foreign financial investments into mainland China in 1974. It is now among the largest suppliers of knitwear in the world, and, together with the Hong Kong manufacturer Li & & Fung, is behind the Cobalt Fashion Holding corporation.
of the fashion business on the environment. The fabrics market primarily uses non-renewable
resources– on the order of 98 million tons each year. That includes the oil to make synthetic fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton and poisonous chemicals to dye, deal with and produce the textiles utilized to make clothing. The greenhouse gas footprint from textiles production was approximately 1.2 billion lots of CO2 equivalent in 2015– more than all worldwide flights and maritime deliveries integrated(and a great deal of those worldwide flights and maritime deliveries were carrying clothes). The list of catastrophes that can be credited to the clothing industry reaches pollution, as
Digital printing is utilized in location of screens to avoid heaps of water waste, the business stated, and several of the company’s materials are not colored at all. rather, the business counts on an upcycling procedure by separating recycled fibers mechanically by color.
Since that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable production head-first. Through her household’s financial investment lorries she has dealt with business like Modern Meadow, which uses bio-engineering to make leather products in a laboratory. Chou has actually also led financial investments in Thousand Fell, a soon-to-launch manufacturer of completely recyclable shoes; Dirty Labs, which is developing more sustainable laundry cleansing items; and Carbon Engineering, which is establishing a direct air capture technology for co2.
Some clothes are likewise made with fabrics that have actually recycled silver in them– so that the clothes can be used numerous times without smelling or the requirement for a wash.
The brand-new brand, which offers women’s clothes for every size from 00 to 24 and at costs ranging from $18 to $288 (most fall in the $50 to $150 variety, offered a fast scroll through the business’s new site) partners with business like Naadam and Ecoalf for sustainable cashmere and recycled fabrics made from plastic.
Image courtesy of World Resources Institute
The company’s attention to its environmental effect likewise reaches its supply chain. “Most of our fabrics are knit near where our garments are produced. That is certainly minimizing our carbon footprint,” states Chou. “I put a focus on having factories in America … our jeans is manufactured in America and in the future we’re taking a look at sports and t-shirts to be made in America.”
Veronica Chou’s family has actually made its fortune at the forefront of the quick fashion industry through financial investments in companies like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. And now, the heiress toan estimated $2.1 billion fortune is launching her own business, Everybody & Everyone, to prove that the fashion industry can be both environmentally sustainable and rewarding. There’s no argument about the negative impacts
“I started building Everybody & & Everyone from the ground-up, first by getting the very best group in location then by discovering the right vendors, partners and makers who were already making strides in the sustainability area,” Chou stated in a declaration. “I desired this brand to be for each lady, so body positivity, sustainability and inclusivity were going to be the backbone of whatever we did. We then built the brand names sustainable & & technical pillars, which consist of activation, recycled, dyeing & & printing, naturals done much better, bio-based fibers and end usage to ensure our products would decrease unfavorable impacts. We are sustainable to the labels stitched into each garment.”
“It was 6 years ago I began discovering about sustainability and five years ago that I said that I required to have a sustainable brand name,” says Chou.
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 contaminating the world’s oceans. The increase of quick style has motivated consumers to speed up waste. Roughly one garbage truck full of clothing is landfilled around the world every 2nd, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That implies customers are getting rid of around $400 billion worth of important products every year as low rates and more “seasons” produce an impression of disposability.
Everybody & & Everyone uses the lessons that Chou has discovered about sustainability to a brand-new fashion brand name that she hopes can act as a design for how to weave sustainability into every aspect of the market.
Veronica Chou’s family has made household fortune 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 role in the acceleration of the industry– bringing American brands to Chinese customers. Because that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable manufacturing head-first.”For our brand name, recycled is a huge story for us,” states Chou.