Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable
well. About 20 %of commercial water contamination worldwide can be traced to the dyeing and treatment of textiles– and microplastics from polyester, acrylic and nylon are contaminating the world’s oceans. On the other hand, the increase of quick fashion has motivated customers to accelerate waste. Roughly one trash truck loaded with clothing is landfilled around the globe every 2nd, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That suggests consumers are throwing away around $400 billion worth of valuable products every year as low costs and more “seasons” create an illusion of disposability.
The new brand name, which offers women’s clothes for each size from 00 to 24 and at prices varying from $18 to $288 (most fall in the $50 to $150 range, given a quick scroll through the company’s new website) partners with business like Naadam and Ecoalf for sustainable cashmere and recycled fabrics made from plastic.
“It was six years ago I began discovering sustainability and 5 years ago that I stated that I required to have a sustainable brand,” says Chou.
“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 sticker labels are all made from recycled materials that can be recycled once again.”
For Chou, an understanding of the environmental toll that the household business was handling the world began six years back– a couple of years before Iconix Brand Group obtained the China subsidiary she had actually co-founded with her daddy in a deal supposedly worth $56 million.
Everyone & & Everyone uses the lessons that Chou has actually learnt more about sustainability to a brand-new fashion brand name that she hopes can serve as a design for how to weave sustainability into every aspect of the market.
of the fashion market on the environment. The textiles industry mainly utilizes non-renewable
resources– on the order of 98 million lots per year. That consists of the oil to make synthetic fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton and toxic chemicals to color, deal with and produce the textiles used to make clothes. The greenhouse gas footprint from fabrics production was approximately 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent in 2015– more than all global flights and maritime deliveries integrated(and a lot of those maritime deliveries and global flights were carrying clothes). The litany of catastrophes that can be attributed to the clothing market reaches pollution, as
Everybody & & Everyone has also partnered with the organization One Tree Planted to plant a tree for each purchase that’s made with the company. In addition, the company has actually computed its carbon footprint from all of its pre-launch activities and has purchased and retired offsets to balance its emissions, Chou says.
Some clothes are also made with fabrics that have actually recycled silver in them– so that the clothes can be used several times without smelling or the need for a wash.
Digital printing is utilized in place of screens to avoid lots of water waste, the business stated, and several of the company’s fabrics are not dyed at all. rather, the business depends on an upcycling process by separating recycled fibers mechanically by color.
Veronica Chou’s household has actually made its fortune at the forefront of the fast fashion industry through financial investments in companies like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. Now, the heiress toan estimated $2.1 billion fortune is launching her own company, Everybody & Everyone, to show that the fashion market can be both environmentally sustainable and rewarding. There’s no argument about the unfavorable effects
Because that revelation, Chou dove into the world of sustainable production head-first. Through her household’s investment vehicles she has worked with business like Modern Meadow, which utilizes bio-engineering to make leather goods in a lab. Chou has actually also led financial investments in Thousand Fell, a soon-to-launch maker of totally recyclable shoes; Dirty Labs, which is establishing more sustainable laundry cleaning products; and Carbon Engineering, which is establishing a direct air capture technology for carbon dioxide.
“I started building Everybody & & Everyone from the ground-up, first by getting the best team in place then by discovering the ideal vendors, manufacturers and partners who were already making strides in the sustainability area,” Chou said in a declaration. “I wanted this brand to be for every woman, so body sustainability, positivity and inclusivity were going to be the foundation of whatever we did. We then built the brands sustainable & & technical pillars, which consist of activation, recycled, coloring & & printing, naturals done much better, bio-based fibers and end use to guarantee our items would reduce negative impacts. We are sustainable down to the labels stitched into each garment.”
It was around the time that Chou had her children, she says, that she understood the importance of making a brand that was both inclusive and ecologically sustainable.
The business’s attention to its ecological impact likewise extends to its supply chain. “Most of our fabrics are knit near to where our garments are manufactured. That is absolutely minimizing our carbon footprint,” says Chou. “I put an emphasis on having factories in America … our denim is made in America and in the future we’re taking a look at t-shirts and athletics to be produced in America.”
Image courtesy of World Resources Institute
As the fashion organisation has broadened, so has the wealth of the Chou family. South Ocean Knitters, the knitwear maker begun by Chou’s grandpa, was accountable for one of the first foreign investments into mainland China in 1974. It is now one of the biggest providers of knitwear in the world, and, together with the Hong Kong maker Li & & Fung, is behind the Cobalt Fashion Holding conglomerate.
And her dad, 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 velocity of the market– bringing American brands to Chinese consumers. Chou also functioned as the co-founder of the Beijing-based private equity fund China Consumer Capital and as a director of Karl Lagerfeld Greater China.
Veronica Chou’s family has made household fortune at the forefront of the fast fashion business through investments in companies financial investments Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. And her daddy, 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 velocity of the market– bringing American brand names to Chinese customers. Because that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable manufacturing head-first.”For our brand name, recycled is a big story for us,” says Chou.