Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable
For Chou, an understanding of the ecological toll that the household organisation was taking on the planet started six years back– a couple of years prior to Iconix Brand Group acquired the China subsidiary she had co-founded with her daddy in a transaction reportedly worth $56 million.
Veronica Chou’s family has made its fortune at the forefront of the fast fashion industry through investments in business like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. Now, the heiress toan estimated $2.1 billion fortune is launching her own business, Everybody & Everyone, to prove that the fashion business can be both environmentally sustainable and profitable. There’s no argument about the unfavorable effects
Everyone & & Everyone applies the lessons that Chou has learnt more about sustainability to a brand-new fashion brand that she hopes can act as a design for how to weave sustainability into every element of the market.
well. About 20 %of industrial water pollution worldwide 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 fast fashion has actually motivated consumers to accelerate waste. Roughly one trash truck loaded with clothing is landfilled around the world every 2nd, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That means consumers are tossing away around $400 billion worth of important products every year as low prices and more “seasons” create an illusion of disposability.
Image thanks to World Resources Institute
Everybody & & Everyone has actually also partnered with the company One Tree Planted to plant a tree for each purchase that’s made with the company. In addition, the company has computed its carbon footprint from all of its pre-launch activities and has actually purchased and retired offsets to stabilize its emissions, Chou says.
Because that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable production head-first. Through her household’s investment automobiles she has actually worked with companies like Modern Meadow, which utilizes bio-engineering to make leather products in a lab. Chou has likewise led investments in Thousand Fell, a soon-to-launch manufacturer of totally recyclable shoes; Dirty Labs, which is establishing more sustainable laundry cleansing items; and Carbon Engineering, which is developing a direct air capture innovation for carbon dioxide.
of the style market on the environment. The fabrics market mainly uses non-renewable
resources– on the order of 98 million tons per year. That consists of the oil to make synthetic fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton and hazardous chemicals to color, deal with and produce the textiles used to make clothing. The greenhouse gas footprint from textiles production was roughly 1.2 billion lots of CO2 equivalent in 2015– more than all international flights and maritime shipments combined(and a lot of those worldwide flights and maritime deliveries were transporting clothes). The litany of disasters that can be attributed to the clothes industry extends to contamination, as
Some clothing are likewise made with materials that have actually recycled silver in them– so that the clothing can be worn numerous times without smelling or the need for a wash.
As the fashion industry has expanded, so has the wealth of the Chou family. South Ocean Knitters, the knitwear maker begun by Chou’s grandpa, was accountable 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 maker Li & & Fung, is behind the Cobalt Fashion Holding corporation.
“I began constructing Everybody & & Everyone from the ground-up, first by getting the very best team in location then by finding the right vendors, makers and partners who were currently making strides in the sustainability space,” Chou stated in a statement. “I wanted this brand to be for each female, so body inclusivity, sustainability and positivity were going to be the backbone of everything we did. We then built the brand names sustainable & & technical pillars, which include activation, recycled, coloring & & printing, naturals done better, bio-based fibers and end usage to ensure our products would reduce negative impacts. We are sustainable down to the labels stitched into each garment.”
Digital printing is used in location of screens to avoid loads of water waste, the company said, and several of the company’s materials are not colored at all. instead, the business counts on an upcycling procedure by separating recycled fibers mechanically by color.
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 market– bringing American brand names to Chinese customers. Chou likewise served as the co-founder of the Beijing-based personal equity fund China Consumer Capital and as a director of Karl Lagerfeld Greater China.
The company’s attention to its environmental impact also extends to its supply chain. “Most of our fabrics are knit near where our garments are produced. That is certainly decreasing our carbon footprint,” says Chou. “I put an emphasis on having factories in America … our denim is manufactured in America and in the future we’re taking a look at tee shirts and sports to be produced in America.”
The new brand, which sells ladies’s clothing for every size from 00 to 24 and at prices varying from $18 to $288 (most fall in the $50 to $150 range, offered a fast scroll through the company’s new site) partners with companies like Naadam and Ecoalf for sustainable cashmere and recycled fabrics made from plastic.
It was around the time that Chou had her children, she says, that she realized the significance of making a brand name that was both inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
“It was six years ago I began learning more about sustainability and five years ago that I said that I required to have a sustainable brand name,” says Chou.
“For our brand name, recycled is a huge story for us,” says Chou. “Our t-shirts, our socks, our packaging, our mailers, our labels, our stickers are all made from recycled products that can be recycled again.”
Veronica Chou’s family has made household has actually 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 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 industry– bringing American brands to Chinese customers. Since that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable manufacturing head-first.”For our brand, recycled is a huge story for us,” states Chou.