Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable
Veronica Chou’s household has made its fortune at the forefront of the fast fashion business 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 style industry can be both ecologically sustainable and successful. There’s no argument about the negative effects
“It was 6 years ago I began learning more about sustainability and five years ago that I stated that I needed to have a sustainable brand,” states Chou.
“For our brand, recycled is a huge story for us,” says Chou. “Our t-shirts, our socks, our product packaging, our mailers, our labels, our stickers are all made from recycled materials that can be recycled once again.”
Because that revelation, Chou dove into the world of sustainable production head-first. Through her household’s financial investment cars she has dealt with companies like Modern Meadow, which uses bio-engineering to make leather goods in a laboratory. Chou has also led investments in Thousand Fell, a soon-to-launch manufacturer of fully recyclable shoes; Dirty Labs, which is developing more sustainable laundry cleaning products; and Carbon Engineering, which is developing a direct air capture technology for carbon dioxide.
Some clothes are also made with materials that have recycled silver in them– so that the clothes can be used numerous times without smelling or the requirement for a wash.
Everybody & & Everyone has actually also 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 actually calculated its carbon footprint from all of its pre-launch activities and has bought and retired offsets to stabilize its emissions, Chou says.
For Chou, an understanding of the ecological toll that the family organisation was taking on the planet started six years back– a few years prior to Iconix Brand Group got the China subsidiary she had co-founded with her father in a transaction supposedly worth $56 million.
Image courtesy of World Resources Institute
It was around the time that Chou had her kids, she states, that she understood the importance of making a brand that was both environmentally sustainable and inclusive.
Everyone & & Everyone applies the lessons that Chou has learnt more about sustainability to a brand-new fashion brand name that she hopes can serve as a model for how to weave sustainability into every aspect of the industry.
The business’s attention to its environmental impact likewise encompasses its supply chain. “Most of our materials are knit close to where our garments are made. That is absolutely minimizing our carbon footprint,” says 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 t-shirts and sports to be produced in America.”
of the fashion business on the environment. The fabrics market primarily utilizes non-renewable
resources– on the order of 98 million heaps per year. That includes the oil to make artificial fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton and poisonous chemicals to dye, treat and produce the fabrics used to make clothing. The greenhouse gas footprint from fabrics production was roughly 1.2 billion heaps of CO2 equivalent in 2015– more than all international flights and maritime deliveries combined(and a lot of those global flights and maritime shipments were transporting clothes). The litany of catastrophes that can be associated to the clothing market extends to pollution, as
“I started constructing Everybody & & Everyone from the ground-up, first by getting the very best group in place then by finding the best suppliers, manufacturers and partners who were already making strides in the sustainability space,” Chou said in a declaration. “I desired this brand name to be for every lady, so body positivity, inclusivity and sustainability were going to be the backbone of everything we did. We then built the brands sustainable & & technical pillars, which consist of activation, recycled, coloring & & printing, naturals done better, bio-based fibers and end use to ensure our items would reduce negative effects. We are sustainable down to the labels sewn into each garment.”
well. About 20 %of commercial water contamination globally can be traced to the dyeing and treatment of textiles– and microplastics from polyester, acrylic and nylon are polluting the world’s oceans. The rise of quick style has encouraged consumers to accelerate waste. Approximately one garbage truck full of clothes is landfilled around the world every second, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That implies consumers are throwing away around $400 billion worth of valuable products every year as low costs and more “seasons” create an illusion of disposability.
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 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.
As the fashion industry has actually expanded, so has the wealth of the Chou family. South Ocean Knitters, the knitwear manufacturer started by Chou’s grandfather, was responsible for one of the first foreign investments into mainland China in 1974. It is now one of the biggest suppliers of knitwear on the planet, and, together with the Hong Kong manufacturer Li & & Fung, lags the Cobalt Fashion Holding corporation.
The new brand name, which sells women’s clothes for each size from 00 to 24 and at costs varying from $18 to $288 (most fall in the $50 to $150 range, provided a fast scroll through the company’s brand-new website) partners with companies like Naadam and Ecoalf for sustainable cashmere and recycled materials made from plastic.
Digital printing is used in location of screens to prevent lots of water waste, the company stated, and numerous of the company’s materials are not dyed at all. instead, the business relies on an upcycling process by separating recycled fibers mechanically by color.
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 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 velocity of the market– bringing American brand names to Chinese consumers. Because that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable manufacturing head-first.”For our brand name, recycled is a big story for us,” states Chou.