Billionaire clothing dynasty heiress launches Everybody & Everyone to make fashion sustainable
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 function in the acceleration of the market– bringing American brand names to Chinese consumers. 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 new brand name, which offers women’s clothing for each size from 00 to 24 and at rates varying from $18 to $288 (most fall in the $50 to $150 range, given a quick scroll through the business’s new website) partners with business like Naadam and Ecoalf for sustainable cashmere and recycled fabrics made from plastic.
“It was 6 years ago I started finding out about sustainability and five years ago that I said that I needed to have a sustainable brand,” states Chou.
Because that discovery, Chou dove into the world of sustainable manufacturing head-first. Through her family’s investment vehicles she has actually dealt with companies like Modern Meadow, which utilizes bio-engineering to make leather items in a laboratory. Chou has actually also led investments in Thousand Fell, a soon-to-launch manufacturer of fully recyclable shoes; Dirty Labs, which is establishing more sustainable laundry cleaning items; and Carbon Engineering, which is establishing a direct air capture innovation for carbon dioxide.
“I started developing Everybody & & Everyone from the ground-up, very first by getting the very best group in place then by discovering the best vendors, producers and partners who were already making strides in the sustainability area,” Chou stated in a declaration. “I wanted this brand to be for each woman, so body inclusivity, positivity and sustainability were going to be the backbone of everything we did. We then built the brand names sustainable & & technical pillars, which consist of activation, recycled, dyeing & & printing, naturals done better, bio-based fibers and end use to guarantee our items would lessen negative impacts. We are sustainable down to the labels sewn into each garment.”
For Chou, an understanding of the ecological toll that the family company was handling the world started 6 years ago– a couple of years before Iconix Brand Group got the China subsidiary she had actually co-founded with her dad in a transaction apparently worth $56 million.
The company’s attention to its ecological effect also encompasses its supply chain. “Most of our materials are knit near to where our garments are made. That is certainly decreasing our carbon footprint,” states Chou. “I put an emphasis on having factories in America … our denim is made in America and in the future we’re looking at t-shirts and sports to be produced in America.”
Digital printing is used in place of screens to avoid lots of water waste, the business stated, and numerous of the company’s fabrics are not dyed at all. rather, the company depends on an upcycling procedure by separating recycled fibers mechanically by color.
of the fashion business on the environment. The fabrics market primarily uses non-renewable
resources– on the order of 98 million loads annually. That consists of the oil to make artificial fibers, fertilizers to grow cotton and harmful chemicals to color, treat 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 integrated(and a lot of those international flights and maritime deliveries were carrying clothing). The list of disasters that can be attributed to the clothes market reaches pollution, as
Everyone & & Everyone applies the lessons that Chou has actually found out about sustainability to a new fashion brand that she hopes can act as a design for how to weave sustainability into every aspect of the industry.
Image thanks to World Resources Institute
As the fashion business has actually expanded, so has the wealth of the Chou household. South Ocean Knitters, the knitwear manufacturer started by Chou’s grandpa, was accountable for among 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 manufacturer Li & & Fung, lags the Cobalt Fashion Holding corporation.
Veronica Chou’s family has actually made its fortune at the forefront of the fast fashion industry through investments in companies like Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. Now, the heiress toan estimated $2.1 billion fortune is releasing her own business, Everybody & Everyone, to show that the style industry can be both environmentally sustainable and successful. There’s no argument about the negative effects
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.
It was around the time that Chou had her children, she says, that she understood the value of making a brand that was both inclusive and ecologically sustainable.
“For our brand name, recycled is a huge story for us,” states Chou. “Our t-shirts, our socks, our packaging, our mailers, our labels, our stickers are all made from recycled products that can be recycled once again.”
well. About 20 %of commercial water contamination internationally can be traced to the dyeing and treatment of textiles– and microplastics from polyester, acrylic and nylon are contaminating the world’s oceans. The increase of quick style has actually encouraged customers to accelerate waste. Approximately one trash truck loaded with clothes is landfilled all over the world every 2nd, according to a 2017 report from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. That means customers are getting rid of around $400 billion worth of valuable items every year as low prices and more “seasons” create an impression of disposability.
Some clothing are also made with fabrics that have recycled silver in them– so that the clothing can be used several times without smelling or the need for a wash.
Veronica Chou’s family has made its 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 an investor 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 brand names to Chinese consumers. Because that revelation, Chou dove into the world of sustainable manufacturing head-first.”For our brand, recycled is a huge story for us,” says Chou.