EPISODE 93 FEATURES EVERLANE’S MICHAEL PREYSMAN
What fashion costs to make is one of the industry’s best kept secrets. Unless you’re EVERLANE. Meet the disruptor who is happy to tell you exactly what it costs to make his company’s clothes and accessories, and exactly how much profit they make on each style. While you’re there, he’ll also tell you all about his factories, where they are, how they stack up. And what materials they use.
Michael Preysman founded Everlane on the concept of "radical transparency" and says: “We believe our customers have a right to know how much their clothes cost to make. We reveal the true costs behind all of our products—from materials to labor to transportation—then offer them to you, minus the traditional retail markup.”
Why is transparency important in the fashion industry? How does that idea apply when it comes to garment workers and factory supply chains? How did this Californian start up become a major global player, and what drives Michael ? In this interview we discuss what it takes to succeed, the power of disruption, and being okay with not being perfect.
We love Everlane’s cool, inclusive campaigns and imagery.
“We believe our customers have a right to know how much their clothes cost to make. We reveal the true costs behind all of our products—from materials to labor to transportation—then offer them to you, minus the traditional retail markup.” - everlane.com
The new Everlane Tread sneakers are low-impact.
RADICAL TRANSPARENCY “If you can’t see the problems in fashion’s supply chains, how can you hope to fix them. Michael says, “For us it means there’s nothing that we hide from the customer. If you look at a typical product online, you buy from many different brands and there’s just a price, maybe it’s on sale, maybe it’s not, then it says ‘imported’. You receive it and the label says made in Vietnam, or whatever. That’s all you know…We started with a T-shirt made in LA, now we do it with everything, cashmere, our shoes made in Italy, you name it.”
TRUE COSTS Andrew Morgan’s The True Cost film has done a lot to centre in the public consciousness this idea that someone always pays cost of too cheap…But who pays the cost of too expensive?
FACTORIES: They say: “We spend months finding the best factories around the world—the same ones that produce your favourite designer labels. We visit them often and build strong personal relationships with the owners. Each factory is given a compliance audit to evaluate factors like fair wages, reasonable hours, and environment. Our goal? A score of 90 or above for every factory.”
A NOTE ON OUR MUSIC: IT IS BY OUR FRIEND MONTAIGNE, WHO SANG A SPECIAL ACOUSTIC VERSION OF "BECAUSE I LOVE YOU" JUST FOR US. IT'S FROM HER ALBUM GLORIOUS HEIGHTS.
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Until next time,
Clare x