POV: Natalie of Everlane

A virtual interview with the Email Marketing Specialist of Everlane. We talk about corporate sustainability, the rise of environmentally conscious consumers, and more!

Natalie is a young Millennial working in the Bay Area as an Email Marketing Specialist for the sustainable clothing company, Everlane. She graduated from Saint Mary’s College of California in 2017 with a Bachelor’s of Business Administration and focus on Marketing.

Natalie started working at the company over a year ago and joined because of her love for fashion and Everlane’s mission of transparency and sustainability.

In our interview, Natalie explained that one of the company's main goals this year is to be even more transparent about the products' sustainability and how they are made.

How did you find Everlane?

Natalie has spent practically all her life in the San Francisco Bay Area of California and discovered Everlane in 2017 after she graduated from college. She applied to work at the company multiple times and finally landed the job a little over one year ago.

"I chose to work with Everlane because I wanted to get into fashion ... and it was important to me to find a company that is not fast fashion"

Everlane is known for being "radically transparent," unlike many clothing brands that claim they strive to be sustainable and eco-friendly yet hide their information about sourcing and production.

Why does Everlane find transparency to be so important?

"We want to stand out against fashion companies, including sustainable ones we're competing with," Natalie mentions.

She describes how their competitors include Anthropology, Artizia, and Madewell in the general style and demographic part of their clothes, however Everlane is certified sustainable under successful and well-known sustainable clothing brands Patagonia and The North Face.

She further adds that the CEO of Everlane wants to prove that being different and providing full transparency in a fashion company allows them to be unique and catch the attention of shoppers who want to be more sustainable.

"I have a feeling we are going to really grow in the next few years, especially because more people are becoming more environmentally cautious since more reports are coming out about fast fashion and the clothing dump-lands"

What makes Everlane sustainable?

"What stands out about Everlane is that it is very farm-to-factory," Natalie adds. She explains that the company uses materials and products that are sourced responsibly from the Earth.

What has been in the news lately, and what Natalie shares, is that the "leather" on their products is not from animals, but is actually made from Cacti. This allows the products that would have either been taken from animal product or made of plastic to be biodegradable and the source to be more regenerable than those previously mentioned.

Additionally, she shares that Everlane's cashmere and wool are recycled products, unlike other brands that extract the material from the animals.

To go even further by doing better than their competitors, Natalie says that Everlane skips the dying and coating process of their wool and cashmere to ensure that the materials are toxin-free.

"Our fibers and materials are all recycled and go through a clean performance check," Natalie adds, "so that we can say,

"Yes we are sustainable and are reducing our carbon footprint and overall impact on the planet"

What is The Next Collective?

Natalie explains to me a unique way that Everlane is trying to tie up their loose ends to be more environmentally friendly.

The Next Collective is a campaign Everlane hosts as they hire and fund smaller businesses who can help them generate new ideas of sustainability. The most recent goal of The Next Collective has been to eliminate Virgin Plastic in Everlane products and replacing them with various types of recycled plastics.

"Every year we have a new initiative where we bring in other organizations and companies to further our mission of virgin plastic and we support their projects they are working on that resonates with our sustainability mission"

Virgin Plastic is plastic material that is created directly from oil and used for the first time. Everlane's goal of eliminating virgin plastic aligns with their actions of using recycled plastic material to make their products. The recycled materials include old fish nets and plastic bottles, Natalie tells me.

In your own opinion, why do you think shopping at Everlane is better for the planet compared to fast fashion brands?

"Even though the materials are recycled and not like other normal fabrics, the quality is actually really good," Natalie shares.

She explains that after becoming more knowledgable about the process of how clothing is made, she is no longer interested in wearing fast fashion.

"I want to wear something 60 times, not just 6 times"

"Everything from the pricing, to the materials, to how it's sold, makes sense to me as a consumer and as an employee because once you realize the bigger picture - like yes, we are helping the planet - but we are also directly supporting factories and factory workers,

"All of the transparency makes the company worth buying," Natalie said.