Reformation’s New Shopping Tool Changes EVERYTHING
When it comes to things we can do to help our environment out after Earth Day, a gazillion ideas come to mind: cleaning up a park, planting a tree or even learning about environmental issues by picking up some Earth Day books. Online shopping, however? Probably not one of them. But according to Yael Aflalo, the genius behind eco-friendly fashion brandReformation, it definitely should be. “Fashion is the third most polluting industry in the world,” she tells us. “Most people don’t know that.” Guilty as charged — we certainly didn’t!
That fact is exactly what Yael is trying to change with her company’s new and improved personalized RefScale dashboard. This handy shopping tool keeps track of the carbon, water and waste savings per garment that you’ll be individually contributing when you purchase from Reformation, rather than another more typical industrial-produced line with commonplace materials, like cotton — a fabric Yael says hurts the environment. “A typical cotton t-shirt uses 200 gallons of water,” she says.
Compare that to Yael’s new Tencel tee collection, which uses — wait for it — six gallons. And that’s not all. “Because Tencel is manufactured in a closed-loop process, our t-shirt is also 200-300 times less toxic to rivers and oceans.” That’s definitely impact-worthy. In fact, Yael says Reformation’s two new Tencel shirts alone (aptly dubbed “Do It for Leo” ($48) and “F*ck Cotton” ($128), will save 5,029 gallons of water — that’s roughly 251 showers.
It’s stats like these, along with a perfectly casual-cool aesthetic (see The Cha Cha Dress, ($118), a personal favorite of Yael’s) that keep celebs like Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Karlie Kloss coming back for more. In fact, while you’ve no doubt heard the rumors that Karlie Kloss herself would be joining forces with the line for a collab (a no-go, unfortunately, according to Yael’s camp), the fashion power house did hint at a few upcoming, ahem, surprises. “Can’t spoil anything, but I will say that we have some fun things in the works,” Yael teases.
Okay, so we can’t quite pinpoint a name based on that tidbit alone, but we can speculate that whoever Yael chooses to work with will have several qualities in common with the designer herself. “I admire smart, creative women who aren’t afraid to innovate within their industry,” she tells us, citing Karlie Kloss for her coding camp, along with Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin of theSkimm. In fact, it’s “being innovative” that’s Yael’s biggest piece of advice for other budding fashion designers. “Find your own way,” she says. “Your point of view and your vision are the things you have to offer, so use them.”
Yael, for one, envisions a full-scale Reformation takeover of epic proportions. “Our long view is that we will be a go-to fashionable lifestyle brand for all things sustainable,” she says. After all, as she puts it best, “It’s the little choices we make every day that can change the world.” We couldn’t agree more.
Are you excited to shop with the new eco-conscious dashboard? Let us know over @BritandCo!
(Photos via Katie Friedman and Reformation)
