Interview with Katina Boutis

In its determined pursuit of “Cleaner Fashion”, Everlane has chosen to partner with The Good Cashmere Standard. For its efforts to manufacture every product responsibly and with the lowest impact possible, the label was honoured as the Sustainable Brand of the Year 2023 at the Glossy Fashion Awards in the USA. We spoke with Katina Boutis, the director of sustainability at Everlane, about Everlane’s mission, radical transparency and pricing models.

Ms Boutis, Everlane is committed to improving the retail industry, not only through high-quality products at attractive prices but also through ethical production. How has this commitment to sustainability changed the company?
As a mission-driven brand focussed on sustainability, it’s crucial that our sustainability goals are tied very closely to the operating model of our business. We therefore have worked to embed our sustainability mission and goals within the context of our broader business strategy—from the products we create and how we create them to the ways we tell our story and engage our customers.
Our approach is to manufacture every product responsibly and with the lowest impact possible. We source lowerimpact materials, pay particular attention to construction and craft, ensure that our supply chain is built with social and environmental responsibility in mind, and bring our customers along on the journey. The work we have done to harmonise our brand strategy with sustainability is having a positive impact on our social and environmental goals, customer sentiment, and our bottom line.

In addition to durability and timelessness, your brand philosophy also includes the concept of radical transparency. How does that look in practice?
Everlane was founded on the belief that customers have the right to know what their clothes cost to produce. From the launch of our very first product in 2011, we revealed the true costs behind production, starting with materials and labour and moving on to include transportation and even markup. By pioneering this approach within our industry, we also fulfilled a core value of our brand: making well-founded decisions at every level of our business. Over the years, we have further developed this idea. In 2013, we began sharing the names, facts, and photos behind every factory we work with, and today, we transparently disclose our goals, progress, challenges, and impact across a wide range of social and environmental factors. It’s our way of staying true to our original customer promise while evolving to meet the challenges facing our industry and trying to lead by example in the process.

How important is the use of verified materials, such as verified cashmere fibres from The Good Cashmere Standard, in this context?
We leverage third-party certifications to verify everything from the materials we use, the suppliers we work with, and the production processes employed to create our products. This allows us to substantiate the data, details, and practices involved in making our products. It also enables us to be transparent with our community and hold ourselves accountable to the highest standards. We were excited to add The Good Cashmere Standard to our brand’s product certifications in 2023 to support our work in sourcing animal-derived materials from supply chains that align with our animal welfare standards and policies.