On the eve of Reformation’s long-awaited expansion to the UK, Aflalo is feeling generous. The answer to the former question is authenticity. “Sustainability has become very important in culture, but we’ve been a sustainable brand since day one,” says Aflalo. “It’s a no bullshit thing for us. Traditional brands are opaque, but we’re honest and vulnerable. We don’t take ourselves too seriously, we make fun of ourselves, we make fun of our customers.” She pauses: “Only a little bit! The realness means we end up feeling more like a friend than a company that is trying to sell them something.”
As the brand has grown, its core principle of creating killer clothes that don’t kill the environment has become easier to implement. “We’re in a position to tell fabric mills that they have to work a certain way to receive our business,” she explains of the in-house fibre standards that take into consideration water input, energy input, land use, eco-toxicity, greenhouse gas emissions, human toxicity, availability, price and customer care implications. “You make good choices that influence others. From a business perspective, those choices might be seen as sacrifices that aren’t the most lucrative, but that’s us.”
Aflalo’s good instincts have paid off – earlier this year, private equity firm Permira Funds acquired a majority stake in Reformation that has made international expansion possible. So long, shipping costs! Reformation has landed in London – specifically Notting Hill, and there are two more outlets in the pipeline for the city’s key retail districts. The clean, airy W11 space has all the tropes of the US Reformation stores to ensure brand consistency – white-washed walls, polished floors, vintage furniture, eco-friendly fabrics, hangers and reusable totes – but is bolstered by technology that ensures minimal waste and maximum customer satisfaction.
It’s the digital side of the store expansion process that causes Aflalo’s voice to quicken with excitement. “Our customers have access to real-time stock information via various touch screens,” she explains. “We put one garment style on the shop floor to create the look of a high-end space, and then customers can digitally search for an item, and add their size to a changing room. Building a wardrobe to try on could take less than 120 seconds.” Larger storage facilities and roomier changing spaces will make this experience seamless, assures Aflalo.
“We want the clothing itself to stand out, and the touch points to do the rest,” she adds of the curated experience that feels more like e-commerce than rail browsing. For Aflalo, a solo shopper who likes to keep her shopping habits a “zen and private” experience, it’s “magical”. Others can interact with staff as much as they please – Reformation’s consumer research shows that people prefer personal contact, apart from New Yorkers, who like Aflalo, like to up their screen time before purchasing.
In all the “tech hype”, the green innovations that make up the store’s foundations – Reformation is a 100 per cent carbon, water and waste neutral company – take a backseat. This is not because Aflalo shirks questions about details, it’s because, she says, “Reformation has a holistic 360-degree approach to sustainability – we have always considered every angle.” She means it – from the Metro cards Aflalo gives her staffers so that they use public transport, to the donations she makes to TreePeople on their birthdays – Reformation is socially conscious from its core.
When queried about how the brand will offset the carbon footprint of shipping the LA stock to London, she shrugs. “It’s simple. We use providers that give the option to offset,” she says. “We source electricity offsets from 100 per cent wind power suppliers, and our carbon offsets come in the form of reforestation programmes. It’s only a bit more expensive to opt in.” Why, then, do other businesses not click the “offset” button? “Things get lost in translation. If there’s a disconnect from the person making these decisions, it will become an organisation-wide issue.”
Aflalo has one hour-long sustainability meeting per week to check the company is meeting its holistic targets, because she trusts her green measures are in place. The rest of her time is spent learning and building relationships with other founders. “I can’t engineer carbon scrubbers, but I can figure out how to make sustainable clothing – that’s my contribution,” she says of her collaborative policies. Climate change, she admits, is the one thing that truly keeps her up at night.
Eco-friendly fashion aside, how does Aflalo tune in to what style customers will buy into? From sketch to online store, she can turn around one of Reformation’s easy dresses that celebrate the female silhouette in the space of a month. “The customer is me,” she asserts. “But, even I don’t know what I want to wear in six months. Instead of predicting, I can look at what my friends and I are wearing, and build on that. It just seems smarter.” Time will tell whether west Londoners have an influence on Aflalo.
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