Reformation Justifies the Economics of Sustainability
As a frequent knocker of fracked fashion with deep roots in deadstock, Reformation is an It Girl brand for a reason.
At the SJ x Rivet Sustainability conference in Los Angeles last week, Reformation’s chief sustainability officer and vice president of operations, Kathleen Talbot, shared how the climate-neutral company shapes its sustainability strategies and public roadmaps against the backdrop of circularity to create a better, brighter world.
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“There has to be a vision of the future that’s actually exciting, one that we would choose if we got the chance. Making sure we’re thinking about our goals and aspirations starting there—actually having it be the future you want for yourself, for your family, for your company—I think is critical,” Talbot said. “It might sound really obvious, but I don’t think that’s how we operate.”
Another probably-obvious-but-worth-addressing aspect, she continued, is that about 30 percent of what the fashion industry produces never makes it to the customer. It’s “terrible business” that can be avoided by employing smarter solutions.
“One of the reasons why we have business success, why we are a profitable business, is not because of all this investment in sustainable innovation, it’s having really solid business foundations and principles,” Talbot said, noting that 80 percent or more of Ref’s 2023 inventory was sold at full price with less than 1 percent donated because it didn’t sell.
“These are metrics that we report on in line with our circularity commitment because this has to be the first place you start,” she continued. “It’s not just about managing the waste at the end of the cycle or doing this post-consumer takeback—how do you actually eliminate this fashion waste from the beginning?”
For the New York City Ballet collaborator, the “best and first” starting place for eliminating that waste occurs before the clothing is even produced. Considering two-thirds of fashion’s environmental impact happens at the raw materials stage, designing with circularity in mind is “critical” for Ref.
“You really can’t do this work without a focus on materials,” Talbot said before using her sweater as proof of the brand’s efforts.
She’s wearing a cashmere sweater from this fall’s collection. It’s 95 percent recycled cashmere. When the luxe label first began its climate-positive work, cashmere represented less than 1 percent of the company’s sourcing yet accounted for 40 percent of its carbon impact. Through “incremental progress,” Ref hit a percentage it’s proud of.
“This is a good example of what we’re really trying to achieve: how do you maximize recycled, next-generation deadstock, existing fabrics that actually promote closing the loop and then making a product that’s actually recyclable,” Talbot said. “This is a mono material. We have a take back solution. We have a way to actually recycle this and have this stay in our wool supply chain. This is hopefully a concrete example of what this can actually look like in practice.”
While Ref has successfully shown that stylish and sustainable can coexist, circularity isn’t exactly high on the customer’s (or the C-suite’s) list of priorities. Because even if that sweater is made from preferred materials, if it pills after two wears, it’s not a sustainable solution. There’s no logic in designing a product the consumer doesn’t want. Thus, considering the value proposition influences what sacrifices the brand is willing to make.
Another reason Ref is a de facto cool girl brand? It’s aspirational for most. Which means customer cost is probably not one of the sacrifices the Los Angeles label is entertaining. So to justify dropping $300 on a dress, Talbot suggested, was to think of the economic opportunity ahead.
“When you look at the market surveys or even our own customer surveys, value for money, price—there’s so much sensitivity there; way more than even their willingness to pay or the value they associate with sustainability,” Talbot said. “But if you know what the potential resale price is for that when you’re done wearing it and you actually start thinking about changing the economics of that first purchase [to] think about it more around ‘what’s the value I’m going to get from those wears’ and then ‘what can I do with it when I’m done,’ whether it’s getting an incentive from Ref to recycle it or resale, I [hope] that starts to shift the thinking and that willingness to pay.”
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