Sarah LaFleur On the Existential Threat From the Tariffs
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What is the overall focus of the Odd Lots episode on tariffs and the clothing industry?
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Hello and welcome to another episode of the All Thoughts Podcast. I'm Tracy Alloway.
And I'm Joe Weisenthal.
Joe, we've been inadvertently doing a tariff series basically on what the trade restrictions mean for a bunch of different industries.
So funny. That's how I read your mind. Yes, it's like we have to go down the list. There's actually it's impossible. You know, every industry is going to be affected by tariffs a different way. And it's there's this temptation, like, okay, let's just talk to someone from literally every single industry. Today on May seventh, we released an episode talking about the video game industry. But yes, we could we could go down the line of every category within GDP and learn something.
Video games, lentils. Yes. Th the important stuff. Uh no. So when we're talking about tariffs, I think one of the really big industries that is obviously going to get impacted has to be clothing and textiles, right? So we know places like China, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh are huge textile exporters. And so we should talk about that and and what it actually is like if you're running a clothing business in the US to source textiles from abroad.
You know what's funny? I was at um I was at some event for my school.
Mm-hmm.
And uh I ran into a fellow dad or for my kids' school and I ran into a fellow dad with a clothing company like the two days after the initial tariffs were revealed in early April. He was talking about he was gonna add a uh a button on his website and made some sort of athletic gear, talking about like this is the pre and post tariff prize. He was talking about how it might make sense in circ certain circumstances to move some of his manufacturing outside the US, especially what he sells to non US customers, so much in textile specifically. Specifically. The other thing about textiles, of course, is when people think about the China shock, you know, that's one of the first categories that comes to mind.
The fact that the US used to have a booming textile industry. Uh particularly in the southeast, as we know. Yeah. We
visited the remnants of the American textile industry in North Carolina.
So there's a lot there.
Yeah. All right. Well, I am very pleased to say we do, in fact, have the perfect guest. I have to do a disclaimer up top, um, because this guest is a longtime friend of mine. We actually went to high school together in Tokyo, and she started her own clothing company. And I was involved at the very beginning doing product testing and caveat. I have a lot of their clothes. I have dresses that are, I think at this point, are like 10 ten years old, but they still look amazing. So I am a big fan of this company. That is my disclaimer.
Tracy, did you ever do any modeling?
Yes.
I thought you did you ever do any modeling for this company?
No.
Okay.
No, no, no. Um we can c talk about that later. I did modeling when I was like seventeen and in Tokyo where the standards are arguably a lot lower. Anyway I am very pleased to say we're gonna be speaking with Sarah LaFleur. She is the founder and CEO of MM LaFleur. So Sarah, thank you so much for coming on All Thoughts.
Uh, thank you for having me. It's a true honor.
Sarah, what is your favorite Tracy memory? And did you know she would going to go was going to be a star podcaster one day?
I thought she was going to be the US ambassador of the United Nations. So Uh I g I guess. Um, she was always a true intellectual.
Um.
And I would say precocious beyond her years. Uhhuh. So this is yeah, that's probably fair.
All right, Sarah, talk to us about the company.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the overall focus of the Odd Lots episode on tariffs and the clothing industry?
0:00–17:07
2
How does Sarah LaFleur describe the origins and mission of M.M. LaFleur?
17:07–23:13
3
What is the role of fabric selection and sourcing in M.M. LaFleur’s design process?
23:13–30:16
4
How do factories and mills collaborate with M.M. LaFleur to produce its collections?
30:16–41:14
Speakers
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