Chapter 1: Why are celebrity house tours popular on social media?
This episode of Stylish is brought to you by Bioderma's new HydroBio Hydroactive range. If you don't stop, why should your hydration? Find the Bioderma HydroBio range at leading pharmacies and beauty retailers. This is Stylish, the podcast for all things fashion, brand, business and beauty. Happy Friday. I'm Madison Sullivan-Thorpe and I'm joined by my lovely co-host Rhiannon Joyce.
Hello, hello. Rhi, I got our intro wrong for the Wednesday yet, but this is definitely the Friday episode where our corner is brand and business, campaigns, career stories, all the things. And I am so excited to talk about this episode.
Before we get into the episode, can I tell you something that was not on my bingo card this week?
Chapter 2: What does Shein's acquisition of Everlane mean for sustainability?
Pray do tell. So, Sheehan acquiring Everlane. Did you see this? It was a hard one to miss.
I had to fact check when I saw this pop up in my Instagram feed because I actually thought it was a joke. I was gobsmacked.
I was so gobsmacked. And for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, on May 17th, Park News reported that Chinese fast fashion giant Shein is acquiring a DTC fashion brand Everlane for $100 million. Why we are gobsmacked by this is because you couldn't have two businesses that allegedly operate on two completely different ends of the sustainability spectrum.
Chapter 3: How did Everlane build its brand around sustainability?
Everlane made a name for itself as a sustainably focused business. That was part of their brand. That was their DNA. That was very much their shtick and what they were putting out there. On their website, under the sustainability tab, they actually tell us we're on a mission to clean up the industry. It's a movement that we're calling Clean Up Fashion. I mean, we all know what Sheen is known for.
Yeah, and if you don't, I guess like it's a celebration of overconsumption because there will be people who are like, oh, I've never sort of seen that or I've only ever been served an ad from them. But this is an algorithm-fueled brand that thrives on you buying as much as possible as often as possible, which is the total contrast to everything that Everlane does.
supposedly has stood for and stands for today.
Chapter 4: What are the contrasting business models of Shein and Everlane?
The price point of Shein's items as well, so, so cheap. And it's just buying into this trend cycle. Their sustainability impact on the world is so bad that last year Shein was actually fined 1 million euro for making misleading or emissive environmental claims about its products. So that was by the Italian authorities.
And according to The Guardian, this wasn't actually the first time they've been targeted by European regulators and being called out for the fact that they are just deeply unsustainable.
I mean, what's so fascinating to me is like I kind of want to go back to a time where Everlane was in its glory days because for me the price that it sold for was a little surprising. Like it sold for $100 million USD. Look, and $100 million shocked me. And I know that that sounds crazy to say that something being sold for $100 million, you know, isn't a lot of money.
But in the world of acquisitions, and you think about the numbers that have been flying around recently, we had Road for a Billion USD, we had Touchland Hand Sanitizer, over 800 million USD, and this brand's only years old.
Chapter 5: What makes Architectural Digest's home tours unique?
But why this surprised me was because Everlane was such a big conglomerate. But the reason for only $100 million when I did a little bit of digging was that they're actually $90 million in debt. And that was tied to basically years-long slump in sales. They had taken out a $25 million Gordon Brothers loan and had $65 million asset-based credit line with another bank.
And that came from a great Instagram account called Traded VC. So suddenly the $100 million... felt kind of expensive.
Yeah. It's also their original formula that they were known for, which is this basics but better model, was being replicated by high street brands. Like you referenced it yourself, like COS and these other brands were really tapping into that strategy.
Chapter 6: How does Cobie Smulders' house reflect her personal style?
And it's like, when you don't have that point of difference anymore, it's really, really hard to maintain strong sales and build that profit margin up.
I'm really fascinated to get your thoughts on this. Do you think this is Shein's play at looking more sustainable or this is Shein's play at just buying a massive database that I assume Eveline have?
That's a great question. Okay. I think Shein has some major brand rehab that they need to do because, and again, maybe this is subjective because I care about sustainability. I care about natural fibres. I care about that this business is like destroying the fashion industry, but also our planet, right?
So I have to put my bias up front or to the front that I don't like Shein and what they're doing to the world.
Chapter 7: What role does storytelling play in Architectural Digest features?
I think that brand rehab piece and why I'm bringing that in is that they need to look like they're doing more than just destroying the planet. So for me, it's like a really... weak attempt at trying to be like, oh, but look at all this good stuff we're doing with this brand whose origins and their whole ethos is in sustainability by design because we acquired them now. We are also about this.
Like it's almost like hijacking the sustainability piece.
Yeah. I mean, it feels a bit greenwashy to me because we're looking at a brand with $90 million worth of debt. I'm willing to bet that Shein's, you know, profit and loss statement isn't an unhealthy one given the volume and the margins that they would be selling at despite the low price points.
I just can't see them continuing how Everlane have been manufacturing and producing if it has been at such a loss. And I guess the question that I come back to in all of this is, does the sustainability brand in fashion get to work?
Chapter 8: How do celebrity homes influence public perception of taste?
Does it get to win or is the win when you just get the paycheck at the end?
And, you know, I think that's exactly what happens. Pretty dark days. And I know a lot of people were really shocked and affected by this being like, oof, like, is this the future of the fashion industry? Like, is sustainability not going to be something that they can even address? I certainly hope not. Sad.
Yeah, off the back of sadsies, let's go into something a little bit happy, right? Happy! This is one of our favourite pieces of content to consume and today we are going to be talking about Architectural Digest and the series that is Open Door. Oh, I cannot wait to get into this.
Okay, we're going to get into AD, house tours and all of the things in between, but that will be right after a word from today's sponsor. Have you ever noticed that your skin has a tendency to feel dehydrated by the end of the day? Even if you're religious with your AM and PM routines? This is such a common problem, and it turns out our schedule has something to do with it.
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Thank you so much to Bioderma for making this episode of Stylish possible. Rae, I'm not usually on the Architectural Digest side of TikTok. See, I am. I'm all over it. I finally landed on the side of TikTok I wanted to be on and I saw Kobe Smulder's house. Did you see this? Yes. Now, for those of you who might be like, that name doesn't ring a bell,
You may remember Robin from How I Met Your Mother.
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