HK Tycoon Heiress Launches Carbon Neutral & Recycled Fashion Label Everybody & Everyone

Textile and fashion tycoon Silas Chou’s daughter, Veronica Chou, has launched her own sustainable clothing and accessories brand Everybody & Everyone. With her new eco-friendly line, which is made from recycled materials and contributes to tree planting projects, the heiress to an estimated US$2.7 billion fortune hopes to disrupt the fashion industry and address its polluting nature. This comes as companies across the industry, from mainstream high street brands to luxury labels, are all making efforts to reduce the environmental footprint of fashion.

Founded by Veronica Chou and launched late October this year, Everybody & Everyone is an online brand that sells sustainable clothing and accessories. Collaborating with other sustainable labels such as Naadam and EcoAlf, Everybody & Everyone’s collection is made from recycled and upcycled fabrics spun out of recovered ocean plastic, nylon waste, used tyres and recycled cotton. While the brand’s sweaters are made out of cashmere, which makes it unsuitable for vegans, the brand does take steps to ensure they are being manufactured sustainably using clean energy and without toxic chemicals, and that fair wages are being paid to workers throughout its supply chain. 

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Vegan-friendly, biodegradable and plant-based fabrics used in the collection include TENCEL Lyocell, a fabric spun out of renewable wood sources such as eucalyptus, which Everybody & Everyone turns into sweatpants, sweatshirts and tees.

Another material, fermented sugar fibre extracted from agricultural waste, is used to create the brand’s leggings and blazers while pants and trousers are made from EcoVero, a responsibly sourced wood pulp-based viscose,l that uses 50% less water and produces 50% fewer emissions than synthetic viscose fabrics. 

“For our brand, recycled is a big story for us. Our t-shirts, our socks, our packaging, our mailers, our labels, our stickers are all made from recycled materials that can be recycled again,” said Chou.

Furthering their commitment to sustainability, Everybody & Everyone is a certified carbon neutral brand, following the footsteps of global luxury label Gucci earlier this year. Not only have they offset the emissions from all their pre-launch activities by sponsoring a range of reforestation, renewable energy and tree planting projects, they are planting trees for each customer too. Through partnering up with non-profit organisation One Tree Planted, the company will plant one tree for every shipment to neutralise the carbon footprint of the purchase delivery. 

Sustainability aside, Chou’s brand also hops on the diversity trend that has begun to take off this year. On top of presenting a wide range of prices – pieces from the collection go from US$20 to US$300 – the brand also stocks sizes from 00 to 24, making it a part of the increasing number of companies that prioritise inclusivity. 

“I wanted this brand to be for every woman, so body positivity, inclusivity and sustainability were going to be the backbone of everything we did,” Chou explained. 

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The launch of Everybody & Everyone comes as more players across the board in the fashion world are finally taking note of the environmental footprint of the industry. Currently, fashion manufacturing primarily uses non-renewable resources, including oil to make synthetic fabrics, fertilisers to grow cotton and toxic dyes to treat garments. On top of spewing more greenhouse gas emissions each year than all flights and shops combined, around 20% of water pollution can be traced back to the microplastic and dyes used by the textile industry. 

The heiress’ dedication to sustainable fashion goes beyond her own brand.  Through her family’s investment network, Chou has led investments in a number of startups making strides in the sustainability space. Among her portfolio is sustainable laundry cleaner Dirty Labs and Carbon Engineering, a startup creating a direct air capture technology for carbon dioxide. This is arguably a part of a general shift in Asia towards impact investment, where the younger generation of investors are taking into account positive social and environmental returns, rather than prioritising monetary gains alone.

These shocking statistics have spurred on consumers to face the impact of their consumption habits on the planet, and even mainstream names are now weaving in sustainability into their operations in order to retain market share. Earlier this month, fast fashion giant H&M debuted a brand new recycle, repair and rental concept in Stockholm, while iconic fashion magazine Vogue searches for a global sustainability director. Long story short, the tides are truly turning – sustainable fashion is the only future for the industry.

All images courtesy of Everybody & Everyone.