Yael aflalo biography
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Yael Aflalo, founder and CEO of Reformation, knows the secret to selling 'sustainable' in a fashionable way.
With a tagline that reads, “Being naked is the #1 most sustainable option. We’re #2,” it’s clear Reformation has spunk and the brains behind the eco-friendly clothing brand has given it that personality.
Yael Aflalo, founder and CEO of Reformation, started out running her first brand Ya-Ya, named for her own nickname, before a closer look at the inner workings of a dirty fashion industry brought her to the sustainable brand she now operates.
Aflalo launched Reformation in 2009 with a small team repurposing vintage dresses. Since then, the now vertically integrated direct-to-consumer brand that makes everything from dresses to denim, has scaled up quickly, garnered a loyal fan base that includes the likes of Rihanna and Taylor Swift, and raised $25 million in funding in 2017 to drive its brick-and-mortar growth.
Today, Reformation says it makes clothing for a con
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Insta-chic and eco-friendly, Reformation has thoroughly infiltrated Hollywood’s cool-girl crowd. Cofounder Yael Aflalo tells Emily Holt the secrets to cult success.
A few years ago Yael Aflalo, an entrepreneur and former model who in 2009 launched her Reformation label in the back room of a store in Los Angeles, found herself in an uncomfortable dinner-party conversation. A guest was interrogating her about fashion’s impact on the environment—“not in a rude way,” Aflalo recalls, “but putting the issue to me like I was on Charlie Rose. I was like, ‘Huh?’ ”
Aflalo, who is now 38, hadn’t given the matter much thought. She figured that since Reformation repurposed girly dresses from flea markets and vintage shops, hand-sewed them with new flourishes, and resold them in one storefront, it was already sufficiently green. Nevertheless, the naturally curious (and extraordinarily ambitious) Southern California native started reading up on both ethical manufacturing and various stra
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How I Get It Done: Reformation Founder Yael Aflalo
Successful women talk about managing their careers, and their lives.
Illustration: bygd Lauren Tamaki
In 2009, Yael Aflalo founded her clothing company Reformation as a side gig. Ten years later, she’s created arguably the most successful sustainable fashion brand of all time. “It” girls, models, and mode tastemakers including Karlie Kloss, Emma robert, and Emily Ratajkowski are paying customers. The company’s estimated 2017 revenue fryst vatten over $100 million,while also securing a total of $37 million over the course of two rounds of fundraising. There are currently 14 stores with more on the way. Aflalo lives in L.A. with her 2-year-old daughter and her partner, Ludvig Frössén, who is the creative director at Reformation. Here’s how she gets it all done.
On her morning routine:
My daughter says, “Mama, get up” ten times, and then inom get up and man us a smoothie. inom get dressed and drive to work. I don’t do any zen a