I can guarantee that you’ve seen her clothes before. From bloggers to Hollywood’s crowd of coolest chicks, everybody is raving about Reformation.

But how much do you know about the founder Yael Aflalo?

She has a following that includes Taylor Swift, Rihanna, Alexa Chung and Emily Ratajkowski. And has most definitely cornered the fashion market on cool girl style. But it wasn’t always like this.

The label was originally started in 2009 as a side project for the former model. She reworked and remade clothes from vintage pieces, trying to be as green and eco-friendly as possible. But she started designing and making clothes much earlier.

After leaving fashion school early, she started making her own handmade skirts and pashminas that she then sold to Fred Segal.

 

Then she created her first label, Ya-Ya in 1999.

Ten years later, after witnessing first-hand the undeniable effect that mass manufacturing was having on the environment in China, she wanted to make a change for the good and Reformation was born.

At the time, most eco-friendly brands weren’t looking towards fashion trends or well-cut garments, but Yael wanted to buck the trend.

Her secret was to make her clothes as green as possible but also as on-trend as possible. She found that niche in the market with absolutely zero competitors and launched her brand to a huge success.

Now, all of the fabrics used in Reformation pieces are sustainably sourced material manufactured overseas or from deadstock fabric. When you shop Reformation online, you can see information on each piece pertaining to its water and carbon footprint.

She also tries to keep the fabric recycling option open for its customers.

When they ship out purchases, they include a ‘RefRecycling’ label that allows customers to send in their own unwanted clothes for repurposing by the label.

The design process is also an involved, community effort with brainstorming groups coming together to make sure the label has clothes that are of-the-moment yet versatile and timeless with that classic French je ne sais quoi.

All of this comes together to create one of the most sought-after yet sustainably sourced fashion labels around. As Yael says: “The prevailing sustainability platform – buy less, use less – isn’t a scalable strategy. You buy clothes because you really want them. The sustainability part is for us to figure out.”

You can definitely take some tips out of Yael’s rise to success and put them to action in your own life! If you’re passionate about something do your research, find your market niche and put all of your energy into making it work the way that you want it to work!

Don’t listen to the haters, listen to your own positive, passionate self-talk and you can be just as successful as Yael Aflalo!

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