Operating Principles
As our founder and creative director always says: beautiful, well-made clothes for all bodies is a sustainability issue. The fashion industry as a whole has prioritized making as many clothes as quickly as possible, by any means necessary. Working this way compromises fit, quality, and disguises planned obsolescence as “trends” and “seasons” to get consumers to buy a surplus of items as much as possible. Time and time again, this system intentionally ignores or limits the options for plus size folks, which in turn makes a large amount of the population buy clothes that they don’t have a long-term interest in. These concepts are outdated, not sustainable, and complete bullshit.
From concept to final product, the Alice Alexander team devotes our energy towards designing for a badass & inclusive future for everyone, and doesn’t compromise people or the environment to get there. Here’s how we do that:
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Alice Alexander prioritizes sourcing high quality and durable materials so that the pieces you love will last multiple seasons, not just one. We primarily choose natural fabrics to use for our garments such as cotton, linen, and wool. We avoid using synthetic fibers like polyester whenever possible and opt to work with suppliers to utilize deadstock and recycled materials.
We’re extremely intentional about the styles we design for our collection. We aim for versatility, wearability and the ability to work across multiple seasons.
We firmly believe that well-fitting clothes are well-loved clothes, and well-loved clothes are cared for, worn and last. That’s why we devote so much of our time and energy devoted to perfecting fit--because fit IS a sustainability issue.
Once styles are approved, patterns are developed to create as little fabric waste as possible. It’s typical in the fashion industry for brands to leave as much as 20% of fabric on the cutting room floor, for us, that number is less than 5%.
Being mindful about how we produce ensures that our pieces are made with the least amount of waste and disrupts the fashion industry’s general notion to deplete materials for profit.
PRODUCTION
The labor and human cost of a garment is commonly ignored or exploited within the fashion industry in exchange for speed. From creating patterns to having multiple fit tests to sewing garments effectively, the garment production process is crucial for having beautiful products but is a labor-intensive one. When over-consumerism is the bottom line for a company, quality and safety is negotiated, which results in workers being treated poorly to produce clothes as fast as possible.
At Alice Alexander we only work with factories who’ve demonstrated their commitment to ethical labor practices. Each factory has been vetted to ensure that they adhere to our standards of ethical labor including no forced, slave or child labor; fair wages; and clean and safe working conditions. Additionally many of our factory partners provide health care, pension plans and worker ownership.
At Alice Alexander we produce our styles in small, thoughtful batches ensuring that we sell through a design and limit our waste. While factories charge more per garment when produced in smaller quantities, the risk of overproduction is too great. Alternatively, if a style sells out quickly, and since our designs transcend seasons, we can often order additional units from our factory partners.
LIFECYCLE
We want our pieces to be in your wardrobe for a good time AND a long time. We prefer to make seasonless silhouettes so they can be worn all year around, instead of for one occasion. Your body is uniquely yours and naturally changes, so our Fit Wizards (also known as our design team) keep that in mind when making our pieces during the development process by making them simple to alter. That way, your clothes can change if you change. And additionally, we want your garments to be easy to care for so that you can wear them, love them and share them.