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Michael Preysman, a founder and the chief executive of Everlane, a fashion brand that targets the ethically minded with minimalist basics, stood onstage in May 2019 at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit and preached the gospel of his company.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverlane launched eight years ago with the basic principle that the fashion industry and retail in general really needed transparency and honesty to come to the forefront,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The audience was rapt, as had been celebrities (like Meghan Markle and Angelina Jolie) and venture capitalists before them, entranced by the vision of a San Francisco start-up that wouldn\u2019t be predatory, a direct-to-consumer fashion company that wouldn\u2019t be gluttonous. Everlane promised to reveal its pricing markups, its clothing suppliers, its ecological footprint. This vision of \u201cradical transparency\u201d was so compelling that after only five years Everlane reportedly brought in $50 million in revenue and sought a valuation of more than $250 million.<\/p>\n
But last month, Mr. Preysman found himself on a stage of a different sort: at an all-staff meeting, after waves of public allegations of hypocrisy, with former employees having accused the company of anti-Black behavior and union busting, of selling an image to the world that did not reflect their damaging experiences inside the company. Three current employees described a culture of favoritism, particularly toward those known as \u201cForeverlaners\u201d \u2014 loyal employees defensive of Mr. Preysman and the brand that they loved. An internal investigation was promised.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been the hardest three months of my life,\u201d Mr. Preysman told his staff at that meeting, a recording of which was obtained by The New York Times. He\u2019d cried for an hour at the start of the pandemic, after the company sent employees home, he said. Just two years ago, the company had been profitable. Now his company\u2019s internal culture was being laid bare online.<\/p>\n
On July 23, during another all-staff meeting, Everlane leadership said its completed internal investigation confirmed many of these complaints.<\/p>\n
Investigators found that insensitive terms were used while discussing Black models; that leaders violated employees\u2019 personal space by touching them, and used inappropriate terms when referring to people of color; that new hires felt isolated and unwelcome; that there was lack of consistent policies around promotions; that there were no formal processes to effectively escalate harassment or discrimination.<\/p>\n
Everlane also announced that Alexandra Spunt, the company\u2019s chief creative officer who has received significant criticism from staff, will be \u201cno longer leading the creative team\u201d and will be \u201ctransitioning” while \u201cadvising the senior leadership team as needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a statement to The Times, Mr. Preysman said that the company had \u201curgent work to do to rewrite Everlane\u2019s code of ethics.\u201d It would be opening a seat for a Black board member in the next year, adding a Black person to the senior leadership team in the next year, rolling out anti-racism training for the entire company by August, and teaming with two racism accountability organizations.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
But whether Everlane can continue selling what may have been its most valuable product \u2014 its image \u2014 is now in question, all the more relevant as Mr. Preysman told the company he expected a $15 million decline in revenue this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cA good chunk of us were zealous fans, because we really, really did believe in the mission,\u201d said Toni Kwadzogah, 28, who was laid off this spring. \u201cWhen you cultivate an image in such a progressive style, you attract people, workers and customers alike, who have those progressive values. And when you fail them, well, good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ms. Kwadzogah was one of a group of remote customer-experience workers who announced in December they were unionizing<\/a>. Broadly speaking, they\u2019d come to feel like \u201csecond-class citizens,\u201d said Jon Foor, who joined Everlane\u2019s customer experience team in 2018, with no opportunities for career growth and none of the start-up perks \u2014 annual retreats, kombucha on tap \u2014 enjoyed by full-time colleagues at headquarters. Everlane said that multiple members of this team have gone on to become full-time employees in other departments but did not specify how many.<\/p>\n Three months later, 290 employees were laid off, including 42 of the remote customer-experience team\u2019s 57 employees.<\/p>\n Everlane said the company didn\u2019t know which employees were part of the unionizing effort and attributed the layoffs to the economic pressures of the pandemic. The workers described it as union busting and were publicly supported<\/a> by Senator Bernie Sanders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Then, in June, brands everywhere rushed to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement amid protests over George Floyd\u2019s killing. Everlane was one of them. But the support rang hollow to many, including those who said they had experienced racism while working at Everlane.<\/p>\n A collective of 14 anonymous former employees called the Ex Wives Club published a lengthy document on their experiences with what they called \u201canti-Black behavior\u201d at Everlane. The employees wrote about being overworked, underpaid, deprived of career opportunities and punished for speaking up. Everlane said this was not accurate.<\/p>\n They also shared stories about Ms. Spunt, the creative lead who had been a content director at American Apparel in the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n Ms. Spunt\u2019s team had so much turnover that people in other departments would place bets as to who would leave next, said three current employees. But also, the Ex Wives wrote, she often rejected casting suggestions for Black models, calling them \u201ctoo severe\u201d or \u201ctoo edgy\u201d or, in a 2015 email shared with The Times, not enough of a \u201ctraditional beauty\u201d to carry a cashmere campaign. Black models did not begin appearing regularly in Everlane marketing until 2016.<\/p>\n Everlane said Black employees currently make up 6 percent of the overall team (264 employees) and 8 percent at the leadership level.<\/p>\n However, Mia Ward, a technical designer from 2016 to 2018, believed she was the only full-time Black employee at the company during that time. (Everlane denied this was true.) Ms. Ward characterized the culture as one of dismissal and insecurity, but said she felt uncomfortable and exposed if she spoke out. \u201cIt was the only job I\u2019ve had where it made me want to go into therapy to deal with it.\u201d Ms. Ward said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA Culture of Dismissal<\/h2>\n