FOR A MAN who works in fashion, Michael Preysman thinks an awful lot about the world’s oceans. He thinks about the stuff that runs off and pollutes the coastlines, the plastics that slide down the drains and choke fish. When he founded Everlane, the minimalist clothing brand that promises “radical transparency,” Preysman didn’t just want to make cashmere sweaters and wide-leg pants that would constitute a certain kind of Silicon Valley uniform. He wanted, in some small part, to make clothes that wouldn’t destroy the ocean.
Preysman, now 33, brings this philosophy to everything at Everlane. When it introduced its first denim collection last year, the company focused on making jeans that lessened water pollution from the dye and chemicals. When it started selling silk shirts, Everlane branded its material as “clean silk,” made without toxic dyes; someday soon, Preysman says, that silk will be made with 100 percent recycled water.
Head to Everlane’s flagship store in San Francisco, push past the cocoon coats, and you’ll find the brand’s next initiative: clothes made from recycled plastic. It comes in the form of a new outwear collection called ReNew which has rescued some three million plastic water bottles (so far) from landfills and beaches, repurposing them as synthetic fabrics.