The upright label by two former employees of the troubled US brand shows the future of dernier cri – in basics and beyond
Photograph: camraface
Weighed down by slander and financial woes, American Apparel’s retreat from the far up street is looking more likely by the day. So a space opens up for a label that provides ethically produced basics with a zeitgeisty bring up of view and respect for the power of a nice typeface. Enter Everybody, the fledgling set up by two American Dress alumni Iris Alonzo and Carolina Crespo.
The duo, at American Raiment for 14 and 11 years respectively, set up Everybody as a fashion docket with a difference. Yes, they launched this month with the most prime of basic items – a white T-shirt made from recycled cotton for $25 (£20) – but absolutely the rest of the items on the site weren’t their idea at all. Each particular is designed by a friend or creative in LA, where they’re based.
With turn offs of these limited items on the site weekly, first up is a 10ft (3m) bulk pillow made by art collector Jean Pigozzi, while a mac by artist yoke Mae Elvis Kaufman and Kalen Hollomon is next. “The only convention that we have is that we have to know how to make it,” requires Alonzo. While anything is possible, there’s a general proclivity towards the fundamentals of a wardrobe: the perfect mac, shirt or sweatshirt. “It’s nearby what is missing in your life, what you don’t have in your closet … or a 64-year-old art accumulator who has everything made a body pillow that fits to his trunk, and is shaped like a snake.” Hey, whatever works.
If, currently, Everybody’s contributors are judge by Alonzo and Crespo, the hope is that eventually they last will and testament be joined by members of the public, with 10% of the brand’s put out generated by customers themselves. This sort of crowdsourced style is something Alonzo thinks reflects the direction in which work and shopping are going. “It’s the opposite of the traditional design concept and preferably reaches out to people,” she says.
A kind of community is the goal – with fibs, and really nice, no-brainer clothes, at the heart of it. “We’re reliant on dope of mouth and people caring about what they devour,” says Alonzo. “A shirt is a shirt. But if there’s a story behind it in a 74-year-old man who plays chess in the park and it’s the same price as the one in another lay away, we hope you’ll buy this one.”
