A Radically Transparent Rummage through My Everlane Receipts
Shein acquired Everlane for $100 million. Will my Instagram ads ever be the same?
Yellow was never my color, but it’s what was left in stock — and it was a bag, after all, not a life sentence. The bag in question was Everlane’s newest tote, ordered on May 30th, 2012, at 9:20 a.m. on what must have been a busy Wednesday for 22-year-olds with their first business cards and rent due in two days.
The tote was a cream canvas with a wide, mustard-yellow stripe on one side and handsome, dark brown leather straps. It felt like Jack Spade’s chic neighbor with a mysterious source of income. It was $35, which would be about $50 today, factoring in inflation. (J.Crew’s new 100% canvas Seaport tote is $89.50.)
Everlane launched in 2011 with the promise of radically transparent pricing and — according to a New York Times piece from those days — enlightened values. I didn’t quite know what un-enlightened values were, but I was thrilled to buy into enlightened ones. Later in 2012, they launched their first cashmere collection and their foray into brick-and-mortar — a pop-up called “Not a Shop.” According to my dusty GChat records, they only had samples to try on, so perhaps I paid rent on time that month.
Fast-forward to 2015: I hadn’t been a backpack person since high school, and even then, I tried to fit my textbooks in a French Connection shoulder bag. But I was moving to San Francisco, where your back needed coverage, and who better to strap on than Everlane? Their black canvas backpack with leather fasteners gave me just enough Big Tech seasoning to avoid Allbirds. I’d bend for backpacks and Pata-Gucci but drew the line at merino sneakers.
In recent years, mid-doom-scroll Instagram ads have led me to corners of the Everlane sale section that were almost too good to be true. A gorgeous, cream-colored barn jacket for $71 (down from $178); a cotton striped rugby shirt for $21 (originally $70); a blue and white striped Oxford shirt for $26 (originally $88). This was probably a tell for where things were headed, but god, I love that jacket.
It wasn’t all bangers: I had a tumultuous relationship with the fit of their performance chinos, which is exactly what I deserved for trying to make my chinos put on a performance.
This might sound like something you’d read after a brand closes its doors, like my eulogy for The Meatball Shop earlier this year, but it’s more of an acknowledgement of a very strange new era. Puck’s Lauren Sherman recently broke the news that fast-fashion behemoth Shein — where 76% of items are made of polyester — would acquire Everlane for $100 million. (Everlane was valued at $550 million as recently as 2020.) This has since been covered ad nauseam and become another “gotcha” moment for Millennial brands, a punchline for the talking heads on TikTok who drink prebiotic soda.
This fall, I’ll wear my cotton barn jacket around Los Angeles like it’s below 70 degrees. I’d probably still use that tote if I’d saved it, but I can find solace knowing it’s available on eBay for $65.
The Gift of Gab is a newsletter about the corners of culture you didn’t realize anyone else thinks about — from J.Crew’s in-store playlists to the return of Snack Wraps — written by Max Kaplan, a writer in LA who loves a research rabbit hole. If you enjoyed this, share it with one person who’d love it and subscribe to keep gabbing.
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