A Call for Radical Reform From Everlane
Tags: Everlane, Workplace Diversity, Workplace Culture, Diversity And Inclusion, Fashion Industry

An image from Babor Cosmetic’s All Women Project included in the sample project mentioned below.

I understand how it sounds when I say that until a few weeks ago, the possibility of being turned down for a job based on the color of my skin had never crossed my mind. Not once. That my friends is privilege, and that sneaky bastard can take many forms. It can even give an ambiguous mixed-race woman like myself the false sense of security that people in this world get what they deserve based on merit. The civil unrest in this country has shown everyone how much we have to learn, and how we can collectively grow by examining our behavior, and the treatment of others in all aspects of life. Having a tint of melanin does not make you exempt. There is always another side of the story, and thanks to Everlane and the controversy surrounding their company, I felt compelled to share mine.

When a friend forwarded me the first posting by the vigilante Instagram account @ex.wives.club, it was like gifting me with the long-lost piece of an intricate puzzle I thought might never be found. When Everlane rejected me so matter-of-factly and passed me over for a more “seasoned” candidate after weeks of hoop-jumping, I was left with several unanswered questions. It appears I now I have the answer, but the revelation has exposed more than just an old wound.

My interview process began with a chance meeting at the Prince Street store in Soho, New York where I worked at the time. I was in the midst of finishing up my last semester at the Fashion Institute of Technology and knew there was a chance I would be moving back to the Bay Area post-graduation. Going back to retail felt like backsliding, moving further away from my goal, but I let a good friend convince me I would be a great fit. Living in New York taught me to think in moves, so when I walked into my interview that fall, I was already two moves ahead and envisioning a position at corporate.

Less than a month before I graduated early, Cum Laude, with a Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising and Marketing Communications, I had a meet-cute with the head of the copywriting department at SF HQ. She told me they were always looking for talent from the retail side, and that if I ever decided to relocate to San Francisco and happened to be interested in copywriting, (my dream job at the time) to let her know. Cue the hallelujah chorus! The chances of me meeting this woman while she was in town, by chance, just by being a friendly salesperson were extremely low. The universe had set this in motion, I could feel it. When I followed up with her a few days later on November 30th, 2018 I called the meeting kismet. I let her know that coincidentally I was planning to move back to California and start looking for positions in San Francisco in the New Year. I explained that things were hectic on my end with finals and an impending move, but that I would follow up with her as soon as my job application was submitted.

Her response is lost in the archives of my deactivated Everlane email account that was terminated prior to my last day. Someone in HR didn’t get the memo that my final date had changed so needless to say, I learned a valuable lesson on forwarding work emails to your personal account. Regardless, her response was essentially a “let’s talk about next steps” sort of email followed by a phone call days later. She asked me to rethink my timeline and submit what would become a ten-page deck full of my blood, sweat, and many tears.

On top of my six-class course load, working at the Prince Street store, packing up my entire New York existence, and keeping my relationship afloat, I now had to schedule in several rounds of video interviewing (in a different time zone) and create a secondary line for the company along with all of the marketing materials out of thin air. Super easy, right? Somewhere in there, I also had a near-death experience with a cab and was spared a broken foot by about two centimeters worth of space created by my rainboots. I’m considering getting them bronzed.

To say I was drowning, and completely over New York at this point, is an understatement. I remember that time spanning a few months but looking back at correspondence for this write up made me realize that the whirlwind of events happened in just five and a half short weeks. My sample project was strong, and the team seemed to be rooting for me, so the only hurdle left was a mandatory in-person interview at corporate. It pains me not to have this portion of my story in writing, but my contact offered to fly little old me from New York to San Francisco all-expenses-paid, to interview for one afternoon… over the phone. If I was on good terms with my ex, I would ask him to corroborate, but I’m not, so my word will have to do.

I was on the verge of really losing my shit, in an unflattering Britney 2007 kind of way, so I was dreading the thought of traveling all the way across the country, over the holidays, just to turn around and do it again less than two weeks later with more suitcases. I reiterated how busy I was with finals just days away and gave a small window right before Christmas where I could make it happen if she was able to rush the approval through on her side. Sadly, it never came to fruition, and I didn’t hear mention of it again via email, but she did follow up and ask me to submit a salary range I would feel comfortable considering.

Keep in mind that I was graduating at twenty-eight with a solid decade of work experience, three PR internships I humbly worked my ass off for, and I knew Everlane and their company culture. At least I thought I did, having been a fan of the company since 2014. On the floor I was one of their top salespeople because I was a living, breathing, marketing machine with a warm smile. They had me drinking the Kool-Aid like it was complimentary in-store Boxed Water and I was encouraging everyone around me to do the same. So, when they asked what my starting salary should be, I asked for a sum that would give me a livable wage and the ability to pay my student loans in the same month… Basically asking for the moon, in today’s job market. I will be the first to admit I asked for too much, but Cher Horowitz taught me that negotiations are just a jumping-off point so, I ran with it. If they were willing to fly me out for half a day, then surely, I had some leverage to play with, right? I wasn’t completely wrong considering no one laughed or raised an electronic eyebrow after I sent that email, but things did rapidly deteriorate from there.

An email from December 21st, 2018 is the last one I have from the head of the copy department and it was all smiley faces and tidbits like “the copy team loved chatting with you last week :)”. I’m then introduced and transitioned over to HR or the “People Team” as Everlane calls them, and an in-person interview is scheduled in a few back-and-forth exchanges. On January second a call with HR informs me that the position I’ve been in applying for the past four weeks, is in fact entry-level, despite no one mentioning this to me in several rounds of interviews and ample opportunity via email. It also wasn’t mentioned in the original job listing, but even so, it’s explained to me that the salary cap is $55,000… Which for a city like San Francisco barely keeps the lights on in most areas. I let my HR contact know that this was new information and that I would need to think things over before deciding to move forward.

Feeling extremely stuck, and like I didn’t want to let the sacrifices and struggles of one of the hardest months of my life go to waste, I reluctantly emailed her the next day to proceed with the last round of interviews. I believe that’s also when I found out that the Heady of Copy, the amazing cheerleader I had in my corner since day one, quietly left over the holidays and would no longer be involved in my interview process. Another major punch to the gut. I knew that if I went home I would literally fall onto my bed and slip into a coma, so I flew into SFO on a Sunday, stayed with family friends overnight, and was in the Everlane offices for five rounds of interviewing that Monday, January 7th, 2019.

Fate had thrown me a small bone and arranged it, so I could have coffee with my old boss, who happened to be working at HQ that week. She was one of the original managers that hired me at Prince Street and to this day is one of the sweetest souls I will probably ever work beside. Her positive energy and kind words were just what I needed to push me towards the finish line and through the front door that day. Her warm energy was quickly contrasted by an iciness that was more than just an overactive air conditioning unit.

I’ve been in waiting areas for a pap smear appointment that was more welcoming than the corporate offices of Everlane. The open concept seemed anything but unifying, and the employees that did make an effort to look up from their desks gave me unimpressed glances and rudimentary facial expressions. I felt like a lamb that had been separated from the flock, and that they were about to make more than a sustainably sourced sweater out of me. I managed to keep it together and sail through the first few rounds with people I had already spoken with several times via video.

I remember two interviews were scheduled together, so they both took me down the street to Tartine Manufactory. We filled a small amount of awkward silence with overpriced lattes and a few pastries because the meeting was seen purely as a formality. They told me they thought I was a great fit and that they honestly didn’t have any more questions for me. Their candid nature was amusing and restored my faith just slightly, that maybe I still had it in the bag.

My next interview was my favorite for so many reasons. When I first met Lauren on a video call, I was surprised because she was a curly-haired natural beauty that could have been a distant cousin of mine. We instantly clicked and in person, it wasn’t any different. I get a dull pang of sadness when I think about what I could have learned from her, and what her mentorship could have meant in my life. Lately, I have been reflecting on why it would have been so monumental for me to have worked with a woman of color so closely, and it’s because Lauren was the closest thing I had ever seen to myself, represented in the workplace.

In my now 29 years, I have never seen another me in a work setting. By that I mean I have never seen another mixed-race woman who looked like me hold any position I have vied for or held a place in upper management. Even having lived in New York I am still grasping at memories like straws to piece together instances of representation. Yes, there were women of color around me at certain points, but I didn’t see myself in them, and that is the problem with most companies and their blueprints for “diversity”. Before my two hiring experiences at Everlane, I had only been interviewed by one other woman of color in my entire life. This of course goes back to privilege and brings up issues of representation that leave me standing on a soapbox asking for companies to do better. Lauren gave me hope in so many wonderful ways just by existing within the company, and that is the message I want Michael Preysman to hear.

The other two interviews on my itinerary are somewhat of a blur, but I remember them going well. I remember having confidence in my answers and asking well thought out questions, even making the women I met with laugh. None of it mattered though. I could have been adored by everyone, but the decision was solely left to Alexandra Spunt, Chief Creative Officer, who until I said hello, I had never spoken a word to.

Everything about her seemed designed to make me wonder what she was thinking. She seemed amused by me, but not in a good way. She would look directly at me, but not look at me at all. She seemed present but looked distracted. Her eyes scanned my resume as if she had never seen it before. She raised her eyebrow more than a few times, making a comment that I had very little copywriting experience, and too much in PR. Surely someone in her position would know that the majority of public relations work is copywriting in various forms, but of course, I was expected to bite my tongue. In the fields I studied, the tools are interchangeable, but she dismissed it as quickly as she could and then manically switched to the topic of my sample project… which again it seemed like she had never seen before.

It was a lot of “tell me what you did here? Okay, and why?”, quizzical looks, blank stares, and some long “hmmmm’s”. Her air of dismissiveness was impressive. The kind you give a kid sister who won’t stop bothering you until you give in. I remember being stunned as she rushed through each page and thinking, I’m not going to get this job because she isn’t prepared. I was disadvantaged from the start because she couldn’t be bothered to take 15 minutes to look through my deck in its entirety and read all of the carefully written, brand-specific copy I had spent 16 hours straight on, all from my then boyfriend’s couch in Hoboken. It was over, and I felt it in my gut, but for self-preservation purposes, I had to be in denial. I refused to let everything I had gone through and overcome be defined by the last 27 minutes of scrutiny… but it was.

Two days later, I got the rejection email letting me know that “Alex loved your enthusiasm for the brand and the opportunity to learn more about you, however, we have decided to continue the conversation with a few more seasoned candidates.” Nothing about my experience made sense to me after that. How one woman was so excited about me, saw so much potential in me she expedited the interview process and tried to fly me across the country just to walk in the door. Yet, here was her replacement in the eleventh hour passing me over for not being “seasoned” enough for what they rebranded as an “entry-level position”.

On June 22nd, 2020 I finally get to have an “ah-ha” moment as I read through the post in which @ex.wives.club outlines instances of discrimination, and questions Spunt’s exclusionary agenda when it came to model casting. The creative campaign I had dreamed up was inclusion at its finest. I highlighted skin “flaws”, various body types, and a diverse color spectrum of women I saw to be the future. I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure if my own skin color or ethnic background were a disadvantage to my hiring potential for this particular position, but what I do know is that it didn’t help. My work is a reflection of me, my values, and where I would like to see change not just in the fashion and beauty industry, but in the world. I used examples from actual campaigns to support my efforts and show that the consumers were in fact there. I thought the idea of loving yourself as you are wasn’t as radical as corporate transparency, but I was wrong.

Now more than ever, we have to hold individual people and the companies/ institutions they work for accountable. This is not the time to make excuses, to shift blame, or to take the easy way out. If companies like Everlane want to show you who they are like a red flag riddled ex-boyfriend, then let them. If they want to be remembered for shady business practices, laying off hundreds of employees during a pandemic, taking advantage of their already disenfranchised workforce, and promoting systemic racism, then let them. Save your breath for those who can’t breathe and speak to them in a language that’s universally known, money.

Unfollow them, unsubscribe from their mailing list, and support accounts like @ex.wives.club by sharing and reposting using #BoycottEverlane. Use your platform, use your voice, and use your money to make a real difference. You can’t change minds, but you can change algorithms, sales reports, and follower counts. You have more power than you think as a consumer, as a citizen, and as a person of color. Please don’t let anyone profit off of your self-doubt, especially a guy wearing a 100% human tee that doesn’t believe in actual equality.

To my friends who still work for Everlane, please continue to strive to make it a place as wonderful as you are. My time at Prince Street was an enriching experience that allowed me to meet a diverse group of people that I hope to keep in my life for many years to come. The management team in charge of hiring were some of the most competent, empathetic, and educated leaders I have ever had the pleasure of working with, but Everlane needs a renovation from the top down. They need to break through that wall and let leaders with the same mentality run more than just individual stores. Prince Soho never could have made an unheard-of million dollars within its first year, with the square footage they have, without such an incredible team.

Everlane, I encourage you not to forget that the people who work hourly and the people who survive paycheck to paycheck are the people who contributed the most to your success. To the Everlane customers, I encourage you not to forget that those were the people they abandoned first. Their money has spoken, and it’s time to respond in kind.

If you would like to see a condensed version of this essay with visuals and tagged accounts, you can find me on Instagram- @humblenarci.